JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is ‘done’ with Zoom meetings

Jamie Dimon has just about had it with Zoom.

The JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO has reached a breaking point in the pandemic where he now wants nothing to do with Zoom meetings, or remote work in general, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“I’m about to cancel all my Zoom meetings,” Dimon said at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council. “I’m done with it.”

Like other Wall Street firms, Dimon, 65,  is pushing to have workers come back to the office sooner rather than later. JPMorgan is currently on a hiring spree, too.

Previously, Dimon had harsh words for remote working. He said that 10 percent of JPMorgan’s 255,000 US-based workers may work remotely full-time, but it hasn’t been a walk in the park for everyone; working from home can be a hassle for some — especially younger workers and hustlers.

Per WSJ:

Coming out of the pandemic, Mr. Dimon is eager for other signs of normalcy. More JPMorgan employees will return to the office starting this month, though Mr. Dimon acknowledged they aren’t all happy about it. But the remote office, he said, doesn’t work for generating ideas, preserving corporate culture, competing for clients or “for those who want to hustle.”

“We want people back at work and my view is some time in September, October, it will look just like it did before,” Mr. Dimon said. “Yes, people don’t like commuting, but so what?”

Dimon explained that the coronavirus pandemic “accelerated a trend” in remote working, but he doesn’t expect it to have an everlasting impact on the office.

“My view is that sometime in September or October, it’ll look just like it did before,” Dimon said.

He added: “I just don’t think the world is going to be that dramatically different.”

In his annual letter to shareholders, Dimon laid out his plans for remote working in the future. He said he envisioned a model that would let many employees work on location, however some will be in a hybrid model. Ten percent of JPMorgan employees would possibly work full-time from home, he said.

However, he also said that remote working poses some serious weaknesses, such as:

• Job performance is more successful remote when workers know each other and understand the workflow situation. “It does not work as well when people don’t know one another,” Dimon said.
• “Most professionals learn their job through an apprenticeship model, which is almost impossible to replicate in the Zoom world. Over time, this drawback could dramatically undermine the character and culture you want to promote in your company.”
• Zoom “actually slows down decision making” due to there being limited immediate follow-up.
• Finally, remote work takes out the in-person opportunities to spark creativity that can happen at work. “Remote work virtually eliminates spontaneous learning and creativity because you don’t run into people at the coffee machine, talk with clients in unplanned scenarios, or travel to meet with customers and employees for feedback on your products and services,” Dimon wrote.

Deutsche Bank’s hybrid Plan

Deutsche Bank CEO James von Moltke said that the bank plans to allow staff to work remotely for up to three days a week. It’s considered “one of the most flexible” return policies among large banks, Bloomberg reported.

Via Bloomberg:

The Frankfurt-based lender is “moving to provide our employees some additional flexibility in hybrid working models,” Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke said in an interview on Bloomberg Television Wednesday. “It’s a range of 40 to 60 percent, we think, of flexibility. And it will really be up to the employee, but in a structured way with the manager so we know when people are expected to come to the office.”