JPMorgan Chase employees fear defying CEO Jamie Dimon’s five-day return-to-office edict would amount to “career suicide,” according to a report detailing internal backlash to the mandate.
Workers at the nation’s largest lender told the Financial Times they were bewildered by management’s insistence on a full-time return to company offices, though teams are scattered across the globe.
“My team is spread out through two continents and three time zones,” said a JPMorgan staffer who signed a petition to bring back hybrid work.
“JPMorgan is a global company — why can’t that include my home office?”
Another employee said the bank’s hardline stance risks undoing gains made under hybrid work.
“Hybrid is working and employees love the happy medium,” the staffer told the FT.
“Please don’t force working women completely out of the workforce.”
Dimon announced the policy at an all-hands town hall last year, telling employees most would be required to work from company offices five days a week — effectively ending the hybrid model adopted during the COVID pandemic.
The mandate took effect in March and applied mainly to the roughly 30% of JPMorgan’s workforce that had been permitted to work from home part of the week. At the time of the announcement, about 70% of staff were already back in the office full time.
Within weeks, a group calling itself “JPMC Workers” circulated an internal petition opposing the mandate and demanding the hybrid model be preserved.
The petition ultimately drew just over 2,000 signatures out of a global workforce of more than 300,000 employees, with some employees telling the FT they were reluctant to sign out of concern it could harm their careers.
The petition prompted Dimon to double down on his plan to do away with the bank’s hybrid model, telling employees that they shouldn’t bother fighting the decision.
“Don’t waste time on it. I don’t care how many people sign that f–king petition,” Dimon said, according to a leaked recording obtained by Barron’s last February.
JPMorgan recently christened a $3 billion global state-of-the-art headquarters on Park Avenue in Manhattan, where staffers have access to multiple on-site dining options, fitness and wellness facilities, and outdoor space like terraces and green areas.
The bank is also planning to invest significant sums to expand its London footprint, spending billions on a new complex in Canary Wharf that will house about 12,000 employees.
JPMorgan has said the return-to-office policy is necessary to promote collaboration, training and in-person supervision.
Industry peers have also instituted stringent return-to-office requirements, too.
Goldman Sachs has maintained its five-day-per-week policy since March 2022.
PNC plans to have all its staffers back in the office full-time beginning this May.
JPMorgan declined to comment.
