Major US companies are now pulling back on plans to return to in-person work in light of the Omicron variants rapid spread across America. Employers planning to call remote workers back into the office in the new year are now pausing those efforts, and they are wary of setting new return dates only to push them back once again in the face of continued uncertainty and risks from the pandemic. Biden warns of winter of severe illness and death for those unvaccinated against Covid The pandemic is also driving changes in how in-person employees work, with a renewed push for strikes and unionization across several industries where workers have frequently faced long hours and unsafe conditions.
Alphabets Google, Meta, Apple, Uber, Lyft, Ford, DoorDash, DocuSign and Fidelity are among the companies that have delayed returns to the office.
Its warranted, given the uptick that weve seen in cases, Bradford Bell, director of the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell Universitys ILR School, said. The delays also depend on where the offices are located, he said. Theyre very much looking at this on a location-by-location basis. Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees in a memo on Wednesday that the partial return to offices, planned for 1 February, was now pushed to a date yet to be determined, after several other delays over the past two years. Cook offered employees a $1,000 bonus to help improve their home offices. Apples offices remain open and employees are still going into work in countries with lower Covid rates, he said. But he specifically pointed to the global rise in cases and the emergence of the Omicron variant as a cause for concern.