Microsoft is now requiring proof of vaccinations for US onsite work, for employees, vendors and guests starting in September, and delaying reopening until October. Real estate firm Redfin is also requiring vaccination, and those who have not been fully vaccinated will work from home.
In that context, other firms are also changing their strategies. Twitter, LinkedIn and Asana have all loosened their strategies about hybrid work, per reporting in Protocol. Axios has the same story – J.P.Morgan adjusting their plans, enforcing a daily health check as they stick with a plan to come back to the office post-Labor Day. Axios is maintaining a list of companies requiring vaccination, which has grown to include Tyson Foods, BlackRock, The Washington Post, Ascension Health, and Lyft, plus a longer list already reported here.
Bloomberg is covering Amazon’s dilemma – a concern that vaccine mandates would cause a mutiny among its workers, particularly those in warehouses. The company has so far held to its previous plans of loosening safety restrictions and a return to the office for at least three days a week in September.
Thematically, the Atlantic is saying much the same, with a focus on the management styles that thrive – and those that don’t – in changes of work. So too Business Insider, although that focus is on how workers are fighting back. Quoting the article:
In June, Bloom and his coauthors asked people who are currently working at least one day a week at home what they would do if their employer called everyone back into the office five days a week. Six percent said they would quit on the spot, and 36% said they would begin looking for another job. Among those who were employed, 60% said they’d be more likely to consider a new job if it allowed them to work from home four to five days a week. At this point, working from home is so important that respondents valued it as equivalent to a 7% salary increase.
52% of U.S. workers say they want hybrid work, per McKinsey. 45% of U.S. firms say they want to pursue such a model, according to aCNBC survey. And, per McKinsey, 68% of firms don’t have a clear hybrid plan in place.
Pulling again from the Kaseya IT Operations study. 42% say remote work is a major driver for their 2021 IT budgets.
Why do we care?
Continued remote work. What’s the rush, particularly with the level of uncertainty? One of the key items in the Axios article I pulled from is that employers haven’t been clear if hybrid work means work force or work week.
Stay nimble! That plan for work… it’s changing, but more importantly, focus on things that work for you and your customers that allow you to plan, but also execute in the now.
Note how there is money being allocated into remote work. If you don’t know what youre running to, but run anyway, isn’t that… reckless?
