Citi Bank on Houston Rd. in Florence/Erlanger

[The Raven]

Was taking my daughter out to Target to do some of her holiday shopping and we passed the building and it looked deserted.   Did they just close up shop and move all the employees to work from home once COVID hit?  I don't remember (and can not find) any stories saying they were leaving the area.

[theguru]

1 minute ago, The Raven said:

Was taking my daughter out to Target to do some of her holiday shopping and we passed the building and it looked deserted.   Did they just close up shop and move all the employees to work from home once COVID hit?  I don't remember (and can not find) any stories saying they were leaving the area.

I have no clue but I will say in the past that place was the "command center" for Citi.

[sportsfan41]

Having worked there in the past for almost a decade, I still know a lot of folks that do. To answer you question, yes.  Once the work from home if you can movement started last spring, they moved just about everyone off site.

With that said, while Covid definitely pushed it into it's finality, Citi Group and many others like it had been offering more and more off-site/at home positions for more than a decade.  Those will remain permanent for a lot of places. 

[The Raven]

We've done essentially the same thing.  We moved to work from home in March 2020 and that seems like it will be the standard going forward.

[sportsfan41]

2 hours ago, The Raven said:

We've done essentially the same thing.  We moved to work from home in March 2020 and that seems like it will be the standard going forward.

Only place in NKY/Cincinnati that I've heard was calling some people back in was Great American (Reds Stadium Company's namesake)  but that was a couple of months ago. Never heard how it went and I'd bet if people are there, it's a skeleton crew. 

[nkypete]

9 hours ago, sportsfan41 said:

Only place in NKY/Cincinnati that I've heard was calling some people back in was Great American (Reds Stadium Company's namesake)  but that was a couple of months ago. Never heard how it went and I'd bet if people are there, it's a skeleton crew. 

A few months ago, those at Great American were called in to work at least 2 days per week in the office.  However, just yesterday, we received an email stating that due to the recent events with the virus that we could optionally remain at home to work every day until February 7.

[sportsfan41]

34 minutes ago, nkypete said:

A few months ago, those at Great American were called in to work at least 2 days per week in the office.  However, just yesterday, we received an email stating that due to the recent events with the virus that we could optionally remain at home to work every day until February 7.

That's about what I expected.  The new trend.

[Voice of Reason]

Several companies I know of are doing split time between in office and work from home. I have heard of companies doing 2 or 3 days a week and I have heard of companies splitting the work force in half. In that situation half workforce at home and half in office for the entire week. Then they flip the next week.

[The Raven]

I work for Cengage in Independence.  We are working remotely, with the occasional trip in to the building for special meetings, if they deem safe to do so.   Unlike Citi, however, they won't abandon the building, since the distribution warehouse is still located there and manned full time.

[gbballfan21]

Citi isn't abandoning anything. Matter of fact, Citi hasn't owned either building in years. Its been leased back for a long time. Citi has been decreasing their brick/mortar footprint nationally for at least 15 years. Florence, Gray, TN and Jacksonville are still strategic locations that are not going anywhere (there are a few others but they are not as knee deep in collections as the three mentioned above).

 

With that said ... The building facing Houston road has been cleared out. Once people come back into the office, Building 2 will be used exclusively.

 

I would think there will be people back in the office mid-year if things get squared away with vivid.

 

Interesting thing through the pandemic is that productivity has been up significantly since everyone moved home (>=25%). Those of us who have been around for a while wonder how long it will last .. But our people are working hard and have acclimated their selves to this change quickly (it took me about a year to get comfortable working at home ... That was 13+ years ago). The standard non officers got through the changes a lot quicker than I did! From my perspective, I feel pretty good about our company through the pandemic. The employees health has been put first, and in return the employees have worked hard through the pandemic. Lots of good lately.

 

 

So, Citi has around 30 more years of massive tax breaks from the state and city-- which are probably the best tax breaks across any site/location in the US. Things are going to be just fine for Citi Florence for many years to come.