The most difficult question to answer for American businesses: When should offices reopen?
From Silicon Valley to Tennessee to Pennsylvania, there is high hope that a rapid vaccination of vaccines would send millions of workers back to offices by spring 2021. Many companies pursue their work dates for the workplace after September – and beyond – or refuse to commit to specific dates, telling employees that it will be a year of anticipation.
The delays span industries. Qurate Retail Inc., the parent company of brands such as Ballard Designs, QVC and HSN, recently moved its planned May return to offices in the Philadelphia area, Atlanta and other cities until early September. TechnologyAdvice, a marketing firm in Nashville, initially told employees to plan February 1 as their due date. The company then pushed the date back to August. Now, TA has decided that in the fall of 2021, it will launch a hybrid scheme to let workers choose whether they want to work remotely or come in, the company says.
The dates for returning to the office have changed so much in the past year that some businesses do not share them with employees. The shipping giant United Parcel Service Inc., based in Atlanta, and the financial services firm Fidelity Investments Inc., based in Boston, did not announce the deadlines, but rather said that workers from home had signed that the companies had the coronavirus pandemic monitor and that they will do so. call workers back if it’s safe.
Leaders say nearly a year of temporary work at home. While many companies say productivity has increased, executives are concerned that creativity is suffering, saying burnout is on the rise. Nevertheless, bosses struggle to say when things will change.