JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon says he ‘totally’ understands why an employee doesn’t want the one-and-a-half-hour commute — but it ‘doesn’t mean they need to have a job there either’

• Jamie Dimon thinks remote work doesn’t cut it for all roles.
• The JPMorgan CEO said he understands why an employee may not want to spend time on a long commute.
• But it “doesn’t mean they need to have a job there either,” he told The Economist in an interview.

This, we know: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is an outspoken advocate of the return to office movement. He has held his stance, despite pushback from his staffers.

He is now doubling down on his stance against remote work, saying employees can take up another job if they don’t like the commute.

“I completely understand why someone doesn’t want to commute an hour and a half every day, totally got it. Doesn’t mean they have to have a job here either,” Dimon told The Economist in a wide-ranging interview released Tuesday.

Dimon told the publication that some roles at JPMorgan can be hybrid or remote, but such arrangements just do not cut it for some positions.

“It doesn’t work for younger kids in apprenticeships, it doesn’t really work for creativity and spontaneity, it doesn’t really work for management teams,” he told The Economist.

“There are real flaws,” he added.

Dimon told the media outlet he wasn’t opposed to remote work if it works, but he doesn’t mind getting rid of it if it doesn’t work.

“We’re not going to make that decision because we’re pandering to employees — that is not the way to build a great company,” he said.

He is particularly opposed to those in leadership roles not being around in the office.

“I don’t know how you can be a leader and not be completely accessible to your people. I do not believe you can be a leader and not be accessible to your people,” he told The Economist.

In January, he told CNBC in an interview that while remote work can work for jobs like coding, those in research, and women in caregiving roles, the arrangement doesn’t apply to all roles.

Dimon’s comments came amid a furious debate about the future of remote work as the world exits from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The future of where and how employees work could have a huge impact on the economy, including in the real-estate sector.

Lower demand for office space due to remote work could wipe out $800 billion real-estate value across major cities globally, according to a McKinsey report released on Thursday.