Friday off, Monday off: how the new hybrid business model works

Workers are reluctant to return to offices

The pandemic has really revolutionized the labor market, and some trends seem to have consolidated, such as the mixed labor market.

In fact, companies applying the rotation model a job From home and from the office we have come to the conclusion that Fridays end in workplaces and Mondays are hardly kept.

Case in point is the case of New York-based real estate giant Vornado Realty Trust, which officially labels its Fridays in the office “dead forever.” Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, the company’s president, Stephen Roth, added that the goal now, for employee retention, is easier access to offices, on days when employees choose not to work from home, but also to create a better network for seamless remote work. .

Fewer workers

According to an analysis by Kastle Systems, which provides security services for 2,600 buildings in 138 US cities, office occupancy levels in the country’s 10 largest cities are 49.8 percent.

In metropolitan areas of New York and San Francisco, that number rose in the past week, with occupancy reaching 50% and 45%, respectively.

Kastle found that offices were by far the busiest on Tuesdays, followed by Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Although the number of people working at their desks has decreased each day of the week since February 2020, the latest figures for May 2023 show that the number of people commuting – especially on Tuesday and Wednesday – has increased by 10% compared to the same period. Last month.

What employers say

While Vornado hopes to attract talent again with restaurants, bookstores, stadiums, gyms and bars, there are others who have taken a more direct approach.

Google, which initially offered a more lenient approach to back-to-work with its office-sharing policy, recently got involved with the back-to-office mandate. The company told employees earlier this month that they must be in the office three days a week.

As Fortune writes, Google Chief of Staff Fiona Cicconi has told the company’s huge workforce that remote work will now only be allowed “on an exceptional basis.” A Fortune spokesperson said, “Our hybrid approach is designed to combine the benefits of camaraderie with the benefits of working from home for part of the week.”

The rationale for returning to the office is clear — not only does it justify the billions companies spend on office space, it can also be beneficial to one’s career and encourage better teamwork.

This month, Meta joined companies like Apple, Disney, and Amazon in requiring employees to return to the office three days a week, but promised to “continue to improve the model to foster collaboration, relationships, and the culture necessary for workers.”

According to a McKinsey & Company survey of more than 5,000 workers in 2021, more than 60% of American workers said they’d like to work at least three days from home — and many would quit if the option wasn’t there.

Employees who decide to quit due to hybrid work models are also likely to find a number of potential employers have adopted a more relaxed model, with the latest survey from the International Foundation for Employee Benefits Plans finding that 74% of companies now have a hybrid work model.

source: extra time