Image: Adobe Stock Photo
Last month, we asked the intrepid workforce of downtown Austin for some takes. Specifically, if you were an office worker somewhere in the downtown area prior to the pandemic, what does your work situation look like now? Are you back to the office in person, working fully remotely, or splitting the difference with a hybrid schedule?
Although we were intentionally running this survey extremely casually without much gesturing at statistical rigor, we were still surprised by the hundreds of replies — looking at our current feedback, only roughly 29 percent of downtown office workers are back in the office full time. Perhaps more surprising is that only 14 percent of downtown employees say they’re currently working fully from home. The rest, about 57 percent, are working with some form of hybrid schedule — at least one day in the office per week, but more often two or three days. Let’s see some quality comments:
“We tried to go back into the office 3 days a week, and most employees started leaving for other jobs — so we’re back to remote again.”
“Banker here, hybrid since June 2021 (3 days WFH). Got word we’re full time back in office starting December 1.”
“I work fully remote now and only come into the office if there is a unique need, which rarely happens.”
“As a supervisor, I’m expected to be in the office five days a week. The people I supervise work two days from home and three days in the office.”
“I worked as a paralegal in a law firm with offices downtown prior to the pandemic and am now a freelance paralegal working 100% remotely. I still provide services to a handful of lawyers from my previous law firm, but now I work when (and where) on my own terms.”
“During the pandemic, my company went to a hybrid model and half our employees now work outside of Austin. Those of us who are in Austin are open to use the office at our discretion. I prefer to not WFH, and I’m one of about 15 people in the office daily. For reference, the building once housed 180.”
“For Whole Foods, people are required to be in 3 days a week. There are definitely some teams that do allow fully remote, but only if you’re lower level employee. Anyone in a more senior role is definitely supposed to be in 3 days a week.”
“We closed our 50 desk office downtown in summer ’22 and are leasing space for 10 desks in the WeWork office at 6th & Congress. I was on a hybrid schedule, but now I’m nearly 100% remote.”
“Three-ish days per week in the office. When in the office I tend to arrive later and leave earlier than I used to in order to avoid traffic. Or I may drop in the office to accomplish whatever task I needed to accomplish in person on the way to another meeting or event.”
We can’t get enough of this cowboy thing. Image: GIFDB
Image: Adobe Stock Photo
We also asked current downtown employees which work strategy they would prefer, independent of what they’re doing now. Those numbers track pretty well with our previous findings — roughly 52 percent of current downtown employees say they would prefer a hybrid work schedule moving forward, with 35 percent stating a preference for returning to the office full time. That leaves the remaining 13 percent of workers who say they would prefer to work fully remotely from here on out. That’s a smaller number than we expected, since anecdotally we’ve heard from a lot of people over the last three years singing the praises of working from home. Here’s some of the most interesting comments we got on which style of work people prefer:
“Fully remote wins for me. The law firm I used to work for initially pushed a return to in-person work long before it was safe to do so. Those who pushed back for a hybrid situation were allowed to do so, but the work environment became rather toxic as a result.”
“Hybrid. It’s nice to separate work and home, but being remote Mondays and Fridays are just so nice. Going into the office allows more collaboration and socializing.”
“I like hybrid. I come in after traffic, leave before, and work from home in the mornings and evenings.”
“Used to be a “remote forever” guy but got mentally drained and tired of work invading my home. Now an in-person guy all the way, despite being in the minority of coworkers’ attitudes. Also my office location is pretty sweet, right in the heart of downtown, so I appreciate accessibility after hours.”
“I like my current hybrid situation a lot better than 100% in office. While I miss some aspects of working in the office, I get so much time back in the day due to no commute. Plus I am home able to handle non-work things better (letting the dog out, exercise, receive deliveries, handle house repair type things)”
“A customizable hybrid situation is pretty ideal to still take advantage of in-office resources and social aspects whenever you want but be able to come in and leave (or just stay home) whenever you want.”
“Hybrid! I’m more productive at work and it’s good to interact with my bosses, but I kind of need to be forced to go in or I won’t do it. So I like that it’s partly required.”
“I think the current (hybrid) setup is best – I do like coming in to the office to see people, can be more productive. Also enjoy getting lunch and walking around downtown, plus I take the bus so traffic is not a concern.”
“In person, but I want a company that allows people to be hybrid or remote if they want to. That way they can still hire the best talent.”
“I would prefer hybrid or remote, rather than fighting traffic in the commute and paying for parking downtown like I did. My life was so much more stressful and expensive worrying about parking and traffic instead of getting my work done.”
“Hybrid, I typically work from home in the morning and ride my bike to the office after lunch.”
Finally we asked about where our respondents lived, and it turns out only 5.8 percent of the downtown workers who filled out our survey actually live downtown. That means remote and hybrid work likely has a substantial effect on the daily population of the downtown area, which in turn has a downstream effect on the area’s retail and service economy. We can’t capture the entire downtown population, but it sure sounds like hybrid work is here to stay — and it’s the responsibility of the city and downtown stakeholders to adapt to this new normal. Hey, that was fun!
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