The sad relics of life before the pandemic as people go back to work
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New York — Office workers returning for the first time after their abrupt departures in March are discovering relics of a different life.
Tickets for cancelled concerts. Winter clothes. Milk that expired four months ago. Calendars turned to March. Yellowed newspapers proclaiming the worst stock market crash in decades. That’s just a sampling of things workers are finding as they walk back into offices for the first time since Covid-19 upended normal life.
“It was like opening the lamest time capsule imaginable,” said Kevin Dorse, a communications professional in Ottawa, after making his first trip into the office in months.
Around the world, once-bustling offices were deserted almost overnight in the early part of the year as stay-at-home orders went into effect. Many of those spaces are still empty months later. In the final week of July, just 6.9% of employees had returned to offices in Manhattan that are managed by CBRE Group, the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm, according to a company spokesperson.
As restrictions ease, some office workers are braving confined spaces, such as subways and elevators, and making their way back in for the first time. They’re finding their desks and common spaces exactly as they left them in March.
Jennifer Wallner, the events manager for the War Memorial Centre in Milwaukee, had to cancel a full year of activities planned to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War 2. The signature event, VetFest, scheduled for July 30, was supposed to include live 1940s-style big band music, swing dancers, re-enactors, scavenger hunts and more on a plaza right on Lake Michigan.
When she returned to the office in early June for the first time since March 17, she saw big boxes of flyers and 2,500 rubber bracelets that had been ordered as promotional handouts.
“That was really a punch in the gut,” she said. “Our year just went from all of these exciting events that we were thrilled about. They were going to be great.” She took a moment and reflected: “And here they are just sitting in a pile of garbage.”
Michael Arciero, an investment banking analyst at Oppenheimer, said he rediscovered six dress shirts in a dry cleaning bag at his desk at the company’s downtown Manhattan office. Winter coats still hung on the backs of chairs.
There’s a digital component to the time capsule as well. Some workers have ...
Tickets for cancelled concerts. Winter clothes. Milk that expired four months ago. Calendars turned to March. Yellowed newspapers proclaiming the worst stock market crash in decades. That’s just a sampling of things workers are finding as they walk back into offices for the first time since Covid-19 upended normal life.
“It was like opening the lamest time capsule imaginable,” said Kevin Dorse, a communications professional in Ottawa, after making his first trip into the office in months.
Around the world, once-bustling offices were deserted almost overnight in the early part of the year as stay-at-home orders went into effect. Many of those spaces are still empty months later. In the final week of July, just 6.9% of employees had returned to offices in Manhattan that are managed by CBRE Group, the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm, according to a company spokesperson.
As restrictions ease, some office workers are braving confined spaces, such as subways and elevators, and making their way back in for the first time. They’re finding their desks and common spaces exactly as they left them in March.
Jennifer Wallner, the events manager for the War Memorial Centre in Milwaukee, had to cancel a full year of activities planned to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War 2. The signature event, VetFest, scheduled for July 30, was supposed to include live 1940s-style big band music, swing dancers, re-enactors, scavenger hunts and more on a plaza right on Lake Michigan.
When she returned to the office in early June for the first time since March 17, she saw big boxes of flyers and 2,500 rubber bracelets that had been ordered as promotional handouts.
“That was really a punch in the gut,” she said. “Our year just went from all of these exciting events that we were thrilled about. They were going to be great.” She took a moment and reflected: “And here they are just sitting in a pile of garbage.”
Michael Arciero, an investment banking analyst at Oppenheimer, said he rediscovered six dress shirts in a dry cleaning bag at his desk at the company’s downtown Manhattan office. Winter coats still hung on the backs of chairs.
There’s a digital component to the time capsule as well. Some workers have ...
