Financial services giant Citigroup bans video calls on Fridays

There will be no more Friday video calls for employees of Citigroup. The New York-based financial services group, the world’s 12^th-largest company according to the Forbes Global 2000, has decided to adopt a policy of “Zoom-free Fridays”, meaning none of its 200,000 employees will have to attend internal video meetings on Fridays. Citigroup employees will be encouraged to conduct meetings over the phone, as the group looks to combat the fatigue engendered by the pandemic and extensive remote work over the past year. The company is also calling on its staff not to schedule meetings outside working hours, in order to foster a good “work-life balance”. In the same vein, the group has announced a firmwide holiday for all its staff on 28 May and encouraged employees to take time off. The bank is also expected to move to a “hybrid” approach to work organisation, allowing employees to work remotely up to two days a week once the Covid-19 pandemic has passed. “The blurring of lines between home and work and the relentlessness of the pandemic workday have taken a toll on our well-being,” Citigroup’s chief executive Jane Fraser wrote in memo to employees, as reported by Reuters.