America’s largest bank JPMorgan Chase made five days work from office compulsory starting this month. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has been a strong advocate of working from the office, saying that it fosters better learning, innovation and culture. In an internal memo announcing the end of work from home, Jamie Dimon wrote, “Now is the right time to solidify our full-time in-office approach.” He added, “We think it is the best way to run the company.”
Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, recently spoke to students at Stanford University‘s Graduate School of Business, defending his stance against remote work. According t a report in New York Post, Dimon, aged 68, expressed his frustration with virtual working, stating that it “doesn’t work in our business.” The comment came in response to a student’s question about his blunt remarks from a company town hall, where he addressed the bank’s decision to end hybrid work arrangements, a practice that has gained popularity since the coronavirus pandemic.
Dimon said that he supports remote work where it proves effective and respects employees’ rights to prefer it. But at the same time, JP Morgan CEO emphasized that he won’t let individual preferences dictate company policy. “We have 10% of our people working at home full-time,” Dimon said. “We put virtual call centers in Baltimore and Detroit. We did it to see if they’d be effective. They’re highly effective. They work from home. They’re mostly minorities. That’s why we did it. So I’m not against it where it works … I also completely defend your right to say, ‘I don’t want to.’” “But I don’t defend your right to tell me what JPMorgan’s gonna do,” he added. “So you have a free market. You can do one thing, I can do another. That’s what’s called a free market.”
Attending office important for young workforce
When asked for advice on handling virtual work, Dimon suggested that only “people in the middle,” such as corporate office workers, are frustrated with returning to the office. He pointed out that many essential workers, like those in restaurants, never had the option to work remotely. “Where did you get your Amazon packages from? Your beef, your meat, your vodka? Where did you get the diapers from?” he asked, highlighting the 60% of Americans who continued working throughout the pandemic, including UPS and FedEx employees, manufacturers, agricultural workers, hospital staff, nurses, sanitation workers, firefighters, and military personnel.
Dimon also stressed the importance of in-office presence for younger employees, arguing that remote work leaves them disconnected. “By the second year, you have less people, you’re put on less assignments, you know less what’s going on,” he explained, noting fewer opportunities for casual interactions that foster learning and growth. He also dislikes setups where junior staff are in the office but their managers are not, and dismissed claims that remote work “works for me” as insufficient justification.
Additionally, Dimon underscored the value of face-to-face communication for management and culture-building, which he believes is lacking in virtual settings. “All day long, constant update, constant share of information,” he said, describing the dynamic exchanges that happen in person. He also pointed out distractions, like phone use during Zoom meetings, as a further drawback of remote work. For Dimon, these factors reinforce his belief that telework is incompatible with JPMorgan’s operations and culture.