Although tech industry layoffs have left employees anxious, in San Francisco, workers aren’t budging on their needs.
Experts have predicted a relinquishing of power in the new year after years of workers having the upper hand in the face of a tight job market. However, due to the inevitable recession, some workers have let go of their desires for flexibility in order to maintain financial security.
Still, San Francisco professionals aren’t ready to walk away from the future of work.
“The C-suite and management are eager to get workers back in the office to facilitate collaboration, improve communication and enable mentorship, while the workers prefer to work remotely, with its various benefits,” said Mike McCarthy, Executive Managing Partner at Transwestern.
“To date, generally speaking, management has been slow to declare a mandate requiring workers to come back to the office for fear that the current employment market conditions favor the employee. If employees leave to pursue other opportunities that do allow remote working, the costs associated with replacing them would be staggering.”
A power struggle is expected to continue in the new year, but it appears workers still have an edge despite the predicted economic downturn.
This year, workers made it clear that their preferred in-office days were Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with Monday and Friday serving as remote work days. As a result, foot traffic on in-office days were slightly up at 50%, yet well below pre-pandemic averages according to data from Avison Young.
“Just because company XYZ laid off 5,000 employees last month, the ramifications of that don’t happen overnight,” said Ross Robinson, Principal at Avison Young. “But I think we’re going to find out a lot in the first quarter of next year.”
