Woman says Citi fired her while she was on vacation, cried all the way on flight home
Citigroup is in the middle of an aggressive multi-year restructuring programme that aims to eliminate 20,000 jobs globally by the end of 2026. The bank
Citigroup is in the middle of an aggressive multi-year restructuring programme that aims to eliminate 20,000 jobs globally by the end of 2026. The bank has already cut around 7,000 roles this year, with thousands more expected to lose jobs as the company continues to streamline operations and expand the use of automation. Among those affected is a woman who claims Citi fired her while she was on holiday with her family. Read Full Story In a post titled "It Happened" on Reddit's r/Layoffs forum, the woman claimed she had spent 10 years at Citi before receiving the call that ended her career at the bank. "Laid off from Citi. Knew it was coming but now it's real. They called me while I was on vacation," she wrote.
The woman claimed the news left her "crying on an airplane" all the way home. "Silently falling apart in an aisle seat while my 7-year-old watches YouTube laughing in the middle seat and my husband does expense reports in the window seat," she wrote. "I climbed a mountain and stood in awe of the world. Now I'm crying on an airplane." The woman also described the emotional impact of losing her job, saying she felt "worthless" and was struggling to process what had happened. "Now I have to figure out who I am and I'm not ready," she wrote. ChatGPT could not independently verify the identity of the Reddit user or the claims made in the post. Massive layoffs at Citigroup The Reddit post comes as Citigroup pushes ahead with one of the biggest restructuring drives in its history.
Under CEO Jane Fraser, the bank plans to eliminate 20,000 jobs globally by the end of 2026 to simplify its business, remove layers of management and invest more heavily in automation and AI. So far, Citi has already cut around 7,000 jobs in the first half of 2026, including about 5,000 in the second quarter alone. Amid the layoffs, the company’s global workforce has reportedly fallen to around 219,000 employees, down from roughly 240,000 in 2022. The bank has also spent about $800 million on severance in the first six months of the year and has warned that more restructuring in the second half could drive those costs even higher. Tech and financial sector layoffs The Citi layoffs are part of a broader wave of job cuts across the technology and financial sectors this year.
As companies look to cut costs, simplify operations and invest more heavily in AI, many are trimming their workforce to free up budgets for new technologies. In the tech sector alone, more than 172,000 workers have lost their jobs across nearly 500 layoff rounds in 2026, according to layoff trackers Layoffs.fyi and TrueUp. Companies including Microsoft, Intel and Amazon have all announced fresh job cuts this year, with many citing restructuring, cost-cutting measures and greater use of automation and AI as key reasons behind the layoffs. Ends
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