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

efinancialcareers.com:

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