A JPMorgan employee has claimed that he was asked by a senior executive to "get the f*** out of" the office after he questioned CEO Jamie Dimon's decision to put an end to remote work and get all the staff to return to office. Nicolas Welch, an analyst in tech operations who has worked for the company since 2017, told Fortune that he is going through a divorce and was seeking flexibility to deal with family and childcare issues.
At the infamous JPMorgan Chase’s town hall meeting in Columbus on February 12, Welch explained to Dimon during the Q&A session that his team was composed of seven people located in different geographies, including India, and work in different time zones.
“There is no way that being in an office makes any difference for us specifically. So, all I’m asking is that—I’m not suggesting you rescind such an order— but suggesting it be left up to managers of individual teams themselves on [the] necessity of an office workplace,” Welch said during the meeting, according to a recording obtained by Fortune. While his colleagues applauded the move, the CEO was not moved.
“That’s it? I’m going to give you a complete answer. There is no chance that I would leave that up to managers. Zero chance. The abuse that took place was extraordinary,” Dimon said in the now-leaked recording. He also complained about a petition from some JPMorgan Chase workers who want the bank to rescind its RTO mandate. “I don’t care how many people sign that fucking petition,” Dimon said.
Currently, about 40 percent of JPMorgan Chase’s employees are on a hybrid schedule and are allowed to work from home two days a week.
'Come to my desk immediately'
Later that day, Welch received a message from Garrett Monaghan, a Vice President – Branch HelpDesk. “I don’t know what the f*** you just did, but come to my desk immediately when that town hall ends. Please." Monaghan was not Welch’s boss but had been his supervisor in 2022 and 2023. When Welch got to the meeting with Monaghan, he told Fortune that he found the VP standing in a conference room with another executive, Jeffrey Todd Merrill, Vice President – Global Dedicated IT Support. Merrill was also a former boss of Welch.
During that meeting, Monaghan allegedly told Welch he had “just dragged our whole organisation through the mud. Go and clean off your desk and get the f*** out of here.”
Welch thought it meant that he was fired and walked out of the office and reached out to his boss who remained non-committal about the situation. Hours, later, however, Welch received a call from Megan Mead, executive director, director of global IT support. She is someone Monaghan, Cundiff, and Welch's boss report to. Mead reportedly explained that she had “smoothed things over” with Monaghan and that Welch was not fired and still has a job.
“I appreciate you, Nic and I am really proud about how you responded to a pretty unfair circumstance," Mead texted Welch later that day. Less than an hour after Mead’s call to Welch, he also received a message from Monaghan in which the senior executive apologised and said he owed him a beer and a handshake. “I agree with your message, if not the delivery. We good?” Monaghan said, Fortune reported.
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