‘There were seven cases on various floors that week’: Confessions of a media employee who returned to the office

By Sara Guaglione

Some publishers had planned to bring employees back into office buildings this month — but those plans went out the window as omicron spread like wildfire in the U.S., hitting a record of over 700,000 new COVID-19 cases a day.

Hearst was one of the few big media companies that began requiring employees to show up at the office at the end of last year, before reinstating a flexible work policy this month. In this edition of our Confessions series, in which we exchange anonymity for candor, a Hearst employee recounts her experience of returning to Hearst Tower after nearly two years working from home — and what she believes is the loose adherence to health and safety measures by her colleagues that may have led to her catching the virus.

Since this interview was conducted, Hearst Magazines president Debi Chirichella sent a memo on Jan. 13 to notify employees that the option to work remotely is being extended “until further notice” and that the company “will provide at least two weeks’ notice once we have confirmed our new return date,” according to a copy of the memo obtained by Digiday. In a request for comment, Hearst reiterated this policy.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

What was your first day back at the office like?

We were required to go back the week of Nov. 29th. That was the first week that I went in because it was mandatory. I have not been shy in saying I did not want to go back. When I got into the office that Monday, I saw that my colleague was seated in the same row that I was. We did measure and we were six feet from each other – pretty much exactly six feet from each other and neither of us was happy about that. Yes, that’s the guidance – but I don’t know, it still felt pretty close. We were required to wear masks in common areas [but] not if we were seated at our desks, or if we could appropriately social distance. When we got in and discovered that we were sitting that close to each other, that was anxiety-inducing for sure. [My colleague and I] decided to wear our masks at our desks all day. A lot of my coworkers were walking around unmasked. When you’re [working] in person, you walk over to someone’s desk to talk to them. Some people were still walking over unmasked. I rode the elevator with people who were unmasked. There wasn’t a high level of compliance even from the beginning.

How did you feel about being back in the office?

It struck me how unnecessary it felt to be in the office. Our weekly team meeting has far too many people to fit in a conference room with those distancing rules. We are maybe 50 people. We had to do the meeting on Zoom because we just couldn’t all meet …read more

Source:: Digiday