2y ago

Jamie Dimon says employees can go work somewhere else if they don't like long commutes into the office, thinks remote work doesn't cut it

www.businessinsider.com Jamie Dimon says employees can go work somewhere else if they don't like long commutes into the office

Dimon says he's not opposed to remote work if it works, but "if it doesn't work, I don't mind getting rid of it."

119 comments

Another dinosaur from the past century resisting ~~21th~~21st century.
- Meanwhile, back in reality, my company isn't upside down on commercial real estate & likes making more money so we are getting a smaller office to house our servers & equipment.
  
  My company did the same. We had a six week assessment period where everyone was required to come in two days per week. Once that data showed no major difference in output, we got a smaller office (for receiving and such) and everyone was told the office is optional. Smart business that kept people happy.
  
  This right here.
  Find me a company deeply invested in office real estate (in particular, expecting a return on that real estate), and I'll show you a company against remote work.
  The real detriments don't exist. True, I have met workers that don't like remote work: companies have latched on to those people as an excuse to continue what is otherwise an entirely transparent narrative.
  If anything I gain productivity by working from home. I see companies that don't support that kind of work as entirely being behind the curve.
  
  Mine was a bit hesitant but they are now talking seriously about getting rid of more offices and they had done one pass on that before. I would sorta like them to have an office subscription
- Twenty-oneth century
  
  I think it's pronounced, "twenty-firth century"

“We're not going to make that decision because we're pandering to employees”
Is there such a thing as “pandering to employees”? The employees are doing the real work to keep the company going, while Dimon’s work apparently includes appearing on news stations ridiculing said employees.
Hopefully the next headline we hear about J.P. Morgan will be a mass voluntary attrition.
- This is the state capitalism is currently. Raising morale of the employees is now "pandering".

His employees should take him up on that.
- This is the ONLY thing they listen to. If you want to work from home and your employer doesn't let you, it's time to quit.
  I have nothing bad to say about people who prefer going in to the office. I respect your preference and I understand it is necessary for some positions. You are valuable, too, and there's plenty of places that would love to have you.
  There's room in this work world for both types of jobs. It's not an either-or choice.
  Anyone who can WFH and wants to WFH should be allowed to do so, full stop.
  
  I just want to interject that more people could probably be successful small business owners if they wanted to, instead of just getting another job. Small business also usually benefit humans more than corporations.
- Go ahead and queue up the shocked Pikachu face when they do. Average is something like 30% of people being told to return to office will instead resign, across all industries.

never had a good experience dealing with Chase, I guess leadership feels the same for the employees?
- They say the fish stinks from the head. Jamie Dimon is your typical corporate CEO asshole. I wouldn't expect any different.
- That vast majority of their former employees that I've spoken to feel the same way

That's OK, I didn't have any desire to work for that asshole anyway...
Most folks are exponentially more productive when they don't have to waste hours of their day (stressfully) driving/public transit from A to B just to do their job.
- I am way more productive when I'm not also being constantly interrupted by the people around me all day long. When I sit down to work at home I will go hours without even looking up from my screen. When my attention is interrupted in the office, which happens regularly, it takes me a good 5-7min to focus again. Repeat that same process a couple times an hour and not a lot gets done.
  
  I can't believe how much time I waste in the office. It's unbelievable. I will say that certain meetings in the office are better. However, maybe a day or so for those but for the most part. It's such a waste.
- Yeah but have you thought about this Boomer's CRE clients/friends? What about his origination business?
  You are insensitive... why do you hate freedom and holy profit of another man who works very hard for every penny.

Gee, I wonder how much he and JPMorgan are invested in commercial real estate.
- ... and car manufacturers, and oil companies, and tire companies, and the fast food franchises lining every freeway exit...
- Ill give you a hint: JPMC owns one of the largest buildings in the United States, second only to the Pentagon. Their Columbus location is a multi-mile long, 6 story, repurposed Mall. And thats just one of 8 Non-Branch locations they use in Columbus.
  
  I know dozens of people who work there. Most hate it
  Parking is atrocious and you have to walk like 10 minutes from your spot to the building. And then I'm the building another 5 to your office
  Oh and you thought you were leaving at 5? It's a 30 minute commute just from the parking lot to the first street because of the traffic

I'm betting he is heavily invested in commercial real estate. Empty buildings means losing money.
- Almost certainly. Just like the office furniture company that put out this anti-WFH "news article".
  
  Seems to be a common theme among office furniture companies, get a load of this bitch
  
  I should have stopped after reading it was the NYPost. But jfc what a load of massive bullshit

the same management who wanted everyone to return to the office are the same people who are still joining Zoom calls from home.

Pay people for the commute.
- And for the commute time, regular pay
  
  I would honestly rather have the time

The reality is that Jaime Dimon is out of touch. On last year's employee conference call, he was asked about return to office and how WFH has opened up significant flexibility for employees personal lives, specifically, children's doctors appointments. He responded that your nanny should be taking the kids to your kids doctor's appointments so you can work at the office.

