JPMorgan tells staff to return to the office five days a week

JPMorgan Chase & Co. told all of its employees to return to the office five days a week starting in March, ending a hybrid work-from-home policy that took effect during the pandemic.

Some locations don’t yet have the capacity to accommodate a full return of every employee, and the bank will confirm where it’s possible by the end of this month, the company’s operating committee said in an internal memo Friday, confirming a Bloomberg News report earlier this week.

“We know that some of you prefer a hybrid schedule and respectfully understand that not everyone will agree with this decision,” members of the committee said in the memo. “We think it is the best way to run the company.”

More than half of the bank’s roughly 300,000 employees already come into the office five days a week. For those affected by the new policy, JPMorgan said it will give at least 30 day’s notice prior to a full-time return. The option to work from home “as life events happen” will remain in place, according to the memo.

Aggressive mandates forcing workers back to the office en masse haven’t always proven easy to implement. Amazon.com Inc. last year ordered employees to return five days a week starting in January, but the company had to delay that date for thousands of returning employees because there wasn’t enough space in some cities. Other companies have had to remind employees to adhere to the requirements.

“We know that a lot has changed in our workplaces since returning to the office after the pandemic, and recognize that it will take us some time to get all of our locations ready to accommodate a five-day-a-week schedule,” JPMorgan said in the memo.

The company joins Amazon, Walmart, AT&T, and other business giants mandating the return to a five-day office work week.