NEW YORK, Dec 10 (US): Businesses of all sizes are rethinking their plans to bring workers back to the office as the new omicron alternative adds another layer of uncertainty.
Alphabet’s Google and the country’s second-largest automaker Ford Co. are among those again delaying their plans to return to offices, while other companies whose employees have already returned are considering adding additional precautions such as ordering masks.
Officials in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway and Sweden have also asked people in recent days to work from home if they can due to concerns about the alternative, the AP reports.
Meta, formerly Facebook, and ride-sharing company Lyft separately announced Tuesday that they are letting workers delay their return when offices fully reopen early next year. Meta still plans to open its headquarters at the end of January but will allow workers to postpone their return in late June. Lyft says it will not require workers to return to its offices for the next year, although they will fully reopen as planned in February.
Janelle Gill, Meta’s vice president of human resources, said the latest decision acknowledges that “some aren’t quite ready to go back.”
The moves are the latest indication of how difficult it is for companies to put in place firm plans for the mandatory return of their employees as concerns about a spike in new cases or new variables continue to shift deadlines. This fall, the Delta variant prompted several major companies to postpone the mandatory return until early next year.
“A year and a half ago, we thought this would be for a very short time,” said Jeff Levine Shears, head of population health at global advisory Willis Towers Watson. “But the pandemic has thrown us a lot of trouble, and employers need to continue to be smart.”
The company’s survey of 543 employers with an average of 5.2 million workers showed that 34% of employees who are able to work remotely are still remote, but that will drop to 27% by the first quarter of 2022. However, a measure has been made. Poll before omicron news came out.
The delayed plans are another blow to already struggling restaurants, bars, dry cleaners, and other businesses that rely on office workers as patrons. Particularly affected are those in the downtown or downtown areas of cities like New York that are dominated by office buildings that remain largely empty.
The delays come even as US health officials say initial indications are that Omicron may be less dangerous than Delta, which continues to feed hospitals.
Lawrence Justin, a public health expert at Georgetown University, doesn’t think there is enough scientific information on Omicron to warrant companies delaying plans to return to the office.
“There will be a constant stream of new variables as well as increases and wanings of cases,” Justin said. “We should not disrupt normal business at every possible stimulus.”
He noted that layered protection such as masks, vaccines and ventilation are very effective in preventing the spread of the virus in the workplace.
The stream of new variables still has a psychological impact on business owners.
“Omicron made me realize that working life will never go back to what it was before COVID,” said Gisela Girard, head of advertising agency Creative Civilization, whose 12 employees have been working remotely since March 2020. From home keeping employees, their families, and our customers safe as well.”
This summer, Girard was aiming for a mandatory hybrid business plan beginning in the fall, but Delta postponed those plans to early next year. Now, omicron has reconsidered not only those plans but whether employees should return at all. She renewed the office lease last year but said she’s rethinking the actual office space.
For companies that have already brought workers back to their offices, it’s hard to back off and let them come back in again. Some are still considering new safety measures.
Kent Swig, president of Swig Equities LLC, a privately owned Manhattan real estate investment and development firm, said its 65 employees returned to the office in fall 2020 on a hybrid basis and went to the office five days a week in May, after they had all been vaccinated. .
However, Swig says he is now watching the new variant closely and will consider issuing masks and even requiring COVID-19 testing several times a week if the threat increases. He said he would reverse course and start hybrid or remote work if the situation worsened.
“My first and most important job is to protect all of my workers,” Swig said. “I would err on the side of caution.”
Levin Shears noted that many employers have set multiple dates for returning to the workplace over the past year, and at this point are looking to resolve more uncertainty before setting new dates.
Target CEO Brian Cornell recently told the Associated Press that he’s “avoiding putting dates on the calendar” for a mandatory return to its Minneapolis headquarters. Target began gradually opening up collaboration areas and workspaces in the fall to employees who wanted an option to work on-site.
“We will learn along the way and make sure we take the right steps for our team,” Cornell said.
Lyft said the decision to allow workers to choose to work remotely throughout 2022 was not exclusively related to omicron, but said new variables are a contributing factor to the uncertainty.
“We’ve heard from members of our team that they value continued flexibility in locating their workspace, and would benefit from the extra time to plan,” said Ashley Adams, a Lyft spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, Google is indefinitely delaying the mandatory return to its offices. A company spokesperson said in an email that the update is in line with its previous guidance that returns will not begin before January 10th and is dependent on local conditions. The company said it has safely opened more than 90% of its US offices and nearly 40% of American workers have come to the office in recent weeks.
Ford said Monday it will delay plans for the hybrid business at its headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan until March and plans to start a beta phase for select employees in February. It had previously said that it would not start the hybrid business model before January.
Ford said the hybrid business model affects nearly 18,000 employees in North America. Hourly manufacturing employees returned to work in May 2020.