Meta employees celebrate the 15th anniversary of the social media company in Chicago during an event at their new Fulton Market offices on June 8, 2022.
Companies across Chicago are beginning to herd employees back into the office, but after two years of remote working and the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, it is a tentative process at best. Employees used to the flexibility of remote working are balking at a mandatory return, while hybrid work schedules turn the once busy office into a fortress of solitude.
But plenty of wide-open spaces remain at Meta’s Chicago office, which could accommodate 1,000 or more full-time employees. It is far from alone, as Chicago companies struggle to determine how much office space is enough in the post-pandemic world. While senior executives would like to get employees back into the office to spur collaboration, companies have seen productivity flourish with remote working, and the balance of power swing toward employees, Erickson said. Driving that trend is a labor shortage that has spawned the so-called Great Resignation — people quitting their jobs to pursue more attractive and often more flexible opportunities.
So are we calling Franklin and Randolph Fulton Market now?