One-Third of Global Offices are Empty All Week

If you don’t think entry-card swipes are an accurate way of measuring office occupancy rates in your midtown building, how about a workplace sensor that can glean the office occupancy rate for the entire planet?

Australia-based workplace sensor provider XY Sense has released the latest results of an ongoing survey that tracks nearly 25,000 “unique work areas” in nine regions including the US, the UK, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The firm’s study found that 36% of its workpoints—that’s what the company calls cubicles and desks equipped with sensors—are never occupied.

Of those workpoints that are used, 29% are in use for three hours or less on a given day; just 14% are occupied for five or more hours. The exception is conference rooms, which are in use 90% of the time, the report said.

This extrapolates to an overall office utilization rate that is about 50% of pre-pandemic levels, according to XY Sense, adding that workplace utilization peaks during midweek days and drops off considerably on Friday and Monday.

XY Sense deploys “privacy-preserving” sensors that passively monitor office areas to collect data on the number and location of workers present, as well as dwell times associated with specific floor plan features such as desk and meeting rooms, according to a report in TechBusinessNews.

Data from the sensors is updated every two seconds “for maximum precision,” TBN reported.

The report comes as several industry giants are toughening up their stance on return-to-office policies.

Goldman Sachs this week pulled the plug on Summer Fridays as the investment firm leaned on employees to work in the office five days a week, according to a report in the New York Post.

“While there is flexibility when needed, we are simply reminding our employees of our existing policy. We have continued to encourage employees to work in the office five days a week,” said Jacqueline Arthur, Goldman’s human resources chief, in a statement provided to the tabloid.

According to a report in the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Meta Platforms, parent of Facebook, has ordered all employees with company cubicles to return to their desks or face termination of their employment.

Meta’s RTO policy requires all workers assigned to an office to come in three days a week or participate in “in-person work activities” an equal amount of time, according to a message the company’s HR director posted on an internal message board, the report said. Failure to do so will be grounds for dismissal, the message said.

Last month, Amazon notified its workforce across the US that they may have to relocate to main offices—offices concentrated in larger cities, which the company is referring to as “main hub” locations—as the tech giant steps up its return to office efforts.

Amazon managers are telling office workers who are located in smaller regional offices, or who have been working remotely, that they may have to relocate to larger hubs in New York City, San Francisco or the company’s headquarters Bellevue, WA, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Some employees reported receiving messages that indicate they have a certain amount of time to move back to main hubs where teams are being located, even if they live closer to other Amazon office campuses, the report said.