u/Kaladin12543

I joined Citi in 2020 when the team was relatively well-staffed and the workload, while heavy, was still manageable. Over time, additional workflows were added, headcount increased, but work allocation remained uneven, with a small group consistently carrying a disproportionate share of responsibilities.

From 2025, the situation worsened after restructuring. Team leads exited, managers were converted into individual contributors, a separate review function was introduced, and new AI-led systems significantly increased turnaround times due to frequent technical issues. The relationship with the review team has also been difficult, and the current structure leaves us with limited ability to push back on work.

Attrition has since accelerated. Team strength has fallen from around 24 to nearly 15, with five more people currently on notice. Replacements may take at least six months to be hired and trained, and even then, only a few roles may be backfilled. Morale is low, workload is unsustainable, and there is significant uncertainty around the team’s future operating model.

I have now received an offer from a competing bank at broadly similar pay, with comparable benefits and a much better work-life balance. The systems are more stable, and the environment appears less chaotic. However, the role itself is less challenging and may not offer the same quality of exposure as my current profile, which makes me worry that it could weaken my CV or feel underwhelming.

In essence, I am trying to decide whether to stay in a high-exposure, intellectually rewarding role that is becoming increasingly unstable and unsustainable, or move to a more stable role with better work-life balance but a less exciting profile. I feel overqualified for the new role, but the cost of staying in my current team is also becoming difficult to justify.

Can someone please advice if I should soldier on with the hope that things get better here or should I take the new job even when the profile is inferior but has greater WLB and more peace?

I had joined Citi India back in 2020. At the time, the team was around 20 strong apart from 4 team leads. Workload was relatively manageable at the time but this team was still amongst the worse ones when it came to workload and work life balance.

Around 4-5 months after I joined, they on-boarded more types of workflows which was basically almost doubling our work and they went on an expansion spree and hired around 15 more people. Trainings etc and the usual things were started and I was one of the relatively senior resources on team even at the time.

However, as the months went by, these managers never allocated work in an even way. There was a select group of staff who was given most of the work while some others were barely given anything. Looking at this, a couple of staff left but me and many others continued on.

Until 2024, this situation continued but by the beginning of 2025, the company decided to restructure. They realised that productivity could not be justified and were asked to let go of staff. But these managers were able to get them transferred into other teams instead of laying off. Staff strength came down to around 24.

Later they changed the entire organisation structure where even the managers were asked to become individual contributors and they created a whole new department whose job was to review our work. Many of the team leads straight up resigned and it is at that point attrition started creeping up. Simultaneously, the organisation also overhauled the systems with shitty AI integration and tasks which were earlier taking 2 hours under the older systems started to take over 1 day. The rapport between my department and the reviewing department wasn't great and still isn't to this day.

Under the new structure, we don't have any manager as such and the reviewing department just uses us like a pool of resources and there is no defense as such for us to refuse work.

The system overhaul is continuing and we are almost always with technical engineering teams around the month end because none of it works properly. This new system is most hated.

5 more team members have now resigned over the past 2-3 months and staff strength is now down to almost 15 and there is an insane amount of work now. In the midst of this, I was promoted, which prevents me from taking a team transfer internally for a year. We checked with the reviewing department and replacement hirees will take at least 6 months to be onboarded and get up to speed and even the replacements are 3-4.

Morale is down within the team and with these 5 guys on the notice period, everyone is fearing the increased workload and are openly discussing switching jobs.

I have been on the lookout for a job these past couple of months but because of the high pay, openings are few and far between and difficult to get.

I have now landed an offer at a competing bank which retains everything I like about Citi in terms of perks but the profile itself is inferior and they are matching the pay I get. On the flip side, work life balance improves massively, I get to enjoy my leaves as well. Also the company is not that big on AI and systems are stable unlike Citi where everything is changing on a daily basis. But I like a job which challenges me mentally and that's just not there at this new job. I am fearing that this new job will dampen by CV as a result.

But sticking with my current job also does not feel like a right decision because of the fear of what is the plan given the high attrition, the bad attitude from the reviewers and the instability in general. People get shuffled around from others teams here when people leave and staff strength is low.

In a nutshell, should I leave a job which is exciting / mentally rewarding and pays very well but which comes with an understaffed department, a not so good stakeholders, constantly updating systems and policies FOR a job which solves all this but is only matching my pay and the profile itself is inferior as its not as exciting?

The new job is not exciting and some may laugh at me for choosing it over my current exciting profile but I am not so sure. I am actually feeling overqualified for this new role and even the interviewer asked me why do I want to switch from a profile with such fantastic exposure but that exposure is coming at a cost which I explained above.

What would you do in my situation?

CTC is 40L with 7YOE.

I had joined Citi India back in 2020. At the time, the team was around 20 strong apart from 4 team leads. Workload was relatively manageable at the time but this team was still amongst the worse ones when it came to workload and work life balance.

Around 4-5 months after I joined, they on-boarded more types of workflows which was basically almost doubling our work and they went on an expansion spree and hired around 15 more people. Trainings etc and the usual things were started and I was one of the relatively senior resources on team even at the time.

However, as the months went by, these managers never allocated work in an even way. There was a select group of staff who was given most of the work while some others were barely given anything. Looking at this, a couple of staff left but me and many others continued on.

Until 2024, this situation continued but by the beginning of 2025, the company decided to restructure. They realised that productivity could not be justified and were asked to let go of staff. But these managers were able to get them transferred into other teams instead of laying off. Staff strength came down to around 24.

