Hybrid work a work in progress

Daily Point

Hybrid … holding for now

Wondering what Long Islanders’ work-life picture looks like 2½ years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Consider this:

A staggering 91% of Manhattan office workers are NOT in the office five days a week.

But only 16% of those workers are fully remote.

And on an average workday, 49% of those employees are in their offices.

Together, that data — from a recent survey by The Partnership for New York City, a leading business group based in Manhattan — paints a picture of employers relying on a hybrid model. The Partnership, which surveyed more than 160 major employers, expects the return to work to continue to expand slowly, projecting that by January 2023, 54% of workers will be in the office on an average workday.

But Kathryn Wylde, the Partnership’s president and chief executive, told The Point she saw the current statistics as a “short term policy” that’s “not permanent.”

“At this point, things are still in flux,” Wylde said. “Employers are trying to figure out what’s going to work best over the long term.”

Wylde noted that many employers are evaluating the hybrid model to see “how well it ultimately works out.” But she noted that some studies already have shown that for some industries, remote work is not as successful as in-person performance, especially in terms of training and communication — and, in some cases, productivity. For example, Wylde noted that financial analyst program graduates were not as well-prepared after two years of working remotely as those who have been able to be in the office in the past.

So far, according to the Partnership data, the real estate industry has the largest daily in-person attendance, with 82% of workers coming into the office. Law and financial services are second and third on the list, as each have more than half of their employees coming into the office.

Among those employers who are encouraging workers back to the office, 59% are offering some type of incentives, such as free or discounted meals, social activities, transportation subsidies, or child care.

Nonetheless, for now, employers seem to be sticking to a mix of in-person and remote work. The highest percentage of employers — 37% — are choosing to bring their workers in three days a week. Despite that trend, however, the Partnership found that the majority of employers have no plans to decrease the amount of real estate they hold In New York City, and that only 10% expect a decline in their worker head count over the next five years.

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Talking Point

Remote workers quadruple

The Partnership’s survey results are reinforced by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, where in raw numbers, remote work on Long Island has nearly quadrupled from 64,000 in 2019 to 253,000 in 2021.

The Census Bureau data showed that there was a 14.8 percentage-point jump statewide of employees working from home from 2019 to 2021, while on Long Island, the work-from-home population has spiked from 4.43% to 17.53%, an increase of 13.1 percentage points during that time. 

Meanwhile, most of the other categories for transportation to work saw declines. Public transportation use was halved from 165,000 commuters to 81,000 in the same period, while the number of those driving to work dropped from nearly 1.2 million to slightly above 1 million.

While Nassau and Suffolk differ in many ways, they mimic each other in this shift to remote work. Both counties saw their remote work population quadruple, Nassau County from 5% to 20% and Suffolk County from 3.8% to 15.3%.

— Jun-Kai Teoh @jkteoh

Pencil Point

A Graham cracker

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/nationalcartoons

Final Point

A player to be named later for enviro chair

Since the membership of the State Senate won’t be determined until after the November elections, nobody can say who in the majority — or which Democrats, barring an earthshaking surprise — will be appointed to chair which committees in the upper chamber.

But that didn’t keep The Point from testing the speculation a bit about who will succeed former Sen. Todd Kaminsky of Long Beach at the helm of the key Environmental Conservation Committee. Kaminsky left his elected post for the private firm Greenberg & Traurig, as a follow-up to his defeat last November for Nassau County district attorney.

“Nobody has any idea yet,” cautioned a Capitol insider.

The veteran chairman of the Assembly’s EnCon committee is Steve Englebright of East Setauket, who has steered bills and budget items affecting pollution, climate change, energy production, sewers, wetlands and other relevant topics. He was asked when interviewed by the Newsday editorial board about who might supplant his former ally Kaminsky as his opposite number in the Senate.

“There are a number of extraordinary potential partners,” Englebright said. “But I don’t have anything to say about who the majority leader appoints. Sen. [Pete] Harckham is the person I worked closely with on the Freshwater Wetlands Act and so his name immediately comes to mind. But so do a half-dozen others.”

Harckham, of South Salem, is currently chairman of the Senate Committee on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse. He’s a former Westchester County legislator who was assistant director of the Office of Community Renewal in the Cuomo administration. He’s seeking a third term in the Senate from a competitive district.

Englebright said: “I would think Harckham would be someone who the majority leader would look toward, but I don’t know for sure.” Currently that leader is Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, also of Westchester.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison