CNA spoke to one ex-employee, Sarah, who has already found a job with a local bank. She recently resigned from her role in Citi’s wealth management division.
Before the reorganisation, she was already concerned about career progression. The job cuts made her even less hopeful about finding other opportunities within the bank, and she was also disappointed by how the layoffs were handled.
“Seeing some talented staff being laid off surely makes one feel sad,” said Sarah, who is in her 30s. It also seemed unfair that regional teams seemed less affected than country teams when some of them were merged.
After March, she started actively looking for a new job. Other colleagues told her they were also open to leaving the bank, but she said many were taking a wait-and-see approach.
EMPLOYERS’ MARKET
Hunting for a new job has been difficult for Mark, who said it’s an employer’s market in the banking industry now.
Most of the people he knows who got laid off in March have not found another job, while a few who were retrenched in January have been able to secure new roles.
Citi said: “We provided support to impacted colleagues, including severance and outplacement support in line with our country policy.”
The compensation Mark received was in line with local recommendations, he said. The Ministry of Manpower’s website said the “prevailing norm” is to pay a retrenchment benefit of between two weeks to one month’s salary per year of service.
All things considered, Mark said he understood the need for a reorganisation in Citi. The organisation was slower and less mobile than other banks because there were too many layers of management to get through.
“It’s fair to say that the changes did come from a good place … they’re trying to reduce inefficiencies,” he said.
He believes the reorganisation could have been successful. “(But) you’ve got good people, good leaders with great potential … unfortunately, they were told that they were deemed unnecessary,” he said.
Being laid off is not easy, and he said the company did not explain the reason why his role was made redundant.
“I think it’s not a testament of my value and whatnot,” he said. “It’s just, probably, I was unfortunate.”
