New data from WFH Research found that managers under the age of 50 wanted to spend nearly the same amount of time working from home as non-managers under age 50.

According to the January 2023 survey released earlier this month, managers under age 50 would, on average, perfer to work from home 2.6 days per week, while non-managers under age 50 would prefer to work 2.7 days per week from home.

Meanwhile, non-managers over age 50 were far more likely to prefer to work from home than those under age 50 and their older managerial peers. Older non-managers said they would prefer to work three days a week from home, while managers over age 50 said they would prefer to work 2.2 days a week remotely.

Of all respondents, just 19.6% said they would prefer to work five days a week in person, while nearly 30 percent said they would prefer to work fully remotely.

The data show a slight decline in amount of time U.S. employees are spending working from home, but the total amount is still six times higher than before the pandemic. The data estimates that 27.2% of work days are spent from home, compared to 4.7% from before the pandemic.

The data also indicate those working in large cities are more likely to work from home than those living in small towns.

The data does indicate a few limitations, noting that surveys were taken on tablets and cellphones, and those without such devices might not able to take the survey. The data also likely oversamples those without high school diplomas.

Working from home has done a lot to upend our normal routine, but it has also upended the routine of major cities across the country.

Fewer people are commuting and working from the office and it is affecting real estate, and businesses that rely on that foot traffic to stay alive.

“It’s not that same hustle and bustle as it was this time two years ago,” said Andrew Weinstein, an advertiser who has been working from his Manhattan apartment since the start of the pandemic.

As millions more in the New York City area conformed to a similar lifestyle, subway ridership in the city plummeted. Between February 2020 and February 2021, ridership fell by 92%, according to the Manhattan Transportation Authority, and today, it has only recovered to 40% of its pre-pandemic levels.

Across the country, similar things are happening to major city downtowns. In San Jose, California, office occupancy is currently 20% of what it used to be. In Chicago, it is 24%. According to Kastle Systems, which has tracked keycard entries in offices where it operates, the average office occupancy across 10 of our country’s largest cities was just 31% of its pre-pandemic level.

“It’s not like New York anymore or the one that I’ve seen before,” said Andrea Silecchia who manages a coffee shop in Rockefeller Center. “It really killed the business, because we used to have over 600 people a day in this store, and now, we barely reach 100 if it’s a good day.”

To adapt to the changes, cities have had to evolve to accommodate and drive business. Some cities have suggested getting creative with zoning laws to reduce things like parking and change them into pedestrian zones. In Madison, Wisconsin, for example, that is happening as the city has doubled down on its “Streatery” program, launched in June 2020 to further expand outdoor dining.

Eugene, Oregon is also in the midst of constructing a 3.5-acre park that will permanently house its farmer’s market; things that are a far cry from the “point A to point B hustle” of the past.

After the height of lockdowns in 2020, New York City shut down some of its streets, converting them into outdoor dining venues.

Change is inevitable, and in two years that have brought so much of it, so is the resiliency that inevitably follows.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A new study says 1 in 3 Ohioans may continue working from home, post pandemic.

That could mean big consequences for Ohio cities, including Cincinnati.

“There’s nothing wrong with working from home, but it does have unintended consequences,” said Keary McCarthy, Executive Director of the Ohio Mayors Alliance, which commissioned the study. “What does that mean to the average person? It means fewer resources for public safety, fewer resources for infrastructure and roads and bridges, it means fewer tools to incentivize new employers to come to our cities.”

Many Ohio cities rely on an earnings tax to fund their general fund budget. That tax is paid by people who work within city limits. If people transition to work from home, outside of city limits, that money would be lost.

Cincinnati’s earnings tax is 1.8%, one of the lowest in the state. However, according to the report, Cincinnati could stand to lose $43 million in tax revenue on the high end to $15.7 million on the low end.

“There's been a handful of us here at City Hall, we've been talking about this for over a year,” said council member and candidate Steve Goodin. “There is no question that at some point in the future, we're going to have to not just look at Cincinnati, but all major cities. Are going to look at how we fund our operations.”

The city put aside millions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan to fill any hole left in the budget from this shift.

“We’ve been very conservative there. But, the Biden administration can't keep printing money. We're already seeing inflationary pressures in the economy. So at some point, we're going to have to figure this out ourselves. It is a very, very serious issue. It is the issue,” said Goodin.

Still, a time when some businesses are shifting way from the office, engineering firm CMTA moved into a new office space in Pendleton earlier this year.

“For us it’s just a really good environment,” said Jeffrey Millard, VP of Operations for the Ohio offices of CMTA.

Millard said the company doesn’t plan to ditch the office any time soon.

“A lot of our people liked the collaboration, they liked to be able to bounce ideas off people. We never really 'came back, came back,' but even now if I look out, we’re probably 100% today because people just like collaboration.”

However, he said, the pandemic taught his staff that remote work can work. Meaning the company will be flexible for workers, allowing remote work when necessary.

