JP Morgan analyst fired for questioning return to office policy only to be rehired in damage control

Nicholas Welch, JP Morgan analyst fired for questioning Jamie Dimon return to office policy only to be rehired in damage control as the financial behemoth sought to do damage control amid controversy. 

Define toxic work environment? A top JP Morgan analyst who publicly questioned CEO Jamie Dimon’s return to office mandate was promptly fired after sharing his thoughts on the matter … only to then find himself re-hired by the financial behemoth within the next few hours as the firm sought to do ‘damage control’. 

Nicholas Welch, a tech ops analyst who had been with the financial giant for eight years, wasn’t happy about the return-to-work directive along with many others at America’s largest bank.

The firm’s 317,000 employees were told January 10 that they had to end their hybrid work and go back to the office five days a week beginning next month.

JP Morgan analyst sacked for questioning return to office policy

Welch who has worked for JPMorgan Chase since 2017 was undergoing a private crises, including a taxing divorce and stating needing flexibility to deal with family and childcare issues, according to Fortune.

But how much flexibility?

It was during questioning at a ‘town hall’ meeting for employees on Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, that Welch asked the CEO whether he had contemplated letting lower-level managers decide how many days their people should come in.

Welch noted that his seven-member team works in different countries and time zones, so there’s ‘no way that being in an office makes any difference for us specifically.’

‘So all I’m asking is that — I’m not suggesting you rescind such an order — but suggesting it be left up to managers of individual teams themselves on [the] necessity of an office work place,’ Welch told the CEO.

What seemingly appeared to be a reasonable request was quickly rebuffed by Dimon who told the top analyst, ‘There is no chance that I would leave that up to managers.’

‘Zero chance,’ Dimon added, claiming that the ‘abuse that took place was extraordinary.’

The CEO complained about employees wasting time during Zoom meetings along with lamenting that the company’s payroll had increased by about 50,000 people since the pandemic’s 2020 start.

‘We don’t need all those people,’ Dimon shared during the town hall meeting. ‘We were putting people in jobs because people weren’t doing the jobs they were hired to do in [the] first place.’

Addressing a petition which had gathered more than 13K signatures asking for the CEO to rescind the RTO mandate, Dimon said, ‘I don’t care how many people sign that f–king petition.’

Welch said that after the raucous meeting — attended by about 1,000 people and tons more on Zoom —his coworkers high-fived him and thanked him for asking the question.

But not everyone was high-fiving…

‘I don’t know what the f–k you just did, but come to my desk immediately when that town hall ends. Please,’ company Vice President Garrett Monaghan allegedly wrote Welch in a text seen by Fortune. 

Monaghan ended up telling him he’d ‘just dragged our whole organization through the mud’ at the meeting and that Welch should ‘go clean off your desk and get the f–k out of here,’ the outlet said.

Welch grabbed his coat and headphones and took off.

Welch later appealed to his direct boss, Richard Cundiff. But he got little feedback and less sympathy, Welch said.

Believing his career at the financial behemoth was now over, Welch sat at home, convinced he was fired, Fortune reported.

But around 4:30 p.m., Megan Mead, the company’s global IT support executive director, called to tell him she’d ‘smoothed things over’ with Monoghan — and that Welch still had a job, the outlet said.

Less than an hour later, a conciliatory Monaghan allegedly texted Welch to apologize.

‘I agree with your message, if not the delivery. We good?’ Monaghan asked, adding that he owed Welch a beer and a handshake, Fortune reported.

Later that night, Mead texted Welch to say she appreciated him and was ‘really proud about how you responded to a pretty unfair circumstance,’ the outlet said.

In the days since the analyst’s sacking, JP Morgan has denied ever firing Welch, and that the analyst remained in good standing.

‘He didn’t say anything wrong in the town hall,’ a JP Morgan spokesman told Fortune.

Cundiff, Welch’s boss, also said the worker’s claims about being fired ‘are false,’ while declining to comment further.

Other employees have since conceded that they too thought Welch had been let go.

To date it remained unclear if the firm ever filed official paperwork firing the analyst.

‘When a senior member of management yells at you to clean out your desk and leave, I would interpret that as an on-the-spot firing,’ a JPMorgan worker told Fortune.

The episode has led to Welch allegedly led to Welch being upset about the way he was treated.

‘I want to do the job that I love in the way that I want to do it,’ the top analyst said. ‘That’s what I hope to get out of all this.’

Jamie Dimon to date has refused to respond to media overtures for comment.