Bank workers given bonus ultimatum over working from home

Come into the office or risk losing your bonus: Bank workers given ultimatum if they don’t show up to office for at least three days a week

Bosses at Citi bank in WFH crackdown as they monitor passes to access office
Lloyds and HSBC are also increasing their efforts to get staff away from WFH

Staff at US bank Citi who do not come into the office at least three days a week could have their bonuses docked amid a crackdown on working from home culture.

Bosses are now monitoring use of access passes to establish how often its 12,500 UK employees are at their desks across its offices in London, Edinburgh and Belfast.

Staff who do not turn up at least three days each week could now face financial penalties, with the company saying it has ‘firm expectations for office attendance’.

Employees have been formally told they are being monitored and informed that ‘one swipe, per person, per location will be captured’, according to Bloomberg.

It comes as other banks such as Lloyds and HSBC are also increasing their efforts to get staff back in the office, nearly 18 months after the final Covid restrictions ended.

Citi is among the banks with a UK headquarters in London’s Canary Wharf (pictured in June)

The area around Canary Wharf Underground station is quiet at 8am on Friday, June 28 this year

Lloyds Banking Group is also now monitoring swipe cards of its 40,000 staff who would normally work in the office, and wants them in for at least two days a week.

What are major banks doing on WFH culture?

Citi: Its 12,500 UK staff must come into office at least three days a week
Lloyds Banking Group: Wants staff in office for at least two days a week
HSBC UK: 18,500 UK staff are told to work in office for three days a week
Goldman Sachs: 6,000 London staff must be in office five days a week
JP Morgan: All senior directors must now be in the office every day

And the 18,500 UK staff of HSBC UK – the domestic subsidiary of the global lender – have been ordered to work from offices for three days a week from next month.

Investment management firm BlackRock has also told its 3,700 London-based staff, as well as others globally, to reduce their working from home days from two to one, reported the Sunday Times.

Goldman Sachs has demanded that its 6,000 London staff return five days a week, while all senior directors at JP Morgan are also now not allowed to work from home.

The increase in efforts to bring staff back in for more days each week comes as the Daily Mail revealed hundreds of council staff are ‘working from the beach’ – with a ten-fold increase in the number allowed to log in from abroad.

Town hall bosses have granted more than 1,350 requests to work from overseas over the past three years, figures show.

The number jumped from 73 approvals in 2020/21, the year the Covid-19 pandemic was at its height, to 440 in 2021/22.

It then surged to more than 700 last year as the remote-working revolution took hold. One local authority granted nearly 300 requests over the three-year period.

Low footfall around Canary Wharf Underground station at 8am on Friday, June 28 this year

An empty Canary Wharf Tube station in March 2020, the day after the first lockdown began

Figures from accountancy firm RSM UK in July showed that 33 per cent of businesses are allowing employees to work remotely outside the UK.

Come into the office or risk losing your bonus: Bank workers given ultimatum if they don’t show up to office for at least three days a week

What are major banks doing on WFH culture?

READ MORE Council staff ‘working from the beach’ as bosses allow more than 1,000 requests to work from overseas in three years