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Such is the devotion of Chesley Maddox-Dorsey for her work as chief executive of American Urban Radio Networks who has been working every day from the company’s Manhattan office for the past nine months, long before she received the vaccine against Covid-19.
As the pandemic subsides and New York City reopens, Maddox-Dorsey contemplates how to recover its staff, many of whom have become accustomed to working from home over the past year.
“I think it will be more nuanced and complicated than that,” he said, when asked if vaccination would be enough to persuade employees to resume life in the office. Of his fellow executives, he noted, “I think it’s probably a little discouraging for all of us to realize that not everyone is as eager to get to the office as we are.”
Across New York and other major cities, executives have returned to offices that are often their place of power and their most beloved environment. However, statistics suggest that their workers do not feel the same attraction, whether for health reasons, lack of childcare or the misery of moving.
As of May 5, the “back to work” barometer released by Kastle Systems, the maker of office security systems, showed only 16.3% occupancy in New York offices, 0.1 % more than the previous week and only a percentage points from November.
“They’re trying to figure out how to get them back and who they can push,” said Ruth Colp-Haber, executive director of Wharton Property Advisors, about CEOs consulting her about their companies ’real estate needs.
David Rubenstein, CEO of Rubenstein Partners, a commercial real estate company, agreed. “Most CEOs are back and want to get their staff back.”
At stake are competing views on the future workplace and the degree of flexibility that workers should have in deciding where and how they do their work. Or, as Colp-Haber predicted in a recent note to customers, “the class war will soon reach a nearby office in terms of the scope of hybrid work.”
The result is also of vital importance to cities like New York, which have built their economies on densely packed office towers, and for investors who own these buildings. If there are more people working from home, the demand for office space could decrease and these properties may be worth much less. Rents are already under pressure, thanks to an excess of unwanted space that companies pour into the sublease market.
Lunch time in New York: the return of workers is important for cities that have built economies with densely packed office towers © Amir Hamja / Bloomberg
It would not be the first time a pandemic has tipped the balance of labor management. After the Black Death ravaged Europe in the 14th century, leaving the fields without farm hands, landowners were forced to grant better wages and conditions to serfs.
In recent days, several companies have issued edicts for employees to return to the office. JPMorgan Chase it became the first major financial company to set a firm date, and told workers last month it expected more in July. (Perhaps not surprisingly, as the bank is building a new 2.5-square-foot headquarters on Park Avenue). Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and others have followed suit.
In a recent letter to staff, Google executive chairman Sundar Pichai predicted that 60% of his staff would spend a few days a week in the office, with 20% permanently remote and another 20% in the office full time.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told Yahoo Finance that he expected 80% of staff to adopt a hybrid model and that it would take a year or more to resolve the situation.
In private, some executives say they are inclined to turn the screws, but fear that doing so could cause talented workers to join rivals who are willing to allow more flexibility.
“I would say the head of HR and the chief executive of many companies are having this discussion right now,” said Rubenstein, who believes most workers will follow the head back to the office in September, if not sooner. By then, schools should reopen – at least in the United States and the United Kingdom – and vaccines should be made available to anyone who wants them.
“I don’t think there’s a big maritime change going on,” he said. “People will want to be close when decisions are made and things happen.”
But Phil Kirschner, who led the spread of WeWork to large companies and is now a consultant in the workplace, sees more dramatic changes. The pandemic, he argued, has only confirmed a shift towards a more flexible working life it has been running for years, but which many chief executives have refused to acknowledge.
“The desire for more flexibility is not new. What has been holding back is the managers who wanted to see the workers in front of them to make sure they were productive, ”he said. “And now this bandage has been ripped off.”
Even before the pandemic, power changed as companies competing for talented young workers joined an “comfort” arms race in an attempt to make their offices more attractive to a newcomer. generation. In a world where there is now elegant coffee, yoga rooms, massages, grocery deliveries and outdoor space of rigorFlexibility, the ability to work remotely at least part of the time, is another incentive.
“Companies have to work harder than ever for work to be really compelling for them,” explained Kirschner, who described the young workers’ mentality as, “I used to have to work in the office, not now. So m ‘You have to convince him why he should do it.’
Nadir Settles, who oversees 6 square feet of New York office space for Nuveen, has a similar vision. Your company invests in hotel comfort for your offices. “Whoever has the best cured environment, will get employees back, is the one who will win,” he said.
Others talk about child care and on-site medical care. In New York, where public transportation is approaching as a particular hurdle, there are those who discuss tax incentives for travelers.
Some jobs are better suited for flexible work than others. A programmer, for example, who could perform much of a task on his own, compared to a marketing executive who constantly interacts with others.
Like many chief executives, Maddox-Dorsey says she is willing to tolerate more flexibility after Covid, but worries that the coordination and collaboration needed to produce radio programs and then sell her will suffer.
“To have immediate feedback from team members, you have to be all engaged at the same time,” he said. “So if you have people deciding at the beginning of the week what day it’s going to come in, it looks like we’re working more toward individual schedules rather than having a joint goal as a company than we’re trying to achieve.”
He also discovers that it is not easy to determine who should be in the office and who should not. An older employee, with deep experience and relationships in the company, may not see the point in enduring a long commute to engage in real time or perform a task they could just as easily do from home. Even less so if they have small children.
But his absence could deprive younger employees, who benefit from working alongside him. “It’s a personal choice, but what we executives have to do is manage a myriad of personal choices,” he said, “and sometimes they’re diametrically opposed.”
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