Reports of Jefferies COVID’s case insult Reuters return to Wall St office

Aaron Saldanha, Noor Zainab Hussain and Matt Scuffham

(Reuters) – Jefferies (NYSE 🙂 Investment Bank (NYSE 🙂 Financial Group asked employees to work from home on Wednesday as a result of numerous COVID-19 cases, raising questions about the banks’ efforts to return to business as usual.

U.S. banks have worked harder than other industries to encourage workers to return to office, but those plans have been revamped due to the rapid expansion of the Omicron variant.

Jefferies said he was canceling customer parties and almost all trips. The company reported that other banks would remain the same.

“They thought it would be an automatic return to work, and the financial institutions that were pushing for it and Wall Street companies will reconsider their return to their current job, especially given employee concerns,” said Brian Marks, a former bank regulator and now. Professor of Business School at the University of New Haven.

Jefferies, headquartered in midtown Manhattan, called his staff to the offices in October. The bank has felt a significant impact on the pandemic, with finance director Peg Broadbent dying of coronavirus complications in March 2020.

“Our priority now is to better protect each and every one of you and your family,” CEO Richard Handler wrote in a statement to Reuters. “In force today, we are canceling all social events and entertainment until January 3.”

Jefferies added in the note that “even though all of our people were reluctant to return to our offices … Whenever you can, we ask you to work from home.”

The company has had more than 40 new COVID-19 cases this month, including 10 on Tuesday, the release said, with only a very few cases being hospitalized. Handler added that Jefferies was re-establishing the mask order in all offices, regardless of vaccination status.

Jefferies, who has had a 60% average attendance for many days around the world in recent weeks, said he will need booster shots by Jan. 31.

An investment bank with 4,500 employees worldwide also has offices in Asia and Europe. More than 95% of Jefferies employees are now vaccinated, and all visitors to Jefferies offices must be fully vaccinated, Handler said in a statement.

Jefferies did not say where COVID staff worked.

Bank shares fell 2.3%.

New York has imposed a vaccination requirement on employees of all private companies, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant is being promoted to more U.S. states. The New York Mayor’s Office and the New York Department of Financial Services did not respond to requests for comment on the Jefferies case.

Most major U.S. banks have had staff working in their offices since the summer. Goldman Sachs (NYSE 🙂 Senior bankers like David Solomon and CEO Morgan Stanley (NYSE 🙂 CEO James Gorman spoke about the benefits of human interaction, especially for younger employees.

So far, U.S. banks are sticking to existing COVID-19 policies, although sources in the “big six” companies say they are following developments closely.

Most Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan (NYSE 🙂 employees have returned to their offices since the summer.

Others, for example Wells Fargo (NYSE :), Citigroup (NYSE 🙂 and Bank of America (NYSE 🙂 have taken a more flexible stance.

Wells Fargo pushed for plans to return to the office in January, while Citigroup staff in New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, DC have been working from the office for at least two days a week since Sept. 13.

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Some U.S. banks are also choosing not to hold holiday parties. Wells Fargo said Wednesday he did not plan to hold any celebrations. Group parties are the responsibility of individual managers. Citi will not hold any holiday parties this year to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, a source familiar with the matter said.

In Europe, where Omicron has spread more rapidly, some banks have canceled events, such as JPMorgan’s annual festive song reception in London and the end-of-year party in Paris.

Deutsche Bank (DE 🙂 He told his London staff that they can hold small group meetings. Asset Manager Schroders (LON 🙂 and the City of London Corporation, which runs London’s historic financial district, are urging guests to take quick tests ahead of some festive events.

Some large U.S. companies are delaying the return of the office due to the Omicron variant.

Companies “need to take a balancing act,” Marks said. “While it’s really important to reunite people, (concerns about COVID-19) can disrupt the relationship to the point of no return, leading staff to look for other jobs.” (Paragraph 10 refers to 4,500 Jefferies employees worldwide, not 3,000)