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Several of the country’s big banks, most of whose workforces have been working remotely during the pandemic, have made it clear that they want their employees back in the office in the coming months.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Salomon told the firm’s U.S. workers Tuesday that they should make plans to return to work by June 14 at the latest, according to a message accessed by financial channel CNBC.
The return date is June 21 for Goldman Sachs employees in the U.K., according to CNBC.
“We know from experience that our culture of collaboration, innovation and learning thrives when our people are together and we look forward to having more colleagues back in the office so they can re-experience that on a regular basis,” the bank’s management said in its message.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon said Tuesday at an event organized by The Wall Street Journal that he expects the bank’s offices to be back to normal by September or October.
“We want people back to work and my view is that sometime in September, October, it will be like it was before,” said Dimon, who acknowledged that many employees prefer to continue to work remotely.
“Yes, people don’t like commuting, so what?” said the executive, who said he was tired of video conferencing.
JPMorgan Chase, which is the largest U.S. bank, has already told its employees that they should start returning to their jobs this month, with the goal of having half of the employees rotating offices by July.
New York, where most U.S. financial institutions have the bulk of their operations, has announced the gradual lifting of restrictions imposed to combat Covid-19 and expects the city to complete its reopening by July.
This Monday, for example, thousands of city employees who had been working remotely returned to their offices.
According to a survey of large New York businesses, only 10 percent of Manhattan office workers had returned to their regular jobs by March.
The outbreak of the pandemic and the success of remote work have fueled the debate in the United States in recent months about the future of offices as they were known until now, something on which the recovery of cities such as New York, which is highly dependent on its status as a business capital, may depend to a large extent.
