When Should Offices Reopen?

A Wait & See Year: Return to the workplace is unclear as more employees push reopening dates to the fall, waiting on vaccine rollouts

While many nationwide employers initially had high hopes of a quick vaccine rollout in early 2021, those hopes were dashed seeing the large scale effort required, the limited number of vaccines and other factors that have slowed down vaccine distribution. Therefore, employers have also halted plans to have millions of workers return back to their jobs in offices for the near future, with many companies refusing to set specific dates. It has become more of a “wait and see” plan with remote work continuing from 2020 for businesses all over the country, including large employers in Silicon Valley, New York, large metropolitan areas and more.

Some employers are pushing return dates back to September. Google had already planned for a delay last year, pushing return to offices in the summer of 2021.

As workers are able to do their jobs remotely, many have moved from expensive apartments and homes close to their jobs to less expensive areas. Two popular destinations include Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas.

These delays go across industries. For example, Qurate Retail Inc., the parent company to Ballard Designs, QVC and HSN, changed its initial May return to offices to September for all locations in Philadelphia, Atlanta and other metropolitan cities. Others like TechnologyAdvice, a marketing firm in Nashville, Tennessee, have revamped plans from a return to office to a hybrid schedule for either remote or in-office work.

Large companies such as United Parcel Service Inc., based in Atlanta, and financial-services firm Fidelity Investments Inc., based in Boston, have not yet set return dates, allowing many employees to continue to work from home remotely and are using a “wait and see” approach.

Salesforce, a San Francisco Giant, Leads the Exodus as More Companies Switch to Remote and Flex Work Options

The cloud computing technology software giant, Salesforce, has announced that most of its employees will work remotely part or full time after the pandemic

Covid-19 has had some lasting impact on how business is done as large companies like Salesforce are adopting a permanent shift away from office work to either flex (part time in the office and part time at home) and remote work options. Another effect of this change is also a reduction in real estate used by the company, decreasing its overall footprint.

Famous for occupying the tallest building in San Francisco called the Salesforce Tower and as the largest private employer in the city, Salesforce occupies similar buildings in large cities such as Chicago, New York and Indianapolis.

Salesforce is giving its 9,000 Bay Area workers three options to choose from: flex, remote or in office work. Flex work, which applies to most workers, involves coming into the office two to three days a week and working remotely the rest of the time; remote work involves working remotely full time and never coming into the office; and finally in office work is coming into the office every business day.

In an ever-connected world, Salesforce advocates for adjusting to employee needs such as childcare and the ability to work eight-hour daily schedules in a more flexible manner.

“We’re not going back to the way things were. I don’t believe that we’ll keep every space in every city that we’re in, including San Francisco.”

— Brent Hyder, Chief People Officer

With over 54,000 employees worldwide, Salesforce is making a change that is bound to influence other companies as well. This change affects existing workspaces that are being redesigned from being a “sea of desks” to more collaborative spaces, according to Brent Hyder. Employees can do a lot of work independently and remotely. New company office mock ups include more of cafe-style seating, open air conference spaces and private areas, with social distancing and clean spaces taking a priority.

The new plan entails 65% of employees coming in only one to three days a week — an increase from 40% before the pandemic. Additional employees would be working completely remotely.

While some companies have resisted the change to remote work such as Netflix, citing it affects company culture, work morale and productivity, others have embraced it. Being a cloud computing software technology company, Salesforce is able to transition to employing a more remote workforce more easily than most. More and more Americans are also adopting digital commerce swiftly from ordering groceries online to buying cars and getting services for a variety of needs, showing a permanent shift to e-commerce and digital platforms for many everyday activities.

FDA Offers Emergency Use Authorization For Two Vaccines to Combat Covid-19

The FDA approved emergency use of two vaccines, one by Pfizer and one by Moderna to combat Covid-19

Pfizer and Moderna Vaccines to Prevent Covid-19

“With the availability of two vaccines now for the prevention of COVID-19, the FDA has taken another crucial step in the fight against this global pandemic that is causing vast numbers of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States each day.”

— Stephen M. Hahn, M.D and FDA Commissioner

On Dec 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for a vaccine to prevent the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) . The vaccine is approved for use in individuals aged 16 years of age and older. This emergency use authorization allows the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, manufactured by the pharmaceuticals company Pfizer Inc. to be distributed in the U.S.

A week later, the FDA also approved an EUA for the vaccine developed by Moderna, another pharmaceutical company. The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine contains messenger RNA (mRNA), which is genetic material. The vaccine contains a small piece of the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s mRNA that instructs cells in the body to make the virus’s distinctive “spike” protein. After a person receives this vaccine, their body produces copies of the spike protein, which does not cause disease, but instead, triggers the immune system to learn to react defensively, producing and developing an immune response against SARS-CoV-2.

While approving emergency use of both vaccines, the FDA also warned that the FDA does not have any FDA-approved vaccines and that taking this vaccine, while recommended, may not protect everyone. Still the clinical success rates are much higher than standard issue vaccines that hover around 70%. Clinical trials had initially shown a 95% success rate for the Pfizer vaccine and 94.1% success rate for the Moderna vaccine, giving researchers more confidence in recommending the vaccine for use.

Both the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine are administered as a 2-dose series, 3 weeks apart, into the muscle.

Covid-19 Symptoms

COVID-19 disease is caused by a coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2, which has not been seen before. You can get COVID-19 through contact with another person who has the virus. Primarily a respiratory illness that can affect other organs, COVID-19 has results in varying symptoms in people from mild to severe illness. Symptoms do not appear immediately showing up 14 days after infection or exposure. Symptoms can include any of the following: fever or chills; cough; shortness of breath; fatigue; muscle or body aches; headache; new loss of taste or smell; sore throat; congestion or runny nose; nausea or vomiting; and diarrhea.

---

Side Effects of Taking a Vaccine

After receiving a second dosage of the vaccine, some recipients have reported side effects such as pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain, and fever.

More information is available on the FDA’s website and via this Pfizer PDF download and Moderna PDF download.

More data on the clinical trials are available at the New England Journal of Medicine.