A Tale of Two CEOs

A case study in flexible working.

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It's been an interesting month for corporate headlines, from continued tech layoffs (with Meta branding those retrenched as “low performers”) to Goldman reversing its IPO diversity policy – yikes on both counts. But one story tops them all, so this week, we're doing a deep dive into the leaked audio from JPMorgan's town hall.

ICYMI, the CEO of America's biggest bank slammed flexible working, calling WFH “semi-diseased sh*t” and claiming the “young generation is being damaged” in an expletive-laden tirade – ending with the suggestion that those who disagree simply “don't have to work at JPMorgan".

Before we get into it, a disclaimer: Mr. Dimon is a very successful, very senior man who has the right to enforce five days a week in office for his employees. I understand, and even agree with, some of his points (e.g. bureaucracy is a waste of time). But my work frequently involves navigating conversations on mental health with older, more senior leaders – so let’s discuss this notion that employees can't work effectively unless they're fully in office, from a boots-on-the-ground perspective.

I've had personal experience with this trend of CEOs making blanket decisions based mostly on vibes and rarely on data. While I was at Amazon, Andy Jassey took over as CEO; he later announced an RTO mandate which was heavily criticised for lacking the data-driven process thinking the company was built on. You can't so much as print out a piece of paper at Amazon without being asked to back it up with data. So, here's some data for your consideration:

🤔 JPMorgan has 12.6% of its loan portfolio in commercial real estate: isn't it funny how the most vocal opponents of flexible work often hold incredibly large property portfolios, including intercity rail links and office space?
🤔 Turnover increases with RTO mandates: some have pointed out that enforcing RTO looks a bit like a thinly-veiled attempt to avoid severance payouts amidst continuing layoffs
🤔 Since the RTO mandate, JPMorgan's London office has literally run out of room and physically cannot accommodate all its workers in office at the same time: talk about mixed signals…

Now, this is a nuanced conversation I can't fit into a few hundred words, but here's what I think. How effectively we work from home varies from person to person – so in the same way I don't agree with the blanket statement “We must never WFH”, I'm not necessarily saying "We must always WFH”. You can't please everyone, but there can be common ground.

I see all sides of the argument, but keep coming back to two fundamental ideas:

I think the mental health gains of flexible work are universal: let's narrow the scope of the argument just to time spent commuting. It used to take me an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Amazon's Shoreditch HQ; that's twelve and a half hours a week sitting on the tube that could be spent instead on mental and physical health – including but not limited to sleeping, working out, going for a walk, cooking a nutritious meal, or spending time with family
I also think RTO mandates actively harm women and minorities, especially working mothers (who not only do the vast majority of unpaid labour at home, but are also saddled with office housework at a higher rate than their male counterparts) and neurodivergent folk (for whom a large barrier to employment is the sensory challenge of office environments)

More broadly, I think Mr. Dimon's comments mark a turning point away from empathetic leadership, which I kind of find more concerning. As a recent Bloomberg article puts it, “It’s Not What Jamie Dimon Said About WFH, It’s How He Said It”.

To end this case study, let's take a look at Jane Fraser, one of the few female CEOs on Wall Street. Fraser recently doubled down on hybrid working at Citigroup, bucking the trend of anti-WFH among her (male) peers. In addition to being what I consider the ethical thing to do, it's a smart move from a people perspective, one that will no doubt lure top talent away from less forgiving firms; I suspect JPMorgan is about to experience a gnarly brain drain and am personally looking forward to seeing their attrition data in the years to come.

I know this is a hot topic, so I'm curious - are you team Jamie or team Jane?