Saks calling NY workers back to office — vaccines mandatory

The days of working from home will end in the fall for Saks’ 500 corporate employees in New York City.

Starting in September, the Saks office in Brookfield Place in Manhattan will once again become the retailer’s primary workplace, reported the New York Times. Saks will require employees to be fully vaccinated when they return.  

“If we’re asking people to come back, we have to make the environment as safe as we possibly can,” Saks CEO Marc Metrick told the Times. (Earlier this year, Saks’ digital business was established as a standalone entity known as Saks, with the retailer’s 40-store fleet operating separately as a company called SFA.)

Saks is pursuing a fully open floor plan, where only a handful of people, including the CEO, will have offices, according to the report. Other offices will be converted into Zoom rooms or in-person conference rooms.

In the article, Metrick said that Saks has hit a wall with Zoom.

“Zoom and the virtual world is a culture killer for companies,” he said. “It doesn’t mean the individual is engaged or not engaged, or working hard or not working hard, or productive or not productive — but culture is so important to a business.

To read the full Times story, click here.