Remote working plans to stay put

Survey shows majority of employers to allow workers to continue to login from home until July, or later

As some Connecticut office workers began trickling back to their desks this week, a new survey suggests as many as a third of employers will not ask employees to return until July at the earliest — with the real possibility that some remote working arrangements will continue into 2021.

FactSet, a rival to Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters that provides financial market analysis for portfolio managers, confirmed Thursday it will not have workers return to its Norwalk headquarters and other U.S. offices until January.

The company is one of the largest corporate employers in Fairfield County, with more than 900 employees based in Norwalk at 45 Glover Ave. The building is owned by Building & Land Technology, which like other landlords has overhauled its common areas and operations to comply with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“This decision was taken with great consideration and took into account many factors, including government mandates, school openings and childcare availability, and above all, the safety and well being of employees and their families,” said FactSet spokesperson Rima Hyder.

In an OperationsInc survey of more than 400 businesses nationally, nearly six in 10 indicated they will allow employees to continue working from home, with just 6 percent of employers indicating they would demand returns to the office by their workers and the rest uncertain.

OperationsInc conducted the survey over the course of a week through May 12. Corporate stocks are up 10 percent since, as states have allowed some categories of businesses to resume activities with safeguards to limit the spread of coronavirus, and as drug developers have announced results from varying tests and early trials for COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

“The initial trend and indications ... suggest that we are going to look back on February of 2020 as the moment the remote working revolution began,” said David Lewis, CEO of Norwalk-based OperationsInc. “The big number was that 77 percent of them expressed concern that they would not be able to acquire the mix of (personal protective equipment) and disinfecting products necessary to keep the workplace safe . ... So much of the creation and maintenance of a safe environment relies on these products that you just cannot easily put your hands on right now.”

The state of Connecticut is requiring office tenants and landlords to certify steps they are taking to minimize the risk of coronawe’re virus transmission, with one major Fairfield County landlord expressing confidence last month both in its new protocols as well as a desire by its tenants for an eventual return to normal office operations.

“Even before COVID there were people who wanted to work from home . ... Whether that’s going to be heightened now or not, we’ll see,” said Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green which owns the Landmark Square complex in Stamford and the nearby 1055 Washington Boulevard office building. “But (what) hearing from our tenant base, most people are saying, ‘This doesn’t work — how do you do new business solicitations? It’s one thing to do internal meetings or ... these virtual happy hours, or maybe doing some other kinds of meetings with existing relationships; but the business itself is a personal, physical business.’ ”

Matthew Brown / Hearst Connecticut Media The lobby and many parts of the BLT Office Building at 200 Elm St. in Stamford have been reconfigured to meet state guidelines for reopening.