Full audio of the exchange between a JPMorgan employee and the CEO of the Mega Bank on the company's return-to-work policy revealed the tense moment that the employee has put forward the controversial subject.
Nicolas Welch was in the front row at the town hall event in Columbus, Ohio, on 12 February and asked the third question of JPMorgan chairman and Chief Executive Jamie Dimon.
The self -proclaimed 'Old Hillbilly' challenged Dimon on his order for all employees to return to the office five days a week, and claimed that it went against him and the 'good conscience' of the company.
Dimon reacted with an now listed eight -minute expletive loaded rant against working from home, and Welch claimed that he was briefly dismissed.
JPMorgan employees laughed nervous when their colleague explained that he wanted to dive into the subject.
'No problem. No problem! Go ahead, yes, “Dimon replied.
West, A technical support analyst at the bank since 2017, started with encouraging the success that the bank had navigated from home through the COVID-19 Pandemie and how effectively functioned his team at the time.
When, about two years ago, Welch explained, a hybrid work mandate came in and he and his team were returned to the office three days a week.
JPMorgan Techie Nicolas Welch, whose demand in a business city house caused an special work of the chairman of the chairman, claims that he was briefly taken over it
Dimon reacted with a long anger against working from home and defended his earlier order and dragged all employees back to the office five days a week
The employee said the return order seemed meaningless because his team had distributed members India To Argentina and never personal interaction.
“At that time I had trouble because I couldn't support my team, that didn't really need an office to operate,” he said.
“My team had no reason to do this, but I knew that if I couldn't support it, I couldn't manage this team to do this.”
Welch said that the biggest problem was that the question of returning to the office part -time was not justified in a way that was logical and went against the long -term culture of JPMorgan.
“My managers couldn't manage that either, they couldn't talk about it either. The answers we received at the time were effective “because I said that,” he said.
'Working here in ten years, that is not an environment that is once near. Our work here has always been work on your conscience instead of a directive.
“And I have to say that this is also because of your leadership, the times that
Welch outlined his own circumstances, with his team of seven spread over different time zones.
“There is just no way that being an office makes a specific difference for us,” he said.
“So I just ask that – I don't suggest that you take such an order – but suggests that it is left to managers of individual teams themselves about the need for an office workplace.”
Welch was in the front row on Wednesday at the meeting in Columbus, Ohio and asked Dimon's third question, which was now notorious reaction
The room burst into applause when Welch ended his speech, before Dimon cut in to ask in short: “That?”
“I'm going to give you a complete answer,” the CEO answered. “There is no chance that I would leave that to managers. No chance.
“The abuse that took place is extraordinary. You may be a great manager, but … I'm going to give you examples of how bad it has become. OK?'
The next day, Watch laughed at the Saga on Reddit and said: 'I was in the front row, I was the one who asked the question. It was great.
“I am convinced that he was set up to drop F-bombs during a recorded meeting.”
But Welch also revealed that he was briefly fired by a furious vice president who accused him of embarrassing the company.
'When I returned to my desk, I was shouted to (with witnesses) to get the f ** k from this office! “He wrote.
Welch went to Fortune Magazine that he was called after the town hall for a meeting with his former boss, Garrett Monaghan, now vice president but still in the same division.
'I don't know what you just did, but I immediately come to my desk when that town hall ends. Please, 'read the text.
Welch said that when he arrived at the office, he was drawn in a meeting with Jeffrey Merrill, one of his former bosses from 2018 to 2021 who was now a VP.
He claimed that Monaghan told him that he had simply dragged our entire organization through the mud. Go clean your desk and remove the f ** k here '.
JPMorgan's offices in Columbus, Ohio, where Welch works
Welch SMS'te his direct boss, IT Support Customer Success Manager Richard Cundiff, from the parking lot – who, as Dimon said in the town hall, had moved to Florida.
