COVID surge disrupts return-to-office plans
Companies being forced to make tough decisions
Google employees in California who have returned to the office on a voluntary basis are again wearing masks indoors. Goldman Sachs is considering whether to reinstitute testing for fully vaccinated employees in the company’s New York City offices, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because nothing had been decided. And Monday, Apple told its workforce that it would push back its return-to-office date from September to October.
When companies began announcing tentative return-to-office plans this spring, there was a sense of optimism behind the messages. COVID cases were dwindling in the United States as the vaccine rollout picked up pace. Employers largely hoped their workforces would get shots on their own, motivated by raffle tickets, paid time off and other perks, if not by the consensus of the medical community.
In recent days, that tone has suddenly shifted. The delta variant, a more contagious version of the coronavirus, is sweeping through the country. Less than half of Americans are fully vaccinated, exacerbating the situation.
Nationally, the daily average of new coronavirus infections has surged 180% in 14 days, to 45,343 by Thursday; and deaths a lagging number are up 30% from two weeks ago, to nearly 252, according to New York Times case counts. Vaccines are still unavailable for children younger than 12, many of whom are preparing for an in-person return to school this fall.
It all adds up to a difficult calculation for America’s business leaders, who hoped the country would already be fully on a path to normalcy, with employees getting back to offices. Instead, individual companies are now being forced to make tough decisions that they had hoped could be avoided, such as whether to reverse reopening plans or institute vaccine mandates for employees. All the while, they continue to grapple with the unpredictable nature of the pandemic.
“It’s emotionally draining on all of us, and it drives the top management teams crazy,” said Bob Sutton, a psychology professor at Stanford University who studies leadership and organizations. He said some executives he had advised were “pulling their hair out” over what to do.
For employers wary of the legal ramifications and political backlash of mandating a vaccine, the tide has begun to turn, if ever so slightly.
“At the beginning, there were a lot of employers that were concerned about jumping in too soon and being the one out front; it is a divisive issue,” said David Barron, a labor and employment lawyer at the law firm Cozen O’Connor. “The calculus starts to shift a little bit when you see another spike.”
Recent court decisions have upheld employers’ rights to require vaccinations.
“The legal authority continues to line up on the side of employers being allowed to mandate vaccines if they choose to,” said Douglas Brayley, an employment lawyer at the global law firm Ropes & Gray.
When Twitter reopened its San Francisco office this month at 50% capacity for those who wanted to come back, only vaccinated workers were allowed inside. In June, a civilian group that oversees the Los Angeles Police Department was examining the possibility of requiring police officers to get shots. And numerous colleges have required students and staff to be fully inoculated before they step foot on campus in the fall.
For others, high voluntary vaccination rates among employees have made requiring the shot simpler. Morgan Stanley, an investment banking firm, is requiring employees and guests at its New York offices to be fully vaccinated, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss company protocols. By the time it imposed the mandate in June, 90% of its employees were vaccinated.
Vaccine mandates are still not the approach that most companies are taking. And the risk that the coronavirus poses to much of the population is far from what it was at the worst of the pandemic. New cases, hospitalizations and deaths remain at a fraction of their previous peaks, largely localized to areas with low vaccination rates. Vaccines remain effective against the worst outcomes of COVID-19, including from the delta variant.
“The big question is not so much, ‘Can we keep workers safe in our buildings?’ but, ‘Will workers feel comfortable enough coming back, even if good controls are in place?’” said Joseph Allen, an associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who advises companies on COVID-19 strategies. “There’s a renewed anxiety that maybe started to dissipate in the spring but it’s back.”
That tension may make it more difficult to convince workers to return to the office. In California’s Silicon Valley, tech companies largely embraced the new era of remote work during the pandemic. But not all have been eager to let their employees stay home for good.
In June, Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees that they would be required to return to the office at least three days a week, starting in September. About 1,800 employees sent Cook a letter calling for a more flexible approach.