A year and a pandemic ago, more than 100,000 people filled the central business district in Charlotte, NC, leaving their offices, including several recently built skyscrapers, and in restaurants, bars and sports facilities. So when the coronavirus sent employees home, much of the city center quickly became quiet and dark.
The return of these employees to their offices has been hesitant and difficult. Last fall, Fifth Third Bank started bringing back workers, but it soon reversed the course. LendingTree, which is moving from the suburbs to the city, is waiting for the end of the school year. Wells Fargo has postponed his return to the office several times, telling his employees recently that they will continue to work remotely until at least May 1. And Duke Energy will bring some employees back in June, and most of the 6,000 people at its headquarters in September, when children should be able to return to schools.
Corporate executives across the country are struggling to reopen offices as the pandemic begins to break out. Businesses – and many employees – are eager to return to some normal working life, going back to the office, having lunch at their favorite restaurant or stopping for a drink after work. But the world has changed, and many managers and employees recognize that there are advantages to remote working.
Although coronavirus cases are decreasing and vaccinations are increasing, many companies have not committed to a deadline and strategy to bring employees back. The most important variable, many executives said, is how long it will take for most employees to be vaccinated. President Biden said on Tuesday that the United States was “on the right track” to have enough vaccines for each adult by the end of May.
Another important consideration revolves around workers’ children. Companies say they cannot make firm decisions until they know when local schools will reopen for face-to-face learning.
Then there is a broader question: does it make sense to go back to the way things were before the pandemic, given that people have become accustomed to the rhythms of remote work?
“Each has different levels of comfort to return to,” said Chuck McShane, senior vice president of the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, an organization that helped attract business to the area. “For some companies, it depends on the type of work you are doing and whether you can stay at home. But a concern with ongoing remote work is: how are entry-level workers socialized in the office culture? “
About a quarter of employees across the country are currently going to offices, according to Kastle Systems, an office security company that obtains data from 3,600 buildings in the United States.
Many companies, which pay for renting empty offices, are anxious for this number to increase. Its executives believe that having employees working side by side improves collaboration, supports the development of younger employees and nourishes the heart and soul of any company – its culture.
That’s why some managers like Mark Rose, chief executive of Avison Young, a Chicago-based commercial property management and consulting firm with offices around the world, are asking employees to return to the office in April.
“You will not be fired or reported if you do not return, but the expectation is that, subject to local laws and your individual issues, you will start to make your way back,” mr. Rose said about her 5,000 employees. “It will definitely be an expectation.”
A massive return to the office would, of course, be a boon for commercial real estate companies like Avison Young. Owners, whose revenues are under threat as companies move or reduce the amount of space they rent, would be relieved to breathe. Many tenants have more space than they need. In Manhattan, the number of sublease offices available for rent increased by almost 50 percent last year and is now 27 percent of all space available, the largest share since the period just after the 2008 financial crisis, according to Savills.
In addition, a return to the office would help revive city centers that have been ghost towns for months. Restaurants and bars can start hiring again and returning passengers can generate much-needed revenue for distressed public transport systems.
The course of the pandemic largely dictated attendance at the office. That number dropped in March and April last year, as the pandemic set in and started to increase slowly in late spring, according to Kastle. Another outbreak of infections after Thanksgiving has reduced occupancy, but appears to be on the rise.
There are major regional differences. In major cities in Texas, more than a third of workers are back, while the New York, San Francisco and Chicago areas remain below 20%.
Some of these regional differences can be explained by the way people start to work.
“In places where people are traveling by public transport, we know that it makes people much more vulnerable to Covid because of the simple presence of other people, compared to if you were traveling in your own car,” he said. Tsedal Neeley, a Harvard Business School professor who studies remote work.
Some companies that have started trying to bring workers back to the office – such as Vivint, a home security company based in Provo, Utah, which has more than 10,000 employees across the country – say they are doing this on a voluntary basis.
Vivint is allowing 40% of its 4,000 employees in Utah to return, although only about 20% have chosen to do so on a regular basis. The company demanded that some call center employees are “struggling to answer their calls” and need additional guidance.
To accommodate social distance, Vivint restricted access to each building to a single entrance, where employees have their temperature measured. The signs remind employees to wear masks all the time, and the company has limited capacity in conference rooms.
Vivint also has an on-site clinic that offers rapid 15-minute virus tests for employees and their families. “It is very important to our ability to give our employees peace of mind,” said Starr Fowler, senior vice president of human resources.
The company hopes to use the clinic to distribute coronavirus vaccines to its employees, when Utah allows.
Some companies like Davis Wright Tremaine, a Seattle-based law firm, said that workers who wish to return to the office should be vaccinated. But others, like Duke Energy, said they were trying to encourage, not demand, vaccination.
As an incentive for employees to receive the vaccine, Duke Energy is offering “health reward points” to vaccinated employees, similar to the points that employees receive for doing annual physicals or not using tobacco, said Neil Nissan, a spokesman for Duke’s voice. These points can reduce monthly health insurance costs for employees, he added.
The company said the pandemic was likely to have a lasting effect on how it operates.
“We will have a hybrid working model,” said Nissan. “Some days, an employee will be at the office and other days, they will be working remotely. This gives employees flexibility and prevents everyone from being present at the same time. “
More than 55 percent of people interviewed by the consulting firm PwC at the end of last year said they would prefer to work remotely at least three days a week after the pandemic recedes. But their bosses seem to have somewhat different preferences – 68% of employers said they believed employees needed to be in the office at least three days a week to maintain corporate culture.
Salesforce, the San Francisco-based software company, recently won praise from some people when it said that most of its employees could go to the office one to three days a week – an approach the company described as “flexible” – once the pandemic is no longer a threat to public health. The company did not say whether it now needs less office space.
But other companies want all or almost all of the employees back for most of the week – and are telling employees that their careers could be jeopardized if they don’t return.
Rapid7, a Boston-based cybersecurity company, expects employees to return to the office at least three days a week when it determines that it is safe to do so.
“We truly believe that our personal workplaces promote our culture and core values,” said Christina Luconi, the company’s personnel director.
Employees who choose not to return to the office may face professional repercussions, she said.
“We are not saying that we will intentionally stagnate your career,” added Luconi. “But if you are the stranger when everyone is together again, it can be a challenge for you.”
Still, this discussion is somewhat theoretical. Rapid7 has yet to set a return date for the office and Luconi said he would wait until the vaccines were widely available. The company tends to allow only vaccinated employees to return to the office.