Home or away?

Employers weigh when to return to the office

By: Melanie Anzidel
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... For Stacy Blauvelt, working form home has been seamless.
..... Now, instead of taking the train from her home in Spotswood to her job at an international publishing firm in Hoboken, she rolls out of bed and strolls to her computer.
..... The 29-year-old Bergen County native fights the urge to work through lunch, and the urge to stay on when it's time to log off. Despite being home, her work-flow has remained largely unchanged since the COVID-19 pandemic upended her daily grind last year. [2020]
..... "Sometimes I miss going in, seeing a few of my friends who were in the office, Blauvelt said. "But, honestly, I've been really loving working from home."
..... Most of her office colleagues feel the same way: During a recent company-wide survey, 87% of employees said they loved working form home, too according to Blauvelt. "I just think they could ever take this away from us," she said.
..... In New Jersey and across the United States, office life has changed. Instead of enduring the rush-hour rat race, employees have spent the past year [2020] commuting to makeshift offices in the corners of their homes. for some, that means joining a conference cal or Zoom meeting at the kitchen table. Or walking the dog and tackling other household chores during short work breaks. Or making sure their child is logged on for virtual learning while they work.
..... Some like the chance. Others can't wait to get back to the office.
..... Now, as the second COVID wave recedes and vaccine production ramps up, the possibility of going back to the office seems within reach. Yet experts say the pandemic has likely accelerated a change in office culture that had been slowly developing for decades - one that includes a hybrid of remote and in-the-office, or flexible workweeks when possible.
..... Gong forward, many companies will reduce their office space footprint, as businesses move certain roles to remote full-time.
..... Each company will navigate returning-to-work differently, and companies will likely resort to trial and error to see what works best. Jirs Meuris, an assistant professor in the Management and Human Resources Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, expects companies to propose plans that run the gamut between two extremes: either entirely remote work or entirely in=person.
..... "An advantage of this is that organizations can try to devise practices around flexibility that allow workers to match their preferences to their actual work environment," Meuris said. "That movement towards more flexibility has been going on for a while. So it's not really a huge change. It seems like a huge change now because it was forced upon everyone."
..... For instance, Blauvelt's company already offered the flexibility to work from home before the pandemic. The nature of her job also lends itself well to virtual collaboration. As a senior email operations specialist, her colleagues are scattered around the world - so, even when in the office, she rarely saw those in her working group face to face. "I'm the only one on my team based in New Jersey," Blauvelt said. "I work with a lot of international people or just across the country, so I didn't really see my colleagues on a regular basis anyway. It was a really easy transition for us."

DRAWBACKS FOR YOUNGER WORKERS:

..... Remote work does have its drawbacks - especially for those early in their careers.
..... Zenobia Tamboly, 23, graduated from Rutgers Business School in the middle of the pandemic. She now works as a risk and financial advisory analyst in the cyber risk department of an international professional service firm.
..... The Edison resident would have been commuting to her firm's offices in Manhattan once a week, while traveling the rest of the week to work as an on-site cyber consultant for clients around the country. But because of travel restrictions, coupled with the fact that her job can easily be done remotely, she is now doing everything virtually while still living at home with her parents. She hopes it's not permanent.
..... "There are some things that i do like as part of work from home. But, for the most part, I would like to go back to the office and collaborate," she said.
..... Taboly feels that she is missing out on important opportunities, including chances for mentor-ship or networking. In the past, she's built relationships with her peers by discussing ideas in person.

A NEW NORMAL BY FALL?

