JPMorgan Chase may soon require all employees to return to the office, potentially becoming the latest major financial institution to revert to pre-pandemic work arrangements.
According to a report from Bloomberg News on Tuesday, the largest bank in the U.S. by assets is developing a new policy that could end remote work. This policy, which has not been officially confirmed and is still subject to change, would follow Amazon’s decision to bring workers back to the office five days a week starting this month.
A spokesperson for JPMorgan, which had 316,043 employees as of September, declined to comment on the company’s plans. However, they noted that approximately 70% of the bank’s workforce already works in the office five days a week, with the remaining employees attending the office three or four days a week.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has been an outspoken critic of remote work, and the company has been calling employees back to the office for several years.
In September, Dimon expressed his concerns about remote work policies in a discussion with The Atlantic, stating that he would “make Washington, DC, go back to work.”
“I can’t believe, when I come down here, the empty buildings. The people who work for you not going to the office,” Dimon said, adding, “That bothers me. I don’t allow that.”
Here’s a timeline of JPMorgan’s work-from-home policies:
- July 2021: JPMorgan began bringing workers back to the office on a rolling basis, prioritizing those in bank branches or investment banking roles like sales and trading.
- April 2022: Dimon announced that 40% of the bank’s employees (about 270,000 at the time) would be allowed to work from home a few days each week, while 10% could work remotely full-time. The rest were expected to be in the office five days a week.
- April 2023: Dimon required all managing directors, including those in demanding revenue-generating roles and those in back-office departments like technology and compliance, to return to the office five days a week.
- January 2025: Bloomberg reported that JPMorgan was considering a policy that would bring all employees back to the office full-time.
