Jan. 20, 2023 "Remote work 'doesn’t work' for younger staff, management, Jaime Dimon says": Today I found this article by Matthew Boyle on the Financial Post:
Jamie Dimon said working from home “doesn’t work” for younger staff or bosses, the Wall Street titan’s latest salvo against remote work.
“It doesn’t work for young kids or spontaneity or management,” JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief executive said in an interview with CNBC Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, citing researching and coding as fields that can be done remotely. “There are jobs where it is reasonable.”
Dimon’s comments come amid an industrywide slowdown in finance and increasing signs of a recession, which has pushed big banks to
slash bonuses,
cut jobs
and pause hiring.
The economic uncertainty has increased concerns among workers across all industries that bosses could use return-to-office (RTO) mandates as a reason for letting people go, even as the broader job market remains strong.
Dimon’s reference to younger staff could heap additional anxiety on junior bankers, who are experiencing their first bad business environment.
Dimon also said remote work can “help women,” given the caregiving duties that disproportionately fall upon them.
“Modify your company to help women stay home a little,” he said.
Half of working mothers want to work remotely most or all of the time, according to an ongoing survey of more than 10,000 white-collar workers from the Future Forum, a research consortium backed by Salesforce Inc.’s Slack.
Along with Morgan Stanley chief James Gorman and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief executive David Solomon, Dimon has been one of the most vocal critics of remote work.
Despite their comments, though, the heads of major banks have acknowledged recently that their workers are typically only in the office between three and four days a week.
A few Wall Street bosses, like Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, have been more accepting that working from home can benefit engagement and even productivity, saying recently that Wall Street’s insistence on full-time office attendance feels dated.
Still, even Fraser said this week that if a worker’s productivity dips, they can expect to spend more time in the office.
In a separate interview on Bloomberg Television Thursday, Gorman said working five days a week in the office “won’t happen again,” and Dimon has previously allowed that about 40 per cent of his workforce will operate under a hybrid model, which includes days in the office and at home.
Hybrid-work models are by far the most popular approach for desk workers right now, according to ongoing surveys of tens of thousands of workers from WFH Research, a group that includes Stanford University remote-work guru Nicholas Bloom.
For the week ending Jan. 11, office occupancy in New York City stood at 45.6 per cent of a pre-pandemic baseline, according to badge data from security firm Kastle Systems.
That’s no higher than levels seen in mid-September, a time when many organizations sent out fresh RTO mandates.
But with layoff announcements becoming more common, the flexibility that many white-collar workers have come to expect could be at risk in some sectors.
Goldman has plans to axe as many as 3,200 jobs, although it will continue to hire selectively across the firm.
Bank of America Corp. is putting a pause on hiring except for the most critical roles.
Morgan Stanley has been “overdue” for right-sizing the workforce because it hasn’t done much to pull back in recent years, Gorman has said. Still, the firm had also embarked on a fresh round of job cuts.
As those personnel moves shake out, Dimon’s perspective on remote work could serve as a warning for those under him. “We shouldn’t feed the squeaky wheel,” he said. “You can go write your book and work at home.”
Remote work 'doesn’t work' for younger staff, bosses: Jaime Dimon | Financial Post
Hugo Smith
January 22, 2023
they lack the fortitude and intellect.
99% are open mouth breathers glued to their phones.
This kind of view reminds me of the people who resisted computerization or the use of emails back in the early 1990s LOL
Interesting pattern emerging with the large layoffs in tech firms. It seems that remote workers are being targeted in early layoff rounds. Many tech workers were recruited in Ottawa and Toronto by California tech companies during COVID. They all worked remotely and paid as if located in California. Making more than 50% market salaries here. My firm lost 4 people to California firms last year. Three of the four have already been terminated by the California firms and only receiving Ontario ESA minimum separation payments.
Jan. 16, 2024 "Younger workers need to be in the office because of AI, PwC's U.K. boss says": Today I found this article by Sabah Meddings and Katherine Griffiths on the Financial Post:
Junior staff should spend more time in the office to get quicker promotions,
the United Kingdom boss of accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers said,
as artificial intelligence is poised to take on routine tasks traditionally given to younger workers.
Generative AI is removing “tasks that in the past our more junior staff trained and cut their teeth on,” Kevin Ellis, the chair of PwC U.K., said during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Without those tasks, “you’ve somehow got to get people through the career path faster,” he added.
“It’s a lot more face-to-face time being important and a lot more developing,” Ellis said.
“So you have to get people in the office more working together.”
Companies have been trying to convince staff to spend more time in the office, with surveys last year showing that
managers would prefer less remote working
while employees are keen to maintain habits formed during the pandemic.
Ellis was adamant that younger staff in particular should avoid the temptation of working from home.
“If you’re asking me my opinion on how you succeed in your career,” he said.
“I’d be in the office four to five days a week.”
His comments came as PwC released a report showing that British companies are adopting AI more rapidly than their international peers.
The survey of more than 4,600 global CEOs found that
42 per cent of U.K. bosses said they had implemented the technology in the last year,
compared with 32 per cent globally.
Ellis said that in the audit sector, AI would likely mean the end of charging clients for work by the hour.
“Outcome-based fees and
effectively licensing and charging for tech and tech assets will become more important,”
he said.
PwC’s survey also showed that British CEOs are far more positive about the global economy than domestic growth. Six in 10 expect an improvement in the global economy, while fewer than four in 10 said the same about U.K. output.
https://financialpost.com/fp-work/younger-workers-need-be-in-office-ai-pwc
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