An image from the new JPMorgan headquarters is giving off major work-centric dystopian vibes.
A lot of fuss has been made in the business world recently about the new $3 billion global headquarters the financial institution built in New York City. The 60-story skyscraper will be the new workplace for 10,000 employees.
Publications fawning over it largely stress that it was designed with an eye to sustainability and the well-being of its workers, pointing out that it's all-electric with net zero emissions, and that it contains things like a health and wellness center and a "community hub."
"The unparalleled range of venues and leisure activities, couple to tall spaces with generous natural light and high levels of fresh filtered air (twice that of building codes) combine to set new standards of wellbeing," Lord Norman Foster, Founder and Executive Chairman of Foster + Partners, which worked on the building's design, told BusinessChief. "It is the workplace of the future designed for today."
A most depressing workspace
But when you start to scratch the surface, things might look a little different, as evidenced by a post on X from Dell Technologies Chairman and CEO, Michael Dell.
"Congratulations @jpmorgan on the opening of your new headquarters!" Dell wrote, sharing a picture of rows and rows of Dell monitors crammed together in a workspace that would give any white collar worker nightmares about being just another cog in the machine.
The image matches up well with something Business Insider called out about the headquarters back in August—that JP Morgan is telegraphing their expectations for relentless productivity and in-office presence through the way it's been constructed. The publication specifically pointed to features like a gym, 24/7 food options, and even a pub inside the complex.
Is this the office culture people want?
Cramming workers together in lines stacked with monitors upon monitors is even more disconcerting in the context of having all this open space and features to encourage people to stick around at the office day and night (and presumably weekends and holidays), even if it makes sense considering the current state of American capitalism and worker wealth disparity. Why not turn that into a personal space disparity as well?
Reactions to the image online were unsurprisingly unkind. Even without more information about whether this is the only workspace for these particular employees or what their compensation is or any sort of larger picture, it just feels too symbolic of the ongoing societal shift that prioritizes productivity and lining CEO and shareholder pockets at the expense of the mental and physical well-being of people in the lower ranks.
Hopefully, JPMorgan will attract employees who are actually into this sort of setup. It sounds like this building is where they'll spend the majority of their lives for the foreseeable future, anyway.
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