If you’re holding on to the idea that office use pre-pandemic was something close to 100%, you’re probably not working closely enough with a workplace or commercial real estate team.
According to Density data, the reality is that pre-pandemic, offices hovered at around 40% utilization. Employees were often in the office, yes, but they were also taking vacations, out in the world at meetings and attending conferences, or sick at home—so this 40% utilization is what we compare current office use to in order to understand how return-to-office initiatives are going.
Recently, Density dug into the data across our customer base, comparing data from February 2020 to September 2022. What we see is an average office utilization of 19% across our customer set—about half what it was in 2020. And when we break it down by day of the week, we see a brand-new trend emerge: Mondays are behaving a lot like Fridays.
Are Mondays the new Fridays?
Fridays weren’t a popular day for office use pre-pandemic. Average utilization rates for Fridays were 29.8% in February 2020, compared to 40% Monday through Thursday. There are a lot of possible reasons why, including that people love a three-day weekend. But now offices are especially empty on Fridays: Average office utilization in September 2022 was just 11%.
But Mondays, which used to see only a slight dip in use compared to midweek days (39% versus 40% to 42%), are a ghost town, too. To start the week, average office use is just 16%—that’s a 60% drop compared to pre-pandemic levels, more than any other day except Fridays.
Of course, this data is “just” utilization; it doesn’t tell us anything about productivity, or who’s working versus taking paid time off. It tells us only how many folks are actually popping into their company’s office to work or meet with colleagues. So knowing that on both Fridays and Mondays employees are generally not compelled to commute or connect in person, what can (and should) workplace leaders do with that insight?
From where I sit, employers have two options:
- Go with the flow of their workforce and adopt changes that reflect the light office use at the start and end of the week.
- Find ways to attract employees to the office and work to reverse the trend.
Which answer is right depends entirely on your organization’s goals, culture, budget, and more.
If you’re down to double down
I recommend measuring your own office utilization so you can make data-informed decisions based on your own workforce. But if your own data reflects these nationwide averages, there are some tactics to consider to draw folks into the office on Mondays and Fridays.
I’ve been talking with others in the industry about the importance of moments that matter: curated in-person touchpoints that drive connectivity to the company’s mission, vision, and its people. If office use is dipping on Mondays and you’d like to see that dip turn into a peak, plan these moments on Mondays and ensure the programming is compelling enough to get people into the office. Maybe it’s catered lunch, maybe it’s a workshop or a social activity. This is the time to test and iterate to see what your teams find interesting enough to leave the comfort of their at-home setups.
Another option to help combat the lack of office use on Mondays and Fridays is to shift your PTO policy to one that encourages longer breaks. At Density, we have a requirement that every employee takes at least one vacation of at least five consecutive days. Because yes, long weekends are awesome, but a handful of those throughout the year doesn’t necessarily give the same opportunity for rest and reset that a whole week off does.
Encouraging full-on breaks could have two upsides: more rested, balanced employees, and better office utilization through the week as people opt for one or two longer vacations per year over a smattering of short breaks.
If you’re going with the flow
If you’re down to embrace this new ebb and flow of office use and choose to adapt to your workforce’s preferences, then the fact that both Mondays and Fridays see very low utilization rates could be a massive opportunity to save costs and show employees that you’re listening to their feedback, whether it’s explicit or not.
It’s possible that your teams are choosing Mondays and Fridays to stay home and focus on individual work while coming into the office midweek to connect with colleagues and tackle collaborative work. Collecting data from multiple sources (including office utilization) will help paint a clear picture here. If that’s the case, reimagining your office to support how employees are truly using it can help you trim the fat on your real estate portfolio. You might not need as many hot desks as you planned for a year ago, which could mean you don’t need as many overall square feet.
Closing up shop on Mondays and Fridays—yes, dropping utilization straight to zero––would be one way to really embrace this trend. The savings on energy, janitorial, and culinary costs would be meaningful to almost all organizations, while simultaneously signaling to employees that your company trusts employees to do their best work remotely and is working to find ways to support hybrid work more meaningfully.
If that feels too extreme for your organization (I get it, it’s a big leap), you could consider donating your underused space to organizations who need it, like nonprofits in need of meeting rooms or event venues; your own employees will be minimally disrupted, but you’ll be contributing to the community.
Wednesdays still win
In this cycle of reimagining how and where we work—where we’re testing flexible work policies or attempting mandates to require folks to return on certain days—no one size fits all. There are only the answers that work for your company and the teams and individuals who comprise it.
By measuring and understanding your own employee base’s office use, and connecting the dots between that data and how they prefer to work, you can develop offices that foster connection, culture, and collaboration.
Nellie Hayat is the workplace innovation lead at Density, the host of the Beyond Work webcast, and a leader of the future of work movement.
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