Says remote work could 'leave behind' employees, particularly younger ones
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has once again weighed in on the impact of remote work on culture and career progression, weeks after he went viral for swearing at a petition against his company’s office-return mandate.
Dimon said in an event held at the Stanford Graduate School of Business last week that remote work doesn't work for their company and culture.
"It's impossible to do culture that way," he told an audience filled with students.
The CEO recounted a situation when they were on Zoom for a meeting, where he observed that people were instead reading their mails and getting their notifications.
"As I was talking, there were 12 people in the room and four people on the screen and all four people on the screen were on their phone," he shared.
On the other hand, Dimon said meeting in the morning allows them to talk and have discussions all day long.
"We're talking: 'Hey, no, I checked in that, you're right about that,'" he said. "All day long, [there's] constant updates, constant sharing of information."
Dimon also warned that remote work could "leave behind" employees, particularly younger ones.
"It's not like the first month that you're working, it's by the second year — you have fewer people, you're putting fewer assignments, you know less about what's going on, you have fewer conversations at the water cooler in the cafeteria," he said.
"So, it's leaving them behind."
Dimon made the remarks as he answered a question from one of the guests, who asked him about guidance on work arrangements following his viral comments on office-return pushback.
In those viral comments, the CEO was heard cursing at a petition against the company's mandatory office return, saying: "Don't waste time on it. I don't care how many people sign that f------ petition."
But the CEO clarified that he was not against remote work, pointing out that 10% of their employees are working from home full time.
"We put virtual call centres in Baltimore, in 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," he said.
"It's a home run, so I'm not against it where it works."
But Dimon had a problem with the way they implemented remote work in the past, which was dependent on the manager.
"We tried that with this, but the fact is they simply didn't exercise managerial skill," he said. "Everyone gave everyone everything, including people in my management team, by the way, and eventually I said: 'I've had it with that.'"
JPMorgan announced in January that it will require all employees on hybrid work schedules to return to the office five days a week starting this month.
