• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Republica Press

Your Business & Political News Source

REPUBLICA PRESS
Your Business & Political News Source

  • Home
  • BUSINESS
  • MONEY
  • POLITICS
  • REAL ESTATE
  • SCIENCE/TECH
  • US
  • WORLD

Saks Plans for Full Office Return in September

by

He added that office workers represent “the first wave of a very essential layering of the density of New York City that’s needed to bring this city back.”

Today in Business

Updated 

May 19, 2021, 10:07 a.m. ET

Still, people will be returning to a new type of corporate environment. Saks started making changes to its office in the fall, when it had been contemplating a broader return until the pandemic took a turn for the worse. It has added amenities like a nail and hair salon and subsidized lunches to ease the lives of employees. It is also pursuing a fully open floor plan, where only a handful of people, including Mr. Metrick, will have offices. Other offices will be converted into Zoom rooms or in-person conference rooms.

“It’s literally round tables with five chairs and people can plop down there with their laptops,” Mr. Metrick said. “It’s kind of like a student union in college would have been. It’s a very social and open work environment.”

Mr. Metrick, who has led Saks since 2015, said that the retailer has hit a wall with Zoom, comparing its popularity to “when cigarettes went mainstream.”

“It wasn’t until a few years later that people realized, ‘Oh my god, this stuff kills you,’” he said.

Mr. Metrick said he did not agree with recent comments by WeWork’s chief executive, Sandeep Mathrani, who said at a Wall Street Journal event last week that the least engaged employees are the ones most comfortable working from home.

Saks, like many consumer-facing businesses, has a close and collaborative work environment based on its business model, where “it’s not as easy to draw lines about where responsibility ends and where the next person’s responsibility begins,” Mr. Metrick said. He has been more concerned about company culture than how hard employees have been working at home, especially as new hires have joined Saks, he said.

“Zoom and the virtual world is a culture killer for companies,” Mr. Metrick said. “It doesn’t mean the individual is engaged or not engaged, or working hard or not working hard, or productive or not productive — but culture is so important to a business. And there’s no way that having 900 people dispersed and only existing in an intentional Zoom world with no unintentional conversation is good for a culture.”

View Source

Filed Under: BUSINESS Tagged With: Brookfield Place (Manhattan, NY), Business, Chairs, Culture, Environment, Hair, Metrick, Marc J, New York, New York City, Partnership for New York City, Quarantine (Life and Culture), Shopping and Retail, Tables, Telecommuting, Wall Street Journal

Primary Sidebar

More to See

$7.45M Hog Island Is the Largest Private Island Available in Florida Right Now

It’s the ultimate in seclusion in the middle of North Central Florida: a private island in the middle of St. Johns River near Lake George.In addition … [Read More...] about $7.45M Hog Island Is the Largest Private Island Available in Florida Right Now

Seattle Seahawks Haven’t Ruled Out Acquiring Baker Mayfield Just Yet

The Seattle Seahawks are very much still in the running for Baker Mayfield. (Photo by Stacy ... [+] Revere/Getty Images) Getty Images The Seattle … [Read More...] about Seattle Seahawks Haven’t Ruled Out Acquiring Baker Mayfield Just Yet

Makgeolli: How Korean rice wine is stepping out of soju’s shadow

(CNN) — Kim Kyung-seop recalls going to cheap bars after class with his friends, where they binged on as much makgeolli as possible. "You know the … [Read More...] about Makgeolli: How Korean rice wine is stepping out of soju’s shadow

Copyright © 2022 · Republica Press · Log in · As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy