HSBC's Michael Roberts looks like the last nail in the hybrid working coffin

HSBC’s new CEO, Georges Elhedery, has only been in charge for two months. And like all good new CEOs, he’s dabbled in a bit of wide-sweeping reform – but one of those reforms might have broader consequences for the bank’s employees than they realize.

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Michael Robert’s, HSBC’s USA & Americas chief, is being brought into the company’s London headquarters to head up its corporate & institutional banking offering in “Western” (UK, Europe, and Americas) markets, staring in 2025. Roberts will replace Greg Guyett, who will the chair the newly-created “strategic clients group”. 

The consequences could be widespread. Guyett spoke in April about his “very strong” advocacy of flexible work, and at the time did not want to “mandate a number of days or a number of hours in the office."

Roberts, on the other hand, seems to be an in-office maximalist. He spoke to the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year, a few months after Guyett extolled the virtue of flexible work, to boast about the firm’s new office in Manhattan. “Right now, we have 80% occupancy, which is pretty stupendous,” he said, “given where we were before, which was 40%”.

Although Roberts told Bloomberg that he wouldn’t force bankers to come into the office five days a week unless FINRA mandated it, it’s still a bad sign for hybrid enthusiasts that rising occupancy rates are a point of pride for the investment banking president-elect.

The good times ending might have been inevitable, however. We found in our lifestyle report earlier this year that there was a significant leap in in-office presence across the industry between 2022 and 2023, although it was smaller at HSBC than at, say, Goldman Sachs, which has enforced