Speaker 1: It's Wednesday a I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily Dive
Speaker 1: podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update.
Speaker 1: We're making our way to getting back to work, but
Speaker 1: one big hurdle is the commute. For many that rely
Speaker 1: on public transportation, this still poses a big problem for
Speaker 1: companies and employees. Wary of being in close contact with
Speaker 1: many people, Some companies are considering alternatives to mass transit,
Speaker 1: like private bus shuttles or smaller office space closer to
Speaker 1: where many workers live. Chip Cutter, reporter for the Wall
Speaker 1: Street Journal, joins us for the commute back to work.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Chip, thanks for having me. We're
Speaker 1: all in this conversation now about getting back to work,
Speaker 1: reopening economies. There's already some states that have done it.
Speaker 1: Some of the larger states, let's say, like New York
Speaker 1: was kind of this epicenter of coronavirus COVID nineteen in
Speaker 1: the country, still have yet to formulate those plans. You know,
Speaker 1: the road back is a lot harder for them. But
Speaker 1: one of those biggest hurdles to bringing people back to
Speaker 1: work might be the commute. How do people get to work,
Speaker 1: especially in these big cities, that have these kind of
Speaker 1: density problems where everybody is packed in so tight. A
Speaker 1: lot of people rely on public transportation, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people are going to be very fearful for getting
Speaker 1: in a packed subway car or a pack train car,
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be, because people could be sick.
Speaker 1: A lot of people probably maybe not want to wear
Speaker 1: their face mask things like that. So that's a big
Speaker 1: problem that companies are facing, and they're formulating plans on
Speaker 1: how to get around this. So let us know a
Speaker 1: little bit more about this chip. That's exactly right. You
Speaker 1: think of the biggest financial capitals in the world, places
Speaker 1: like New York and London and Tokyo, all very much
Speaker 1: dependent on public transit, and companies are realizing that they
Speaker 1: can make lots of plans to sanitize workstations, to distance
Speaker 1: people properly in the office. What they have no control over, though,
Speaker 1: is how people get to the office that commute itself,
Speaker 1: and so that's proving to be incredibly problematic, and companies
Speaker 1: are having to think through, really, what do we do
Speaker 1: from the moment that our employees leave their front doors
Speaker 1: to try to get to work. How do we think
Speaker 1: through some possible solutions here Obviously, some of these are
Speaker 1: bigger companies because they have the capital and resources for
Speaker 1: these things. But some companies are thinking that things such
Speaker 1: as company car allowances, private bus services and shuttles, or
Speaker 1: even if they have to leasing smaller office space in
Speaker 1: locations closer to where some workers live. All of those
Speaker 1: are on the table now. I talked with one organization
Speaker 1: that was kind of ahead of this, and that's New
Speaker 1: York Presbyterian Hospital, a large private health care system in
Speaker 1: New York. What New York Presbyterian did was start about
Speaker 1: thirty bus routes. They looked, they did a zip code
Speaker 1: analysis to see where their workers were based in the
Speaker 1: New York region, and then set up all these private
Speaker 1: coach bus routes and so only about the capacity was
Speaker 1: used so they could space people apart. They had a
Speaker 1: cleaner who boarded the bus after every trip. That gave
Speaker 1: them the ability to get these essential medical workers to
Speaker 1: the hospital without them having to go on trains or
Speaker 1: public buses. And so I think we might see more
Speaker 1: solutions like that, more companies looking to people like Google
Speaker 1: and Facebook, companies that have done this for a long
Speaker 1: time now. So all of these are on the table.
Speaker 1: You also see some companies thinking about bringing the company
Speaker 1: car back. Others are offering mopet sharing services or bike
Speaker 1: sharing services at a discount for employees, trying to find
Speaker 1: ways to get people to the office if they don't
Speaker 1: feel comfortable getting on public transit, and even the flip
Speaker 1: side something that we're doing right now working from home,
Speaker 1: Some are willing to embrace just doing that a lot longer,
Speaker 1: just to avoid having either the expense of this or
Speaker 1: just the overall worry for their employees to get sick.
