JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told clients that remote work 'slows down honesty and decision making,' report says

• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon pushed back on remote work during a client call last week, Yahoo Finance reported.
• He said in-office work supports diversity and better allows for spontaneous decision making.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon pushed back on remote work during a client call last week, Yahoo Finance reported Saturday.

"You have to look at the flaws of the Zoom world," he said, per the outlet. "It doesn't work for an apprenticeship program. It doesn't work for spontaneous stuff."

JPMorgan has asked half of its workforce to return to the office five days a week, and another 40% to come in a few days a week. To the displeasure of some employees, the bank is collecting data on worker activity amid its return-to-office push, including tracking office attendance with ID swipes.

Remote work, which Dimon called "management by Hollywood Squares" also "slows down honesty and decision making," he said, according to Yahoo.

"That disappears when you do it from home because at home you tend to say, okay, we'll pick this up tomorrow," he continued, according to Yahoo. "People laugh when I say it. I never did this, but a lot of people at home on a call are texting each other, sometimes saying what a jerk that person is."

This isn't the first time Dimon has come out in support of in-person work. At a conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal in May, the bank's CEO said remote work "doesn't work for people who want to hustle," adding that the bank's in-office attendance will be back to pre-pandemic levels by September.

Dimon offered up a new argument against remote work on last week's client call, saying that working in the office is better for diversity.

"We say we want diversity. When you come [to work] it is a rainbow room," he said, per the report. "But if you live in certain parts of our country and go eat out there, it is all white. You're losing opportunities to meet other people."

In Dimon's 2021 letter to shareholders, he noted that the bank "learned that we could function virtually with Zoom and Cisco and maintain productivity, at least in the short run," but highlighted some "serious weaknesses" of the virtual world.

"While it's clear that working from home will become more permanent in American business, such arrangements also need to work for both the company and its clients," Dimon wrote.

A JPMorgan spokesperson declined to comment on last week's reported client call, pointing to Dimon's previous comments on remote work in the bank's 2021 shareholder letter.