The most difficult question to answer for American companies: When should offices be reopened?
From Silicon Valley to Tennessee and Pennsylvania, hopes that a rapid launch of a vaccine in early 2021 would send millions of workers back to offices in the spring have been dashed. Many companies are postponing their return dates to September – and beyond – or refusing to commit to specific dates, telling employees that it will be a year of wait-and-see remote work.
Delays cover industries. Qurate Retail Inc., the parent company of brands like Ballard Designs, QVC and HSN, recently moved its planned return from May to offices in the Philadelphia, Atlanta and other cities until September at the earliest. TechnologyAdvice, a Nashville marketing company, initially told employees to plan February 1 as a return date. The company then postponed the date to August. Now, TA has decided that it will start hybrid programming in the office in the fall of 2021, allowing workers to choose whether to work remotely or enter, the company says.
Return dates to the office have changed so much in the past year that some companies are not sharing them with employees. Atlanta-based shipping giant United Parcel Service Inc. and Boston-based financial services company Fidelity Investments Inc. did not announce return dates, instead, they told employees they signed at home. that companies are monitoring the coronavirus pandemic and will call workers back when it is safe.
Nearly a year of impromptu work at home has weighed on employees, leaders say. While many companies say productivity has increased, executives fear that creativity is waning and say burnout is increasing. Still, bosses have a hard time telling when things are going to change.