For employees at Bank of America, the stakes are high. Some say they worry that if they don’t show up to the office, they’ll be poorly paid or let go at the end of this year — a fear that is widespread across Wall Street.

Mr. Montag has been known to monitor the comings and goings of his trading team, sometimes leaving notes on their desks noting the time — usually after 5 p.m. — and asking where they had gone, since he was still there, according to two former executives. Once, during a presentation to his top lieutenants at an off-site meeting in Barcelona, Mr. Montag put up a slide showing the number of attendees who had taken the redeye flight to Europe and those who had flown during the day, on what is pejoratively known in financial circles as “the chairman’s flight.” The move was widely seen as an attempt to chide those who spent the extra day traveling rather than flying all night to avoid losing productivity, say two people who were there.

Mr. Montag did not respond to a request for comment.

On March 27, the same day that Mr. Zuberi hailed people on his team who were coming into the office, Brian Moynihan, Bank of America’s chief executive, appeared on CNBC assuaging fears of layoffs and promising to avoid them at least until the end of the year. “We don’t want our teammates to worry about their jobs during a time like this,” he said in the interview.

Mr. Zuberi did not respond to a request for comment.

Some traders who have worked from home during the virus outbreak have faced a different set of issues. One big one is a limit on how much of the bank’s cash they can use or borrow to buy and sell securities, according to four employees, which can harm their ability to trade profitably. Profits are key to traders’ year-end bonuses, which are typically higher than their base salary, and any impediments are viewed with great concern.