28 Oct 2020 11:53PMPARIS: With a half-empty office floor and a whole team in quarantine, the new norm at one company in Paris illustrates the reality weighing on Europe's biggest business district.
Below, suited executives are still seen walking between the towers of the business centre, where a huge mall usually draws shoppers.On an autumnal day, nearly a year after the virus first emerged, teenagers congregate on the steps of the Grande Arche, where technicians are fixing the lift.Masked workers continue to pour out of the metro and suburban RER trains first thing and, at lunchtime, restaurant terraces are full.
Over in another tower, at an energy giant's headquarters, Mohamed, an office cleaner at La Defense for 17 years, says the atmosphere has changed. Instead, he and some of his asset management colleagues opt for a nearby brasserie where they order burgers using a QR code to avoid touching the menu. Without the usual workforce and tourists - 8.4 million a year normally visit La Defense - some are struggling.
"Body language, human relationships, gossip all make up the way in which people communicate with each other," he says.