“I think the pandemic reshaped everyone’s mindset, because before the pandemic, oh there’s no way you can get as much done at home. What we all proved is you can still do good work,” he said.

It's been 15 long months since millions of workers left their offices and set up makeshift desks at home.

But as COVID-19 cases decline and more Americans get vaccinated, companies are beginning to establish protocols about how, and whether, office life will resume.

For Wall Street banks, the growing consensus is that everyone ought to be back at their desks by Labor Day — though Citibank said it's embracing more of a hybrid model. Meanwhile, tech companies are taking a far more flexible approach.

As for workers themselves, more than half of those surveyed in a recent Pew Research Center survey said that, given the choice, they would want to keep working from home even after the pandemic subsides.

Here's how some of the biggest names in tech and finance are handling the return to office life.

Apple

Apple expects employees to return to their offices three days a week come September, CEO Tim Cook wrote in an email to employees earlier this month, according to The Verge.

"For all that we've been able to achieve while many of us have been separated, the truth is that there has been something essential missing from this past year: each other," Cook said in the email. "Video conference calling has narrowed the distance between us, to be sure, but there are things it simply cannot replicate."

Employees are expected to be in the office Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, but those with roles that allow for remote work will have the option to work from home Wednesdays and Fridays. The company is also offering up to two weeks of remote work annually and encouraging, but not requiring, vaccination.

Facebook

Facebook announced earlier this month that employees can apply for remote work if their role allows. Any worker who wants to return to the office may do so on a flexible basis but is encouraged to spend at least half of their time in the office. Employees will also be granted 20 days each year to work from a remote location.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees in a memo that he plans to continue working remotely for at least half of the next year, a company spokesperson confirmed to CNN Business.

Google

Until September, Google workers around the world can continue to work remotely before deciding between coming back to their office, working out of a different Google office or applying for full-time remote work.

"The future of work is flexibility," CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a May memo to employees.

Pichai said he expects about 60% of employees to return to their pre-pandemic offices while 20% move to a different office and 20% work from home.

Twitter

Twitter has yet to set an exact start date for welcoming employees back to the office, but it plans to start with a 20% capacity limit.

Early in the pandemic, the company said it plans to let some of its workforce continue working remotely "forever" if they choose.

"If our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen," said Twitter's vice president of people, Jennifer Christie, in a statement to CNN Business. "If not, our offices will be their warm and welcoming selves, with some additional precautions, when we feel it's safe to return."

The company has stressed that it wants employees to have the choice to return to the office, but it anticipates that most workers will opt for a hybrid model, spending some time in the office and some time at home.

Uber

Uber will shift to a hybrid model in September, according to an April blog post from Nikki Krishnamurthy, the company's chief people officer.

Employees at the ride-hailing company are expected in the office three days a week, but they will have the option to work remotely the other two days.

"We feel that this combination of in-person and remote work will give people the freedom to do their best work while staying connected to their colleagues," Krishnamurthy said in the blog post.

Bank of America

Bank of America is encouraging, and expecting, all vaccinated employees to return to the office after Labor Day, CEO Brian Moynihan said this week.

"Our view is all the vaccinated teammates will be back," Moynihan said in a Bloomberg Television interview this week. "We'll be able to operate fairly normally and will then start to make provisions for the other teammates as we move through the fall."

The bank is not mandating employees to report their vaccination status, but it is expecting them to input their status in the company portal.

Citibank

Citi said in March that it recognized how people have benefited from aspects of working remotely, and that it would embrace some flexibility in the return-to-office process.

The bank said it expects up to 30% of U.S. staff to return to the office in July. The majority of Citi workers globally will be designated as "hybrid," working in the office at least three days a week and from home up to two days per week.

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs welcomed employees back to the office on Monday. The company is expecting 5,400 newly hired interns, analysts and associates in the office in addition to its returning employees.

"We are focused on progressing on our journey to gradually bring our people back together again, where it is safe to do so, and are now in a position to activate the next steps in our return to office strategy," the bank's leadership wrote in a May staff memo.

Leading up to the return to in-person work, Goldman Sachs also mandated that its employees report their vaccination status. While vaccination is not required, the company is encouraging all staff to get vaccinated if possible.

JPMorgan Chase

Last month, JPMorgan opened all of its U.S. offices to employees with a 50% occupancy cap. Executives at the bank informed staff that it expects all U.S.-based employees back in the office by early July on a consistent rotational schedule, subject to the same 50% cap.

"We firmly believe that working together in person is important for our culture, clients, businesses and teams," JPMorgan executives said.

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman took a hard line earlier this week, saying he expects the bank's New York employees back in the office by Labor Day.

"If you can go to a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office. And we want you in the office," Gorman said at an investing conference.

The company has not mandated vaccination, but Gorman noted that "well over 90%" of employees had already received their COVID-19 vaccination. That number is expected to hit 98% to 99%, according to Gorman.

The bank will continue to consider returning to the office on a case-by-case basis, Gorman said, recognizing that some employees may not be able to be vaccinated, or may be in a different situation if their office is outside of New York.