Speaker 1: They might just say, hey, let's just keep this work
Speaker 1: at home thing going. You know. I know there's a
Speaker 1: lot of companies that realize how well they could do this,
Speaker 1: mostly at a necessity, but it has been pretty successful
Speaker 1: in a lot of different companies. I've been talking to
Speaker 1: HR executives at all sorts of different companies over the
Speaker 1: past couple of weeks, and they all say, this idea
Speaker 1: that we can somehow restrict people from working remotely is
Speaker 1: really over now. Our employees have proven that they're able
Speaker 1: to do it. So it's gonna be tough for companies
Speaker 1: to really say you can't do your work at home.
Speaker 1: That said, a lot of companies do eventually want to
Speaker 1: get people back to offices. Still, they see value in
Speaker 1: the camaraderie and the ideas that are generated by having
Speaker 1: folks in the same place. And there are also very
Speaker 1: real issues that we're all facing at home, whether that
Speaker 1: child care issues or just a lack of space. Working
Speaker 1: from home isn't always that easy, So I think companies
Speaker 1: do want to offer that choice to people, even if
Speaker 1: only initially say of an office might come back. You know,
Speaker 1: the commute obviously is one of the very first things.
Speaker 1: How do you even get to work? Once we get
Speaker 1: back inside the workplace, Companies are also thinking about that.
Speaker 1: How do you manage the flow? One of the things
Speaker 1: you noted in your article one way hallways could be
Speaker 1: a thing. That's right. Companies are looking at the floor
Speaker 1: plans of their spaces and saying, Okay, this halloway needs
Speaker 1: to be this direction, this stairwell should only go up
Speaker 1: or down, very similar to what we've seen in grocery
Speaker 1: stores across the country. And so some of those approaches
Speaker 1: that I think will make their way into offices. But
Speaker 1: this is really a challenge for a number of HR
Speaker 1: executives or for companies trying to figure out how how
Speaker 1: do we do this safely, How do we bring people
Speaker 1: back to the office putting in all of these changes
Speaker 1: that will make it possible to do work while also
Speaker 1: still keeping people far enough apart from each other. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's constantly been a very interesting thing looking forward. And
Speaker 1: you know, we look at places like Japan. Culturally they
Speaker 1: wear the masks all the time, the face mask, and
Speaker 1: it just really seems like this is going to be
Speaker 1: a change that everybody's going to have to make. Right
Speaker 1: now in our company here, they're already telling us we
Speaker 1: have to wear face masks, and nobody's here. There's a
Speaker 1: skeleton crew of people here. But once people really come back,
Speaker 1: that might be a new normal for a lot of companies.
Speaker 1: I think you're right, And you're already seeing some government
Speaker 1: officials across the US call for this. I think about
Speaker 1: the governor of Ohio and other states have said if
Speaker 1: you're working in an office, you should be wearing a mask,
Speaker 1: and I think that is going to become the Norman
Speaker 1: a lot of companies, many HR executives I spoke with,
Speaker 1: said that they are looking to those local officials though,
Speaker 1: to kind of give guidance on what that should be.
Speaker 1: But I think it is. It's I think it's becoming
Speaker 1: part of our reality, and I think people are more
Speaker 1: and more comfortable with that. A lot of planning, a
Speaker 1: lot of preparing before all this has to be implemented,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of our new reality that we got
Speaker 1: to get through. And as we mentioned these hurdles of
Speaker 1: getting to work the commute, there is the first big
Speaker 1: challenge that these big companies need to figure out. Chip Cutter,
Speaker 1: reporter at the Wall Street Journal, Thank you very much
Speaker 1: for joining us. Great thanks for having me. I'm Oscar Ramirez,
Speaker 1: and this has been your daily coronavirus update. You don't
Speaker 1: forget that. For today's big news stories, you can check
Speaker 1: me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday.
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