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‘Return to office‘ (RTO) is making yet another return to the headlines. As the New Year starts, more firms announce that they are trimming back on even the three-day-a-week plans many had settled into when employees balked at RTO after COVID.

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JP Morgan made their announcement this morning. Being at the office will now apply to all of their employees, which is precisely in keeping with CEO Jamie Dimon’s ‘be at the office’ philosophy in general.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is preparing to tell all its employees to return to the office five days a week, ending a hybrid-work option for thousands of staff and returning to the attendance policy that was in place before the pandemic.

The largest US bank, which employs more than 300,000 people globally, is expected to announce the change in coming weeks, replacing an existing three-day mandate for many of its workers, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named discussing unannounced plans.

…The move would mark a return to pre-pandemic expectations for one of Wall Street’s biggest names, while some rivals continue to allow more flexibility for their staff. It’s also a sign of Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon following through on his belief that staff work better together in-person.

The CEO has previously criticized the federal government for not requiring workers to be at their offices more regularly.

In September, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent employees a letter warning them to prepare as the company was going back to “being in the office the way we were before COVID.” Naturally, Amazon employees blew a gasket, demanding ‘data-driven’ rationales for the scheduled 2 January change in work policy. Unsurprisingly, they haven’t received the demanded justification from their employer.

..Amazon’s corporate employees, which include 8,000 people in Canada, worked mostly remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2023, they were allowed to work a hybrid schedule — two days remotely and three days in the office. 

As of Jan. 2, that in-office requirement has changed to five days per week.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a letter to employees in September that the company is “going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID.”

“What we’ve been told is that it leads to increased collaboration between teams and innovation,” said Felli in an interview with CBC News. “But whenever we ask for data, which is famously Amazon’s bread and butter, they never are willing to provide it.”

Felli has been speaking out against this latest return-to-office mandate, along with 523 other Amazon employees who penned a letter to the CEO of Amazon Web Services, Matt Garman, saying they are “appalled” by the “non-data-driven explanation” for a five-day in-office mandate and expressed the benefits of remote work in the letter.

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Perhaps the boss felt his desire for enhanced productivity and collaboration were sufficient reasons for employees to RTO or should be. In any event, the businesses and vendors who surround the Amazon headquarters in Seattle have been delighted to see bodies begin to trickle back, first three days a week, and now for a full work week.

…CEO Andy Jassy signaled the mandate last fall, noting that collaboration and productivity are better when people are working side-by-side.

…There have been businesses near the campus that are banking on a return to normalcy. Mikayla Benedict runs the “House of Eve” restaurant and bar near the campus.

“I think it’s going to keep this place open long-term,” said Benedict. “I think it’s going to save a lot of businesses because I don’t think I’m the only one who’s just trying to hang on.” Benedict acknowledged that Amazonians are her key customers, and she’s watched as coffee shops have struggled without the constant foot traffic. “It’ll be cool to see people’s dreams come back. So it won’t feel like an empty city anymore.”

The interviews in this news clip are also interesting. It makes me wonder about the first two interviews and the recent H1B brouhaha. I have no idea what these fellows’ circumstances are.

As far as the H1B and tech industry goes, though, that also raises some interesting points, judging by the job opening data that popped today.

Why are we importing tech help for anybody?

There are many surprising places telling employees it’s time to come back. I wasn’t aware that a fair number of Metro employees in D.C. were doing a lot of its daily operations from home. Maybe if they have to come in and share how crappy the city is, things may change.

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Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

Headquarters: Washington, D.C.
In-person policy: Metro employees will no longer be able to work from home starting February 2025, the transportation agency told workers earlier this month. The escalated mandate came several days after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s talk with members of Congress, telling them she was eager to work together to bring federal workers back to the office, a longstanding goal among local officials as they look to aid the city’s post-pandemic recovery efforts.
Who it affects: The new mandate applies to the agency’s entire workforce, which includes about 13,000 employees. Many of them have been working on site each day, but now remaining employees and directors will return to the office five days a week.
What they say: “We are an essential service to the region,” Metro told employees in a recent memo. “The vast majority of our employees work on site every day, and we remain committed to fostering a unified culture where every team member feels valued and supported. As we prepare for 2025, which promises to be a pivotal year for Metro to support large-scale regional events, leadership is focusing on enhancing collaboration and strengthening our efforts to work as one Metro.”

Besides them not allowing their cartoonists to depict the boss as a butthead, the WaPo’s exit of questionable talent now makes more sense.

