from Hacker News

"the Zooms don't show up" Jamie Dimon

by deathtrader666 on 2/15/25, 4:02 AM with 73 comments

  • by daviddever23box on 2/15/25, 4:32 AM

    The same argument was made with regard to the consumer retail banking experience when ATMs were introduced in 1967!

    Asynchronous remote transactions are commonplace today; this is all a smokescreen for over-leveraged commercial real estate interests held by major US financial institutions.

  • by Nursie on 2/15/25, 5:04 AM

    I enjoyed the year I consulted at JPMC, they have some sharp people, and on the surface of it, who am I to criticise the boss of such a successful company? OTOH…

    I can see the argument that young people aren’t being exposed to older peers the same way and their learning may be stunted.

    But… I haven’t set foot in an office for five years now and I’m as productive as I ever was. Possibly more.

    As for his “people are distracted during meetings”, perhaps there ought to be more focus on only holding necessary meetings, rather than dragging people in when there’s no reason for them to be there and nothing to hold their interest? In my experience that’s the cause of a lot of the snark and slacking.

  • by foinker on 2/15/25, 5:34 AM

    Work is a means to an end of living an enjoyable life, and most tech/finance jobs in the US are overpaid, unimportant nonsense.

  • by jauntywundrkind on 2/15/25, 4:53 AM

    We have some really phoning it in zoom folks we've hired who do their job semi ok but are just awful and don't contribute to culture, are super dialed out.

    I don't want to totally damn them, because they have families and lives and other things going. But I've had a number of coworkers tell me they have re-adapted their code review to say near nothing (it won't be well received) and to otherwise end their own good-culture practices to adapt to really hostile remote culture.

    The thing is, this isn't at all zoom. This isn't remote. It's companies that are just shit poor bad about letting bottom up knowledge trickle up. It's about terrible management that has made being in touch with their workforce hard. And in most cases, that's not the workforce: it's the management, it's the company.

    It's easier to do this job of running a company in person, to spy & get information. But it's your laziness, it's your being awful at your job, that makes you rely on this in-touch layer.

  • by mojomark on 2/15/25, 6:12 AM

    Does anyone find it strange that this argument is always boolean?

    (Child of the late 70's/early 80's here)

    At my current and prior company everyone enjoys the freedom of adulthood. Of course there are massive productivity benefits to working in person at times. Of course there are massive benefits to working from home at times. Not productive in your current role? Move on or you will be moved on. Pretty straight forward.

    What's so

  • by asimpleusecase on 2/15/25, 6:59 AM

    We have a small team that is remote by design. Yet everyone has commented that those rare times we can gather see massive uplift in productivity.

    For us being in a central location is not possible. But for companies with an office building I can see the human dynamic of being together is very powerful.

    Even with all the chat, trackers, conference tools etc “context” is the hardest thing to do remotely.

  • by smetj on 2/15/25, 6:08 AM

    Its not remote work itself. ... that just amplifies the inability of some people to "see the work" and to self-organize.

  • by ChrisArchitect on 2/15/25, 6:30 AM

  • by insane_dreamer on 2/15/25, 4:45 PM

    I think the problem is too many unnecessary meetings rather than remote work.

  • by Finnucane on 2/15/25, 4:30 AM

    Is creativity in banking really that important? Creativity in banking gave us the housing bubble. And the dot-com bubble. And redlining.

  • by milesrout on 2/15/25, 5:34 AM

    Is there a better source for this story? This is very tabloid.

  • by arcmechanica on 2/15/25, 4:04 AM

    pay anyone $39m/year and they'll come into the office too. This is just FUD to justifying offshoring

  • by gedy on 2/15/25, 5:01 AM

    People fuck around at the office - a lot. Staring at phones, videos on the toilet, etc. That's lack of work ethic, not from location.