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Milwaukee Employers Entice People Back Into The Office After Working From Home During The Pandemic

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 24: Atsuko Bolinguit, with tech startup company Fast, works in the office at her desk on March 24, 2021 in San Francisco, California. A limited number of employees at a tech company in San Francisco returned to work in the office as San Francisco and 5 other California counties moved into the orange tier of reopening. The orange tier allows non-essential offices to open at 25% capacity. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 24: Atsuko Bolinguit, with tech startup company Fast, works in the office at her desk on March 24, 2021 in San Francisco, California. A limited number of employees at a tech company in San Francisco returned to work in the office as San Francisco and 5 other California counties moved into the orange tier of reopening. The orange tier allows non-essential offices to open at 25% capacity. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

It’s been more than a year and a half since the COVID-19 pandemic first took hold in the United States in March of 2020. Since then, many employers have shifted how they do business. Companies sent people home who didn’t need to do their work in the office, schedules became more flexible, and things that didn’t need to be in-person became virtual, like meetings or conferences.

Now as we’re looking to a future after the pandemic, companies are grappling with how to entice workers back to the office and what to do with all the unused office space. Tom Daykin has been reporting on this issue for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, including a look at how Manpower Group is navigating this changing landscape.

Daykin says that as businesses are looking at returning to the office, they're figuring out how to incorporate some of the things people most enjoyed about working from home.

He explains, "In addition to having a flexible schedule they’ve added more amenities to the office just in an effort to make it feel more like a welcoming destination and not a place where you just go and grind it out everyday in your own little cubicle, sitting in your own little desk."

Joy is a WUWM host and producer for Lake Effect.
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