Wall Street grudgingly allows remote work as bankers dig in
NEW YORK — In her two decades on Wall Street, Nadia Batchelor never once thought she could do her job from home.
Face-to-face meetings were a must for Batchelor, a senior executive at Jefferies, a New York investment bank.
Without being in the same room as her clients and colleagues, she assumed, there was no way she could win their trust and do her job of introducing companies to potential investors.
She often woke up at 4:30 a.m. to drive from her home in New Jersey, catch a bus into Manhattan, hop on the subway, squeeze in a workout and get to Jefferies’ trading floor by 7:30 a.m.
Work dinners ran late into the night, and redeye flights to London were common.
But after the pandemic forced Batchelor, a 42-yearold mother of three, to work from home and realize that she could manage just fine, a full return to her grueling schedule is out.
“I was crazy,” she said. “I don’t think that I could go back to it.”
Wall Street is in revolt. Across the financial industry, workers are slow-walking their return to the office. Bankers for whom working from home was once unfathomable now cannot imagine going back to the office full-time. Parents remain worried about transmitting the coronavirus to their children. Suburban dwellers are chafing at the thought of resuming long commutes. And many younger employees prefer to work remotely.
The reluctance to return hardly unique to the financial industry.
All across America, companies are wrestling with their employees’ demands for flexibility as the pandemic reshapes the future of work. But on Wall Street — known for its hard-charging culture that values face time and long hours, and where toughness is celebrated — it is remarkable.
One reason: Wall Street banks posted record profit and revenue during the pandemic, as government stimulus supported consumers stuck at home and companies sought to do deals, proving to bankers and traders that they have little need to work out of the office the way they used to.
The attendance numbers are low.
The financial industry employs 332,100 people in New York City. In October, only 27% of those people came in daily, according to data from a survey conducted by the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy group.
Office attendance at financial-services firms is projected to climb to 47% by the end of January as companies lean more heavily on staff, according to the group. Still, that is a long way off from the 80% that was typical before the pandemic, accounting for employees who were traveling, on vacation or sick.
“The bigger institutions are having more difficulty getting people back,” said Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City. “From the employer perspective, the longer this goes on, the more difficult it is to get people back, the greater their frustration.”
Some large banks ordered their employees to begin returning to the office over the summer. Top bosses have been saying for months that their clients should be catered to in person, that banking is an apprenticeship business where juniors learn by observing their seniors, and that teamwork benefits all.
Their orders have had mixed impact.
For now, banks are resorting to coaxing and coddling.
Food trucks, free meals and snacks are occasionally on offer, as are complimentary Uber and Lyft rides. Dress codes have been relaxed. Major firms have adopted safety protocols such as on-site testing and mask mandates in common areas.
Goldman, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are requiring vaccinations for workers entering their offices, while Bank of America asked only inoculated staff back after Labor Day.
Jpmorgan has not mandated vaccines for workers to return to the office.
Remote working arrangements are also emerging as a consideration for workers interviewing for new jobs, said Alan Johnson, managing director of Johnson Associates, a Wall Street compensation consultancy.
Traditional banks have not changed their pitch much, he said. “You have to dress up, it’s in the office five days a week, it’s just the 1990s all over again.”
In contrast, younger firms offer more flexibility, he said.