..... Some businesses are preparing for a return to the office but anticipating a new normal.
..... Rob Fazon, vice chair of Prudential Financial, one of the largest employers in New Jersey, said the company is still largely remote, but plans to adapt its office model through lessons learned from the pandemic.
..... "Prudential is working on adopting a hybrid-work model that will facilitate employees working remotely some of the time," Falzon said by email. "We're re-imagining our workplaces by dedicating more square footage for meeting and collaboration space - for purposes that benefit form the in-person experience. These changes offer an opportunity for greater personal and professional flexibility, while also enhancing the culture at Prudential."
..... More than 9 in 10 Prudential employees expressed a desire to retain the flexibility of remote work at least two days a week post-pandemic, Falzon said. The flexibility, he said, helps employees better manage some the challenges brought on by the pandemic, and allows them to have a better work-life balance.
..... "It is clear that when Americans return to the work-site, they will be entering the workplace of the future," Falzon said. "This experience has accelerated the future of work, which will have a lasting impact on where we work, when we work, and how we work."
..... As they look to bring their workers back to the office, employers must also navigate a new legal landscape that may limit such plans.
..... Over the past year, [2020] Governor Phil Murphy implemented several emergency orders to promote worker safety during the pandemic. As a result, Matthew Collins, co-chair of the labor and employment practice at the Brach Eichler law firm in Roseland, said his department has been busy helping client companies navigate all types of issues related to COVID-19.
..... As people return to the office, there are specific requirements about :daily health checks, and notifying employees when other employees test positive for COVID," Collins said. "So there's a lot of moving parts as far as making sure your office is being open consistent with these executive orders," as well as guidance form the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
..... One Murphy execute order still in place requires employers to accommodate telework where practical, Collins said. As long as that order remains, it is unlikely that employers can mandate that all employees return to the office. The order effectively requires workplace flexibility. "You're going to have some employees that prefer to stay home and potentially have a legal claim that this executive order entitles them to remain telewroing," Collins said.
..... New Jersey companies must also determine whether they can mandate that their employees get vaccinated. In New York, where state laws are different, there have been reports of at least one restaurant employee bing fired for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
..... "I think the challenge is that at the federal level, there's guidance that suggests that employers can implement a mandatory vaccination policy, but in New Jersey it's not that straightforward," Collins said.
..... In New jersey, employees have a certain right to privacy in the workplace, so an employee could argue that a mandatory vaccination policy violates those rights, Collins said. However, an employer may counter that the public health and safety risks posed by the pandemic outweigh privacy concerns. Enforcing a vaccination policy or firing an employee for refusing to get vaccinated, he said, could lead to tricky legal territory - and leave employers hesitant to impose any kind of policy. However, officials could issue guidance to make that gray legal area more clear.
..... "New Jersey previously did implement a mandatory flu vaccination policy for certain health care providers, so their is some precedent for allowing that," Collins said.

RETURING BY FALL:

..... Some companies have targeted their return to offices by late summer or fall. [2021]
..... Michael Allen Seeve, president of Mountain Development Corporation, a commercial real estate developing firm based in Woodland Park, manages several properties in the tristate area. Although most of his tenants are still largely remote, he said some have indicated plans to return to the office in limited capacities by the fall, [2021] with the caveat that there will be COVID protocols in place and not a return to 100% occupancy.
..... Employees are already seeing some of those changes being put into place.
..... Blauvelt, who works at the Hoboken publishing firm, said her office will remain closed at least until June. [2021] The company also said it was implementing a formal policy to allow for more remote work, and unveiled proposals to downsize some offices as they move some roles to remote on a full-time basis.
..... "I think the future of working life is going to be a lot more people are home and a lot of offices are going to be a lot smaller," Blauvelt said.
..... Some of Seeve's tenants - especially those in the service, retail or health sectors - have already returned to in-person operations, with now-common changes in their layouts, such as barriers, hand sanitizer stations and re-imagined spaces for proper social distancing.
..... Seeve is hopeful that, in time, office life will bounce back.
..... "Optimistically, I think it;s sort of like the best of all possible worlds when we get out of this" he said. "There'll be efficiencies [in remote work], there'll be appreciation for the human connection and the ability to work together - and a collective relief when everybody can state to resume some normalcy."

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