WASHINGTON, D.C. — Jamie Dimon delivered a critique of remote work at the Hill and Valley Forum in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. The JPMorgan Chase chief executive officer argued that remote work fails to serve younger employees who need in-person training from senior colleagues.

"They learn by going on a sales call with you. They learn by seeing you make a mistake. They learn by how you deal with the mistake," Dimon said. He stated that interacting and collaborating in person helps develop emotional intelligence and that effective management is virtually impossible over video calls.

"A lot of people aren't paying attention at all," Dimon said. "People on the Zoom, they're texting each other."

Nicholas Bloom, professor of economics at Stanford University, acknowledged Dimon's arguments had merit. "Some good points," Bloom said. He agreed that younger employees in finance probably should work in the office three or four days a week.

However, Bloom argued that outside specialist roles such as traders, five days in the office is not necessary. He said many workers with more than five years of experience need one day a week at home for tasks such as reading, thinking, and writing performance reviews, presentations, and client pitches. Bloom said WFH skeptics target fully remote work as a straw man and fail to explain why hybrid work is a viable compromise, calling hybrid work a pretty amazing system that is hard to beat.

Ravi Gajendran, professor of leadership and management at Florida International University, said some of Dimon's concerns are less relevant in a hybrid work model. "Perhaps less relevant in a hybrid world," he said. "Benefits of flexibility outweigh the costs of isolation for key outcomes such as job satisfaction, commitment, performance, and turnover intentions."

He said that if remote work makes employees more satisfied, committed, and productive, that should ultimately benefit customers. Dimon ordered a firm-wide, full-time return to the office at JPMorgan approximately one year ago.