Outsider is sure that three months ago New York City still had a huge tally of daily COVID-19 cases, and just the other day the bank had sent some of its traders home after an employee in equities trading tested positive for the virus.
The bank’s executives had also previously told managing directors and some executive directors in its sales and trading teams that they needed to return to the office by 21
September making Outsider curious as to why the bank was so adamant their employees should return to their offices during a pandemic as the world had proved that it was quite good at adapting in recent months.
However, working from home it seemed was difficult for traders due to some heavily regulated or technology-intensive functions.
Outsider dug a little deeper and found that, actually, Dimon believed that WFH had negative effects, including drug overdoses.
Now, Outsider isn’t naïve and has always known about some of the recreational activities dabbled in by bankers but was sure that these were not solo activities, but rather group bonding experiences.
Dimon dismissed concerns over asking staff to return and simply said “everything we do is good”.
Another story came out that found that psychedelic drugs were emerging as a “legitimate new global market for investment”.
Perhaps, Dimon meant to say was that his traders were simply conducting too many quality control tests on the products they were investing in.
