Citigroup CEO Calls For 'Zoom-Free Fridays,' Better Work-Life Balance

Citigroup Inc. C CEO Jane Fraser is setting new work-life balance guidelines at the financial services giant that include an end to internal video calls on Fridays while encouraging employees to take vacations.

She also established a new holiday unique to the company for workers to have an extra day off.

What Happened: Fraser sent an internal memo that announced a new “Zoom-Free Fridays” policy that will prohibit videoconferences within the company’s workforce, with audio calls being the only telephonic communications allowed, according to a Financial News report. 

External videoconferences scheduled for Fridays with clients and regulators will still be allowed to proceed.

Fraser also designated May 28 as “Citi Reset Day,” which grants all employees a day off, and she encouraged employees to limit making calls outside of their typical working day hours and to use their allotted vacation time.

"We are of course a global company that operates across time zones,'' Fraser wrote, "but when our work regularly spills over into nights, very early mornings and weekends, it can prevent us from recharging fully, and that isn’t good for you nor, ultimately, for Citi.''

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Why It Happened: Fraser, who took over Citigroup’s helm from Michael Corbat earlier this month, told the 210,000-person workforce that these new policies were in response from the level of fatigue that many companies have experienced during the past 12 months of the pandemic.

“I know, from your feedback and my own experience, the blurring of lines between home and work and the relentlessness of the pandemic workday have taken a toll on our well-being,” she wrote. “It’s simply not sustainable.”

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Photo of Jane Fraser courtesy Fortune Conferences/Flickr Creative Commons.