Why is JPMorgan Chase Tracking Junior Banker’s Hours?

JPMorgan Chase has introduced a pilot programme to monitor the working hours of its junior investment bankers and ensure staff are not overworking. 

The tool will reportedly track video calls, keystrokes and meetings alongside employees’ reports of working hours to help the bank build a better understanding of staff workloads.

While the company has introduced caps on working hours in recent years, employees often underreport their working hours to avoid being told to take breaks or be taken off deals, according to the Financial Times. 

A representative from JPMorgan Chase said: “Much like the weekly screen time summaries on a smartphone, this tool is about awareness – not enforcement.

“It’s designed to support transparency, wellbeing and encourage open conversations about workload.”

A cap on working hours

In 2024, JPMorgan Chase announced that it was limiting working hours to 80 per week for employees – with exceptions allowed for employees working on live deals or other highly time-sensitive work. 

The move was made to improve employee wellbeing, according to the company, with junior staff sometimes working more than 100 hours a week during high-stress periods.

Prior to this, JPMorgan Chase had introduced additional measures to improve employee wellbeing, such as a ‘Pencils Down’ period that would last from 6pm on a Friday to 12pm on a Saturday and the guarantee of one weekend off per quarter. 

The 80 hour cap stands at double the standard full time working hours, and often involves employees working more than 12 hours a day or seven days per week. 

The rise of ‘Bossware’

According to findings from the Chartered Management Institute, a third of employers in the UK are using ‘bossware’ – employee monitoring software that can track employees’ computer usage.

Bank of America rolled out a timekeeping tool to do just that in 2024, where junior investment bankers are required to log their hours and information about the deals they are working on and their ability to take on more work. 

According to the bank, this software helps its team “more efficiently serve our investment banking clients.” 

Can RTO improve employee wellbeing? 

As banks such as JPMorgan Chase look to improve employee wellbeing through these policies, they are also driving large-scale return to office (RTO) mandates. 

According to a survey from KPMG, almost half of financial service leaders said they planned to monitor attendance through office card swipe systems, while 29% said they would install digital cameras. 

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has said that encouraging employees to return to the office could help to improve their wellbeing in the long term. 

In 2025, the company ordered its employees to come back to the office five days a week, after nearly half of employees had been working on a hybrid schedule. 

Close to 2,000 employees signed a public petition to maintain the hybrid model, but Jamie told Bloomberg that he believes employees “will be happier over time,” as “you can’t learn working from your basement.”

He said: “I gave a very detailed answer about why [work from home] doesn’t work for young people, why it doesn’t work for management, why it doesn’t work for innovation.

“I completely applaud your right to not want to go to the office every day. But you’re not going to tell JPMorgan what to do.”