The other company I worked at, and no I’m not going to tell you the company name, was a large company although not as large as Citi.
The politics was the same, the processes and procedures were a little different.
There was also the same overwhelming demand to work long hours and over the weekend. Deadlines were always shortened and rushed. Chaos also was quite prevalent.
My salary was about the same as a flat salary.
Big here’s the difference, that other company was more than willing to PAY you handsomely for it. If you put in the hours of working two jobs, then your yearly bonus reflected the difference.
The company recognized it as a compensation for your time, a trade off of slices of your life that are outside of 40 hours for that week, for a pile of cash at the end of the year. They recognized that you working like that keeps them from having to hire an extra person. An extra person that they may not need during the slow times. In turn, they had no issues paying you 30K+ as a norm for a bonus.
This is where Citi falls short. They just want the hours put in and want to forego the money payout for it. Then sum it up with “don’t go elsewhere for more money, don’t go chase the money”.
Maybe its to build cash reserves for legal fees since we can’t seem to keep from being fined.
Maybe its to build up the cash reserves to make sure Jane gets a great bonus even though we are sinking.
Maybe its to build up the cash reserves to offset the warning the board gave Jane to turn things around, to sell to the board that “all is ok” even though we are sinking. Don’t look at the man behind the curtain, as Dorthy was told.
Either way, this is the one single gleaming difference between Citi and that other company that I can see. I myself, am trying to go back to that other company. I mean, if you’re going to put in long hours, you might as well get paid as well as you can for it. You certainly won’t get paid well here at Citi for it, I can tell you that.