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Return-to-office pushes can cause a ‘riot.’ These Boston-area companies are trying anyway.
The Boston Globe
Dave Porter was ready to bring his people back into the office on Fridays. They’d been working Monday through Thursday at the Seaport headquarters of Baystate Financial for nearly three years, but the workplace just didn’t seem as lively and collaborative as it did when everyone came in five days a week.
When Porter broached the topic at a meeting in November, however, “the body language got really bad,” he said. People slumped in their chairs. One employee did a Google search and announced “nobody is back” five days a week. A new hire proclaimed, “I wouldn’t have taken this job if I’d known I had to come in on Fridays.”
Abigale Shields, the firm’s director of financial planning, was bombarded with messages from staffers after the meeting and conveyed their dismay to Porter. “I think I used the word ‘riot,’ ” she said.
Nearly four years after the pandemic upended the longstanding Monday-through-Friday commute for many white-collar workers, most employers have settled into a hybrid arrangement. Office occupancy has been about 50 percent for the past year in major metro areas studied by Kastle Systems, and only 4 percent of CEOs said bringing workers back full time is a priority, according to a new survey by The Conference Board.
“I think that’s a thing of the past,” said Harvard Business School professor Prithwiraj Choudhury, whose recent study identifies the “sweet spot” for hybrid work as two days a week in the office, on average, for optimum job satisfaction, work-life balance, and performance.
Still, a growing number of managers want butts in seats more often, citing the connections, collaborations, and innovations that in-person work can bring. State Street Corp., for instance, the Boston financial services firm, brought people back four days a week in November. Last year, 88 percent of employers nationwide said they expected workers to be in a certain number of days a week, up from 69 percent in 2022, according to a customer survey by Robin, the Boston workplace management software company.
But companies are proceeding with creativity, and caution — encouraging attendance instead of requiring it, in many cases, well aware that people have become very attached to working from home. Almost three-quarters of human resources professionals told researchers at the University of Chicago that getting workers back to the office has been an issue; a fifth described it as a “major problem.” David Solomon, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, one of several major companies back in the office full-time, admitted that getting people to come in on Fridays has been a challenge.
Indeed, about half of recent US job candidates at Copyright Clearance Center in Danvers, which has no in-office requirements, have told hiring managers they are looking for new jobs because of return-to-office mandates at their current employers.
But not all RTO mandates are created equal. Employees at MassMutual, the Springfield-based life insurance provider, started coming in at least three days a week in September but work off-site the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and July Fourth and can take an additional four remote weeks of their choosing.
At Baystate Financial, Porter listened to workers’ concerns about losing work-from-home Fridays, many revolving around their “brutal commute” into the Seaport. For Shields, who spends an hour each way to get there via ferry from Hingham, the best part of working from home on Fridays is having breakfast with her 3-year-old son. The thought of losing that left her feeling “deflated.”
So, last month, Porter announced a compromise. If the company hits its quarterly goals, which bonuses are already tied to, the roughly 300 people who work in the company’s 12 offices could work from home on Fridays for the next quarter. (The 600 financial advisers on staff have always had a flexible schedule). Employees are already paying closer attention to the firm’s performance, Porter said: “The whole company is going in the same direction now.”
But the threat of a riot still looms. “There’s going to be … another wave of anger if we don’t hit those goals,” Shields said.
Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco who examined 43 industries found that remote work has not had an impact on productivity. Still, some employers are so determined to make sure people are in the office that they’re tracking attendance. Eighty percent of 800 employers surveyed by ResumeBuilder.com in December said they planned to monitor employees’ badge swipes or Wi-Fi logins or even use sensors under workers’ desks. Google is among those tracking badge swipes for its three-day-a-week in-office policy, according to CNBC, and plans to include office attendance in performance reviews.
Some workers are finding ways around these methods. Nearly 60 percent of hybrid workers surveyed by Owl Labs, the Boston video-conference provider, said they have “coffee badged,” meaning, went into the office for a few hours to show their face.
At some companies, in-office requirements are focused on new hires. The Boston staffing agency The Hollister Group expects all new employees to come in at least three days a week for the first few months. Chief executive Kip Hollister, who has been “slow dripping” people back into the office, recently started basing each person’s in-office attendance on their individual performance and allows employees who have been doing well remotely to come and go as they please.
“We want that as a carrot,” she said.
The new approach will be “a wake-up call but also a gift” for those who aren’t performing well, said Hollister, who isn’t worried about it being viewed as punishment: “If coming into the office … is going to help you be more productive and have greater results, won’t you want that for yourself?”
As the CEO of a staffing firm, Hollister is well aware how hard it is for employers who require more than three days a week on-site to attract talent. But sometimes, that’s what it takes.
One of her managers recently suggested that a sales associate start coming in four days a week instead of three to learn and help boost his staffing placement numbers. The associate, Nicolas Coppolo, 23, who has been there for just over a year, acknowledged that being around more experienced colleagues is helpful, even if it’s just overhearing how they talk to clients on the phone.
