Plenty are still working from home at least a few days a week as workplaces figure out the new normal.
TAMPA — At lunchtime, the scent of garlic wafts from Michelle Faedo’s Tampeño Cuisine restaurant on the ground floor of the 28-story Frederick B. Karl County Center building downtown — a smell that drifts across Kennedy Boulevard and around the corner to the courthouse.
Before the pandemic, the line of downtown workers waiting for thick Cuban sandwiches and warm devil crabs could stretch the length of the 109-seat restaurant and out the doors. But lately, not so much.
These days, at least half of county center’s 820 employees are only required to be in the office two days a week and can work the rest from home, a remnant from the pandemic shutdown. Over at the courthouse, some workers are in three days a week. Other flexible workplace schedules have downtown at about 50% capacity, at least anecdotally, a figure that by one count is reflected nationwide for desk jobs.
“We usually close at 6,” said Kassandra Faedo as she worked the restaurant register. “But now we close at 3.”
For employees in many fields — health care and retail stores, for example — working from home is not a practical alternative. But going remote remains an of-the-moment option for plenty of desk jobs as the world makes its way back from emptied offices and downtowns turned to ghost towns by the pandemic.
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