In all the town hall meetings that JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon has led, the CEO admits one thing: “I emote sometimes.”

This became apparent when, in one such meeting, he was heard dropping the F bomb over employees’ supposed resistance against his return-to-office mandate – a policy he feels strongly about.

It’s been weeks since an audio recording of that infamous meeting circulated online. But Dimon continues to deal with the fallout. He shared his realisations about the incident with CNBC’s The Exchange.

“I should never curse, ever … And I shouldn’t get angry and stuff like that,” the CEO said, referring to an audience question that triggered him.

Dimon recalled: “The gentleman asked a long question. And I answered the question. I tried to give a lot of detail.”

The Q&A that triggered Dimon

The audience member – an employee from JPMorgan’s TechOps team – later went on record in mainstream media outlets to tell his side of the story.

The employee recounted how he was supposedly fired after the incident. He was said to have annoyed Dimon during the Q&A when he asked about the possibility of leaving remote work decisions up to the managers.

“There is no chance that I would leave that up to managers. Zero chance. The abuse that took place [during the remote work era] was extraordinary,” Dimon responded at the time.

Soon after the event, the employee claimed that a few senior leaders from his division were furious over his question to Dimon. One allegedly berated the employee and forced him to “clean off his desk,” which the employee interpreted as a dismissal. The incident made headlines.

Also Read: Did JPMorgan fire employee over RTO?

Dimon made clear, though, that he has “never, ever fired anyone because they asked a question like that”.

But it wasn’t just that single question that soured Dimon’s mood during the event. There was also the subsequent mention of a petition among staff who were against the RTO policy, to which Dimon replied back then: “I don’t care how many people sign that f***ing petition.”

These days, Dimon has softened his tone but not his stance.

In his exchange with CNBC, he said: “I completely respect people that don’t want to go to the office all five days a week. That’s your right. It’s my right. It’s a citizen’s right. But they should respect that the company is going to decide what’s good for the clients, the company, et cetera, not an individual.”

“I’m not being mean [but] they can get a job elsewhere. I understand that. It may make total sense for them to do that. And I also respect the fact that other companies are going to try a different way to grow,” Dimon said.

While Dimon has long been an advocate of in-office work, he does not dismiss the effectiveness of remote work in certain roles but not all.

“We do have 10% of jobs that are full-time at home. We have built these virtual call centres in Baltimore and Detroit,” he said.

I’m not against work-from-home. I’m against where it doesn’t work. And I gave all the reasons for that.”

When Dimon appeared on CNBC, he said some 1,200 people had already signed the petition.

“That’s fine. And they have the right to feel that way. But we’re not going to change. We’re going back to the office,” he said. “But, for the most part, most of our people understand why we need to do it.”

Also Read: Jamie Dimon doubles down on RTO

DEI reversal in the corporate sphere

During the interview, Dimon also answered questions about the backtracking of companies on the issue of diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as the fast pace at which Elon Musk’s special agency, the Department of Government Efficiency, is slashing tens of thousands of jobs in the federal government.

Dimon said he likes to question the rationale behind every policy. “We have done the same in DEI a little bit. So, it’s things like trainings that don’t work or too many of them, meetings that don’t work. People are hiring outside consultants for meetings and events. I don’t like that,” he said.

“There’s a whole bunch of stuff like that, a lot of small programmes that just kind of grew over time. So, we’re going to kind of consolidate them. They’re all very rational. We’re still going to reach out to the Black, Hispanic, LGBT, veteran [and] disabled communities. That, we’re not changing that … But if we did something wrong with DEI, we’re going to fix it. I never had a problem admitting we did too much and we need to change something,” Dimon said.

DOGE job cuts necessary?

On the topic of US government job cuts, Dimon said the approach is never clear-cut between supporting and not supporting a policy when the efforts, after all, are meant to improve the system.

“The government and [most everybody] would know the government is inefficient, not very competent, and it needs a lot of work … It’s not just waste and fraud. It’s the outcomes. Why are we spending money on these things? Are we getting what we deserve? What should we change?” he said.

Regarding workers’ resistance to the Trump administration’s efficiency drive, Dimon said: “Whenever you go to any big institution or the government, the bureaucracy pushes back on everything. And they will [do so] here. Every little thing, they’re going to push back on. So, you have to be strong if you’re going to do it.

“I’m hoping it’s quite successful. If there’s overreach, things they’re doing which are not legal, the courts should stop it. But I’m hoping that’s not the case. But, again, it’s in very early stages to tell exactly what it’s going to mean and how it’s going to affect the economy.”