- Who’s the biggest proponent of remote work? Jamie Dimon says he knows.
- The JPMorgan Chase CEO says it’s only “people in the middle who complain a lot about it.”
- The bank announced in January that it’s mandating employees return to the office five days a week.
Jamie Dimon says when it comes to RTO pushback, the usual culprits are “the people in the middle.”
The JPMorgan Chase CEO talked about the bank’s return-to-office mandate in a recent interview at the 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,” he said, likely referring to the pandemic. “Where did you get your Amazon packages from? Your beef, your meat, your vodka? Where did you get the diapers from?”
Dimon, whose heated criticisms of remote work have made him a champion of the return to office culture shift, seemed to be talking about people who worked in-person during the pandemic.
“You got UPS and FedEx and manufacturers and agriculture and hospitals and cities and schools and nurses and sanitation and firemen and military. They all worked,” he continued. “It’s only these people in the middle who complain a lot about it.”
White-collar workers, who generally have more freedom in where their work can be performed than frontline workers, have had various responses to return-to-office mandates in recent years. Some have pushed back or questioned such mandates or even quit over them.
JPMorgan Chase announced in January that it’s mandating employees return to the office 5 days a week, starting in March.
Dimon has said he understands enforcing RTO might drive some employees to quit but says he’s okay with that.
“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,” he previously told CNBC. “But they should respect that the company is going to decide what’s good for the clients, the company, etc., not an individual.”
Dimon also said one reason he wants people back in the office is that “younger people are being left behind.” He added that “to have the younger people coming in but not their bosses, I have a problem with that too.”
JPMorgan Chase did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
