JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon is doubling down on pushing workers back into the office despite a recent petition from staff demanding hybrid working.
The chief executive said Tuesday that working in person helps junior bankers learn on the job. “I’m not making fun of Zoom, but younger people are being left behind,” he said. “If you look back at your careers, you learned a little bit from the apprentice system. You were with other people who took you on a sales call or told you how to handle a mistake or something like that. It doesn’t happen when you’re in a basement on Zoom.”
Dimon’s comments came about a week after an internal petition with 2,000 signatures calling for hybrid working was sent to his desk. It was launched earlier in the year after JPMorgan told its more than 300,000 employees in January that it was ending remote work.
Dimon addressed the effort back in February, saying: “I don’t care how many people sign that f—ing petition.” He went on to say that employees who don’t want to show up at the office every day can find a new job.
“I’ve had it with this stuff,” Dimon said at the time. “I’ve been working seven days a goddamn week since COVID, and I come in, and — where is everybody else?”
Dimon later apologized for using expletives, saying he should “never curse, ever,” but he stood by his sentiment about remote work. Dimon took home $39 million in total compensation in 2024.
The petition drafted by Dimon’s employees says the company’s mandate to end hybrid work “is a great leap backward: It hurts employees, customers, shareholders, and the firm’s reputation.”
Dimon’s Tuesday comments came at a conference in Riyadh that was also attended by Goldman Sachs boss David Solomon and BlackRock chief Larry Fink.
Earlier this month, Dimon also opened JPMorgan’s new 60-story, $3 billion Manhattan headquarters, which will serve as home base for more than 10,000 employees.
When the company announced its return-to-office plan, many workers expressed their frustration on internal channels until the company disabled comments. Employees complained the new policy would put a strain on their finances, particularly around child care and commuting costs. Others said it would disrupt their work-life balance, and some even called for unionizing after the announcement was made.
