Leaked JPMorgan Internal Survey Reveals Returning to the Office Hurt Morale

Key Points

• A leaked JPMorgan internal survey shows that its return-to-office mandate has hurt employee morale, with year-on-year declines in health and well-being, work-life balance, and internal mobility scores.
• Since ordering staff back to the office five days a week in March, some employees have sought jobs elsewhere and launched petitions for hybrid work, but CEO Jamie Dimon and leadership have refused to change course.
• The annual survey saw a 90% participation rate (284,000 employees), underlining widespread dissatisfaction with company culture compared to last year.
• While JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs push full-time office attendance, Citigroup maintains a hybrid schedule to gain a recruiting edge, and JPMorgan plans to use AI to reduce headcount by 10% in certain divisions.

A leaked internal memo shows that more JPMorgan employees are dissatisfied with company culture compared to last year — and the return-to-office mandate is to blame.

In JPMorgan's annual survey of company culture, which asks employees to assign a score to things like internal mobility, work-life balance, and health and well-being, fewer JPMorgan employees viewed their health and well-being as important to the company compared to last year.

Related: JPMorgan Will Fire Junior Bankers Over a Common Practice That CEO Jamie Dimon Calls 'Unethical'

In response, company leadership tied the lower scores to its return-to-office (RTO) mandate. JPMorgan ordered employees back to the office five days a week in March, prompting some staff to look for jobs elsewhere and others to sign a petition calling for hybrid work. Still, the company and CEO Jamie Dimon did not budge.

"Health and well-being scores remain favorable, though they dipped slightly year on year," Dimon and Chief Human Resources Officer Robin Leopold wrote in a leaked memo to staff, which was obtained by Barron's. "We know return full-time to the office has been an adjustment and one that not everyone agrees with, but we continue to believe in-person is how we do our best work and how we foster connections and mobility opportunities."

In the survey, employees also reported lower scores compared to last year for work-life balance and internal career opportunities. Dimon and Leopold reassured employees in the leaked response email that JPMorgan prioritizes "career mobility" as well as "flexibility."

^{JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Photographer: Cyril Marcilhacy/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

JPMorgan asks employees to take the survey once every year, and this year, 90% of its workforce, or 284,000 employees, responded to it. The participation rate was similar to previous years.

Other banks have asked employees to come back to the office full-time even earlier. Goldman Sachs told U.S. employees in August 2023 that they had to work from the office five days per week.

Related: Citigroup Is Sticking With a Hybrid Work Schedule. Here's Why It Gives the Bank a Competitive Advantage, According to Its CEO.

However, one bank has held onto a hybrid work policy. Citigroup has decided to stick with a hybrid schedule for most of its 229,000-person staff, allowing for up to two days of remote work per week. According to a January report, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser told directors on a quarterly call that Citigroup's hybrid work policy gave it an advantage in recruiting talented staff.

JPMorgan anticipates that AI will allow it to eventually reduce employee count by 10% in some departments, including operations and account services. The bank, which is the largest in the U.S. with $3.9 trillion in assets, has grown its headcount from around 255,000 in 2020 to 317,000 in 2024.