Major Corporate Users Around The U.S. Dealing Differently With Planning Return To Offices

A number of large office users have delayed the return to their offices until mid-2021, while others have told their employees they can work remotely permanently. Facebook and other major players have allowed their employees to relocate to lower-cost regions, some taking a pay cut but still saving substantially over their previous San Francisco or New York cost of living. Dropbox just announced to its 3,000 employees that they will be turning their office space into ‘Dropbox Studios’ to facilitate collaboration and team-building. This is different than the hybrid approach. Dropbox Studios is not for individual work and not for drop-in or desk hoteling, but for strategic team building, leadership development and company community events. Some companies have mandated their employees return to the office. In some regions of the U.S. only a fraction of workers have returned to the office, ie in New York as of August 8, 2020 only 8% had returned to the office while 26% were expected to return by the end of the year. In Dallas and Austin a third have returned. One thing is for sure. There will be no one-size fits all for the future of office design and usage!