Workers May Return To The Office Out Of Fear Over Losing Job Due To Recession

USA – Property tycoon Stephen Ross thinks that staff could be compelled to return to their workplaces due to the fear of the losing their job if the country’s economy enters into a recession, reported Bloomberg on Friday (17 June).

“Employers have been somewhat hesitant because they didn’t want to lose their employees, but I think as you go into a recession and people fear that they might not have a job, that will bring people back to the office,” Ross told the news outlet.

While the United States is facing a tight labour market with the unemployment rate hitting 3.6 percent in May, there now fears over a possible recession after the country’s central bank raised hiked interest rates by the highest amount since 1994 to fight surging inflation.

“The employees will recognize as we go into a recession, or as things get a little tighter, that you have to do what it takes to keep your job and to earn a living.”

“Every executive recognizes that people need to work together. You have to train your workforce and educate them and you work as a team. You don’t work as individuals,” explained Ross, who is the Founder and Chairman of Related Companies, the property developer of the Time Warner Center and Hudson Yards in New York City.

Based on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, he has a net worth of roughly US$8.4 billion.

Ross said the above as first in the country struggle to lure their employees back to the office after two years of working from home (WFH) because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Employees are still not returning to their workplace en masse. Data from Kastle Systems show that as of 8 June 2022, the office occupancy rate in the US only reached 44 percent. While that’s the highest rate since the onset of the virus outbreak, it’s still far from the almost 100 percent attendance rate seen in early March 2020.