Open Letter to JPMorganChase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon

We, the workers of JPMorganChase (JPMC), are concerned about the future of our workplace - its integrity, employee satisfaction, and the toxicity that has metastasized in our company culture in the last couple of months. As devoted employees, we must advocate for what is best- not merely for ourselves, but also for the customer, the shareholder, the firm, and the global economy.

Six years ago, full-time in-office was the norm. COVID-19 lock-downs forced rapid changes upon the world and upon JPMC working arrangements. It was uncomfortable, but we adapted. So must you. A/B testing shows that hybrid workers do not merely “pretend” to work-from-home: The science clearly shows no loss in productivity, yet considerable cost savings. It also improves our morale, retention, and collective carbon footprint. Here at JPMC, new employees have been able to onboard and train without any drop in productivity for the last five years on the hybrid model.

Your recent 100% return-to-office (RTO) mandate is a transparent attempt to turn back the clock to the bad-old-days: Bad for business, bad for the customer, and bad for the shareholder. It’s also terrible corporate citizenship, both on environmental grounds and the disparate impact it has on women, caretakers, senior workers, and those with long-term disabilities. Especially in light of your recommitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in January, this mandate is contradictory. Impacted employees feel confused and betrayed.

Hybrid may not suit in-person services, but it’s the way of the future almost everywhere else. Management repeated for years that it was the best way to run the bank and here to stay. Indeed, it’s often the only way to get any work done! The office has become overcrowded, noisy, and hard to concentrate in, and only continues to worsen. Our teams are scattered across the globe so that half the people are on zoom calls at any time, and many wake up early to talk to India and Asia. The in-office workstations in most locations are minimalist and uncomfortable. Due to unassigned first-come-first-served seating, we can’t even personalize keyboard and mouse to fit our comforts. There is also a huge disparity in amenities from one office to the next. Most of us will not be assigned to the new, highly-automated building on Park Avenue in NYC.

Finally, the underhanded process that decided upon and announced the RTO mandate has emphasized the lack of trust between a hypocritical upper-management and a deeply-worried labor force. This lack of trust undermines leadership and risks toppling the financial empire that is JPMorgan Chase.

You said in this interview on 60 Minutes recently that caring is critical for leadership; that people know if you don’t care. You’re absolutely right, Mr. Dimon. Your recent actions leave little room for doubt.

It is our duty as concerned employees to reject your RTO mandate, but also to support:

Stable, predictable, comfortable, and efficient working conditions.
A culture that promotes mutual respect across all organizational levels.
Workers’ quality of life, and thereby their health and productivity.
The schedule autonomy which should already be granted to all professional workers.
A reduction in pollution, cost-burden, and time lost to commuting to and from the office.

We the undersigned hereby demand of JPMC:

Retain (or return to) the flexible hybrid-working model for those job categories that have already worked under it – regardless of rank.
Direct investment to enable more categories of workers to experience the same.
Enable remote-capable workers to work from any JPMC corporate office in the region when they do choose to work in-office.

Why is this important?

A bank’s most valuable asset is its sterling reputation. To keep that reputation out of harm’s way, the customers and the shareholders need for it not to run off its best and brightest (along with its most vulnerable) employees. They’ll be extra hard to replace. RTO policies can and will continue to threaten the morale of employees, resulting in loss of skilled employees who consistently meet key performance indicators (KPIs). Indeed our own CFO, Jeremy Barron, declared publicly that attrition is bad for business and leads to negative effects.

An increasing number of workers have their suspicions about the true motives behind RTO. One-quarter of top corporate leaders and nearly one-fifth of HR executives have said the quiet part out loud: They hope RTO mandates lead to “voluntary turnover.” If there’s any of this going on under the covers at JPMC, then we ask: Who will train the next generation of workers? How many recruit-level mistakes will go unmitigated by a departed expert before something goes Knight-Capital-style? Given the bank’s pivotal role in the global financial system, more than just employees should be concerned.

RTO is also an unethical strategy of under-the-table discrimination carrying significant legal risks. The boss-man may not care, but many customers will.

Our company’s Business Principles, which the CEO personally signed, make it our duty as employees to “Provide constant feedback – tell people when they are doing a good job and, more important, when they are not”. Mr. Dimon, we believe you are making a terrible mistake. Given that “leadership is an honor and a responsibility”, we hope that you are able to recognize that this RTO policy does not “Help our people take care of themselves”, nor does it promote open dialogue.

Despite a sixth consecutive year of record revenue and growth, our purpose as a company to “Make dreams possible for everyone, everywhere, everyday” is unattainable when employees are repeatedly deceived, disregarded, and silenced: First hybrid was the way, here to stay. Then the Managing Directors told you how little they thought of RTO in April of ‘23, but that got shut down quick. More recently, the internal comments on the global RTO edict of 10 January were shut down before lunch.

Studies consistently show that remote work delivers proven results on productivity, including reducing turnover and increasing profits as retaining seniority is important. During the years since COVID lock-downs began, JPMC employees’ work has continuously produced record profits for the bank – all while working from home and from the office in a hybrid manner.

But the Darling of Wall Street and CEO of the nation’s biggest bank thinks otherwise.