(Bloomberg) — The initiative by banks and other employers in New York to bring back workers to the office is being undermined by an unexpected roadblock in a neighboring state.
As the strike by New Jersey Transit locomotive engineers loomed over Monday’s commute, Garden State residents were eager for updates on negotiations as they mulled options for getting to work in Manhattan if trains remain shut down. NJ Transit officials and the union representing its rail engineers said that unscheduled talks Saturday in Newark went well. More talks were being held Sunday.
Financial firms including Deutsche Bank AG, Citigroup Inc., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Credit Agricole SA and CastleOak Securities told many of their employees that they could work from home or local offices, according to people familiar with the situations, though traders and some other roles were often exceptions. The leeway offered a partial reprieve from return-to-office policies that were gaining momentum five years after the Covid-19 pandemic upended working patterns.
But traveling within the US’s most populous metro area promises to be chaotic as long as the walkout continues, and anyone with a pied-à-terre in Manhattan or generous friends or family with a couch to crash on were counting their lucky stars.
Shuttered NJ Transit train service has led to jammed buses, light-rail cars and PATH service, as well as surge pricing on Uber, as commuters sought alternatives. Service has also been suspended to MetLife Stadium, creating headaches and enormous ride-share bills for fans of the singer Shakira, who performed Thursday and Friday evenings.
“For some folks, not having a train option and having hundreds of thousands of people try to commute via bus or ferry or car will clog alternate routes,” CastleOak said in a memo to employees. “We are asking everyone to exercise their best judgment on commuting.”
JPMorgan Chase & Co., where Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon has been a fierce advocate of in-person work, advised employees to work with managers to figure out strike plans. Anyone who works remotely should log an “approved working from home – personal circumstance” code, according to a memo sent Friday.
One JPMorgan employee who lives in New Jersey, who asked not to be identified because he wasn’t authorized to comment publicly, was told by a manager that parking fees wouldn’t be covered for those who drove into the office, as he had planned to do. That meant he had to look at alternatives, such as Boxcar — a private bus service that has routes from the state to New York City — something he hadn’t considered before.
Comments that Dimon made just last week are adding pressure on JPMorgan workers to find a way in.
“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,” Dimon said in a Bloomberg Television interview, before the strike started.
A JPMorgan representative declined to comment.
A resident of upscale Short Hills, New Jersey, who works at hedge fund Millennium booked a Boxcar bus trip to work Monday and will likely stay over at friends in Brooklyn and not go home to his wife and kids to avoid a lengthy back and forth commute each day.
In credit markets, where debt sales have roared back to life as tariff tensions ease, banks gave guidance to staff. As of late Friday, Deutsche Bank encouraged those living in New Jersey who are eligible to work from home to do so, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. One MUFG employee who resides in New Jersey said a manager gave permission to work from home. An employee at Credit Agricole got the option to work at home or the bank’s NJ office.
Representatives for MUFG and Credit Agricole didn’t respond to requests for comment. Representatives for Deutsche Bank declined to comment. A representative for CastleOak didn’t respond to a request for comment. A Citigroup official said employees whose jobs can be performed remotely didn’t need to come into the office during the strike.
Danny Wild, a senior coordinator for digital operations at Major League Baseball’s Manhattan office, said he was looking forward to the strike to have an excuse to avoid coming into the office from Rockland County, New York, five days a week. He received an email Friday telling him to stay home because of the stoppage.
He’s loving it for now, but also worried: If the strike continues, his employer has asked workers to consider other options.
“There are no good options,” he said. “I was humoring myself looking at Uber prices if I wanted to go in: basically $100 plus tax and tip.”
Social media had other examples of workers cheering on the strike so they could avoid commuting. In the 10 largest US cities, the number of workers who went to the office was 53% of pre-Covid-19 levels in the week ended May 7, according to data from Kastle Systems.
“I only have to go into the office 2 days per week & I am really praying for a long & protracted NJ Transit rail strike so I can get that down to 0 for as long as possible,” an account with the handle FrankInGeneral posted on X.
But those who have gotten used to the post-pandemic rhythm of commuting into the office everyday have been left frustrated.
Matt Kritzberg, 24, who works in tech sales and commutes from New Jersey to New York City for his job via NJ Transit trains, says he’s concerned about productivity when working from home.
“A huge part of my job is collaborating with people,” he said. “As someone who’s in a new role and who wants to go the extra mile, rather than being the guy who’s there five days a week, I’m working from home. It doesn’t feel like a good look.”
–With assistance from Jeannine Amodeo, Rthvika Suvarna, Gowri Gurumurthy and Nacha Cattan.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