At the Boston marketing automation provider Klaviyo, where employees live determines their in-office expectations. Starting this month, anyone who lives within 30 miles of a US hub in Boston, Denver, and one opening soon in San Mateo is supposed to come in twice a week — Tuesday and Thursday for most teams — a change from last year, when those within 50 miles came in three days a week every six weeks.
Commuter benefits have also increased from $90 to $300 a month.
Remote hiring, which was responsible for more than half of the company’s growth during the pandemic, has also come to an end, and some positions are now taking longer to fill, said Klaviyo chief people officer Lisa Maronski.
The twice-a-week, 30-mile policy applies to just over 60 percent of the company’s 1,800 employees, but exemptions are being granted.
Tori Shulman, Klaviyo’s senior manager of performance media, lives in Westwood and takes the commuter rail in twice a week. A new hire on her team who lives just beyond the 30-mile mark has also been coming in two days a week, but if she needs to scale back, that’s fine, too.
“Ultimately, the goal is for each individual to do their best work,” Shulman said.
To Maronski’s knowledge, so far no one has left Klaviyo over the new policy: “I don’t have anyone that specifically said, ‘I am out. I’m quitting because, you know, two days a week is just completely crazy.’”
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Born and raised in Southie, Heather Foley has seen her neighborhood morph over the past three decades of scrubbing, renovation, and new construction for higher-income new arrivals.
But even Foley was surprised to discover that her South Boston, where kids once went to the corner to buy milk and cigarettes for parents, has emerged with the city’s second-highest average income, even ahead of Charlestown and Beacon Hill.
Her first thought?: “I gotta start being nicer to my neighbors if that’s the kind of money they’re making.”
What’s a household?
Decades ago, when “Good Will Hunting” was filmed in the neighborhood and Southie was known as a working-class area, there were more kids around and maybe just a single breadwinner in some homes.
Since then, Southie saw more two-earner households, fewer kids, and spiffier rental units where three or four roommates could contribute to a “household.” The changes, along with spillover from the adjacent, pricier Seaport, or South Boston waterfront, are factors in Census data showing more than 40 percent of Southie households earn more than $200,000 a year.
Staying put
Foley, 46, a photo shoot producer, considers herself lucky. She didn’t move out to the South Shore like many neighborhood longtimers. She’s living in a family home on a block with residents — oldtimers and newer arrivals — who aren’t flipping properties for big bucks.
Another blessing, particularly valuable this winter? She has a driveway.
As a kid, she went to church and school at Gate of Heaven, St. Brigid, and St. Peter, and jokes that she’s “so sad I didn’t buy a three-decker with my First Communion money, because I probably could have.”
Waves of gentrification
She remembers the earlier waves of newcomers, when glassy sports bars like Stats Bar & Grille muscled in among longtime restaurants like Amrheins.
But now, even the popular Stats is moving out at the end of the month. The property owner is developing a five-story, mixed-use residential building at the site.
A small silver lining
Foley notes that some of the onetime “newcomers” have been here for three decades — and in some ways, have stabilized the place. Many have raised kids, who, like her son, may return to the neighborhood as young adults (albeit splitting a rented apartment with friends). Stats, the sports bar, says it will also return to the neighborhood’s thriving food scene.
“We have a lot of great restaurants now,” Foley says, “and everyone cleans up after their dog.”
Read: These maps show Boston’s wealthiest and most populous neighborhoods — plus other key trends.
🧩 6 Across: More scarce | 🌧️ 42° Another storm
Grand New Party: How do you build a statewide slate of Republicans in a Democratic state? Nearly half of the Mass. GOP candidates didn’t use to be Republicans.
Farewell advice: After nearly 15 years of health system leadership, the departing CEO of Beth Israel Lahey Health offers this advice to others.
Hitting the brakes? After an ambitious state law, Lexington welcomed a wave of new housing. Now, people there are having second thoughts.
Hyde Park fatal bus crash: The driver has been indicted.
Patriots, strippers, and hookahs: A downtown restaurant’s liquor license is in jeopardy after it allegedly hosted Patriots players and guests after their AFC Championship in January. A decision is expected today.
‘Culture of secrecy’: In a scathing report, R.I. authorities accused the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence of decades of “inaction, concealment, and revictimization” in complaints of clergy sexual abuse of hundreds of children.
Centers of suffering, campaigning: Federal immigration facilities have become backdrops for Democratic politicians seeking to fight President Trump’s immigration policies.
‘The best time to remember God’: Amid crackdowns, the Somali community leans into faith during Ramadan.
When is a reno worth it? Here’s how to judge the return on a home investment.
🧸 ‘Ted’ talk: Seth MacFarlane and the “Ted” cast talk Massholes, potty-mouthed teddy bears, and why Boston may have “the worst accent”
🩰 A ‘Black Swan’ premiere: That’s among 30 sparkling arts events happening this spring around New England. Plus, why are more artists being banned from America?
