By Sanya Jain
Jamie Dimon says that when it comes to working from office, only “people in the middle” protest.
Jamie Dimon says that when it comes to working from office, only “people in the middle” protest. The JPMorgan Chase CEO went viral last month for his foul-mouthed tirade against employees requesting work from home after the bank issued a new mandate requiring all 317,000 employees to return to the office five days a week.
He later apologised for his language, but maintained that JPMorgan employees must show up at office five days a week if they want to keep their jobs.
Dimon elaborated upon his RTO stance in a recent interview at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
“People in the middle complain”
The 68-year-old CEO was asked by an audience member about his stance on work-from-home. He noted that working remotely is a privilege accorded only to a few people. Most people have jobs that require them to be onsite.
“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 all but essential workers were advised to stay home.
“Where did you get your Amazon packages from? Your beef, your meat, your vodka? Where did you get the diapers from?” asked Dimon.
“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.”
His response drew laughter from the audience.
Dimon added that he defended workers’ right to say that they did not want to come in. “But I don’t defend your right to tell me what JPMorgan is going to do,” he added, reiterating his earlier remarks about employees being free to look for new jobs if they wanted to continue working remotely.
“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 – not an individual.”
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