Uncertainty looms as companies prepare to open offices yet again
A year and a pandemic ago, over 100,000 people filled the central business district in Charlotte, N.C., pouring out of offices and into restaurants, bars and sports venues. Then as the coronavirus sent employees to their homes, much of the city center went dark.
The return of those employees to their offices has been halting and difficult. Last fall, Fifth Third Bank began bringing back workers but soon reversed course. Lendingtree is waiting for the end of the school year. Wells Fargo has delayed its return to the office several times. And Duke Energy will bring some employees back in June and most of the 6,000 people at its headquarters in September, when children should be able to go back to schools.
A return to normal
Corporate executives around the country are wrestling with how to reopen offices as the pandemic starts to loosen its grip. Businesses — and many employees — are eager to return to some kind of normal work life, going back to the office, grabbing lunch at their favorite restaurant or stopping for drinks after work. But the world has changed, and many managers and workers alike acknowledge that there are advantages to remote work.
While coronavirus cases are declining and vaccinations are rising, many companies have not committed to a time and strategy for bringing employees back. The most important variable, many executives said, is how long it will take for most employees to be vaccinated.
Another major consideration revolves around the children of workers. Companies say they can’t make firm decisions until they know when local schools will reopen for in-person learning.
Then there is a larger question: Does it make sense to go back to the way things were before the pandemic, given that people have become accustomed to the rhythms of remote work?
Corporate culture
“Everyone has different comfort levels with coming back,” said Chuck Mcshane, a senior vice president at the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, an organization that has helped lure businesses to the area. “For some companies, it depends on the type of work you’re doing and whether you can remain at home. But a concern about continued remote work is, how do entry-level workers get socialized into the office culture?”
About a quarter of employees across the country are going into offices these days, according to Kastle Systems, an office security company that gets data from 3,600 buildings in the U.S.
Many companies, paying to rent empty office space, are eager for that number to rise. Their executives believe that having employees working side by side improves collaboration, supports the development of younger employees and nurtures the heart and soul of any company — its culture.
That’s why some managers such as Mark Rose, CEO of Avison Young, a property management firm based in Chicago with offices around the world, are asking employees to return to the office in April.
“You’re not going to be fired or written up if you don’t come back, but it is the expectation that, subject to local laws, and subject to your individual issues, that you start to make your way back,” Rose said about his 5,000 employees. “It absolutely is going to be an expectation.”
Reviving city centers
A mass return to the office would, of course, be a boon for commercial real estate companies such as Avison Young.
Landlords, whose revenues are under threat as corporations move out or reduce the amount of space they rent, would breathe a sigh of relief. Many tenants have more space than they need. In Manhattan, the amount of sublet office space available to rent surged nearly 50 percent last year and is currently 27 percent of all available space, the highest share since the period right after the 2008 financial crisis, according to Savills.
Moreover, a return to the office would help revive city centers that have been ghost towns for months. Restaurants and bars could start hiring again, and returning commuters could generate much-needed revenue for struggling transit systems.
HOUSTON — The Texans’ credibility with fans and media is at an all-time low.
So many fans — including those who buy sponsorships, suites, club seats and season tickets — have lost faith in the organization.
The venom spewed locally and nationally at the Texans on a daily basis is unprecedented in the franchise’s history, which dates to 1999, when NFL owners awarded founder Bob Mcnair an expansion team to replace the Oilers.
The energy, enthusiasm, optimism and confidence that used to flow freely at NRG Stadium have dissipated into weariness, indifference, pessimism and distrust.
Beginning with the collapse at Kansas City in the divisional round of the 2019 playoffs, the Texans have generated one controversy after another.
The Deandre Hopkins trade, Jack Easterby’s rise to power, Bill O’brien’s firing, a 4-12 record, Deshaun Watson’s trade demand, Jamey Rootes’ resignation and J.J. Watt’s request to be released have helped cast the Texans in a negative light that’s almost blinding.
If you’re a fan who wants the Mcnairs to sell, Easterby to be fired and Watson to be happy, you can forget about it. The Mcnairs aren’t selling the franchise. They’ve made Easterby all-powerful in his third year with the team. And Watson won’t be happy until he’s with a new organization.
For those who care about the Texans and might be relatively new to the Houston sports scene, a history lesson will provide some insight into just how dismal their current predicament appears to be from the outside looking in.
In more than four decades of covering the Oilers, Texans and NFL, I can remember only two other times I’ve experienced such
24/7 negativity.
Keep in mind these other two calamities happened before the existence of social media, so you can imagine the uproar they would have created.
After the 1978 and 1979 seasons, the Oilers finished 10-6 and 11-5 and won two playoff games during each postseason before losing at Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game.
In 1980 — what would turn out to be the last year of the Luv Ya Blue era — the Oilers again finished 11-5 and second in the AFC Central behind the Steelers. For a third consecutive season, they entered the playoffs as a wildcard team.
In the Dec. 28 wild-card game at Oakland, the Oilers lost 27-7 to
the Raiders. Like the Steelers in the two previous seasons, the Raiders continued on to win the Super Bowl.
In the most unpopular decision in team history — a decision that reverberated around the NFL and would be widely criticized for years — Oilers owner Bud Adams fired coach Bum Phillips in what became known as the New Year’s Eve Massacre.
Phillips was the most popular coach in Houston sports history, and the respect fans, coaches and players had for him was universal.
To replace Phillips, Adams named his financial expert, CPA Ladd Herzeg, as general manager and promoted defensive coordinator Ed Biles to head coach.
If you think the Texans are bad after one losing season in 2020, check out the Oilers’ records in their first six years without Phila lips: 7-9, 1-8, 2-14, 3-13, 5-11 and 5-11. That’s an average of 11 defeats a season. The draft was the highlight of the year.
Finally, in 1987, with Herzeg as the general manager and Jerry Glanville as head coach, the Oilers returned to the playoffs. They reached the postseason in a league-best seven consecutive years, but like the Texans, they never advanced beyond the divisional round in what we called the run-and-shoot era featuring quarterback Warren Moon and guards Mike Munchak and Bruce Matthews, all members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Fast forward to 1995. Adams’ legal experts were trying to get the Oilers out of their lease with the Astrodome so he could move the team to Tennessee. There was no hope for a new stadium to replace the dilapidated Astrodome, so Nashville began singing
siren song to convince Adams to relocate his team.
We all thought the Oilers were gone after the 1995 season, but their lease forced them to stay one more season. It was the most devastating period in Houston’s sports history, losing our NFL team that played one last season before saying goodbye.
Under unprecedented circumstances, Jeff Fisher did a terrific job in his second season as coach. The Oilers finished 8-8 in 1996, playing before home crowds that averaged almost 25,000 fewer than capacity. In the Oilers’ last game in Houston, they lost to Cincinnati before 15,131 fans.
After that game, I saw something I hope never to witness again. Rather than going to the locker room to hear what Fisher and his players thought about the situation in a funereal atmosphere, I went outside the Dome, where I knew Adams would leave in his limousine.
Others had the same idea. When Adams’ limo emerged and tried to leave at a normal speed, it was surrounded by angry fans pounding on the hood and trunk while screaming the most despicable things they could think of.
They threw rocks, bottles, coins, fruit — anything they could get their hands on — as Adams’ splattered limo finally was able to slowly pull away while being pelted.
The Texans current calamity hasn’t disintegrated into a catastrophe like what the Oilers experienced, but it should be a warning to the Mcnair family about the consequences of bad decisions that can affect a franchise for years.