He told him that Monaghan “had threatened my work, so I ordered at home,” to which Cundiff replied: “Thank you for let me know.”
Welch asked to speak with Welch's boss, but she was on vacation and Cundiff told him: “I will inform her in our next meeting.”
He went home and assumed that he no longer had a job.
But hours later he received a phone call from Megan Mead, who leads all global IT support as part of the Technology Employee Support Services division, and surpassing Monaghan, Merrill and Cundiff.
Mead told him he was not fired and she had 'made things smooth' with Monaghan during a 45 -minute conversation.
“I appreciate you, Nic and I am really proud of how you responded to a fairly unfair circumstance,” Mead wrote in a follow-up text message.
Monaghan, casting by his boss, sent an SMS to Welch to apologize for the exaggerated reaction and admit that he was guilty of a beer.
'I agree with your message, if not the delivery. We're okay? “He wrote.
JPMorgan insisted that Welch was never really fired, regardless of the eraging of Monaghan.
“He said nothing wrong in the town hall,” the company told Fortune.
CEO of Chase Jamie Dimon (L) and Vrouw Judith Kinds for a state dinner in honor of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in the bookseller's room of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 10, 2024
In fact, the firing of Welch would need the submission of paperwork and performing other procedures that never seemed to have happened.
Short clips from Dimon's long, expletive loaded answer to Welch's question were leaked within a few hours and reported on a large scale by news broadcasts.
The old boss clarified that he was not against home as a concept, and 10 percent of the JPMorgan staff worked remotely in a way that worked.
However, he said that he realized that hybrid work did not work for the rest of the company and caused enormous inefficiencies.
'Now your manager moved to Florida. We never made a promise that it would be forever. That's their problem, not mine, “he said.
“So people said,” We moved, we didn't move “-We have always told people that we would become a work from the office.
“And so we allowed three days and two days. But here are the problems, okay? And they are substantial … The young generation is damaged by this.
'They can or may not be in your specific staff, but they are left behind. They are left socially, ideas, meet people.
“My gamble is that most of you in communities live a lot less diverse than this room.”
Dimon also scolded against the 'coarseness' of the staff who played with their phones and did not pay attention during zoom calls, of which he said it is 'delaying efficiency, creativity'.
'When I found out that people did that – you don't do that in my damn meetings. If you are going to meet me, you have my attention, you have my focus, I don't bring my damn phone, I don't send texts to people, “he said.
“It just doesn't work. It does not work for creativity, it delays decision -making.
'And give me this s ** t working-of-home-free day. I call a lot of people on Friday, and there is no damn person you can grab. '
Dimon speaks to the media after the municipality on 12 February, before clips leaked from his anger
Dimon recognized the need for flexibility, especially for mothers and care providers, but said that managers were unable to be good and got out of hand.
“They didn't succeed, they made exceptions and people made exceptions for exceptions, and in the meantime the number of heads has risen by 50,000 people in four, five years,” he said.
“We don't need all those people. We made people in jobs because people did not do the work for which they were in the first place. It just doesn't work.
'I will not be responsible for such a company, OK, and I am sorry. Now – you have a choice. You don't have to work at JPMorgan. So the people of you who don't want to work at the company, I think that's fine. '
Dimon then went on a take line about the company that had too much bureaucracy that had to be introduced and asked for suggestions from the staff.
'We are going to build a great company, and we will become disciplined and detailed and factual and honest and hard -working, and that's how we will do it. And honestly, “he said.
“So anyway, the bureaucracy – if you have brilliant ideas, send them to me.”
At another point in the town hall, Dimon was questioned about a petition against his WFH policy change that resulted in more than 1,550 signatures.
In a separate recording that was assessed by Reuters, Dimon said: “Don't waste time on it. I don't care how many people sign those F ** King -Petition. '
The profit from JPMorgan rose to a record in 2024 and the stock price has doubled in the last five years.
The strong performance led some employees to wonder why they had to spend more time in the office.
