JPMorgan, which advocated the return of workers to the Manhattan skyscrapers, gives its employees options to work from home in the initial weeks of 2022, while Citi Group Inc. is requesting its employees to work remotely after the latest surge in coronavirus infections.
According to the memo from JPMorgan to its staff, the long-term plan to work from office stays. However, after travel and gathering during the holidays, the company gives flexibility to its employees to remote work in the first two weeks of January. This is subject to their reporting manager’s discretion and if the job role allows work from home.
The employees are expected to resume their office schedules from February 1 as per the company.
As per Bloomberg News, Citigroup has made its workplace policy flexible and has asked its employees across the metropolitan area of New York to work remotely during the holidays. Citi is among many other major banks that have requested their staff to work from home during the first few weeks of the New Year in a memo released Thursday. The company will monitor the situation continuously and provide updates when the employees can be expected in the office.
This year’s jump in winter infection has hit New York hard and raised concerns about what will happen when people return to schools and offices from vacations and holiday gatherings. The developments have forced many banks to revise their staffing strategies in recent weeks.
Jefferies Financial Inc. has asked its employees to work remotely and get a booster dose of vaccine by January end. Morgan Stanley has told their employees that they must be present in the office to wear masks when not at their desks and avoid large in-person meetings.
Like JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, earlier this week, informed their U.S. Employees to return to office in Mid-January 2022. It has also told its staff to take booster vaccines and double testing twice a week even as it stood by its policy to continue with work-in-office plans. JPMorgan is also encouraging its employees to get boosters.
According to the bank, they are being fully vaccinated means that employees who enter the office buildings also have to have taken the booster. Employees working in the office and are unvaccinated must be tested twice weekly.
