The most difficult question to answer for American companies: when should they reopen their offices?
From Silicon Valley to Tennessee and Pennsylvania, high hopes have been dashed that a rapid deployment of vaccines in early 2021 would bring millions of office workers back into the spring. Many companies are advancing job return dates to September — and beyond — or are refusing to commit to specific dates, telling employees it will be a year of remote work.
Delays span industries. Qurate Retail Inc., the parent company of brands such as Ballard Designs, QVC and HSN, recently changed its planned May return to offices in the Philadelphia, Atlanta and other cities area until September. TechnologyAdvice, a Nashville marketing company, initially told employees to plan for Feb. 1 as a return date. The company then pushed the date back to August. Now, TA has decided to start a hybrid calendar in the office in the fall of 2021, allowing workers to choose whether they want to work remotely or enter, according to the company.
Return dates to the office have changed so much over the last year that some companies do not share them with employees. Shipping giant United Parcel Service Inc., based in Atlanta, and financial services firm Fidelity Investments Inc., based in Boston, have not announced return dates, instead communicating to workers who sign from home that companies are monitoring the coronavirus pandemic and calling workers back when it is safe.
Leaders say nearly a year of impromptu work at home has weighed on employees. While many companies say productivity increases, executives worry about creativity suffering and say burnout increases. Still, bosses struggle to tell when things will change.