Hybrid work remains top choice amid office pushback

Hybrid working continues to remain the popular choice of staff and an increasing number of firms feel the staff morale is down when ordered back to working in the office.
Among these firms is the US banking giant JPMorgan Chase where the leadership told staff that the results of the bank’s internal opinion survey showed fewer employees than last year say they view their health and well-being as a corporate priority. Executives linked the results to the in-office mandate they announced earlier this year.
“Health and well-being scores remain favourable, though they dipped slightly year on year”, chief executive officer Jamie Dimon and human resources chief Robin Leopold wrote in an office memo.
“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”.
The largest US bank had first told employees way back at the start of the year that they would have to switch from working in the office three days a week to full-time from March. The policy has been unpopular and prompted instant pushback from employees internally and online.
That sentiment was evident in later survey results. Opportunities for internal mobility, work-life balance; and health and well-being were the areas with the lowest survey scores, several people who viewed the results said.
“We remain committed to flexibility and connecting you with best-in-class benefits and resources that support your well-being to help you make your best self happen”, Dimon and Leopold wrote.
They added: “Career mobility and development opportunities remain a priority. We know there is more we can do to create greater transparency around mobility, including performance and promotions; and we’re building that future model now”.

Each year, JPMorgan circulates a survey across the firm to request feedback on company culture. This year, 90 per cent of its workforce — some 284,000 employees — participated, the executives said in the memo. This was roughly in line with recent years’ participation rates.
Options for flexible working arrangements vary from bank to bank. Goldman Sachs has required employees to work in the office five days a week since 2023. Citigroup, where most employees have the option to work remotely two days a week, had told staff earlier that people in hybrid roles would have the opinion to work remotely for two weeks in August, Business Insider reported.
The firm’s in-office mandate has prompted consternation among employees across business lines and levels of seniority this year. A drafted presentation way back in January showed that JPMorgan management anticipated ‘quiet quitting’ and attrition as a result of the new policy.
For banks and financial institutions the preference remains for staff to return to office for most days of the week as they crack down on hybrid working. Now staff at a leading UK investment bank, Peel Hunt have been required, since a couple of months, to be in the office four days a week. Peel Hunt made the change for all its employees earlier this year but the move had not been reported at the time. It has around 320 staff.
“Following a successful implementation of the majority of front office teams working in the office four days a week, this was extended to the wider business”, a spokesperson for the bank said. “This allows our teams to collaborate effectively, while still allowing individuals to retain some flexibility in their working week”.
In its 2024 annual report, Peel Hunt said that while many firms in the City were asking employees to work five days a week in the office, “we have kept a flexible approach, based on four principles: more in than out, clients first, right for the team and flexibility and fairness”.