The hardest question to answer for US companies: When should offices reopen?
From Silicon Valley to Tennessee to Pennsylvania, high hopes that a rapid vaccine rollout in early 2021 would send millions of workers back to offices by spring has been sunk. Many companies are shifting workplace return dates to September – and beyond – or refusing to commit to specific dates, telling their employees that it will be a wait-and-see remote work year.
The delays spanned industries. Qurate Retail Inc., the parent company of brands like Ballard Designs, QVC and HSN, recently shifted its planned May return to offices in Philadelphia, Atlanta and other cities until September at the earliest. TechnologyAdvice, a Nashville-based marketing company, initially told its employees to schedule February 1 as their return date. The company then moved the date back to August. Now, TA has decided it will begin a hybrid in-office schedule in the fall of 2021, allowing employees to choose whether to work remotely or come in, the company says.
Return-to-office dates have shifted so much over the past year that some companies don’t share them with employees. Shipping giant United Parcel Service Inc., based in Atlanta, and financial services provider Fidelity Investments Inc., based in Boston, have not announced return dates, but are telling employees who are showing signs from home that the companies are monitoring the coronavirus pandemic and will call employees back if the is safe.
Nearly a year of improvised homework has weighed on workers, leaders say. While many companies say productivity is increasing, executives worry that creativity is suffering and say burnout is on the rise. Still, bosses struggle to say when things will change.