Jamie Dimon doesn’t see a return to normal until middle of next year

JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, among the biggest Wall Street proponents of returning workers to the office, doesn’t see life returning to some form of normal until the middle of next year at the earliest.

The bank is currently aiming to bring back just 15% to 25% of workers to offices, and Dimon himself is just starting to see clients again, he said Friday at a conference hosted by the asset management industry group Nicsa. Zoom meetings with customers are likely here to stay, and some bank employees could work from home permanently, he said.

The JPMorgan chief executive, who has been going into the bank’s offices since June, has previously pushed for governments to cautiously reopen cities to help the economy recover. Dimon has predicted long-term economic and social damage from a longer stretch of widespread working-from-home.

Dimon said Friday that as many as 40% of staffers could work from home even after the pandemic, with some on rotations in and out of the office.

“Work-from-home has to work for clients and customers not just for employees,” he said.

Bloomberg News
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