Wall Street employers are again telling New York City workers to prepare for in-person work – with most setting return dates in February – after companies like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase delayed their initial plans when the Omicron surge rocked the Big Apple last month.
New York City, like the rest of the country, has seen COVID-19 cases nosedive over the past two weeks. The Big Apple reported a 70% drop in average cases from 40,150 on January 10 to 12,012 on Monday, according to the New York Times. That’s nearly a 50% drop from the 24,906 cases reported one week ago.
With the light at the end of the tunnel in sight, Wall Street giants began announcing new return dates for employees. Citigroup told its metropolitan-area staff to be prepared to return to the office in at least two days a week starting February 7, a person familiar with the policy told the New York Times.
Citigroup has not released any information on return dates for the rest of its offices and its employees in other parts of the U.S. will still be told to work remotely, according to the source.
Major NYC employers are setting February dates for staff to return to work in person, as COVID-19 cases continue dropping. Above, pedestrians walk outside a seemingly deserted Goldman Sachs building in lower Manhattan on January 18
Citigroup and BNP Paribas have both set February 7 return dates, while Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase both have February 1 return dates. Above, a man walks past a JPMorgan Chase bank in Manhattan on January 13
COVID-19 cases have been dropping across the country over the past two weeks
NYC saw a 70% drop in average COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks, going from 40,150 on January 10 to 12,012 on Monday
Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase told employees to come back to the office starting February 1, after both delayed their return ahead of the holidays when COVID-19 cases were out of control ahead of the holidays. Goldman Sachs planned for a January 14 return date before making the change.
Ahead of Citibank’s return date, it will also follow through on its promise to terminate any employees who were not vaccinated against COVID-19 by mid-January.
Citigroup said earlier this month that U.S. employees who were not vaccinated by January 14 would be placed on unpaid leave and fired at the end of the month unless they were granted an exemption and accommodation.
BNP Paribas set the same February 7 return date for all U.S. staff after delaying its in-person work plans by about a month due to the Omicron surge.
The retail banking company, which employs about 14,000 people in the U.S., will expect U.S. staff to work at least one day a week, which is similar to its policy late last year before the Omicron variant swept the nation.
"With what happened with Omicron, we wanted to go back into a more conservative mode. So we only have people in the office if there's a business critical need for them to be in," Kevin Abraszek, the company’s head of HR change and transformation in New York, told Reuters on Friday.
Employees are required to be vaccinated to