These overwrought dramatists are now expected to be in the office as well?!

The Washington Post

Headquarters: Washington, D.C.
In-person policy: Starting next year, the daily news organization will ramp up its in-person mandate by requiring its workforce to commute to the office Monday through Friday, effectively terminating the remote and hybrid policy it adopted in the early weeks of the pandemic.
Who it affects: Post managers were told they will have to come back starting in early February, with the rest of the newsroom’s roles returning in June.
What they say: “I want that great office energy for us every day,” Publisher Will Lewis wrote in a recent memo viewed by CoStar News. “You know how much we all must do to improve our company, and I do not believe we can do that successfully via Zoom. We are really good when we are working together in person.“

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It’s modern-day slavery, and these ego-driven creatures are islands unto themselves. It’s time to see if The Dispatch is still hiring mediocre, emotive fabulists.

But be careful not to burn those bridges too quickly in the umbrage over losing the part-time home gig. It’s not so easy replacing that steady income, however annoying the office fluorescent lights and the irritation of having to shower first thing every morning.

It might not be the best time to punch out. A wise voice is cautioning that very thing to Gen Xers, already grousing about Trump’s return to office policy.

It’s quite possible that this younger bunch has never once worked in an office and, if they chilled out the freak for a little bit to give it a try…they might like it enough to grow professionally. As this author says, they don’t know what they don’t know. They’ll never learn it sitting in a bathrobe at a kitchen table with a laptop.

…For why people should be around, views differ. When looking at the federal telework, skeptics think they see too much potential for goofing off or operating unaccountably. Others think effective collaboration and learning require people to work together, under one acoustic tile ceiling.

…In truth, the unlimited combinations of individuals and work requirements make generalizations impossible. Besides, telework established itself in the federal government by practice and statute well before the pandemic. Maybe the new administration can approach its telework policy simply. Roll practice back to what was in place February 2020, the month before the pandemic. That would give a rational point to rethink telework, if necessary.

I spoke the other day to a senior executive at a cabinet department. He’s awaiting his new politically-appointed boss. He said that, relative to 2017, the Trump so-called landing teams seem more organized and thorough. Trump himself has pledged to fire employees who don’t return to work full time at their federal offices.

About Generation X. Just as telework generalizations fall apart, so do generalizations about a population of 65 million people. The Gen Xer I spoke to is concerned that the younger people will hit the road if they face a harsh return-to-office policy. He and others also worry that the junior employees don’t know what they don’t know. They miss out on a lot of learning that comes from the frequent and casual interaction with people at the office, the modeling of experienced and sometimes charismatic senior people. For that matter, working close by other people can imprint behaviors and habits to avoid. The sardines at home, with your cat licking the tin, don’t go over at the cube farm.

This is why designated-collaboration days, Zoom confabs and other forced workarounds don’t get at the heart of the debate. The ineffable value of people being together is the spontaneous interaction and all that it produces.

My mind houses a thousand snippets of memory of the elders I worked for very early in my career, things that affect how I do things and react now that I’ve reached the threshhold of 70 myself. Maybe that’s why Dell put its new policy in place. Michael Dell famously started his PC business in his University of Texas dorm room. Today he’s a private jet billionaire and among the more enduring tech execs. Someone early in their career might think, maybe that guy and the people around him know a thing or two — things you can’t learn teleworking.

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It looks as if RTO is becoming the rule rather than the exception, to the point where outlets like the AP are offering “How to Navigate” the change advice columns. It’s another cycle of adjusting or resettling to the traditional norms. After four years, it’s clear the bold new hybridized front in employee utilization apparently doesn’t cut the mustard in the business world yet.

I will also acknowledge it could have its upside for companies trying to avoid lay-offs, hoping disgruntled remote workers will quit rather than come back.

…There’s are a few different directions this goes: 

1) More workers quit. This may be a goal of what they’re aiming for to reduce the amount of severance paid if they were to just lay off folks instead.  

2) There’s a solid chance more companies in their respective industries are paying close attention and may follow suit. Remember with initial layoffs beginning of COVID, then remote work, then RTO hybrid mandates, then the most recent layoffs, all started with a few big companies setting the trend and everyone else following. 

3) Other companies planning to stay hybrid and remote will look to poach talent from companies mandating full time hybrid. 

We’ll see how this goes.

After all, it is all about the bottom line, right?

I’d make sure to look twice before leaping, though, no matter how inconvenienced I thought I was.

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