Over the past few months, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has developed a tense relationship with some of its employees after it decided to scale back remote work.
In March, the company’s new return-to-office mandate went into effect. This mandate requires employees to work in the office five days a week instead of three or four. Before the mandate was enacted, some employees protested the change by starting a petition on coworker.org, demanding that the company retain its hybrid work model.
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In response to the petition, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon went on a foul-mouthed rant during a town hall meeting in February, stating that he doesn’t care how many people signed the petition; the return-to-office mandate will not be adjusted.
Related: Jamie Dimon claps back at return-to-office complaints, again
Dimon later apologized in an interview with CNBC for cursing during the meeting, but doubled down on the company’s return-to-office mandate.
“I completely respect people that don’t want to go to the office all five days a week,” said Dimon. “That’s your right. It’s my right. It’s a citizen’s right. But they should respect that the company is going to decide what’s good for the clients, the company, etc., not an individual. And so, I’m not being mean; they can get a job elsewhere.”
A person seen walking by the marquee at the main entrance to JPMorgan Chase headquarters building in Manhattan.
Image source: Erik McGregor/Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase employees to face another major workplace shift
Now that the mandate is in full effect, JPMorgan Chase is warning employees to brace themselves for another significant change in the office.
During JPMorgan Chase’s annual Investor Day presentation, the company’s CFO, Jeremy Barnum, said that managers have recently been instructed to wind down hiring, pushing them to work better with their current employee headcount, according to a recent report from Business Insider.
“At the margin, we’re asking people to resist head count growth where possible and increase their focus on efficiency,” said Barnum.
He said that less than $95 billion in annual spending will be used for hiring, and that the company will instead focus more on hiring employees in “high-certainty areas” such as bankers, branches, and advisors.
Related: IRS has an alarming solution to a growing problem after layoffs
Barnum also said that artificial intelligence will be used to boost productivity.
“It’s actually pretty amazing, and from what certain of my colleagues tell me who are actually trained professional computer scientists, it (AI) actually helps them quite a bit too with their efficiency,” said Barnum. “It’s not just the amateurs who are helped by these tools. It’s amazing stuff, and we have high hopes for the efficiency gain.”
Marianne Lake, JPMorgan Chase CEO of consumer and community banking, said during the presentation that about 10% of employees in the company’s operations division, which is focused on tackling fraud, statement and payment processing, and account services, will be laid off.
She also highlighted that AI will allow the department to operate with fewer employees and “deliver more.”
The last time JPMorgan Chase reportedly laid off a significant amount of employees was in February, when it let go a little less than 1,000 workers.
JPMorgan Chase is following a concerning trend in corporate America
JPMorgan Chase isn’t the only company that has recently bet big on AI. The IRS currently has its sights set on firing between 60,000 and 70,000 workers this year.
During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on May 6, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the IRS will replace fired workers with AI, which will boost its ability to collect tax revenue.
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“I believe through smarter IT, through this AI boom that we can use that to enhance collections, and I would expect that collections would continue to be very robust as they were this year,” said Bessent during the hearing.
Tech giant IBM has also increased its reliance on AI. Its CEO, Arvind Krishna, said during a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal that the company has heavily invested in AI, which has replaced hundreds of HR workers but has resulted in more hiring at the company.
“While we have done a huge amount of work inside IBM on leveraging AI and automation on certain enterprise workflows, our total employment has actually gone up, because what it does is it gives you more investment to put into other areas,” said Krishna.
As more companies rely on AI to boost productivity, U.S. workers are suspicious of the technology.
According to a recent survey from YouGov, more than one-third of U.S. workers are worried that AI will result in job loss or fewer work hours.
Also, 56% of workers in the survey believe that AI will decrease the number of job opportunities, and 55% think that their work hours will be reduced due to the technology.
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