Next up: Getting ready to go back to the office

With the U.S. now cranking up vaccinations, we’re about to head into yet another tricky phase of the pandemic: the reopening of offices where employers had the luxury of moving everyone to remote work.

It’s already happening. Kastle Systems, an office security firm that tracks key card usage at more than 2,500 buildings in 138 cities, in early March reported that among 10 large cities, businesses are at an average 24% of office occupancy relative to where they were preCOVID-19. That’s compared to less than 15% a year ago when the vacate orders had been freshly issued.

The consulting firm PwC has been conducting surveys of both employers and employees during the pandemic about their workspace preferences and expectations.

Both management and workers agree that remote work works. More than 80% of employers said remote work has been a success, and 71% of workers rated it a success.

But employers still want bodies in the office. At least some of the time. Workers not so much.

The five-day office commute: RIP, 2020?

Just 21% of the execs surveyed by PwC said they think staff needs to be in the office together five days a week to maintain a solid work culture.

Nearly one in three execs (29%) thought three days a week in the office was enough real face time. Another 15% put it at two days and 5% said one day a week was enough. Let that sink in: Nearly half of managers are on board with reducing the commuting schlep to three days a week or less.

In the same survey, just 8% of workers are interested in being office-bound five days a week; 29% want to work remotely all five days. Among all workers, 75% said they want to be able to work at home at least two days a week.

Given we’ve just live-tested the feasibility of workfrom-home, and management is on record that the bottom line did just fine, it’s sure to accelerate the conversation about codifying remote work as a standard work benefit.

In a recent poll of 1,000 office workers by LiveCareer, 29% said they will quit if they are required to return to the office, and 62% said that in the future, remote-work policy will be a consideration in a career.

That said, if you’re loving remote work, you might want to calibrate your desire to always be remote vs. some career practicalities. For starters, if you have colleagues who will be in the office from time to time (including your manager), never showing up puts you at a disadvantage.

Sure, you’re productive. Sure, you’re valued. But literal — not just virtual — face time has its upside. In the same LiveCareer poll, 50% said they don’t get as much feedback when working remotely, and one in four said communications with their manager and colleagues took a hit. Nearly one in five thought their odds of getting a promotion had decreased.

But at the end of the day, each of us is going to need to carefully read the tea leaves of our employer, and our individual manager. It remains to be seen if once schools reopen, employers will be as open to letting employees call the shots on when (and how often) they get back to the office.