JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon defended his bank’s strict return-to-office mandate while acknowledging employee concerns in recent statements across multiple forums. The banking giant is requiring employees to return to in-person work five days a week starting this March, ending remote work options that remained after pandemic restrictions.
“I completely respect people that don’t want to go to the office all five days a week. That’s your right. It’s my right. It’s a citizen’s right,” Dimon told CNBC in February. “But they should respect that the company is going to decide what’s good for the clients, the company, etc., not an individual.”
The CEO’s comments follow a viral town hall incident where Dimon responded with strong language to an employee’s question about flexibility in return-to-office policies, igniting debate within the organization and across the financial industry.
Dimon blames “people in the middle” for not returning to the office
Dimon later categorized critics of the policy as “people in the middle,” during an appearance at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “If you work in a restaurant, you got to be in. You all may not know this, but 60% of Americans worked the whole time,” Dimon said, referencing frontline workers during the pandemic.
The policy has sparked concern among JPMorgan’s technology workforce, with some employees reportedly considering leaving. With a $17 billion IT budget and nearly 60,000 technology workers, the bank faces potential talent retention challenges as competitors like Citigroup maintain hybrid work options.
Despite the pushback, Dimon has remained firm on the policy. “Jamie Dimon’s like, ‘Well, hey, if you don’t like it, you know where the door is.’ Yes, we do,” one technology vice president told Business Insider, speaking anonymously. “And that’s going to impact him. He’s going to lose some good people.”
