After a stormy town hall where JP Morgan’s CEO addressed employee frustration over the bank’s latest return to work directive, Jamie Dimon conferred with workers anew on Thursday. This time, the vibe was decidedly more laid back, according to two employees who viewed the meeting, as Dimon addressed issues including his future plans, the bank’s DEI program and the importance of AI.
Dimon, who is known for his salty tongue, started off the roughly hour long meeting with a joke. “No swearing this time,” he said, which produced laughs from the 1,000 people who were able to get seats. The town hall was held in the bank’s Dallas corporate conference center in its Plano, Texas campus. Unlike prior town halls, the bank did not provide a link to the meeting, so employees could not view it on Zoom. However, there were viewing parties in some outer offices.
Dimon, as he has at other town halls, took questions from the audience. One person asked him, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”—a query that reflects how a successor for Dimon, who has been CEO of the country’s biggest bank for more than 19 years, is one of the hottest topics on Wall Street. Dimon said Thursday he plans to remain CEO “for a few more years” and will then transition to a chairman’s position. After JPMorgan, Dimon said he would like to serve on the board of a nonprofit or charitable organization, according to people who viewed the meeting.
He was also asked about AI. Dimon predicted the technology would be the “next big thing,” like the Internet and computers. Dimon has long warned that AI would replace jobs across various sectors, while making some roles easier. When asked about the economy, Dimon said inflationary pressures were a concern but other issues, like the deficit, were more significant.
A JPMorgan Chase employee also presented Dimon on Thursday with a “Challenge Coin,” a token of appreciation for what the bank and the CEO have done for veterans. JPMorgan hired the employee, who didn’t have a degree or corporate experience, in 2013. The employee is now a middle market banker in JPM’s commercial and investment bank, a spokesman said. (The employee received the coin from Admiral Michael Mullen, former U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.)
In 2011, JPMorgan Chase and 10 other companies, vowed to hire 100,000 veterans. The program has since evolved to more than 315 companies that are part of the Veteran Jobs Mission, which has hired over 900,000 veterans and their military spouses. JPMorgan Chase is a founding member of the Veteran Jobs Mission.
DEI name change
Dimon on Thursday also reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to the bank’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, even as other large companies such as Amazon and Target have rolled back or removed their DEI programs. But one day later, JPMorgan Chase made changes to its policies on the matter
Jennifer Piepszak, JPMorgan Chase’s COO, sent a memo Friday telling employees that the bank was changing the name of the program to DOI, which stands for diversity, opportunity and inclusion. Piepszak said the “e” in DEI always meant “equal opportunity for us, not equal outcomes.” The bank also plans to reduce “trainings,” apparently referring to classes that purported to teach workers how to act respectfully towards various minorities, including racial and transgender employees. The trainings were never a big part of life at JPMorgan but “ignorant people got sent and the company was better for it,” a third employee, who did not view the town hall, told Fortune. (All the sources mentioned in this story, who declined to speak on the record for fear of retaliation, were verified by Fortune).
Some of the programs that were previously part of DOI will now be part of different lines of business, including human resources and corporate responsibility, Piepszak said in the memo that was viewed by Fortune.
What RTO?
The Plano town hall comes just weeks since a February meeting where Dimon delivered an expletive-filled rant after being asked about return to office policy changes. Earlier this month, JPMorgan Chase began requiring all of its 317,233 employees to return to the office full-time five days a week. About 40% had been working on a hybrid schedule—in the office three days a week—since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Many of the bank workers were upset with the RTO and, in February, launched a publicly visible petition calling on Dimon to retain the hybrid-work model that the bank has used for years. JPMorgan Chase is also facing a unionization push among some workers.
JPMorgan Chase’s RTO mandate was mentioned during the meeting. Dimon, like many Fortune 500 CEOs, is a proponent of returning to the office, believing it fosters innovation, career development and collaboration. On Thursday, Dimon said again he believes young people benefit more from in-person interactions.
There have been some logistical hiccups with the rollout of the bank’s return to work order. Some employees have complained about the lack of desks and spotty Wi-Fi, Fortune has reported. The CEO did acknowledge that some buildings in the bank’s Dallas-Fort Worth campus were ready for workers while others were not. In his opinion, the facilities team was “doing a good job,” Dimon said.
