Aftermath of the epidemic: Only 8% of people in Manhattan return to work full-time
The organization surveyed more than 160 large employers in the Manhattan borough of New York City from April 21 to May 4, 2022, to assess the return of Manhattan’s 1 million office workers to the office and the future of Manhattan’s central business district. Influence.
According to the survey, as of the end of April, about 38% of Manhattan office workers had returned to work during the week, but only 8% were in the office five days a week, and 28% were still working entirely remotely.
The survey also noted that smaller companies with fewer than 500 employees returned more employees to the office on average on a workday (53%), while larger companies with more than 5,000 employees returned fewer employees (31%) .
However, the New York City Partnership said it expects an increase in the number of employees returning to the office after Labor Day, Sept. 5, with employers expecting 49% of workers to return to work.
Remote working models will continue to exist, with 78% of employers saying that a hybrid office model will be their main policy post-pandemic, up from 6% before the pandemic.
The findings come as New York City Mayor Eric Adams has repeatedly called on employers to bring their workers back to the office, saying the move would help fuel the economic recovery.
Adams said at the New York State Democratic Convention in February:
“When employees aren’t back at work, they’re not going to have lunch at a nearby restaurant, they’re not going to shop at the local store, and they’re not taking their clothes to the dry cleaners. Our business district suffers, and that’s going to slow the recovery.”
At the same time, Adams said he hoped employers would have a plan in place for employees to return to the office within a few weeks.
Still, the reluctance of employees to return to the office is evident.
Apple brought employees back to work on April 11, initially requiring at least one day a week, then increasing it to two days a week on May 2, followed by three days a week offline from May 23. The move led to a rise in the number of employees threatening to resign, according to the New York Post.
According to a report by The Verge on May 7, Ian Goodfellow, Apple’s head of machine learning, resigned because of the company’s mandate to return to the office.
Goodfellow said in a staff memo that he firmly believes greater flexibility would be the best policy for his team.
Other big tech companies such as Meta, Google parent Alphabet and Amazon are still allowing some employees to work remotely for now.
