Citi Puts Dealmaker on Leave, Probes Treatment of Junior Banker

Anyone see this? 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-1…

Citigroup Inc. placed a senior dealmaker within its equity capital markets group on leave as the firm investigates a complaint regarding a verbal altercation with a junior banker, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Edward Ruff, a New York-based managing director in the investment banking unit that handles initial public offerings and other stock deals, was suspended from work in January and has yet to return, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the review hasn’t been widely disclosed. Ruff publicly berated a junior banker, who is a person of color, in the office, leading to a complaint about the language he used, said the people.

“The work to have an inclusive and equitable workplace culture never stops, and ensuring that these standards are well understood and complied with by everyone at Citi is a continuous, proactive process,” Citigroup said in an emailed statement. “We provide colleagues with a number of avenues to raise concerns in confidence, and when substantiated, we will take appropriate action, up to and including termination of employment. While we will not comment on individual internal matters, simply put, where warranted, we exit employees who fail to meet our high standards of respectful treatment in our workplace.”

 
Controversial

Dei hiring getting deal makers fired you hate to see it but that is what these MDs get for not pushing back on diversity hiring.

 

Yeah, that's what I got out of this situation. The fact of the matter is, if he was verbally abusing a non-DEI hire, there would be no punishment and HR would have done nothing. Let's be real; the only reason there was any form of punishment is that these banks are afraid of civil rights lawsuits. DEI hires have used it as a weapon so they don't get fired and don't receive any other forms of criticism.

 
Most Helpful

Alright, as a POC, here's my two cents. I don't know what exactly was said, but I'd rather be called a useless sack of shit for example rather than be called a slur or be insulted in some other discriminatory way. At least with the former it's like, OK, that's harsh but I can learn from the situation in some form and try to do X, Y, Z better. The latter...I mean, my race is out of my control, so fuck off.

 

Young'uns constantly bitching and whining about abusive bankers and when one actually faces consequences, iTZ dIvERsITY....y'all are unbelievable.

Fuck any senior guy ripping on young bucks for showing up late and being an asshole about not working protected weekends. Imagine how bad is it when another MD has to step in to tell you to cool your shit. 

 

Truth be said, no one should be verbally abused in the workplace. It's likely this escalated because the victim is a person of color, but in reality the workplace should be a respectful place 

 

I worked with him personally. For context, ECM was one of the toughest groups you could be in at Citi (inseparable from your desk at all times like a trader while finishing at 2 or 4am every day including Fridays and another 8 to 12 hours on Sundays). Depending on which group you were in, you either could recycle market updates for multiple pitches or you would have to create new slides each time because the senior was "bored". With that context, I did want to mention in Ed's fairness that he hosted the analyst appreciation party for the entire group several years in a row. As someone who cares about fairness, I don't think that he should be the only one being singled out right now. Imho it seemed like some seniors of that team took pleasure in coming up with new ways to punish their juniors. As an example, another MD on the team would offer to buy bubble tea for the analysts supporting him. He would use that as a mechanism to leave someone out when he wanted to punish said first year analyst - someone who probably had to work until 2 or 4am consecutively for months. Another director would look up people who failed the licensing exams. It takes a special kind of person to go out of their way to dig through FINRA when they have a jam packed work and family schedule and an even more special person to weaponize that information against someone a decade younger. Analysts supporting these groups would be terrified to ask questions and would have to huddle together to interpret the chicken scratch comments scribbled on decks. All I can say is that Citi has quite a bit of spring cleaning to do if they are actually committed to changing their culture as they say they are. 

 

I’ve worked in this group and with Ed. 
 

As far as DEI hires go, it was starting to get out of hand. In some cases, certainly not all cases, there was a very distinct gap in capabilities between some juniors due to a shift in hiring objectives. 
 

As far as Ed goes, this was only a matter of time. The examples mentioned in the article were weekly occurrences. He means well, but unfortunately disregards a reasonable level of respect and empathy whilst lacking self control. This often resulted in undesirable interactions and incidents that led to a certain reputation in the group and on the floor. 

 

anyone cringe at "POC" 

person of color

what color?

who defines what that is?  Are indians POC?  Chinese?  Japanese? Italians.

Feels like I live in clown world with everyone so obsessed with their racial identity

 

The sole purpose of language like that is to foment division, ironically under the guise of “inclusion.” I’m
convinced all of this shit is the work of hostile foreign government(s). Don’t need to fire a single shot or launch a single missile against America when you can pump identity politics directly into peoples’ brains via Tik Tok 24/7.

 
excelmonkey10101

Does anyone know what he actually said? I can’t interpret from the quote if he said a slur or if he was just harsh. Huge ramifications one way or the other depending on that. 

He basically said a bunch of shit which has been said many times before but mentioned color of the person while doing so. 
 

but the offensive part was not the color.

”you are a piece of shit” vs “you are a brown piece of shit”. Is one worse than the other?

 

Amet est et optio facilis. Sed quaerat qui vel maiores rerum minima. Ipsum aut modi atque iure autem consectetur. Doloribus consequatur consequatur quo quia.

Voluptatem nihil dolore et labore culpa. Magnam officia dicta et iste aut. Tempora nesciunt eaque corporis reprehenderit adipisci esse et et. Suscipit cum dolores eligendi pariatur reiciendis voluptates beatae. Consequatur enim velit molestiae unde id eligendi. Dolorum qui voluptas ipsam quam pariatur in molestiae.

Asperiores et est fugit corporis repellendus dolores. Culpa eos eos minus eius. Totam consequatur quos est sed.

 

Rem illum ex numquam est sunt. Et a quae atque expedita earum autem nemo. Aut dolorum voluptates nesciunt dignissimos. Sequi in perspiciatis eveniet vitae dolor. Facere qui soluta tempora doloremque.

Fugiat soluta et voluptates delectus. Est quia et aut sint dicta.

Veritatis laudantium ut magni quis ea quas ab. Vitae vitae ab et dignissimos. Eum dignissimos sapiente perspiciatis illum sit ipsum debitis. Quos debitis at voluptatibus sit enim.

Total Avg Compensation

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (87) $260
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (14) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (205) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (146) $101

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
numi's picture
numi
98.8
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8