There has been much coverage of how major corporations are navigating the reopening of the economy and how employees will work in the new post-pandemic environment. There’s been scant talk about what city, state and federal employees will do—up until now.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo called for New York City to open by July 1. A skeptic may say that the decision was made in a thinly veiled attempt to rehabilitate the reputations of the politicians as they were accused of poorly managing the Big Apple and alleged sexual harassment and nursing home scandals respectively.
They must have also noticed that when other cities and states loosened restrictions and opened up businesses, more jobs were created and there wasn’t an accompanying increase in Covid-19 cases. It’s interesting to note that California Governor Gavin Newsom was the subject of recall election, then coincidentally Disneyland reopened and other restrictions were lifted.
De Blasio previously called for 80,000 municipal workers to return to work by Monday, May 3. In New York, the city government is the largest employer. Only about 10% of Manhattan office workers had returned to their desks by early March, according to a survey from the Partnership for New York City. The New York Daily News reported, “About 220,000 city workers have been working in physical offices or in the field during the pandemic. The 80,000 due to return on Monday have been working remotely from home.”
De Blasio said about the return to the office, “We have been making all these decisions based on the data, based on the science with our healthcare team and what we learned in the schools and what we’ve learned, you know, anywhere public employees are working, is if you put the right health and safety measures in place, that’s what matters.” Roughly $200 million was spent on the return-to-work program to ensure a safe transition.
The mayor said in a radio interview, “There’s work that needs to be done.” Although de Blasio was heavy handed in closing public schools and private businesses, and presided over one of the most stringent lockdowns in the U.S., while also having some of the worst health results, he now says, “In-person is more effective, more efficient, there’s more collaboration, there’s more creativity, as a manager, night and day, when I’m dealing with people in-person than via Zoom,” the mayor said on his weekly appearance on WNYC. “People need to come back because we have work to do to bring this city back.”
This decision coincides with major corporations, including the leading prominent New York City-based bank, JPMorgan, requiring workers to return to its offices. While many private-sector employees say they’d like to continue working remotely, they also want to keep their jobs. The government workers, however, have been highly vocal in their displeasure of having to return to work.
New York City municipal employees are pushing to continue working remotely. There was a demonstration held at City Hall on Saturday to protest de Blasio’s reopening plan. The protestors complained that the city was not prepared or ready for the return of thousands of workers. They raised concerns over open office spaces that may not have been properly set up with partitions, antiquated ventilation systems and child care issues.
ABC News spoke with demonstrators. The protestors registered their concerns about their health and safety, stating, “Many child care centers have not reopened after the pandemic shutdown, and many more [are] operating at reduced capacity, straining an already tight market for child care. We are still in a pandemic and public health crisis despite what the mayor says to reach herd immunity, we need a vaccination rate of 70%. I would feel most comfortable knowing that everyone had been vaccinated and I was sharing a space with folks who have been vaccinated.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, “New York City Workers for Justice, an organization of municipal employees, said in a recent statement that the city’s reopening plan doesn’t provide enough details on the safety measures being implemented.” The group of municipal workers added, “To send public servants back into the fray without a viable plan is disrespectful to their sacrifice and work, and especially disrespectful to the public servants who have already been working in person and are made safer by the telework policy.”
There’s a frightening issue lurking beneath the conversation about workers returning to their offices. Without the millions of people working in New York City, the ecosystem of restaurants, bars, barbershops, retail stores and an array of other businesses will be severely impacted. Small mom-and-pop companies, as well as national chains, have been crushed by the long shutdown. Many have already permanently closed their doors. Landlords could possibly face ruin if people don’t return to the city.
With far fewer people working in New York, there could be a downward death spiral, as more businesses close. Without the stores, restaurants and shops, the city will feel like a ghost town, prompting residents to leave—causing further deterioration of the economy and hurting the job market.
It seems that de Blasio and Cuomo have come to the realization that they need to weigh the risks of reopening against the possibility of destroying one of the greatest cities in the world.
Source: Forbes
