A small group of JPMorgan Chase (JPM+0.30%) employees have started a petition asking the company to reconsider its mandate that they work five days a week in the office.
The news comes after JPMorgan told its more than 300,000 employees in January that it was ending remote work. A little over half the workforce was already working full-time in one of the bank’s offices.
In the recently drawn-up petition, more than 500 signatories are asking CEO Jamie Dimon to change his mind and keep a hybrid model. They say the company’s new mandate to end hybrid work “is a great leap backward: It hurts employees, customers, shareholders, and the firm’s reputation.”
“From a corporate-citizenship perspective, it worsens traffic and pollution while disproportionately pushing out women, caregivers, senior employees, and individuals with disabilities,” the petition says. “Many of these are top performers, and many of them only able to join the workforce under hybrid work rules. This directly contradicts JPMC’s commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
When the company announced its plan, many workers expressed their frustration on the company’s internal channels until the company disabled comments. Employees complained the new policy would put a strain on their finances, particularly around child care and commuting costs. Others said it would disrupt their work-life balance, and some even called for unionizing after the announcement was made.
The pushback at JPMorgan comes as other Wall Street firms and major companies continue to tighten their return-to-office policies. The bank wrote in its January memo “We know that some of you prefer a hybrid schedule and respectfully understand that not everyone will agree with this decision.”
“We feel that now is the right time to solidify our full-time in-office approach. We think it is the best way to run the company,” it continued.
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