Later they changed the entire organisation structure where even the managers were asked to become individual contributors and they created a whole new department whose job was to review our work. Many of the team leads straight up resigned and it is at that point attrition started creeping up. Simultaneously, the organisation also overhauled the systems with shitty AI integration and tasks which were earlier taking 2 hours under the older systems started to take over 1 day. The rapport between my department and the reviewing department wasn't great and still isn't to this day.

Under the new structure, we don't have any manager as such and the reviewing department just uses us like a pool of resources and there is no defense as such for us to refuse work.

The system overhaul is continuing and we are almost always with technical engineering teams around the month end because none of it works properly. This new system is most hated.

5 more team members have now resigned over the past 2-3 months and staff strength is now down to almost 15 and there is an insane amount of work now. In the midst of this, I was promoted, which prevents me from taking a team transfer internally for a year. We checked with the reviewing department and replacement hirees will take at least 6 months to be onboarded and get up to speed and even the replacements are 3-4.

Morale is down within the team and with these 5 guys on the notice period, everyone is fearing the increased workload and are openly discussing switching jobs.

I have been on the lookout for a job these past couple of months but because of the high pay, openings are few and far between and difficult to get.

I have now landed an offer at a competing bank which retains everything I like about Citi in terms of perks but the profile itself is inferior and they are matching the pay I get. On the flip side, work life balance improves massively, I get to enjoy my leaves as well. Also the company is not that big on AI and systems are stable unlike Citi where everything is changing on a daily basis. But I like a job which challenges me mentally and that's just not there at this new job. I am fearing that this new job will dampen by CV as a result.

But sticking with my current job also does not feel like a right decision because of the fear of what is the plan given the high attrition, the bad attitude from the reviewers and the instability in general. People get shuffled around from others teams here when people leave and staff strength is low.

TLDR: In a nutshell, should I leave a job which is exciting / mentally rewarding and pays very well but which comes with an understaffed department, a not so good stakeholders, constantly updating systems and policies FOR a job which solves all this but is only matching my pay and the profile itself is inferior as its not as exciting?

The new job is not exciting and some may laugh at me for choosing it over my current exciting profile but I am not so sure. I am actually feeling overqualified for this new role and even the interviewer asked me why do I want to switch from a profile with such fantastic exposure but that exposure is coming at a cost which I explained above.

What would you do in my situation?

I had joined Citi India back in 2020. At the time, the team was around 20 strong apart from 4 team leads. Workload was relatively manageable at the time but this team was still amongst the worse ones when it came to workload and work life balance.

Around 4-5 months after I joined, they on-boarded more types of workflows which was basically almost doubling our work and they went on an expansion spree and hired around 15 more people. Trainings etc and the usual things were started and I was one of the relatively senior resources on team even at the time.

However, as the months went by, these managers never allocated work in an even way. There was a select group of staff who was given most of the work while some others were barely given anything. Looking at this, a couple of staff left but me and many others continued on.

Until 2024, this situation continued but by the beginning of 2025, the company decided to restructure. They realised that productivity could not be justified and were asked to let go of staff. But these managers were able to get them transferred into other teams instead of laying off. Staff strength came down to around 24.

Later they changed the entire organisation structure where even the managers were asked to become individual contributors and they created a whole new department whose job was to review our work. Many of the team leads straight up resigned and it is at that point attrition started creeping up. Simultaneously, the organisation also overhauled the systems with shitty AI integration and tasks which were earlier taking 2 hours under the older systems started to take over 1 day. The rapport between my department and the reviewing department wasn't great and still isn't to this day.

Under the new structure, we don't have any manager as such and the reviewing department just uses us like a pool of resources and there is no defense as such for us to refuse work.

The system overhaul is continuing and we are almost always with technical engineering teams around the month end because none of it works properly. This new system is most hated.

5 more team members have now resigned over the past 2-3 months and staff strength is now down to almost 15 and there is an insane amount of work now. In the midst of this, I was promoted, which prevents me from taking a team transfer internally for a year. We checked with the reviewing department and replacement hirees will take at least 6 months to be onboarded and get up to speed and even the replacements are 3-4.

Morale is down within the team and with these 5 guys on the notice period, everyone is fearing the increased workload and are openly discussing switching jobs.

I have been on the lookout for a job these past couple of months but because of the high pay, openings are few and far between and difficult to get.

I have now landed an offer at a competing bank which retains everything I like about Citi in terms of perks but the profile itself is inferior and they are matching the pay I get. On the flip side, work life balance improves massively, I get to enjoy my leaves as well. Also the company is not that big on AI and systems are stable unlike Citi where everything is changing on a daily basis. But I like a job which challenges me mentally and that's just not there at this new job. I am fearing that this new job will dampen by CV as a result.

But sticking with my current job also does not feel like a right decision because of the fear of what is the plan given the high attrition, the bad attitude from the reviewers and the instability in general. People get shuffled around from others teams here when people leave and staff strength is low.

In a nutshell, should I leave a job which is exciting / mentally rewarding and pays very well but which comes with an understaffed department, a not so good stakeholders, constantly updating systems and policies FOR a job which solves all this but is only matching my pay and the profile itself is inferior as its not as exciting?

The new job is not exciting and some may laugh at me for choosing it over my current exciting profile but I am not so sure. I am actually feeling overqualified for this new role and even the interviewer asked me why do I want to switch from a profile with such fantastic exposure but that exposure is coming at a cost which I explained above.

What would you do in my situation