And that's how you lose talent...
I don't mind visiting the office once in awhile, say 2 or 3 times a month. But to mandate it to every day is asinine. I'm never going back to wasting 3 hours a day sitting in a train/stuck in traffic.

Pay people during their commutes, they “clock in” as soon as they get into their cars and “clock out” only when they get home.
- That rewards employees for living as far away from the office as possible. Is that a fair thing to do? I seriously don't know.
  
  you're right, let's scrap offices altogether and wfh 100%
  
  Not rewards, incentivises, means the employer has a larger labor pool to pick from, which in capitalism is good.

So he's going to limit his talent pool to people who both live within commuting distance and aren't good enough at their jobs to find remote work.
That's a bold choice.

Every billionaire is a policy failure.
- I'd rather have a thousand millionaires than one billionaire.

Jamie Dimon can suck a turd, then.

I bet he said this from an "off-site" and hasn't been in the office in weeks
- It is july?
  Prime summer holiday month, at least where i live.
- Yeah, but he's not at his summer house, where he could be working from and maybe be less productive. So that's almost the same thing.

I'm all for coming into the office, but I'm no longer commuting on my own dime. You want me in the office, for some messed up reason, my commute is on the clock.
- My job requires me to come in twice a week. You bet your ass I clock in as soon as my head rolls off the pillow on those days.
- Same for me getting ready in the morning. You want me to look presentable when I come in? I'm clocking in while I shower. And I take LONG showers.
  /s
  
  Do you... not shower normally? Like a job has to force you?
  Please stay at home.

Jamie Dimon (compensation 34.5 million 2022) says what?
- Too many people think rich and in charge = smart and reasonable.

Nobody should listen to billionaire boomer fucks.

Jamie Dimon can just fg ahead and make his millions without any employees, that will maximize his profits too.

I always raise an eyebrow when people generally claim remote "just does not work." This seems to imply they've only tried one or two ways to set up a remote workforce because there simply hasn't been enough time to honestly try several permutations.
I agree that some jobs cannot do it (those where physically it can't be done, like manufacturing or lab work). But with such a service-based economy, the number of jobs that can be remote is only increasing.
I think it's ultimately more a reflection of an unwillingness or inability to fundamentally restructure the way teams complete work and collaborate. It assumes the way offices work is objectively correct and must be maintained.
The managing challenges of remote work are just different than in-office; they are not more numerous. In-office environments are littered with ineffective, overbearing, and/or intrusive management styles. Management is always squawking that their workers need to be agile and adapt, but they are rarely willing to do the same.
- If remote doesn't work, on-site isn't working either other than the visual appearance of productivity.

My employer would beg to differ. Seeing as they pay my mortgage and not him, he is irrelevant.

I worked for JPMorgan Chase before and this doesn't surprise me one bit. Such a backasswards company that cares little for its customers or its employees. I will forever avoid doing any sort of business with Chase for as long as I live. Complete trash.
- Preach. Same. Terrible company to work for and they dont give a shit about its consumers.

All the valuable employees: go to work somewhere else
Jamie Dimon: shocked Pikachu

I completely agree! See you never bucko

No problem, I'm on the way out the door anyway with this stupid, corrupt, abusive company.

Well. Im sure you will attract the best and the brightest.

He's right, you know... no smart and successful business owner wants to ensure their employees' happiness.
/s <- do we need these over here? Lol

And this is where we diverge culturally. The rest of us in the workforce that haven't been brain-washed to believe that the old school corporate lifestyle/mentality is the way things should be will go find jobs elsewhere for companies that are much more progressive (or start companies of our own). The Jamie Dimons of the world will be left with only their vacant ass commercial real estate still saying "nobody wants to work" or some shit.

If you're just joining us, the is the "Fuck Around" part of the meme. See you soon when he realizes how right he is!

This is the same shitbag behind WADU. He can get bent.

Ya these people are so out of touch (so more likely they want people in buildings so they are getting people to come in so buildings aren’t empty) that’s my guess at least.
Business don’t wanna pay for a lease with no one in there, since work from home can be fine but they seem to despise it. Makes no sense.

Oh, alright. That's pretty much what I've been doing. Is he expecting the people do back down on idiotic threats? I've been on the job hunt for pretty much exactly 19 minutes before I've got a call from HR of my new company and two meetings later they were happy to give me a remote first contract. At least where I am it's not hard to get a good paying job from home if you've got some experience. My colleague had a harsher time because she was just getting into development, but it was not like she had to hunt for long.

There’s more nuance to what he said if people take time to read the article. I’m a huge fan of working from home, but it has drawbacks. One that Jamie notes is that a lack of office environment is terrible for someone starting their career, which is true.
- I assure you, JPMC office environments, as they currently are used, are useless. They're making everyone operate as though we work from home, while in office. We still use Zoom for everything... 40 feet away from eachother. Its as stupid as it sounds.
  
  Do people meet in meeting rooms as well or it’s all just Zoom?
- You aren't going to get people who will be willing to accept that anything but full WFH would be good here.