Although remote working has become standard for many people, some companies are seeing their workers slowly come back into the office.
At Downtown Austin Alliance, around 30% of workers are coming through the office, according to Vice President Michele Van Hyfe. However, she added that they were still seeing office space going up for sublease.
Hyfe said that leasing activity in downtown Austin is a quarter of pre-pandemic levels, but is still optimistic that the office sector will make a comeback after a vaccine is widely distributed.
According to Pradhdeep Singh, global head of marketing at WeWork, companies will likely look towards adopting a hybrid work arrangement to support both in-office and at-home work in the future.
WeWork has adapted to reduced occupancy of their spaces by offering a new service called WeWork On Demand, which allows users to book office space on an hourly basis.
“We saw a lot of mothers actually who needed to get out of the house,” said Singh. “Some even brought their kids to WeWork. We saw teachers who needed a space to do their virtual classes that was more professional. So it was just all of these unique and interesting use cases that came.”
