The Covid-19 pandemic is not only changing the configuration of offices as employers seek to safeguard the health of their workers, it is also raising questions about the long-term place of the office in commerce.

The virus outbreak has forced entire employee populations to work from home. And as workers settle into that rhythm, it is uncertain how many will actually need to report to the office five days a week after a coronavirus vaccine is found.

Jeff Ziplow, a partner at an accounting and consulting firm, said the pandemic is almost certain to accelerate telecommuting, already enjoying increased acceptance for all or portions of a work week.

“There is going to be a place for an office, but it’s going to be a lot smaller,” Ziplow said. “We can be looking at different ways to transact business. Many organisations are going to rethink: ‘Do I really need this amount of office space?’”

Not everyone agrees. Commercial real estate brokers say until there a vaccine is developed, there will be an appetite for telecommuting.

“But there are two large occupiers in our market that are going through campus renovations that include putting their people in denser environments, and neither of those firms has wavered from their plans due to Covid-19,” said Patrick Mulready, senior vice-president at a commercial real estate services firm.

“So I don’t see a seismic shift in how companies occupy office space long term.”

Office leasing is seen as a key barometer of economic health and employment growth.

Like many US states, Connecticut is taking the first, tentative steps toward reopening its economy beyond essential workers: outdoor dining at restaurants, outdoor museums and zoos - and offices. Offices can only bring back up to 50% of their workers but the state is still encouraging working at home whenever possible.

For office workers who do return, they will likely enter spaces radically altered from those they left in March, well beyond wearing a face mask and keeping six feet apart.

Changing office design

In recent years, office design had moved to open floor plans accommodating more people in less space, using shared workstations and more collaborative areas.

But the pandemic suddenly has many employers rethinking that move - and how to spread people apart to minimise the risk of spreading the virus.

Employers are considering plexiglass “cough dividers” like those in many grocery stores. Many are installing decals on the floor to direct employees to move in one direction to avoid face-to-face contact. Cleaning may happen more frequently and not just at night.

Rita Joy, director of client development at a furniture wholesaler, said in a recent webinar on the future of office space that employers will have to stagger workstations, either removing every other one or taping them up so no one sits next to each other.

Collaborative areas, often used for brainstorming, will likely be used as work areas, and seats are coming out of conference rooms, Joy said.

“Where conference rooms once held 12, now it’s just going to hold six and we might be putting up a plexiglass screen down the middle of the conference room table to help protect people who are across from each other,” Joy said.

When buying new furniture, companies are likely to consider the cleaning of coverings, Joy said.

“We’re going to see a lot more of that - anti-microbial fabric and furniture, non-porous, solid surfaces,” she said.

Few quick returns

One insurance company which has about 7,000 employees does not expect a quick return of workers, certainly not in the first few weeks.

“I think a good description is: if you have a dimmer switch in your dining room, it’s like we’re going to turn the dimmer switch up a little bit at a time, a little bit,” Andy Bessette, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, said. “We’re not just going to flip the switch on and have everyone come back in because we are successful working from home these days, so there’s no real rush to do it.”

Of the 7,000 employees, about 1,200 already have some kind of telecommuting arrangement with the insurer, allowing them to work remotely from one to five days a week.

While a Covid-19 vaccine is still under development, the number of workers returning to the office is not likely to rise above 50% - and long-term that may mean more employees with telecommuting agreements.

 - Tribune News Service