By Chip Cutter
Rich Lesser, the chief executive officer of Boston Consulting
Group, gathered with his executives Friday in the wake of the CDC's
new guidance that says vaccinated Americans no longer need to wear
masks and observe social distancing in most instances.
At issue is whether the relaxed rules change how quickly BCG and
other companies should bring workers back into skyscrapers from
Manhattan to San Francisco.
"It was a surprising decision," Mr. Lesser said of the new
federal guidelines. He said BCG executives would be holding more
meetings to think through the company's plans on Sunday and
Monday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's updated
guidance on Thursday threw a new wrinkle into reopening plans,
raising questions about whether to speed up office return dates.
Whether companies change course quickly depends, in part, on local
laws governing office capacity and masks, as well as the comfort
level of employees being asked to return, executives said.
Already, some retailers made a switch on Friday. Walmart Inc.
said it would no longer require vaccinated workers and shoppers to
wear masks in stores and warehouses outside of municipalities that
require it, and Costco Wholesale Corp. announced a similar
policy.
In Texas, Sabre Corp., a Dallas-area travel-technology company,
said the CDC's change would probably allow it to accelerate its
return-to-office plans this fall, though many employees will
continue to do much of their work from home. The new
social-distancing guidance for vaccinated people means Sabre may be
able to open more desks on certain floors than originally planned,
a spokeswoman said.
In California, technology company Salesforce.com Inc. said the
CDC's announcement didn't change its plans for masking or
distancing. Salesforce hasn't mandated vaccinations for its 56,000
employees around the world, and it is initially inviting vaccinated
workers in the U.S. to come back to offices in places like San
Francisco and Irvine, Calif., in groups of about 100 people at a
time, said Brent Hyder, the company's chief people officer.
In New York, the day after the CDC announced its new guidance,
real-estate attorney Jeffrey Schwartz and his partners met for an
outdoor lunch at a restaurant a short walk from their Madison
Avenue offices. One or two partners at Schwartz Sladkus Reich
Greenberg Atlas LLP said they wanted to let people walk around the
office without masks immediately, but most said they weren't
ready.
"I just think it's too abrupt to change right now," Mr. Schwartz
said, adding that if New York's city and state governments adopt
the new guidance, the firm may drop the mask mandate.
In Indiana, drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co. said it would stick to
plans announced last week before the CDC's new guidance. It aims to
bring back 25% of its office workers -- roughly 1,750 people -- to
its downtown Indianapolis headquarters on June 1. Only vaccinated
employees can come into the office that month, CEO David Ricks
said. Social distancing and mask requirements will stay in place
until July 12, when Eli Lilly opens its offices to more workers,
though the company will keep monitoring health data, a spokesman
said.
"Recent guidance from the CDC supports our current policy and we
will continue working with employees to offer flexibility based on
their individual circumstances and job requirements," a spokesman
said.
Parsing the new recommendations falls to communities and
businesses, and could be especially difficult to implement for
public settings like workplaces, health researchers said, since
there isn't an easy way to determine who is fully vaccinated.
Further complicating the issue is that the CDC guidance contained a
raft of caveats, including statements that it is still unknown how
effective the vaccines are against multiple variant strains of
Covid-19 that are circulating, how long-lasting the vaccines'
efficacy will be in most people, and that people who are
immunocompromised, and those who live with or care for them, should
continue showing more cautious behavior.
Mandating that workers get vaccinated is generally legal in most
instances, employment attorneys said, as long as exemptions are
made for medical or religious reasons. That hasn't stopped lawsuits
from being filed over the issue in places like New Mexico and
California. Most employers have shied away from making the shots a
requirement, but more may be considering mandates.
Delta Air Lines Inc. said that, beginning Monday, it would
require all new hires to be vaccinated, unless they qualify for an
accommodation. The airline doesn't plan to require current
employees to be vaccinated, though the company said 60% of the
airline's workers have already received shots. In a broadcast
interview with CNN, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said existing employees
who chose not to get vaccinated might be restricted from flying
international flights.
The CDC's guidelines could prompt more companies to ask
employees to disclose whether they have been vaccinated, and it
could spur workers to get vaccinated if they believe doing so will
help them work without a mask, Mr. Lesser of BCG said. Enforcing
vaccine requirements can be complicated, according to employment
lawyers. Companies can request proof of vaccination, though bosses
run legal risks if they probe the reasons behind a worker's
hesitancy, lawyers said.
Real-estate professionals were split over whether the CDC news
would prompt a more rapid return to city centers, with some calling
it an important step toward making people comfortable with
returning. Others said the new guidance mattered less than what
state officials require.
"Local regulations supersede the CDC, and states have been all
over the place," said Adam Portnoy, chief executive of the RMR
Group, which owns about 30 office buildings in several states.
In Newton, Mass., where Mr. Portnoy's firm is based, the state
mandates no more than 50% occupancy in offices and requires mask
wearing. His tenants in Texas and Florida don't have those
restrictions, but companies there still aren't pushing hard for
employees to come back, he said.
Many employers are sticking with plans to bring workers back
around Labor Day, because the tight job market for workers has made
some CEOs concerned about upsetting their workers or pre-empting
plans they made based on prior corporate guidance, executives
said.
"Employers are walking a tightrope," Mr. Portnoy said. "They
want people back but don't want a plan that will create attrition
in the workforce."
--Konrad Putzier and Craig Karmin contributed to this
article.
Write to Chip Cutter at chip.cutter@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 16, 2021 12:28 ET (16:28 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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