Some companies are wooing workers, but not all.
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Moderna asked the F.D.A. to authorize a second coronavirus vaccine booster for all adults.
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A surge in Hong Kong is sowing confusion and chaos, with local officials seemingly unable to curb a worsening outbreak.
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The BA.2 subvariant of Omicron now accounts for 30 percent of new cases in New York City.
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Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and a vaccine tracker.
Dreading a return to office culture
For the last two years, 50 million Americans have been part of a live experiment in remote work.
The flexibility of working from home has been a game changer for many. But as more companies begin calling workers back, some people are dreading their return to the office.
We recently asked New York Times readers about returning to the office, and hundreds of you wrote in. We also spoke with our colleague Emma Goldberg, who covers the future of work for The Times and has interviewed dozens of workers:
What are workers feeling?
There are several categories of frustration and discomfort. One involves the microaggressions people of color have long confronted in the office. Another is the pressure on caregivers, who may be expected to revert to long and rigid hours in the office when they also have family obligations. And a lot of introverts — or just people who don’t connect with their co-workers — are anxious about returning to making small talk with people whom they don’t feel a lot in common with rather than just focusing on their work.
How are companies responding?
We’re seeing some interesting models from workplaces that have decided to commit to long-term flexibility.
Salesforce rolled out a “success from anywhere” model, in which a lot of employees can choose to be permanently remote. PricewaterhouseCoopers announced that about 40,000 of its employees won’t be required to return to the office. Last month, BNY Mellon told employees they would have more flexibility than a lot of their industry peers. Finance firms have been among the most enthusiastic about bringing workers back into the office.
What else can companies do to improve office culture?
The first thing many experts raised was the importance of ensuring that advances made on flexibility in recent years aren’t left behind as people move back into offices.
There’s also concern that some return-to-office plans will have a choose-your-own-adventure element, in which people can decide how many days they want to spend in the office versus at home. That might end up penalizing people who need flexibility. Managers might develop a bias against people who can’t spend as much time in the office because of caregiving or cultural concerns.
Companies also need to keep in mind the importance of empathy. The last few years looked dramatically different for different people. A woman I interviewed put it this way: She said that for some people, the last two years meant a retreat to their lake house. Many, many others experienced incalculable loss. There were friends lost, family members lost. Recognizing that is going to be important in creating a workplace culture that feels comfortable to people moving forward.
And finally, experts emphasized the importance of employers really listening to workers instead of making assumptions about their needs.
What can workers do about office culture?
We’re seeing a number of examples of people organizing and trying to form unions to cement some of the wage increases and other advances workers have made in this tight labor market. Several Starbucks locations saw union drives, which my colleague Noam Scheiber has covered extensively. The “Great Resignation,” or surge of people quitting their jobs, has also allowed some workers to demand more around flexibility or safer working conditions.
Carrots and sticks
We asked you all to tell us how your companies are trying to get you to return to the office. Thanks to everyone who wrote in.
J. Kennedy, an employee at a trust department in New Orleans, is on a two-days-in, three-days-home plan. “They actually took our thoughts into account when creating a return-to-work plan. I’m very happy with our new schedule. While I did miss human interaction, I do prefer working from home. I love that my company asked us what we thought and wanted and really listened. A rare and commendable quality in such a large corporation.”
“I hate being back in the office,” wrote Erica M. Buyer, a reader from Detroit. “I miss taking my kids to school and picking them up. I have so much more balance to my life working from home. My company is offering us a free tall beverage from our in-house Starbucks to make up for it. Until 3 p.m.”
“We were just told: ‘That’s it, you have to come back,’” said Dee, a research scientist in New York. “We’ve already lost so many talented people because of the return-to-office policy, and those of us left are working under tremendous strain as a result. I’m more productive working at home, and my life is enriched by having the time, money and energy to pursue new activities outside of work. I can’t give that up!”
“Can we talk instead about the industries besides health care and food services who have been going into the office every single day since March 2020?” wrote Mary, an accounts receivable manager. “It’s exhausting hearing about people being afraid to ‘go back’ to the office when others have had zero choice!”
What else we’re following
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If the F.D.A. approves a second round of booster shots, vulnerable people should be first in line, say many experts.
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Thirty-five countries worldwide have agreed to produce generic versions of Pfizer’s Covid pills to sell to lower-income nations.
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Italy is preparing to ease many vaccine requirements, even as case numbers surge.
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Experts say the pandemic hasn’t prompted Americans to take influenza more seriously.
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The largest study to date of the controversial anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin showed the medicine didn’t reduce hospitalizations, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Americans who describe themselves as “very liberal” worry the most about Covid, a new poll shows.
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High-profile cases in Washington have set some residents on edge.
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President Xi Jinping of China urged officials to reduce the effect of the country’s aggressive containment efforts on people’s livelihoods.
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Amelia Nierenberg contributed to today’s newsletter.
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