Getting workers back in the office

In 2019, Manhattan was the epicenter of the downstate region’s $1.3 trillion economy, with over a million workers making a daily commute to jobs in its towering office buildings. Today, 90% of the borough’s office employees have been working remotely for more than a year, many from locations outside the city and state. As a result, formerly bustling central business districts feel very much like ghost towns.

If this becomes a permanent condition, it’ll reshape the city profoundly. The hollowing out of Manhattan cannot become the “new normal.”

We all know how we got here. Within days of the pandemic reaching American shores, the city’s leading industries — financial and professional services, media and information technology — pivoted to remote work, business travel went virtual, and the retailers, restaurants and services that relied on commuter foot traffic went dark. Many companies discovered that they were just as productive and often more profitable with 99% of their people working from home.

Since the “pandemic pause” began last March, the Partnership for New York City has regularly surveyed Manhattan office employers. At first, companies were optimistic that office workers would be back in force by September 2020. But the resurgence of the pandemic and its variant strains proved those predictions wrong. Our recent surveys suggest that only 45% of office workers will return by Fall 2021, and more than half of them will work remotely at least part of the week on a permanent basis.

What will it take to bring the office workers back?

Despite the widespread availability of vaccines, many people still do not feel confident that densely occupied buildings, mass transit and crowded city streets and sidewalks are healthy or safe. Partly this is fear of disease, partly of crime and personal security. Some of it has to do with added stress that nearly everyone has experienced during the pandemic; some with uncertainty about child-care and schools being open. There has also been a surge in behavioral health problems, alcoholism and drug use, and domestic abuse, as the discipline and stability of pre-pandemic life has been interrupted for so many New Yorkers.

Many employers I talk to want to see their people back in the office. Most believe that corporate culture and sense of community depend on regular, face-to-face contact with colleagues. Onboarding new employees, training and mentoring are critical functions that are best achieved in person. Coming into the office also provides a structure for the work day, with commuting breaks that help prevent the kind of burnout that has become common among people who are now at home but “on camera” 12 or more hours a day.

Here is what some employers are doing to encourage — not force — employees to return to the office:

Offering free testing and sharing information on how many co-workers are vaccinated, to affirm the safety of the office environment.

Replacing hectic business travel schedules with virtual client meetings, so that exposure to varied worksites is minimized.

Listening to employee concerns and working on hybrid models where some time is spent with the “team” in the office, while also having the flexibility to work from home part of the week.

Redesigning office space to ensure proper protection against contagion.

Inviting volunteers to be the first to come back to the office, and then reimbursing the cost of commute or treating them to lunch from local restaurants.

As supply allows, planning to offer vaccines and annual boosters at the office, just like they do with flu shots.

Longer-term, there will be a need for major public-private initiatives to achieve health security in a city with the density and diversity of New York. One example is a health passport attached to every phone, along the lines of the Excelsior Pass that New York State has created with IBM.

Few New York employees miss a commute that was the longest average travel time in the country. Real estate developers will ultimately respond with decentralized office locations around the city and region that allow people to walk or bike to a workplace, rather than working remotely from home. Similarly, more housing will be developed with office space as a communal amenity.

Advances in technology have made it possible to do most office jobs from anywhere in the world and there will be no turning back from what people now see as their life choices. Our focus must be on how to help the MTA, real estate and business owners recast their business models, repurpose their properties, and redesign public infrastructure to ensure that, despite changes in commuting and work patterns in a post-COVID economy, Manhattan remains a vibrant, thriving commercial center.

Wylde is president of the Partnership for New York City, which represents the city’s biggest employers.