JPMorgan CEO tells young workers to think twice about working remotely
Jamie Dimon has run JPMorgan Chase for 20 years. At the Hill and Valley Forum in June, during a session called "Wealth, Power, and the Next American Century," he sat down with a room full of tech and policy leaders and said what he has been saying for a while now, only in sharper fashion.
His message was aimed at younger workers. Working remotely while still early in a career is a mistake, Dimon said at the forum. The gap between what you learn in an office and what you pick up on a video call is real, and it shows up years later.
"Rope-a-dope" politics and the remote work problem Dimon keeps naming
Dimon's frustration with remote work goes beyond logistics. He compared video calls to Hollywood Squares, the old game show where everyone sits in a separate box and nobody is actually running anything. The follow-up conversation that would happen in a hallway afterward just does not come. Projects drift without it.
"There's very little follow-up, a lot more game playing, you know, rope-a-dope type of politics," Dimon said, as Fortune reported.
He also named something most people on large video calls already know. A lot of participants are on their phones. The pattern went unnoticed for too long, he said, and he counts himself among those who missed it early.
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"If you go to a meeting with me, you got my full friggin' attention the whole time," Dimon said, according to Fortune.
Beyond the distraction issue, Dimon said remote work makes people less curious and less invested in whether their work actually goes anywhere. Those things matter more than productivity numbers, he argued, and they are harder to see coming in data.
The apprentice model and what it means for young workers
Junior employees take the biggest hit, in Dimon's view. He has pushed for what he calls an apprentice system, where newer staff develop by being in the room when experienced people handle things. A tough sales call. A mistake and how the manager walked it back. That kind of learning requires being present for it.
"They learn by going on a sales call. They learn by seeing you make a mistake. They learn by how you deal with the mistake," Dimon said at the forum, Fortune indicated.
He was blunter about it in a Bloomberg interview last year. "You can't learn working from your basement." JPMorgan backed that up with a five-day in-office requirement. More than 1,200 employees signed a petition against the policy, but Dimon shut it down at a town hall.
"Don't waste time on it," Fortune reported he said. "I don't care how many people sign that f*ing petition."
He made his position plain. JPMorgan's management sets the office policy, and employees follow it.
Remote work data that complicate the Dimon argument
The research tells a more complicated story. A Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis from 2024 looked at 61 industries and found productivity actually grew alongside the pandemic-era rise in remote work.
A Gallup State of the Global Workplace report from 2025 put fully remote worker engagement at 31%, against 23% for hybrid and on-site workers in remote-capable roles.
Gen Z is not convinced by Dimon's position, either. A LinkedIn survey found nearly 40% of Gen Z and millennial employees said they would take a pay cut for more flexibility regarding where they work, compared to 32% across all age groups, Fortune confirmed.
Likewise, "Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary told Fortune he does not care where a strong hire works from. "I'd rather hire somebody who can execute and sit in their basement or in their backyard."
The real career calculation young workers face
Dimon kept returning to the same point at the forum. The business exists to serve the customer, and the way JPMorgan runs its offices should reflect that, rather than employee preference.
"We're not in business so my employee's happy," he said, according to Fortune. "I'm in business so my customer's happy, and I want my employee to be happy, but not at the expense of the customer."
For employees still learning what the job requires, Dimon said, being present in the office is part of doing it correctly. Personal preference does not factor into that calculation.
The productivity data do not settle Dimon's argument, and he would probably dismiss the findings. What's most important to him is whether a junior employee was in the room when something difficult happened, and whether they watched how an experienced person handled it.
Those gaps show up in careers long before they show up in any report.
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This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 8:40 AM.