It’s “back-to-office March,” but the new 9-to-5 doesn’t affect all workers equally
![Commuters at New York’s Grand Central Terminal three years ago this week [Timothy A. Clary/Getty Images]](https://cdn.robinhood.com/static_content/mwphzyq69oso/en-US/assets/files/3LpEVJoYtyIAKzvg7KHS2g_1_GettyImages-1129875311.jpg)
WFH Fridays... a distant term from a distant time, when Zoom wasn't a verb and doing spreadsheets in your bedsheets was special. Pre-pandemic, just 4% of employed Americans worked fully remote. By May 2020 it was nearly half. But as the number of Covid cases wanes across the US, employees are returning to fluorescent cubicles.
- Conference-room donuts: Office occupancy reached a pandemic peak of 40% in December, then dipped on Omicron. Now it's rising again, hitting 38% this month.
- Couch cupcakes: Last year 90% of remote workers said they wanted to stay at least partly remote. And 75% said their employer would allow at least some remote work post-pandemic.
- FYI: 50M Americans are frontline workers (think: nurses, grocery workers), most of whom couldn’t work from home.
Reviving rush-hour podcasts… Employers aren’t taking a one-size-fits-all approach. On one end, companies like Apple, Netflix, Citi, and Goldman have set deadlines for full office returns (many this spring). Then there are hybrids like Meta, Disney, and Lyft, which are offering flexibility to retain talent. Google’s spending billions on new offices to lure hybrid-ers back to kombucha taps. Finally, there’s remote-first companies like Shopify, Coinbase, and Slack. Some pros and cons:
- Banks, law firms, and others bullish on RTO must’ve decided that remote life dampens productivity — or invested too much in pricey leases.
- Others are happy to save on rent and catered meals, and like the option of dipping into a wider talent pool (aka: nationwide).
We can return to office, but not to normal… The conclusion of this remote experiment: it worked out better than most could’ve imagined. Many say their productivity and overall happiness improved. But reactions varied: Women and people of color are more likely to view remote work positively than white males. And among those with children, women are 50% more likely than men to prefer WFH. But they’re also less likely to get promoted while remote, which suggests IRL facetime can make a difference. That could become a point of tension in the new 9-to-5.