Are you going to be working from home on this Friday before Labor Day weekend? If you are usually based in an office, the answer is probably yes.<\/p>\n
Three years after the pandemic began, employees have won the war over their work-life balance \u2014 for now \u2014 as many companies appear to have given up on forcing office workers back to the office full-time, workplace experts say. Now the years-old tug-of-war is increasingly over a hybrid arrangement \u2014 how many days per week office workers should be turning up for work in person.<\/p>\n
A Pandora\u2019s box has been opened, and there\u2019s very little chance of managers closing it, said Nick Bloom, a Stanford University economist who studies the business implications of working from home. \u201cWe are now in a steady state where \u2018hybrid\u2019 is normal for office workers,\u201d he told MarketWatch. \u201cWe have had 3\u00bd years of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some 1.5 million workers are facing new office-attendance rules this year, according to estimates from JLL, a commercial real-estate and investment-management company. An additional 1 million workers will face new rules by year-end. \u201cThis has created the conditions once again for a significant post\u2013Labor Day uptick in office attendance,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
But a reckoning may be coming. Many companies have drawn a line in the sand after Labor Day, said Juan Pablo Gonzalez, a senior client partner at Korn Ferry, a global consulting firm, where he advises employers on their hiring and retention strategies. Employers will soon push harder for workers to return to the office in person. Most of the employers Gonzalez advises are pushing for three-day returns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s already happening. Robinhood, Meta After Labor Day, managers should expect pushback from employees on return-to-office mandates, which will vary based on the length of people\u2019s commutes, their seniority and the industry they work in, as well as family circumstances. \u201cPeople are going to be less happy about going back, and they are going to dig in harder because, frankly, it\u2019s more painful,\u201d Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n Office-occupancy rates hover close to 50%, suggesting a balanced standoff between workers and employers. And beyond Labor Day? \u201cYou\u2019ll see an increase,\u201d said Mark Ein, chairman at Kastle Systems, which tracks workers\u2019 security card swipes into office buildings. \u201cThere already has been a lot of progress.\u201d Companies are now focusing on getting people back, at least part of the time. <\/p>\n Weekly national office-occupancy rates reached 47% the week before Labor Day weekend, up from 43% this time last year, according to Kastle. Weekly averages take into account that Tuesday and Wednesday tend to be higher-occupancy office days. In April 2020, the first full month after the declaration of the coronavirus pandemic, national office-occupancy rates ranged around 14% and 16%, Kastle added.<\/p>\n The return-to-office strategy is a delicate process for employers and employees alike. The former don\u2019t want to push too hard, too soon. \u201cThere is a very clear migration back to the office \u2014 it\u2019s just methodical and gradual,\u201d said John Gates, chief executive for the Americas markets at JLL. The magnitude of the post\u2013Labor Day return \u201cdepends on the follow-through in the executive suite, or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Zoom In September, Robinhood Amazon
\n META,
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\n and Zoom all want people at their offices more often after summer\u2019s close. White House officials are pressing federal agencies to get their staffs back to the office more regularly starting in September. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reportedly said that \u201cit\u2019s probably not going to work out\u201d for workers who do not show up three days per week.<\/p>\n\u2018Clear migration back to the office\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Silicon Valley wants people back<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n ZM,
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\n \u2014 whose name became inextricably linked with remote work in the early days of the pandemic \u2014 is requiring workers located near an office to be onsite twice a week and started rolling out the policy in August, a spokesperson said. \u201cWe\u2019ll continue to leverage the entire Zoom platform to keep our employees and dispersed teams connected and working efficiently,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n HOOD,
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\n is moving to three days in the office, even though it once called itself a \u201cremote-first company.\u201d The hybrid approach applies to most workers within a commutable distance to an office, the trading platform said. Facebook and Instagram parent Meta\u2019s three-days expectation starts in September, but workers who are currently remote can remain remote, the company said.<\/p>\n
\n AMZN,
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\n management asked office staff to show up three days a week, starting last May, as part of a gradual return-to-office strategy. A worker backlash ensued, including a walkout. \u201cIf you can\u2019t disagree and commit, I also understand that, but it\u2019s probably not going to work out for you,\u201d CEO Andy Jassy was said to have told staff in a recent meeting, an audio recording of which was reportedly obtained by Insider.<\/p>\n