Aug 5, 2021 - Economy

Return-to-work plans on ice after COVID spike

Courtenay Brown

Illustration of an office chair neon sign with the word vacancy flashing next to it — Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Even more "back-to-office" callbacks are being postponed amid a surge in COVID-19 infections.

Why it matters: It feels like March 13, 2020, all over again. When businesses sent all their workers home, it was an early big hint the pandemic was going to upend our lives.

Now all the botched return-to-work plans are telling us that the Delta variant could send us back into the thick of the pandemic.

What's new: Amazon's offices were set to reopen in September. Thanks to coronavirus concerns, Thursday the company moved that to January 2022. (For corporate employees, that is — warehouse workers basically never left.)

BlackRock and Wells Fargo now plan to reopen offices in October instead — one month later than planned.
It comes after others — including Apple and Google — recently pushed back back-to-office returns.

What to watch: The glare is turning to those that already forged ahead with reopening and now have to juggle the pandemic setback, i.e., some of the big banks whose CEOs have been adamant about returning to work.

Goldman Sachs is monitoring guidance from the CDC and local health authorities, along with its own workplace health experts, a spokesperson says.
Goldman employees are required to report whether they are vaccinated or not. If they are unvaccinated, they have to be tested weekly.

Add Axios on Google

Return-to-work plans on ice after COVID spike

What to read next