As Omicron Cases Rise, Companies Rethink Return-to-Office Plans

“At this point we’re leaning more towards being open than closed,” she said.

George Colony, the chief executive of Forrester Research, a consulting firm in Boston, said last month that he was once again pushing back his company’s office return.

“We expected to open our U.S. offices in early January,” he said. “That timetable is not going to happen. We are going to stay remote.”

Mr. Colony said he was preparing for some Forrester employees to be out of commission in the weeks ahead. “I think many of us are going to get sick here in the next few months,” he said. “I expect more people will be absent, more people will be sick.”

When to bring those recovered workers back will be a new challenge.

If the C.D.C. recommends that infected workers test negative before returning to work — as many scientists have urged it to do — companies will have to figure out how to supply in-demand tests to employees. While big companies have been buying tests in bulk, smaller employers often do not have that capacity. Deciding whom to prioritize for tests, who pays for them and how to verify the results will bedevil boardrooms in the coming months.

Some firms have already begun to incorporate testing into their plans. BlackRock, the asset management firm, told its roughly 7,600 U.S. employees before the holidays that it was “encouraging flexibility” and requiring those who continue to go into the office to be tested weekly. Last week, it announced it would extend that policy through Jan. 28.

Whether deciding when to open offices or setting policies for isolation, employers are grappling with a key question: How much risk of exposure and spread are they and their workers willing to tolerate? They don’t all agree.

This week, Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician for Congress, advised all congressional offices, committees and agencies to maximize remote work and reduce in-person meetings as much as possible, though this is a recommendation.

“While some view the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease as ‘endemic,’ the ‘new normal,’ and ‘inevitable,’ these views are premature,” Dr. Monahan wrote in a memo reviewed by The New York Times. “The entire community must continue to take every measure to suppress the rapid spread of this disease.”

Emily Cochrane and David Gelles contributed reporting.