In a letter this week, Mayor John Whitmire announced that the majority of City of Houston employees will have to work in the office full-time beginning next month.
Whitmire stated in a letter to department heads that it is essential to go back to the office in order to collaborate more and make decisions more quickly. Following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the city offered its employees the option to work from home. The city then implemented a hybrid work strategy, which has let many employees to divide their time between their homes and offices.
According to Whitmire’s letter, face-to-face collaboration cultivates the kind of accountability, creativity, and teamwork that enables us to fulfill our commitments.
The Hybrid-Telework Program has permitted remote work for municipal employees. Approximately 1,600 of the city’s 22,000 employees will be impacted by Whitmire’s revocation of that policy.
Unless they have been granted an alternative accommodation, city employees are expected to resume their office workstations on February 1.
During the pandemic, a lot of work-from-home and hybrid schedules were used around the city. Since before then, Houston has had one of the highest rates of unoccupied office space.
The Greater Houston Partnership reports that during the most recent quarter, the city experienced a negative net absorption of almost 300,000 square feet. This indicates that more space is being released than leased.
