JPMorgan Chase's largest US office was put to the test last week as its roughly 12,000 workers returned Monday through Friday for the first time since the work-from-home craze swept the nation five years ago.Whether the bank passed that test depends on whom you ask.On Monday, April 21, an executive at the firm's sprawling Columbus, Ohio, campus, projected optimism about the site's first full week back in the office, while acknowledging some pain points."Ample seats were available across the site," said the memo by Becky Griffin, the location leader at the Columbus site. "We did notice that some areas were busier than others," she added, "and we're continuing to monitor capacity to make sure everyone can easily find a seat."Griffin said lines for the cafeteria at the campus, known as Polaris, were "longer than usual," but said they "moved efficiently, with a smooth checkout process."She also addressed concerns about parking. "To make the parking process more efficient, we have already adjusted the shuttle service and provided updated instructions to our on-site parking attendees," she wrote in the memo, which workers received as they were wrapping up their first full day in the office together.Employees who spoke to BI complained that some of these issues persisted as the week went on, leaving some workers jockeying for desks, hunting for alternative parking, and skipping lunch to avoid long lines. In a second memo sent on Friday, Griffin said the company would be "making ongoing adjustments" and offered a link to an email for employees to provide feedback. She added that the bank had established a "Polaris Commuting Resources" page on its internal system to keep employees up-to-date on changes.JPMorgan workers at Polaris who spoke to BI, however, said they couldn't see easy solutions to some of the problems discussed in the memo because the campus — which houses some 12,000-plus employees — has limited parking and a total seating capacity of 11,930, according to internal documents about the property reviewed by BI."There's really not a lot of space left on the property," said one software engineer at Polaris. "They'd have to make some serious changes for the site to be able to hold all the cars that come there every day."The engineer was one of three employees who spoke to BI working at the Columbus facility, which is home to many of the bank's tech workers and key to several of its cloud-focused initiatives. These employees declined to be named because they were not authorized to discuss company matters, but their identities are known to BI."There's not really infrastructure in place to handle the number of people that are working there now," the software engineer continued, adding: "It's definitely put everybody in kind of a tough spot."Griffin did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement to BI, Michael Fusco, a JPMorgan spokesperson, pointed to measures the bank has taken over the past week to smooth out the transition."We have been working hard to ensure our sites have the capacity and amenities employees need to return full-time," Fusco said. "Last week, we had more than 2,000 open seats available daily in Polaris, ensuring ample seating to accommodate all employees. We also increased the number of parking attendants and shuttles to improve the parking process."In January, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called his workers back to the office five days a week starting in March. The return was delayed for some office locations to give them time to get ready. The firm's Polaris campus only switched to the five-day-a-week RTO model last week, on April 21.JPMorgan isn't alone in demanding workers to return to pre-pandemic norms. Employees at Goldman Sachs and Citadel were called back to the office five days a week in 2021. Tech giants like Amazon and TikTok have also ordered workers back to their desks Monday through Friday.Some Polaris employees have pushed back, however, including by exploring unionizing, as BI has previously reported. Dimon defended his decision in an internal town hall at the Columbus campus in February, saying the mandate was issued with the bank and its clients in mind — not individual preferences.JPMorgan has addressed the insufficient parking at Polaris by reserving additional spaces at a local church about a mile away. Once parked, workers can wait for a shuttle that can take them to and from the campus, about a 10-minute ride. Employees, however, described 30-minute waits to board the buses, in some cases.According to one manager of a back-office group, on-campus parking has also become strained. The employee said the site's central buildings are encircled by a road dotted with 2-story parking garages, adding that the road has become logjammed."From the moment you hit that ring, you're sitting in traffic to get around the campus," said the manager, who recently spent an hour and fifteen minutes looking for a parking spot.It's led some employees to search for workarounds — like finding parking at Polaris Fashion Place, a nearby mall, and ordering Uber transportation to the office, the second of the two engineers said.This strategy hasn't proved a major time saver, however, this engineer added, citing the backlog of vehicles clogging the campus road in the morning. The back-office manager described large orange construction signs punctuating the road to direct traffic, as well as third-party traffic attendants to channel the flow of cars.He questioned whether these measures were helpful, however, saying the third-party traffic attendants, in his experience, "just wave you past closed lots. They don't tell you where to go."Once inside, there's some jockeying for desks, albeit mainly for people who don't have assigned seating and don't reserve a spot ahead of time through the company's booking portal."I actually have a close friend who had to move desks probably five times over the span of an hour," said the first software engineer.It's not just individuals who are being Tetris'd around the office in an effort to have teams sit together. The back-office manager said their team's designated seating was moved earlier in April, and that they'll need to be relocated again in the coming days."Everyone is still fed up, and everyone is still scratching their heads as to why we're doing this," the back-office manager said.Both software engineers said some intrepid workers had discovered they could swipe into the office and then leave a few hours later if they wanted to go home early."They can cheat the system like that," said the first engineer. "Some people will just badge in, work for an hour or two, and leave."Employees also questioned whether being back in the office is really fostering teamwork if it means some colleagues can't sit together."One of our guys" — an executive director on a particular team — "is sitting in a completely different wing, because we have no room left," the second engineer said. "Tell me how collaboration is a driving force when your teams are now scattered throughout the building instead of sitting in one area."Have a tip? Contact these reporters. Reed Alexander can be reached via email at ralexander@businessinsider.com or SMS/Signal at 561-247-5758. Bianca Chan can be reached via email at bschan@businessinsider.com or SMS/Signal at (646) 376-6038. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.