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.
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
“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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Does it? You are still working the same hours, it's just that you are spending some of those hours driving. I suppose if you like driving more than your actual job?
On the other hand, it makes your labor more expensive, and thus you are less competitive if other people happen to work closer. Why pay someone 8 hours of pay for 4 hours of work when you can pay someone 8 hours of pay for 8 hours of work, either because they live next door or they work remotely?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.