Spiking omicron cases spell delays for publishers’ January RTO plans

By Sara Guaglione

During a COVID-19 outbreak at Hearst last month, an employee got sick with the virus — and is still unwell. Another employee at Condé Nast said colleagues have been falling ill with the virus since the holidays. They are far from alone.

Stories like these are why publishers have once again decided to push back or pause their office return plans. The U.S. is averaging over 700,000 new COVID-19 cases a day — more than at any previous point in the pandemic, due to the rapidly spreading omicron variant.

TheSkimm, Condé Nast, The Washington Post and Politico initially planned to begin new office reopening phases this month. But those dates have now shifted to at least the end of the month, and in some cases delayed till March. Hearst, which required employees to go back to work from its New York City office in November, has temporarily reinstated the option for employees to work remotely. Publishers are also adopting more health and safety measures when they do plan to bring people in: vaccination boosters will be required at Condé Nast, theSkimm and The Washington Post.

Condé Nast

Original RTO date: End of 2021

New date: Not before Jan. 31

While Condé Nast began bringing people back into the office on Nov. 15, chief people officer Stan Duncan sent a memo to staff on Nov. 3 saying the beginning of 2022 will be when the company “will start our full hybrid approach that provides new flexible work schedules.” Individual departments were working with management to determine those schedules back in December. But last week, staff were notified that there would be a delay to those plans.

“We are continuing to monitor the rise in COVID-19 infection rates and have decided to pause our flexible return to our U.S. offices until Jan. 31 at the earliest,” a spokesperson said. While offices are open for essential employees and production teams, all other staff are back to working remotely.

Hearst

Original RTO date: November 2021

New date: Jan. 31

Hearst employees have been working two days a week in the office as of November — the first phase of its return plan. In December, COVID-19 cases started to spread among staff, who were notified the first week of January that the company would reinstate a flexible work policy through Jan. 31, meaning employees can choose to work remotely at least until then.

“Our intent is to return to our hybrid schedule of two days a week in the office, three from home. That said, we are continuing to monitor developments,” a spokesperson said.

Politico

Original RTO date: Jan. 18

New date: March 1

Politico staff were told in November that the company would move to “a systemic return under the hybrid model” on Jan. 18 — giving nearly all non-management employees the choice to continue to work from home if they wish. Politico informed employees last week that the start of that hybrid schedule would be moved to March 1.

theSkimm

Original RTO date: Jan. 11

New date: TBD

theSkimm had told full-time employees that starting …read more

Source:: Digiday