Employees Increasingly Reluctant to Return to the Office
Since the pandemic began, employees have been reluctant to return to the office and risk COVID exposure.
Office occupancy rates dropped significantly last week, likely due to Thanksgiving.
Kastle Systems’ 10-city national average fell to 17.6% — an 8.1% drop from the previous week. Every city measured on the Kastle Back to Work Barometer experienced a decline in occupancy.
Since the pandemic, Kastle Systems has been studying keycard, fob and KastlePresence app access data from the 3,600 buildings and 41,000 businesses in 47 states to identify trends in how Americans are returning to the office.
The Texas cities experienced the largest drops last week, with occupancy rates in Dallas, Houston and Austin falling 16.2%, 15.9%, and 12.2% from the week before, respectively. Los Angeles now leads the Barometer with an occupancy rate of 27.5%, followed by Dallas at 24.2%, Houston at 22.8% and Austin at 22%.
The holiday weekend aside, it has been clear that the Barometer has been dropping since fall when the 10-city national average was 27.1%.
Kastle Systems isn’t alone in noting employees’ growing reluctance to return to the office: the VTS Office Demand Index (VODI) shows demand for office space is still down 56.4% from February 2020 pre-pandemic levels.
The index tracks tenants of office properties entering the market across the nation. Pre-COVID-19, the national VODI was consistently around 100 with some seasonal variation for roughly two years, demonstrating the stability of national office demand pre-crisis.
In February 2020, the national VODI index value was 94. Three months later, in May 2020, the VODI had declined by 84% to an index value of 15. Demand initially increased steadily at around seven points a month from June through September. In October, it slightly reversed course and fell by one index point to an index value of 41.
“This is, by far, the worst contraction in recent history for the office market as businesses grapple with a global pandemic,” said VTS CEO and co-founder Nick Romito said in a statement. “While we started to see some signs of life over the summer, businesses experienced a second wave of uncertainty in October due to resurgence of the virus, the elections and the markets. We expect it’s going to be a bumpy ride for months to come, although we’re confident in a long-term recovery.”
Since the pandemic began, employees have been reluctant to return to the office and risk COVID exposure. About half of the respondents to a recent Korn Ferry survey of more than 1,000 professionals said they fear going back to the office due to health concerns.
Even if their office environment is relatively safe, employees who depend on public transportation may be nervous about leaving their home to go work. The Korn Ferry survey revealed high anxiety levels about returning to work, even as 75% of the respondents were confident their own employer would create a safe environment.