Harrell: City of Seattle, King County workers will return to in-person this fall

Corrections and clarifications: A previous version of this story misstated specifically how many in-person days of work per week will be required for Sound Transit workers. It has been updated with information and a statement provided by Sound Transit.

The City of Seattle and King County are changing their work-from-home policies. Seattle employees and certain King County positions will have to return to their worksites in person three days a week starting this fall. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harell announced the decision on Monday, via a news release.

Harrell said City of Seattle Executive Branch employees will be expected to return to in-person starting November 4. According to the news release, the City of Seattle has nearly 14,000 total employees and around 13,300 of them work for executive branch departments and offices.

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Several regional public and private employers in King County are following suit as companies announce changes to their work-from-home policies. The new King County policies will start with executive branch department directors in November. Each director is expected to develop a plan by January 2025 for a hybrid strategy.

Sound Transit is one agency that will be impacted.

“As we continue to expand our system, Sound Transit is ready to provide the mobility backbone that supports downtown Seattle reaching its full potential,” Goran Sparrman, Interim CEO of Sound Transit, stated in the news release. “We will also be leading by example. We will soon be shifting our own agency culture to prioritize in-person work, leaning into and returning to the best of in-person work, where people collaborate, innovate and build communities together.”

Sound Transit said in a statement to MyNorthwest it will be shifting to a hybrid work week but has not yet specified how many days will be required in person.

“Starting next month, we will emphasize in-person engagement for activities like brainstorming, performance management, onboarding, and teambuilding,” a spokesperson stated via email. “Then, throughout the fall and winter, staff who perform certain critical functions may be expected to come back into the office more regularly, followed by certain leadership positions returning to the office more regularly in the new year.”

Other companies, such as Amazon, cited the need for foot traffic downtown and said an in-person policy will help support small businesses.

“We look forward to seeing more people downtown to support local small businesses and help our public spaces and parks feel even more vibrant,” Shannon Loew, Vice President of Global Real Estate and Facilities at Amazon, stated in the release.

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Working from home benefits people with disabilities, new moms

However, as reported by KUOW, working from home vastly benefits people who are disabled and new moms. Workers rights advocates told KUOW that “flexibility is an equity issue.”

“There were important gains for the disabled population in relation to remote work,” Nora Genster, who works with employers to develop disability-inclusive workplaces in her role with Northwest Center, told KUOW in April. “What we see now though is a return to office, is a call to return to the way that things were done, which worries me because the work of being inclusive, it’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon.”

According to Harrell, the City of Seattle was one of the first major employers to bring workers back to the office at least two days per week in 2022.

“As one of the first regional employers to bring employees back to the office, we’ve been encouraged by the embrace of this policy and what we’ve seen as a result: improved collaboration, a strengthened ability to foster conversations and explore new ideas, enhanced community and relationship building and a real commitment to mentorship and employee growth,” Harrell said in the news release.

Seattle, according to a Seattle Metro Chamber survey, is experiencing a steady increase in the number of in-office employees from April 2023 to July 2024. The survey showed 99% of remote-capable employers in the region reported employees in the office three or more days per week. It also revealed the number of businesses with employees in the office at least two or more days a week is up 13 points from a spring 2023 survey.

Julia Dallas is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read her stories here. Follow Julia on X here and email her here.

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