JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon didn’t mince phrases in his message to staff: Recover from the truth that work is tough.
Talking with Patricia Devine, JPMorgan’s international head of company gross sales, on the Feminine Quotient lounge in Davos, Switzerland, in January, Dimon laid out the tough actuality for staff striving for fast gratification: “There’s going to be a grunt part to every part of a job. Get over it.”
Dimon’s recommendation stands out in an period of rising disengagement amongst younger staff, a demographic that not too long ago confirmed notable declines in office engagement, in response to Gallup, with Gen Z worker engagement dipping 5 share factors between 2024 and 2025. A 2025 report from recruitment agency Randstad additionally exhibits the typical tenure at an organization for a Gen Z employee of their first 5 years of labor has shrunk to only 1.1 years. This stands in stark distinction to the two.9-year common tenure for child boomers once they have been early of their profession. Whereas the Randstad examine attributes these brief stints to a need to develop fairly than a matter of job hopping, Dimon says younger folks should see a job via to additional their profession. He didn’t make clear how lengthy he recommends a teenager keep in a job.
“Do not get a new job,” Dimon mentioned. “Some people are always thinking, and they’re ruining their lives because they should just enjoy what they’re doing.”
Dimon critiques the much-lauded desire for work-life steadiness over different priorities, comparable to aggressive compensation and advantages packages, or purpose-driven work. The CEO has been a vocal advocate of in-person work, implementing a full-time workplace coverage in 2025. Work-life steadiness at the moment dominates office discourse, and now outranks pay as a prime motivator for job seekers, in response to Randstad. Dimon has additionally mentioned work-life steadiness needs to be a precedence for his staff, particularly these with a household. However he says that to steadiness the 2, one should “work smart.”
Nonetheless, nothing can exchange laborious work within the pursuit of profession success, in response to the CEO.
“Work hard. There’s no replacement,” Dimon mentioned. “I still see a lot of people who think they can make a shortcut to a heroic ‘something’. It’s almost never true.”
Why does Gen Z’s early profession look so totally different from their dad and mom’?
Younger staff are coming into a dramatically totally different workforce from that of older generations. Many Gen Zers got here of working age through the COVID pandemic and have assumed distant or hybrid work because the norm. Nevertheless, Dimon has mentioned that mindset could also be detrimental to profession development, telling Gen Z staff “you can’t learn from your basement,” after urging company staff to return to full-time in-person work, including the transfer would push staff to innovate.
But, Gen Z’s defiance will not be about laziness. A part of the backlash is structural. Junior alternatives are dwindling for younger staff as entry-level expertise are more and more turning into automated, leaving a void the place conventional early development used to happen. The CEO not too long ago acknowledged the present hardships of the financial system, noting that the American dream is slipping out of attain for a lot of Individuals.
However in one other interview with The Economist on the World Financial Discussion board assembly in Davos, Dimon suggested staff: “Don’t put your head in the sand,” within the face of AI automation. “It is what it is,” he mentioned, as he admitted he’d most likely rent fewer staff within the coming years due to AI.
Jamie Dimon’s prime profession ideas
Apart from telling staff to work laborious, discuss succinctly, and develop empathy, Dimon suggested staff to stay open-minded, particularly in an period by which profession trajectories are swiftly altering.
“Be open-minded about relationships, changing jobs, trying something different,” he suggested. “Then you’ll have a great career.”
Dimon additionally emphasised the need of function in a profession. The “grunt work” he implores staff to face isn’t essentially a hurdle, however a step on the highway to accomplishment. He says function could be present in a wide range of professions, not simply in banking and finance, however in instructing or caregiving.
“When they say ‘the pursuit of happiness’ in the Declaration, this was about accomplishing something in life, doing something meaningful,” Dimon mentioned.
A model of this story was printed on Fortune.com on Jan. 23, 2026.
Extra on the way forward for work:
- Gen Z is popping “welcomer cities” into America’s subsequent massive tech cities.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang tells staff fearful of AI they’re complicated their job with the instruments wanted to do it.
- Some corporations throughout the globe are transferring to a four-day workweek because of the Iran conflict.
