Jamie Dimon: "You know people don’t like commuting, but so what"

almost 3 years ago

We know where executives like Jamie Dimon stand on the work-from-home situation. He believes it is over and there is no substitution for being in the office.

As the head of JP Morgan, what he says goes.

Of course, this is not a rare situation. Many companies are starting to call their workers back to the office. What was a "new normal" last year is not turning into a "let's get back to normal".

The question is do employees want to return to the plantation. As Dimon eloquently stated, "people don't like commuting, but so what". In other words, he could care less what simple peons feel.

One of the challenges here is that Dimon is what I call a "fossil". He is a relic from a time long gone. This is a guy still stuck in the 1980s or 1990s, yet he still heads up one of the largest firms in the world.

Dimon is an American Baby Boomer, part of the most arrogant, self-absorbed, "look at me" generations ever created. For the last 30 years, they were in control of the global economic system, burying it in debt. Of course, you can understand this a bit from Dimon since he is worth boatloads of money.

What is really ironic is that this group, as a class, is broke and, mostly, alone (in the United States at least; can't speak for the rest of the world). They can't afford to retire because they are so far in debt with no savings. Naturally, these excel at the blame game ignoring the fact they are were the ones who operated on credit for decades.

Dimon is the epitome of this:

Here is the full detail of what he said in addition to what I quoted:

“We want people back to work, and my view is that sometime in September, October it will look just like it did before,” Dimon said at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council. “And everyone is going to be happy with it, and yes, the commute, you know people don’t like commuting, but so what.”

So everyone is going to be happy with it?

The challenge for this mindset is they are going to start running into the Millennials and this is a generation that has a completely different viewpoint on things. This is where we see the likes of Sir Jamie possibly meeting his match.

“I’m about to cancel all my Zoom meetings,” Dimon said. “I’m done with it.”

Here we see a culture shift taking place. Dimon is old school as evidenced by his next statement.

He also said clients have told him that in cases where JPMorgan lost business to rivals, it was because “bankers from the other guys visited, and ours didn’t. Well, that’s a lesson.”

This is most likely true. It is also probable that those were clients who were run by other Boomers or older Generation X. I surmise those were not companies headed by Millennials.

That is about to change though. This is a group that is growing in power. Ironically, it is the Boomers standing in their way in many instances. Since they are hanging around longer, the Millennials are stuck taking a pack seat, for now.

Nevertheless, each day, the Boomers get age. There are an estimated 10K of them leaving the workforce every week. This is opening up a lot of opportunities for the leading Millennials.

And bet the ranch they are going to take advantage of it.

We are seeing one of the largest divides ever witnessed due to technology. The Millennials spent their entire lives dealing with technological change. They do not need to learn it; it comes natural. The Boomers, they were still from a world where what did change, happened slowly.

This leads to a completely different frame of reference on things. Millennials do not even look something as anything more than a job. There is no career. They expect their "careers" will change 4-5 times throughout their lives. Hence, a company, position, or even a career path is just a stopping point.

What is interesting is that FinTech has been eating the banking sector's lunch for the last 15 years. The banking industry has shrunk as more of the services shifted to the "shadow" banking system. These are essentially applications that serve the same purpose as banks, yet do it quicker and for less money.

That is not to say the banks stood still. They were able to automate many of their services helping their bottom line. However, the threat to this sector only grows as the Internet takes over the financial arena.

Over time, there will be a new normal coming to the likes of JP Morgan. However, I do not believe it is exactly what Dimon expects.

Quotes and image from this article.

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