And the return to work stuff.
Some 42% of peoplewho took frequent work trips pre-pandemic say they won’t do so in the new working world. That said, it looks like those are changing into workcationing – taking trips to fun places without taking days off. 40% say they’re planning to take a blended trip in the next year that’s equal parts business and leisure, according to a Morning Consult survey of workers.
That’s about as many people as those who say they plan to take a pure business trip in the next year — 41%.
Lots of returns to the official announcements too. Twitter is returning on March 15th while retaining the promise that employees could work remotely full time forever. Google is opening with a hybrid model in April, and while not requiring vaccination to return to work, it does have additional protocols for those workers. Apple is returning to the office on April 11, with a total return on May 23rd. They also allow vaccinated employees to go maskless at offices where “local indoor-mask mandates have been eliminated.” Notably, all the announcements include some level of flexibility for workers.
The Federal Government, too, is trying to bring workers back. In the State of the Union last week, the President spoke of leading by example on returning to the office. “People working from home can feel safe to begin to return to the office,” Biden said during his speech. “We’re doing that here in the federal government. The vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person.”
It’s important to note that the DC government has been vocal about bringing employees back in for economic reasons within the city itself.
Those companies certainly believe it will happen, per office leaser CBRE. Tech companies held 36 of the 100 biggest office leases in 2021, up from 18 in 2020. Second place is the Fed too, which has 5.1 million square feet of the 100 biggest leases — less than half of what the tech industry has.
And so context – 61% of teleworkers are working from home because they’re choosing to, per a new Pew Research study. Just 38% are home because their workplaces are closed or unavailable. Pew asked teleworkers in October 2020 why they were working from home: 60% said due to personal choice, 57% cited fear of infection, 45% said child care responsibilities were keeping them home, and 9% said they’d moved away from their workplace.
Why do we care?
Offices are reopening, employers investing in office space…. And staff who traveled before saying they won’t and teleworkers indicating they work from home because they want to. Could the tension be any more obvious?
I wanted to note the motivations of the President here. The push to bring people into the office is not about what’s best for work but what is best for the optics of the economy. That’s not necessarily bad… it’s just disconnected from the work itself.
The DC Mayor, however, is a different story. She’s trying to drive what has become unnatural behavior. She wants workers downtown to try and protect existing businesses built for the pre-pandemic time. I get that – it’s just short-term thinking. Instead, they are going to need to adapt. You can’t force people to behave a certain way.
Remember that on the business side. Leaders may like the optics of returning as the President wants… but need to instead think about the actual realities on the ground. You can’t force customer behavior, and instead, need to adapt to the new reality.