Many places of work are pushing for employees to continue to do their assignments from home, even post-pandemic.  The lower costs, the benefit to the environment and the less time spent commuting rendering more quality hours with the family are just some of the many benefits that people and companies are seeing.

Taking a look at New York we see this new way of working has become very popular.  Take Spotify for example which used to fill 16 floors at Lower Manhattan’s 4 World Trade Center.  This is no longer the case; in fact, it’s practically empty since the company’s executive management have told its workers they can work anywhere they want; they do not even have to be in New York!  MediaMath has taken the same route. This NYC-headquartered advertising tech firm has also moved out, having seen how productive remote working has been. 

Salesforce – that once had its workers in a 630-foot building – is taking a similar (but not identical) approach.  Rather than go the whole hog, this Midtown Manhattan headquartered firm is telling its staff to come in one-tree days a week and work the rest at home. 

What this will mean for New York – and its central island Manhattan which has been primarily sustained by 1.6 million daily commuters – remains to be seen but Mayor de Blasio is already working on encouraging New Yorkers to return.  He is doing this by having his own municipality workers (that totals approximately 80,000 individuals) come back early next month referring to his decision as “…an important step for the city, and  another important step on the way to the full recovery of New York City.”

Commuting in and out of New York has (understandably) decreased substantially.  Those using the Metro North Railway (serving Hudson Valley, Connecticut and Grand Central Station) have decreased by at least 78 percent from last year. Right now, it is estimated

Members polled by the Partnership for New York City reported that so far 10 percent of workers have returned to the office and it is anticipated that by September this figure will have increased to 45 percent.  At the same time, more than half of those who used to go into the office will now permanently work remotely.