There’s also the larger question of whether requiring in-office appearances will backfire for tech companies—and, consequently, for Downtown San Francisco.
After all, multiple surveys have indicated that workers are generally willing to take pay cuts to work fully remotely. Some tech workers in Taimoorazy’s network have felt burned by employers who abandoned their support for fully remote work. Those employees, she said, feel their only recourse is quitting their jobs entirely.
Levin acknowledged that tech workers returning to Downtown will likely be part of its recovery—but cautioned that companies shouldn’t rush to get workers back in person, lest they lose some top performers.
“What I believe is that every company should decide what strategy works for them, for their employees, what makes the employees happy, the most productive,” she said.
For its part, San Francisco officials seem acutely aware that Downtown’s recovery can’t be done with an office revival alone. Moves like the “Vacant to Vibrant” campaign or, perhaps, the recent popularity of the Sunset Night Market, could be guideposts to where Downtown is headed.
“We hear about all this office space that’s left vacant in Downtown, too, and I just feel, like, ‘OK, you know that people probably aren’t going to come back in droves the way they did,’” Taimoorazy, the tech worker, said. “We should probably be looking at other solutions as to, ‘How can we revitalize this area?’”
But for now, San Francisco’s in-person office recovery continues apace—slowly, if not so surely.