JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said that it's only “people in the middle” pushing back against his return to office policy.
Earlier this month, the investment bank ditched its hybrid model and required most of its 300,000 employees to return to the office, five days a week.
In the face of complaints of desk shortages and Wi-Fi issues, Dimon doubled down on the financial giant’s RTO mandate and claimed that working remotely “doesn't work in our business.”
During a recent interview with the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Dimon cited Pew Research figures that 60 percent of the U.S. workforce is required to show up to work in person and listed a raft of blue-collar jobs that cannot be done from home.
“Where did you get your Amazon packages from? Your beef, your meat, your vodka? Where did you get the diapers from?,” he said.
Instead, Dimon said it’s only those in “the middle,” corporate office workers, who have issues with returning to the office full-time.
“It's only these people in the middle who complain a lot about it,” he added.
The CEO explained that he believes younger people are being “left behind,” as they are given fewer assignments and have less knowledge as a result of working from home.
“You have less conversations at the water cooler and cafeteria,” he continued.
He also said that he has a “problem” with younger people coming in but not their bosses.
Dimon said that the constant flow of communication and information doesn’t work fluidly from behind a screen. He claimed that remote employees tend not to pay attention during Zoom calls and instead go on their phones.
“So I tell you, it doesn't work in our business. And for culture, you talk about culture, it's impossible to do culture that way,” he said.
Dimon said he understands that not all JPMorgan Chase employees will support the company’s RTO mandate.
“I also completely defend your right to say, ‘I don’t want to,’” he said. “But I don’t defend your right to tell me what JPMorgan is going to do.”
Dimon also addressed last month’s controversy, in which leaked audio from a town hall revealed his expletive-filled rant. He stated he doesn’t care “how many people sign that f***ing petition”—noting an appeal from employees for the chief executive to rethink implementing his RTO mandate.
More than 1,900 workers have since signed a petition calling for the return of a hybrid work schedule.
“Obviously, I should never curse and I emote. I get up on stage and say, ‘You what? You’re going to do what?’ I’m a human being, I’m like everybody else,” he said.
JPMorgan still employs remote workers, and 10 percent of the bank's jobs, including virtual call centers in Baltimore and Detroit, still operate fully remotely.
“We did it to see if they’d be effective. They’re highly effective,” Dimon said. “They work from home; they’re mostly minorities. That’s why we did it. It’s a home run. So I’m not against it where it works.”
