Jamie Dimon Doubles Down On Work From Home Criticism: 'Where Did You Get Your Amazon Packages?'

by Chris Katje Benzinga Staff Writer

JPMorgan Chase JPM CEO Jamie Dimon has been a big proponent of return-to-office, in an effort to get employees back from past remote jobs.

Recent comments show Dimon hasn't changed his stance about believing that workers should be in office settings.

What Happened: Banking veteran Dimon believes remote work should end and is something that "doesn't work in our business," doubling down on his efforts to get workers to return to the office.

Dimon's comments came while speaking to students at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. The banking executive said those frustrated with return-to-office policies are "the people in the middle," like corporate workers, as reported by the New York Post.

"If you work in a restaurant, you've got to be in. You all may not know this, but 60% of Americans worked the whole time," Dimon said.

His comments recalled the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down many businesses and sectors and saw a boom in remote work.

"Where did you get your Amazon packages from? Your beef, your meat, your vodka? Where did you get the diapers from?"

Dimon said several industries had employees working during the pandemic and remote work wasn't a thing for them.

"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."

Why It's Important: The banking executive said he defends the rights of people who choose to quit over return-to-office policies, but not those telling him what JPMorgan should do.

"You have a free market. You can do one thing, I can do another. That's what's called a free market."

Dimon said there are cases where remote work is still a possibility.

"We put virtual call centers in Baltimore and 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," Dimon said.

Dimon’s comments come after he was critical of people against JPMorgan's return-to-office policies last month. He said workers back in the office is good with younger people being left behind socially and professionally.

Dimon also commented about the ability to communicate between in-person and remote workers.

"It doesn't work in our business. And for culture, you talk about culture, it's impossible to do culture."

Dimon's comments come as the national government is also pushing for return-to-office policies under Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s orders.

New data from Placer.ai shows which cities in the technology sector are leading in return-to-work policies. San Francisco is at 47.5% and outperforming Chicago (48.5%) for the first time in visit gaps since data has been tracked in the post-pandemic office recovery.

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