Survey finds most NYC office staffers not back in workplace
As of mid-April 2022, 38% of Manhattan office workers are at the workplace on an average weekday, a survey released this week says. Credit: AP/Ted Shaffrey
More than two years after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the country, the majority of office workers remain on a remote or hybrid schedule with few back full time at their offices, according to a survey released this week by the Partnership for New York City.
Although the return to office survey suggests more workers will return on a regular basis by the end of summer, one Long Island-based CEO says the remote/hybrid model is here to stay.
"I can't imagine that this isn't the standard moving forward for any business — other than businesses that must have employees on site," Chris Coluccio, chief executive of Ronkonkoma-based Techworks Consulting, Inc., said Tuesday. "It's a shift in mindset. A lot of people have come back and there is something to be said for the camaraderie … But, it's become clear that working from home is a realistic option now."
The survey, which sampled more than 160 major employers in New York City between April 21 and May 4, found that on an average weekday just 38% of all Manhattan office workers were in the workplace, with just 8% of those workers back to the office five days a week.
About 11% were working in the office four days a week, 17% three days, 21% two days and 14% one day.
"Regardless of where we stand with the pandemic, it's highly likely that remote work — or, at least, the hybrid option — is here for the long haul," according to Matt Cohen, Long Island Association president and CEO.
Cohen said Tuesday that, while there were no statistics to bear out the in-person vs. remote figures for Long Island, "anecdotally I would tell you at the beginning of this year the parking lot at my building was half empty — and now it's almost full again."
Of the remote/hybrid structure, he said: "This is the workforce of the future. Pandemic or no pandemic I think we’ve crossed the threshold. It's how a lot of companies will conduct business moving forward."
Fewer commuting into Manhattan
According to New York City's planning department, before the pandemic about 315,000 Long Islanders commuted to work in the city — 225,100 from Nassau and 89,300 from Suffolk. Most commuted to jobs in Manhattan. The numbers indicate that's no longer the case.
A spokesman for New York Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement: “The mayor continues to encourage business leaders and workers across the city to return to the office and contribute to the economic ecosystem that supports workers in our restaurants, dry cleaners, bodegas, and so many other businesses that rely on the public’s patronage.”
The Long Island Rail Road said, in the first three months of 2019, it carried 21.2 million riders. For the same period this year that number is 10.3 million.
That trend figures to continue, according to the return to office survey, which found 28% of all Manhattan workers are working fully remote — though about 49% were expected to be in the office on an average weekday by September. Before the pandemic, 84% of employers had a mandatory daily attendance model, while just 7% permitted discretion.
Just 6% used a hybrid model, while just 1% were fully remote.
Coluccio said, of his 32 employees, the majority are in the office at least three days a week. Almost everyone has a remote setup that mirrors their office work space.
He believes Long Islanders have been more eager to return to the offices of their Long Island-based companies than to return to companies based in the New York City.
"I definitely think the Long Island angle is a little different than what's going on in Manhattan, with the travel and all that goes along with that," Coluccio said. "I think that from what I've seen the vast majority of my clients on the Island are functioning mostly as they did before COVID. But I also think now the flexibility is there, with the idea of the remote/hybrid scenario a real option."
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
