JPMorgan telling senior trading-floor managers to come back to office by September 21

JPMorgan Chase & Co. executives instructed its senior trading-floor managers to return to the office by Sept. 21 in Wednesday calls, a person familiar with the plans told The Hill. 

Officials at one of Wall Street’s largest companies told senior managers of the sales and trading operation they had to be back in the office by Sept. 21, although many have already come back, the person noted.

Managers who are at high risk of contracting COVID-19, live with a person who is high-risk or experiencing child care or school issues will still be permitted to work from home after the deadline. The company also plans to monitor the situation in each city and location and adjust accordingly, the person said. 

The Wall Street Journal first reported the deadline to return to the office Thursday.

Trading chief Troy Rohrbaugh and Marc Badrichani, the bank’s global head of sales and research, informed the senior managers in phone calls, according to the newspaper. 

Rohrbaugh and Badrichani reportedly told the managers that the cohesiveness of the workplace would be in jeopardy if they did not return to in-person work and warned that training for new staff would not be sufficient, people familiar with the matter told the Journal. 

Concerns about returning to in-person work prompted JPMorgan to implement required training for employees, describing the pandemic work environment through animated figures wearing masks, washing their hands and practicing new hallway procedures, according to the newspaper.

JPMorgan workers were sent to work from home in March, along with most in New York City, the first major epicenter for the coronavirus pandemic in the country. More than a dozen JPMorgan workers on the fifth floor of its building fell ill in mid-March while employees were still in the office. 

As the city reopened, several came back to in-person work in June, but no mandates for returning had been issued. 

But Wall Street has overall adjusted to many working remotely despite earlier hiccups without being on the physical trading floor and without necessary technology, the Journal noted. 

The New York Times categorizes New York state as an area where coronavirus cases are now “lower and staying low.”