- JPMorgan told employees on Friday that their days of hybrid work were numbered.
- It said the five-day mandate would start in March and affect roughly 30% of the bank’s workforce.
- See the memo explaining the new policy and rationale.
JPMorgan on Friday told employees that hybrid work was largely over. In a memo issued by the bank’s operating committee, the largest US bank by assets said it was calling all workers back to the office starting in March.
“Starting in March, we’ll be asking most employees currently on a hybrid schedule to return to the office five days a week,” a copy of the memo obtained by Business Insider said. “As it stands, more than half of our workforce already comes into the office full-time.”
A company spokesman said that roughly 70% of the bank’s employees were already back in the office five days a week, while everyone else was in three or four days a week.
“We know that some of you prefer a hybrid schedule and respectfully understand that not everyone will agree with this decision,” the memo said, adding, “We think it is the best way to run the company.”
JPMorgan, which had more than 300,000 employees in September, is the latest in a growing list of large companies to revert to pre-pandemic office norms. AT&T and Amazon have implemented similar five-day mandates starting this month.
JPMorgan’s return-to-office policies have been slowly ratcheting up since the COVID-19 pandemic. It returned all managing directors — the highest rank outside the C-suite — to a five-day workweek in 2023.
The full memo sheds some light on the company’s rationale:
Message from the Operating Committee
Dear colleagues,
We’re proud of how our company has successfully adapted and thrived in an ever-changing environment, and this is thanks to all of you. We are a better organization because of your commitment and continued care for our customers, clients, communities and each other. Developing effective teams and maintaining a vibrant, healthy culture are clearly key for our success — and we believe best achieved through working together in person. This is why starting in March, we’ll be asking most employees currently on a hybrid schedule to return to the office five days a week. As it stands, more than half of our workforce already comes into the office full-time.
We know that some of you prefer a hybrid schedule and respectfully understand that not everyone will agree with this decision. We are now a few years out of the pandemic and have had the time to evaluate the benefits and challenges of remote and hybrid working. We feel that now is the right time to solidify our full-time in-office approach. We think it is the best way to run the company. As we’ve discussed before, the benefits of working together in person are substantial and irreplaceable, and as we spend more time together, the more advantages we gain. Being together greatly enhances mentoring, learning, brainstorming and getting things done. It accelerates decision-making and offers valuable opportunities for spontaneous learning and creativity. It also allows our early career professionals to learn through our apprenticeship model and expand their networks by building connections with peers across the firm.
Many of our global locations, but not all, have existing capacity to allow for most or all employees to return to the office full-time in early March. We will confirm the list of locations where this is possible by the end of January. The evaluation of our locations will focus on operational readiness, including food services, cleaning and parking. For locations with capacity constraints, or where changes are needed to create capacity, we will work through plans in the coming weeks and will share information and timelines as they become available on a location-by-location basis. Until your location’s readiness is confirmed, you should continue on your current work schedule. It’s important to note that following a thorough review and applying stringent criteria, a few specific teams whose work can be easily and clearly measured will continue to work remotely or on a hybrid schedule. These decisions have been made in the best interest of the company. If you are on one of these teams, your manager will confirm your schedule.
We recognize that switching from hybrid to five days a week in the office may be disruptive and require adjustments for some colleagues. Importantly we will work to give you at least 30 days’ notice in line with local requirements, prior to your full-time return. Once your location is ready, if you need a bit more time to accommodate the new schedule, you should discuss your needs with your manager and get their approval. We know that a lot has changed in our workplaces since returning to the office after the pandemic and recognize that it will take us some time to get all of our locations ready to accommodate a five-day-a-week schedule.
What is not changing is our support for flexibility in the workplace, which we are committed to providing at every level in a fair way. We fully recognize how important it is to be able to work remotely as life events happen, and managers will be directed to provide team members with the flexibility they need to work remotely under some circumstances, such as unexpected occurrences, family commitments or other times on occasion when you and your manager agree you can work away from the office. As always, we expect you to continue to track your time out of the office, and we will work hard to support a workplace of flexibility and collaboration.
We greatly appreciate your outstanding efforts day-in and day-out and are honored to work together on behalf of everyone we serve.
Read the full article here
