Jamie Dimon says remote work is making it harder for younger workers to learn, manage and stay engaged, and he argues the office still matters for jobs where judgment is built by watching other people work.
The JPMorgan Chase CEO said recently at the Hill & Valley Forum in Washington, D.C., that remote work does not work for younger people who learn apprenticeships. He said those workers build judgment and emotional intelligence by sitting in on sales calls, seeing experienced colleagues make mistakes and watching how they handle those mistakes. Without that exposure, he said, it becomes much harder for younger employees to pick up the instincts they need to advance.
Dimon said remote work can still fit some roles, including certain call centers and rural jobs. But he drew a sharp line around jobs where younger employees are expected to develop by observation and repetition. “They learn by going in a sales call with you,” he said. “They learn by seeing you make a mistake. They learn by how you deal with a mistake.”
He also said virtual meetings change the way people show up. Comparing them to “Hollywood Squares,” Dimon said, “If you go to a meeting with me, you got my full freaking attention,” adding that “a lot of people aren't paying attention at all.” He said remote work can leave many employees less engaged, create more management problems and lead to “very little follow-up” and “a lot more game-playing,” including what he called “rope-a-dope type of politics.”
His comments land in a broader debate over remote work, attention and collaboration that has continued to shape office policy since the pandemic. Dimon’s view is that not every job needs the same setup, but that for younger workers trying to move up, distance can strip out the apprenticeship that teaches them how work actually gets done.
The argument now is not whether remote work survives. It is whether companies that want to train the next generation can afford to let those workers learn mostly through a screen.
