When New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Tuesday that "it may never be a five-day week again," it seemed like a shift. But when New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday that work "may include a four-day week" going forward, it felt like a trend.
"We are moving into a new era of working and what New York is going to look like," Adams said.
Both leaders reflecting reality: New York City has not returned to work in full force, two years after the pandemic began.
“Employers are being very careful. This is the third time we’ve tried to summon people back to the office," said Kathy Wylde, the president of The Partnership for New York, which represents hundreds of companies that employ about a million people in the city.
A new survey shows only 35 percent of the city’s office workers have returned full time. Business leaders expect that number to jump to 50 percent by the end of this month.
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"The employers are not making the decisions. It’s the people, the employees," said Wylde, adding that tens of thousands of people realized working remotely had its advantages as the pandemic continued longer than anyone predicted.
"There’s a lot of new habits that are out there. Employers are trying to be respectful of their people," she said.
But if government leaders are being patient as of now, that only goes so far. Hochul said that that while the five-day work week may be gone, she would still expect most employers would have workers come in "at least three to four days minimum." Adams echoed Hochul's desire for a return to in-person work.
"One things for sure. You cannot remotely run a city like this. There must be in-work interaction," Adams said.
"I believe that both the governor and mayor have been talking to employers. Their first instinct was to bring everybody back. As they heard from employers they understood these are individual decisions," said Wylde.
The Partnership for New York estimates that something closer to a pre-pandemic full workforce in offices will return eventually, but maybe not until Labor Day.
