“ Of the billions in tax incentives granted to US companies every year by cities and states, many agreements require workers to come into the office some of the time, or at least live in the region. For companies receiving these incentives, relaxing in-office attendance could be costly.
The contracts were crafted in a pre-pandemic era, at a time when commutes to the office were a given. Now governments are deciding whether to crack down or rewrite the rules entirely. In some states and cities, policy changes have already been proposed to account for the new reality of hybrid work.
The idea of remote working wasn’t built into any of those contracts to the extent it should be now,” said Seth Martindale, senior managing director at real estate investment firm CBRE. “Covid disrupted that whole environment. It’s been a learning curve for everybody out there.”