A Return to the Office Is Coming at a Glacial Pace

By the end of the year, most of the companies that plan on returning to the office will have made the transition, but the move is taking longer than anyone expected. “The good news is that we expect a return to office to pick up momentum. The challenging news is that it is taking time. My boss Richard Barkham likes to say that this is happening at a glacial pace, and I would whole heartedly agree with him,” Julie Whelan, global head of occupier thought leadership at CBRE, said in a recent webinar hosted by CBRE to discuss the 2022 US Occupier Survey.

The survey in reviews 185 corporate real estate executives in the US. This year, it found that 36% of companies have either already transitioned or are in the process of transitioning back into the office, while 26% of respondents said the transition will happen by the end of the second quarter. That means that about two-thirds of employees will be back in the office by the mid-year. “At that time, we should really start to feel the difference in our buildings and in our cities as these expectations unfold,” said Whelan. “But, there are still a good amount of respondents that are [making plans to return] beyond the first half of 2022 or that are unsure about a return to the office. That tells us that it is likely going to take the remainder of 2022 until we can truly start to see stable patterns emerge of space utilization.”