🎥 Quiz: Test yourself with the Globe’s Academy Awards quiz.
⚽ Will $7.8 million stop the World Cup from coming here? Can Foxborough’s insistence on up-front security payments force the world’s soccer governing body to send matches somewhere else this summer?
♯ Teenage dreams: The future rock stars were teenagers when they wrote songs, influenced by David Bowie and Stevie Wonder, about a fictional nightclub. A half-century later, Squeeze has reworked and is releasing those songs.
💻 Death by chatbot? A new lawsuit alleges Google’s chatbot sent a man on missions to find an android body it could inhabit. When that failed, it set a suicide countdown clock for him. (WSJ)
🍕 And a red cup, please: Fans are tracking down the few Pizza Hut Classic red-roofed restaurants that remain in the 6,200-store chain. (NYT)
Thanks for reading Starting Point.
This newsletter was edited by Heather Ciras and produced by Ryan Orlecki.
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Dave Beard can be reached at dave.beard@gmail.com. Follow him on X @dabeard.
Boston, MA
Each mile is for her miracle: This Granby mom is running the Boston Marathon with her daughter in mind
Boston Marathon
“With every mile I run, I will be thinking of her strength, her transplant journey, and the families who are walking similar paths right now.”
Brianna Poehler
In our “Why I’m Running” series, Boston Marathon athletes share what’s inspiring them to make the 26.2-mile trek from Hopkinton to Boston. Looking for more race day content? Sign up for Boston.com’s pop-up Boston Marathon newsletter.
Name: Brianna Poehler
City/State: Granby, Mass.
I am running the 2026 Boston Marathon with Miles for Miracles in support of Boston Children’s Hospital. The Boston Marathon is deeply personal to me and my family.
My daughter is a liver transplant survivor, and at just 11 months old, she received a life-saving liver transplant at Boston Children’s Hospital.
What could have been the most devastating chapter of our lives became a story of hope, resilience, and extraordinary care because of the BCH team.
When our daughter was so small and so sick, the doctors, nurses, and staff at Boston Children’s carried us through the unimaginable.
They combined world-class medical expertise with compassion that went far beyond treatment plans and hospital rooms. They cared for our daughter as if she were their own. They supported us as anxious, exhausted parents. They gave us answers when we had questions, and reassurance when we were overwhelmed.
Most importantly, they gave our daughter a second chance at life.
Today, she is thriving because of that gift. Every milestone she reaches is a reminder of the miracle she received and the team that made it possible. Running the Boston Marathon is my way of honoring that gift and saying thank you in the most meaningful way I can.
The marathon is a test of endurance, determination, and heart — qualities I saw in my daughter during her fight and in the Boston Children’s team every single day.
With every mile I run, I will be thinking of her strength, her transplant journey, and the families who are walking similar paths right now.
By running with Miles for Miracles, I hope to raise funds that will support groundbreaking research, life-saving treatments, and compassionate care for children like my daughter. This race is more than 26.2 miles — it is a celebration of survival, gratitude, and hope.
Editor’s note: This entry may have been lightly edited for clarity or grammar.
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Charlotte Hornets (31-31, ninth in the Eastern Conference) vs. Boston Celtics (41-20, second in the Eastern Conference)
Boston; Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. EST
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Celtics -6.5; over/under is 214.5
BOTTOM LINE: Charlotte is looking to keep its five-game win streak alive when the Hornets take on Boston.
The Celtics are 27-13 against Eastern Conference opponents. Boston is sixth in the NBA with 46.2 rebounds led by Nikola Vucevic averaging 8.8.
The Hornets are 19-21 in conference matchups. Charlotte is 7-8 when it turns the ball over less than its opponents and averages 15.0 turnovers per game.
The Celtics average 15.5 made 3-pointers per game this season, 2.7 more made shots on average than the 12.8 per game the Hornets allow. The Hornets average 16.0 made 3-pointers per game this season, 2.1 more made shots on average than the 13.9 per game the Celtics allow.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jaylen Brown is averaging 29 points, 7.1 rebounds and five assists for the Celtics. Payton Pritchard is averaging 17 points and 5.8 assists over the past 10 games.
Kon Knueppel is averaging 19.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists for the Hornets. Brandon Miller is averaging 22.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Celtics: 8-2, averaging 109.4 points, 50.7 rebounds, 27.1 assists, 6.1 steals and 6.4 blocks per game while shooting 45.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 98.5 points per game.
Hornets: 7-3, averaging 117.3 points, 47.8 rebounds, 27.4 assists, 8.5 steals and 4.2 blocks per game while shooting 45.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 106.2 points.
INJURIES: Celtics: Jayson Tatum: out (achilles), Neemias Queta: day to day (rest).
Hornets: Coby White: day to day (injury management).
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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