In the late 2000s, even as the Palm phone was dying around the world, its use among bankers, from junior to top level, was still strong. Security was the most cited reason, as this quickly outdated technology remained a staple of conference tables around Manhattan, Boston, London, and Hong Kong–the idea was that it was too dangerous, from a regulatory and a security perspective, for bankers, hedge fund managers, and other people in the industry to be allowed to access firm data on their own personal devices.
Thus, the post-COVID-19 work from home reality that appeared just a decade later was something few could have expected, and not only did it puncture many holes in the security theater of Wall Street’s tough restrictions of the past, but it also upended many of the standard “essential” factors of financial work. Working from home, a perk that had been enjoyed in Silicon Valley for years, was a fringe benefit that a tiny fraction of finance enjoyed before 2020, with security cited as an impossible roadblock to letting bankers work from anywhere but their small gray cubicles in midtown.
Now that the facade has crumbled, will work from home continue? Or, as many have convincingly argued, will Wall Street pivot to a hybrid work environment that would be more inclusive, offer workers a better work-life balance, and provide more options for employees that could make them happy and thus improve productivity, morale, and talent retention? The answer appears to be no.
In recent weeks, a growing number of banks have announced publicly or internally their roadmap to getting everyone back in the office, with a variety of carrots and sticks being used to revert the new normal to the old normal. Many, particularly senior staff, are resisting with force after tasting a year of having more time with family, less time commuting, and more control over their working hours and working conditions.
Why Wall Street is resisting a pivot to working from home can be debated endlessly, but it does follow a pattern of innovating slowly and keeping increasingly outmoded work standards for as long as possible. Hence the suit-and-tie uniform has lasted in Midtown much longer than anywhere else in America, and hence the sight of Blackberry phones in 2013. Remote work is just the latest in a range of innovations that Wall Street is, for the most part, resisting.
But since remote work has proven itself to be viable, this is now a new weapon that can be used by competitive firms. to attract talent. Will small banks start attracting top performers at big banks by offering them 100% remote work or the option of remote work whenever they want? Most likely. Could this even involve little to no pay cuts? Absolutely–for some the value of being able to stay at home, in tangible and intangible benefits, is worth many thousands of dollars per year.
We may be on the cusp of a new trend in finance where there is a literal, physical decentralization of work from offices to homes, beaches, coffeeshops, and wherever bankers choose to work as they embrace a more flexible approach to work. And the banks that adapt may find themselves overwhelmed with workers begging to be hired.