Photographer: Peter Foley/Bloomberg
A good work and life hack is to pay close attention to what people actually do and not just what they say. The narrative of the Delta variant is frightening both companies and workers. The mass media is making it feel as if we are headed for another round of shutdowns.
Whether new strains are a real long-term danger or not, major corporations, in an array of sectors, are undoing their prior plans for returning to work. They are pushing back the time frame for employees to come back. Studies continue to show that employees would do almost anything to stay working at home.
After being vaccinated and cooped up at home, it was time to venture outside to see what's going on. I thought it would be an interesting investigation into seeing how people are responding to the threat of the Delta variant in the real world, off of social media. Would the fear, doom and gloom heard on cable news and social media be pervasive in the streets? I rounded up the family for a little excursion and market intelligence gathering.
The first stop was a Modest Mouse concert with my son. The alternative, indie rock band played a gig in a midsized former opera house in Philadelphia. Over a thousand well-mannered, polite fans stood packed next to one another without wearing masks. No one seemed concerned about Covid-19 or new strains.
The next stop was the Van Gogh immersive art exhibit in the Lower East Side of New York City. Held in a large warehouse-type setting, hundreds of people walked in and out of three large rooms. They sat close together on the floor, watching a beautiful animated showing of Vincent van Gogh’s artwork on enormous screens.
We left and drove to Little Italy for lunch. Parking was tough, as there was so much going on. We walked into John’s Pizzeria, an old-school pizzeria started in the 1920s. The place was packed with customers squished into small tables, set close to neighboring customers. Having a seat by the window, we watched throngs of people walk by on a nice, sunny Saturday afternoon. Few people wore masks. The small sidewalks forced people to walk closely together. Nobody seemed bothered. The mood felt positive and alive.
We drove through Greenwich Village, Soho, Chelsea and Midtown to get to the Lincoln Tunnel and return home. The streets were lively. People were going about their lives without any appearance of concern. There was a feeling of cognitive dissonance between what we’re getting from the news and social media and what is happening outside in the real world.
Former President Barack Obama hosted a party for his 60th birthday and invited hundreds of guests. A DJ for the event took some videos and photos of Obama and his guests, dancing without wearing their masks and clearly not social distancing.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot preached social distancing and mask-wearing. When it came to bringing in revenue to the city via the popular Lollapalooza music festival, she gave the green light for about 100,000 young people to attend the concert. The people were on top of one another.
Corporate executives felt the pressure to make return-to-work decisions. A large concern is the safety of their employees. If ordered to return too soon and a worker contracts Covid-19 and gives it to their family and friends, it would be terrible on many fronts. The company faces possible litigation and a public relations nightmare. The path of least resistance is to keep with the remote model and allow people to return only if they want to.
Amazon announced last week that it intends to delay reopening its offices until January 3. The online-retailing juggernaut was previously prepared to have its white-collar office staff return by September 7. Beth Galetti, Amazon’s chief human resources officer, said the company will “closely watch conditions related to Covid-19.” The majority of workers won’t be heartbroken by the decision. In a Seattle Times survey, around 92% of Amazon employees responded that they’d like to continue working remotely, at least some days of the week. This postponement relates to about 60,000 office personnel. The overwhelming number of Amazon’s 1.2 million-person global workforce is still expected to show up for work at Amazon warehouses and fulfillment centers.
Interestingly, the company that pushed the furthest back was Amazon, which was run by Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, a publication leading the call for vaccinations and other health-related measures.
Another Seattle-based company, Microsoft, also delayed its plans for returning to the office and said it will require workers to be vaccinated. The tech company will delay the full reopening of its offices for in-person work to October 4, after originally setting September 7 as its return date. According to a statement from the company, Microsoft will also lay out accommodations for workers with medical conditions or who have a religious reason for not being vaccinated.
Wells Fargo, one of America’s largest banks, hoped to bring its workers back to the office after the long Labor Day weekend holiday on September 6. It will now be postponed until October 4, “given rising Covid-19 case rates around the U.S.,” Wells Fargo said in a memo to staff on Thursday. “This postponement applies to U.S. employees who are currently working from home, and does not affect employees currently reporting to work in-person or participating in voluntary early returns.” The bank asked its workers to “take advantage of the extra time off that Wells Fargo offers for you to get vaccinated.”
Large money manager firm BlackRock, insurance company Prudential, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Apple all moved back their plans for about an additional month.
If they were really concerned, the postponement probably wouldn't be for only one month more. This seems to show that they aren't too afraid that the Delta variant and other strains will wreak havoc on people and the economy. The slight pushback seems like a reasonable precautionary measure. If they were really concerned, they would have told everyone to stay at home for the foreseeable future.
