Omicron Variant is Drastically Slowing Down Return-to-Office Plans in US Tech Companies

Here we go again. An increase in COVID-19 cases due to a new highly contagious coronavirus variant has thrown a wrench into most employers’ return-to-office plans.

Only one week into 2022, central business districts remain barren, despite many employers’ previously announced expectations that workers come back to the office to start the new year.

More than seven out of 10 professionals in the U.S. (71%) said their company had postponed its return-to-office plans because of the omicron variant of COVID-19, according to a new survey of 3,167 verified professionals in the U.S. from the professional social network Blind.

The remaining 29% reported no such changes at their workplaces.

Return to office: Which companies have pushed back their plans?

Blind found that most tech companies moved their return-to-office dates, perhaps unsurprisingly, as many of them embraced flexible work policies.

Survey responses from verified professionals at Apple, Cisco, Credit Karma, Cruise, DocuSign, eBay, Expedia, Google, Intel, Lyft, MathWorks, Microsoft, Oracle, Peloton, Pinterest, Roblox, SAP, Twilio and Uber confirmed the delayed office reopenings, some of them indefinitely.

A few companies have pushed back their plans by as little as one month, even amid the uncertainty caused by the omicron variant.

“Already pushed back a month,” said a verified Credit Karma professional, referring to the personal finance company’s new mid-February return date in a discussion of return-to-office plans.

In contrast, many financial services companies, generally loathe in allowing work from home, have also held off on bringing employees back. American Express, Bloomberg, Charles Schwab, Goldman Sachs, Vanguard, Visa and Wells Fargo have altered their return to the office.

“RTO was originally scheduled for now, but they finally caved at the last minute and pushed it back because of omicron,” said a verified Charles Schwab professional. “So stupid that they are forcing us back at all.”

How are employers responding to the omicron variant?

More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, some employers have not yet honed their workplace policies.

Fewer than one in three professionals in the U.S. (31%) said their company requires employees who work in the office to get tested for COVID-19 at least once a week, according to Blind. The other 69% reported no such rule at their companies.

The results indicate many employers may be waiting to implement President Biden’s vaccine mandate, which also gives workers the option to be tested for the coronavirus weekly. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing the mandate.

A majority of verified professionals at Apple, Bloomberg, Broadcom, Cruise, Goldman Sachs, Micron Technology, Roblox, Salesforce and Wayfair confirmed their companies require COVID-19 testing to work in the office in Blind’s survey.

While many companies have taken steps to verify their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19, Blind found few companies have yet to require a “booster” shot.

About one in four U.S. professionals (24%) said their company had announced a requirement to get a booster COVID-19 vaccine, according to the survey from Blind, compared to the 76% who said no such policy exists. Bloomberg, Broadcom, Credit Karma and Goldman Sachs are some of the employers with a COVID-19 booster requirement for employees.

The bottom line

The coronavirus pandemic continues to test the mettle of employers. The omicron variant has forced many companies to rethink and push back return-to-office plans. A large majority of U.S. employers have asked their workforces to continue to work from home for another month or longer, with some companies giving up on setting a return date entirely, according to a new survey from Blind.

Methodology

Blind conducted an online survey of 3,167 verified professionals in the U.S. on its platform from Jan. 4 to 5, 2022, to understand how employers responded to the COVID-19 omicron variant.

Also published on the Teamblind blog.