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- Citigroup is going to start monitoring employees' office attendance in the UK, as soon as August 7.
- Staff who are repeatedly not in the office could face disciplinary action including being fired.
- Citi joins several Wall Street banks tightening their policies on flexible working arrangements.
Citigroup is joining the fleet of Wall Street banks tightening their hybrid working policies and mandating workers to come to the office or face disciplinary action, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
Citigroup recently informed its UK workers that it will start monitoring office attendance data with a focus on employees who are taking advantage of hybrid work and repeatedly avoiding coming into the office without reason,
"One swipe per person, per day, per location will be captured," the memo said, per Bloomberg. "The focus of the reports will be employees with consistent office absences."
Workers who are consistently not in the office, during the required three days a week, risk being disciplined from adjusted bonuses to being fired.
These policies are already in place for Citi employees in the US, who were mandated to return to the office in March 2022.
Staffers' attendance will start being being tracked from as early as August 7, an email to Citi staff viewed by Insider showed. Data across its UK offices will be collected every two weeks.
Acceptable reasons for not coming to the office include limited site capacity, business travel, annual leave, sick leave, medical reasons, and those who have official flexible working arrangements or part-time employment.
Wall Street banks are pivoting from flexible working policies established during the pandemic in a bid to maximise worker productivity and make use of office buildings.
JPMorgan, the largest bank in the US, set the tone on flexible working arrangements in April when CEO Jamie Dimon required managers to return to the office five days a week.