Office occupancy has reached its highest point since the pandemic.
Commercial office space is seeing a strong rebound. Employees are back after years of working from home. Houston has one of the highest occupancy rates among major cities, at just over 60%. However, will office occupancy ever return to pre-pandemic levels? Workplace expert Joshua M. Evans says it’s doubtful office occupancy will ever return to pre-pandemic levels. He adds that there are some employees who need to work remotely.
“Flexibility is going to be the name of the game,” Evans explained. "It’s going to be absolutely essential for organizations and their employees to work together to find what works best for them.”
He says in many cases employees are more productive working from an office than working from home.
“They saw productivity drop down during the pandemic when we did have the highest levels of remote work,” Evans said. “So, bringing the people back to the office, getting them focused back on their work is going to be better for businesses and it’s going to be better for the employees.”