No remote control
Living in a changing climate, it does no good yelling at the sky. COVID’s work-from-home revolution is just such a climate change: Millions of employees across many thousands of employers are requiring flexible arrangements. Public officials and economic leaders can lament the new realities and demand a return to the way they were before — or say the serenity prayer and try to equip their communities and companies for a new era.
In that light, we welcome the news that Mayor Adams, whose administration not long ago proclaimed that “hybrid schedules of any kind are not permitted,” is now opening the door to letting city agencies design new working situations. Officials who say “hell no” to reasonable requests from public-sector workers with radically different expectations than they had in 2019 will see those workers flee for greener grass.
We get that there are both costs and benefits to people working from home for three, four or five days a week. When staff is far-flung, workplace cultures are tough to maintain; some forms of productivity surely suffer; and countless restaurants, bars and barbershops struggle. But that must be weighed against the fact that employees who don’t have to commute, who can focus in relative quiet, who can start a load of laundry at lunchtime and pick up their kids from school, are often happier and more productive in other ways.
Worried about the economic ecosystem and falling property tax receipts, we’re hardly thrilled that remote work is costing Manhattan $12 billion a year, according to an analysis by WFH Research, a project of Stanford economics Prof. Nicholas Bloom. But it’s important to remember that some of those billions are staying in work-from-home neighborhoods. Regardless, the new world is here to stay — a fact punctuated by Steve Roth’s ambitious plans for Vornado to erect massive office towers to finance rebuilding Penn Station are being put on indefinite hold.
Those responsible for the future of Manhattan and the city as a whole should stop complaining and keep adapting.