So Far Most Office Workers Not Returning To The Office

Bisnow reporter Matthew Rothstein on November 18, 2021 reported “For months, ads and sponsored content have popped up all over parts of the internet dealing in commercial real estate claiming to provide amenities or design changes that will lure workers back to the office. None have been proven to work so far.To date, American workers are mostly not being enticed back to the workplace. From mid-October to the week ending Nov. 10, 2021, average office occupancy across 10 of the county’s largest markets has ticked up only slightly, from below 37% to 39%, according to swipe date from Kastle Systems.” Bloomberg News reporter Priya Amand on Oct. 15, 2021 reported that in San Francisco the figures are far worse. “So far, less than 25% of workers in the San Francisco metro area have returned to in-person work, according to data from the building security provider Kastle Systems.”  And while it feels like things are getting better in the Covid arena, today’s paper cited a complete lockdown in Austria where everyone will be mandated to be vaccinated by February 1, 2022. There are spikes occurring today in different parts of America, especially in colder areas where more dense masses of unvaccinated folks are gathering. This Covid uncertainty is a serious impediment to more workers returning to the office, but the thought of lengthy, bumper-to-bumper rush hour commutes and other downsides to returning to the office may also be at play.