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Survey: Half Of NYC Office Workers Won't Return Until September
By
Christopher Robbins
and
Beth Fertig
Published Mar 14, 2021
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Tipster
By
Christopher Robbins
and
Beth Fertig
Published Mar 14, 2021
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One year after the pandemic shut down offices across New York City, Midtown Manhattan is still a long way from its bustling, bombastic glory.
"Did you ever see that movie I Am Legend?" said officer worker Kevin Frisz, referring to the 2007 sci-fi thriller in which Will Smith inherits a post-apocalyptic, emptied out Gotham City. "It’s just a ghost town. It's what it used to be like on a Sunday morning."
Frisz is an investment manager in Midtown, and one of the 10% of office workers who have returned to their workspaces during the pandemic, according to a survey that was conducted by the business group, The Partnership for New York City.
The survey asked 174 companies, representing 209,000 of the city's 1 million office workers, when they expected to have their employees back into the office; 45% said would be back by September 2021, while 14% said they weren't sure. According to the survey, 61% of employers will not require that their returning employees be vaccinated, while 8% will.
Employers said that 56% of their office workers will keep working remotely at least some of the time.
"The overwhelming message is that both employers and workers are uncertain as to when they're going to come back to the office and under what circumstances," said Kathryn Wylde, CEO for the Partnership. "From an employer standpoint, they're very concerned about the mental health, stress, burnout impact of COVID. Many of them feel that they cannot put any more pressure on their employees in terms of the expectation of them coming back to the office, even though most of the CEOs I know would like to have the team back."
One of those executives itching to have workers back is Jamie Dimon, the head of one of New York's largest employers, JPMorgan Chase. “The WFH lifestyle seems to have impacted younger employees, and overall productivity and ‘creative combustion’ has taken a hit,” one of the bank's analysts noted in September. “Overall, Jamie thinks a shift back to the office will be good for the young employees and to foster creative ideas."
(If the pandemic negatively impacted workers' productivity, it did not hurt their ability to make money: Wall Street profits increased 82% during the first half of 2020.)
A spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase said the company's position hasn't changed since the fall, and that "any return will be in accordance with local health authority guidance and our own readiness plans."
On Thursday, President Joe Biden promised that every American adult will be eligible to receive a vaccine by May 1st, and suggested that if the vaccines are quickly and equitably distributed, we might be able to have small gatherings to celebrate July 4th. Unfortunately, the small business owners and street vendors who rely on office workers may not be able to hang on that long.
"Certainly for Manhattan, where office workers are concentrated, this is not good news for the small businesses and for the restaurants," Wylde said of the survey results. "They have very high rents. They need very high foot traffic and the survey results suggest that that's still a long ways away."
Frisz, the investment manager, said that he anticipates that New York will come to life quickly as soon as enough people are vaccinated.
"I think I’m naturally an optimistic person, so I lean towards a VJ-Day type situation," he said. "A summer of '69-type, raging party all summer."
However, he was careful to add that he had felt this way before.
"I remember this time last year saying the same thing. 'Oh we’ll go home for six weeks and by Father’s Day or July 4th we’ll be back to normal and we’ll have a big party on July 4th.' That’s what I hope for, but who knows?"
This story has been changed to correct what the Partnership told us about the scope of the study: it represents the employers of 209,000 office workers, not 220,000.
Tagged
COVID-19
pandemic
midtown
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Beth Fertig
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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