Labor Day marks the waning days of winter, bringing back school calendars, and the time when management staff return to the office more frequently this year.
For example, half (51%) of companies surveyed in August said they expect employees to use physical offices more often, according to a survey from CBRE.
An international commercial real estate services and investment company with an interest in returning to the office is clear. More than eight in ten survey participants want employees on campus at least 2.5 days, but the majority (60%) said office availability before Labor Day is below that number.
So your boss tells you to go to the office more starting in September. But now that remote and hybrid work arrangements are woven into the fabric of white-collar jobs, who follows this order?
Some post-Labor Day traffic data, office occupancy metrics and lunchtime order numbers from businesses also hint at an increase — but workers aren’t heading into the office in droves just yet.
“Some post-Labor Day traffic data, office occupancy metrics and lunchtime order numbers suggest an increase from businesses — but workers aren’t flocking to the office in droves.“
For example, the post-Labor Day measure of corporate key-card swiping remained flat on average across 10 major cities, according to Castle Systems, a security technology provider that runs an ongoing job-to-job barometer.
In New York City, a major financial hub, those occupancy rates have grown better than other cities, Castle said. But Big Apple office occupancy increased to 47.5% last week, up from 46.6% the previous week, the highest level since before the outbreak.
“New York City experienced the biggest jump, up 8.7 percentage points to 46.6 percent. Even so, Austin, Texas still outperforms New York City with office occupancy at 60.5 percent. We expect these rates to continue to rise,” Castle said.
But the Kastle barometer is just that – a barometer. It represents 2,600 buildings in 138 cities, but according to the New York Post, some of the largest corporate office buildings in the city do not use it. A spokeswoman told the Post it was involved in 200 buildings in New York City, but declined to name the buildings in question.
“In the year In mid-September, 49 percent of Manhattan office workers were physically present on an average workday, compared with 38% in April, according to a poll of 160 major Manhattan office employers.“
In the year As of mid-September 2022, 49 percent of Manhattan office workers were physically present on an average workday, up from 38 percent in April, according to a survey of 160 corporate employers conducted Aug. 29 through Sept. 12, 2022, by the nonprofit New York, which aims to strengthen ties between business and government in the Big Apple. York City.
New York City subway ridership remained below pre-pandemic levels for the work week, according to statistics from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. However, Manhattan bridge and tunnel traffic has been at a standstill for most of the week, the MTA said.
“Everything I’ve seen when people go back to the office after Labor Day doesn’t show any drastic changes,” said Nicholas Bloom, a professor at Stanford University who has studied the rise of remote work. In the year The last two big pushes after Labor Day in 2020 and 2021 have been complete failures, and I don’t expect anything different this time around.
“In the year The last two big pushes after Labor Day in 2020 and 2021 were completely unsuccessful, and I don’t expect anything different this time around.“
Some numbers show a shift in white collar work. In the year Between 2019 and 2021, the number of people working primarily from home will triple from an estimated 9 million to 27.6 million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
CBRE’s research has shown that there is a “significant correlation between what [company managers] The company’s global head of tenure research, Julie Whelan, was looking.
To top it all off, she found herself having to wake up after Labor Day — like a recent commute to her Boston office that took more than an hour, the first time since the outbreak. Still, it’s “naïve” to think Labor Day will suddenly trigger higher office usage, Whelan said.
If company brass are interested in bringing people back more often, Whelan said there are steps they can take, as far as practical things like getting teams to collaborate when they come in. But she’s not sure how often they do that.
Bloom is skeptical about the prospects for a grand return. “Employees are happier and typically more productive working from home two or three days a week. So it’s a tough business case to make and most middle managers and employees know this and aren’t pushing it,” he said.
The real pressure comes from the top executives, Bloom said. But managers below the top management think that hard pressure may cause employees with children and/or longer commutes to leave. “Most middle and junior managers know this and are secretly rebelling against their CEOs, making these back-to-office policies very difficult to implement.”
Some cities are seeing an increase in population
The average occupancy rate for the weekend before Labor Day and the seven-day period after the weekday fell to 43.4% from 43.8% the week before, according to Castle data.
That decline may have occurred because many people were working remotely on the Friday before Labor Day weekend. At the same time, occupancy on the Wednesday after Labor Day was about 53%, compared to 35% at the same point last year.
The end result? More gloomy situation. “The office holdings were steady after Labor Day, and it’s not yet clear if companies that claim returns after Labor Day will be affected,” Castle said.
In Texas, office buildings in Austin, Houston and Dallas, as measured by Castle’s Continuous Barometer, have long outpaced occupancy rates in other cities.
Tuesday through Friday traffic in these three cities has been at or above pre-pandemic levels since late August, according to Enrix, a traffic analysis firm.
Looking at the 10 cities Castle is tracking, Inrix saw an average 7% increase after Labor Day in the amount of miles driven in the area. “It doesn’t mean he’s fully back to work. [or that] Downtown offices are full. But it shows little movement,” said Bob Pishu, transportation analyst at Ericks.
More office workers may be one explanation — but not the only one, he said. After all, schools and colleges are back in session and the data captures non-employee trips like midday jaunts in and out of town to the lunch spot.
Lunchtime food orders provide insight
If we talk about food, this can be a drag. Especially when food prices are so high.
In the week following Labor Day, corporate lunchtime and group orders were 50% higher than the same point in 2021, most likely salads and sandwiches, Grubhub said. The biggest day was Wednesday, September 7, when group and catering orders were 60% higher than the same day last year and 30% higher than the previous Wednesday, company data shows.
In big cities like New York and Boston, jumps in takeout orders easily beat jumps in individual orders during the week compared to a year ago, GrubHub said.
“We’re very encouraged by the numbers we’re seeing,” said Jeff Mirmelstein, vice president and general manager of corporate accounts at GrubHub.
The data may point to some degree of management trying to win over workers’ hearts, Mirmelstein said. But it is also an opportunity to create a true culture of positivity and solidarity that goes beyond saying, “Oh, we have office food, please come in.”
Mirmelstein said the strong numbers dipped into September. “It seems to be a continuous return to office motivation.” And it may not be a different office return strategy, he continued. “It’s a return to pre-Covid conditions where people are returning to the office regularly.”