American Megabanks Including Citi & JPM Order Workers Back To The Office In London & NYC In the latest sign that the "elites" have finally had enough of pretending to care about COVID safety precautions, two American megabanks announced on Friday new plans to recall workers to the office. First, Citigroup (which unveiled a draconian vax mandate earlier this month with a deadline of compliance that has already passed) emailed a notice to staffers in the Greater NYC area asking them to start preparing to return to the office. It even set a preliminary date of Monday, Feb. 7 as the new 'first day back' for offices in NY, NJ & CT. Citi has said it plans to continue to closely monitor local health data wherever it has offices across the US. Meanwhile, across the pond, the bank has asked its London staff to report to their office desks at least three days a week once the British government has finally decreed that Britons no longer need to work from home, according to Bloomberg. For the record, the NYC-based bank asked its workers to revert to working from home at the start of the year as the US CDC's case numbers soared. Citigroup has long said it will embrace remote work even after the pandemic subsides, and that the majority of its workers will be able to work from home some times - although they will still need to report to the office, too. JP Morgan, meanwhile, has joined "a flurry of banks" telling staffers to get ready to head back into their offices in London once PM Boris Johnson finishes rolling back "Plan B" COVID restrictions - including COVID-19 passes, mask mandates, and work-from-home requirements - in England. JPM, which just revealed that it's hiking the pay of Chairman/CEO Jamie Dimon, told staff in a memo (a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg) on Friday that it expects them to work "at least some days in the office every week" starting Feb. 1. The firm strongly encouraged staff to get vaccinated, but said that it isn't a requirement to enter the building (unlike its buildings in Manhattan). While at least one "expert" quoted by BBG said staffers might be "reluctant" to return, others - including some of the bank's traders - never actually left. While key workers including some traders have never left the office, many staff have been working remotely since the U.K. government introduced guidance to do so in December when the omicron variant was spreading rapidly. That was unwound on Wednesday and rules mandating people wear face masks in shops and on public transport will be dropped from Jan. 27. […] That may be easier said than done. Allison English, deputy chief executive officer of workplace research firm Leesman, predicts that some employees will be reluctant to return. "After two years at home, readapting to the office and bringing back commuting is going to throw some people off kilter," she said in an interview. "Sudden change is difficult and that can have an impact on employees' well-being and pose operational challenges for employers.'" This is great news for the City of London, where shops, restaurants and other small businesses have suffered due to the area becoming like "a ghost town" for the past two years. But with DB, HSBC, Lloyds and practically every other bank operating in the City calling workers back to the office, establishments that had until recently seemed practically abandoned will likely be booming again. Tyler Durden Sun, 01/23/2022 - 09:55