Covid variants, working from home foiling Sydney CBD’s revival

As new Covid variants spread, talk has sparked of a return to working from home — but Sydney CBD businesses are begging for officials to keep push a return to work as the city struggles to recover.

The business community is calling for employers and the government to “double down” and ”maintain momentum” on the return to work as new Covid variants wipe out profits and the workforce.

Property Council NSW executive director Luke Achterstraat said Sydney office occupancy had remained at 55 per cent in June and the figure should be a “wake up call” to policy makers.

“Now is not the time to be bringing back conversations about work from home advice or mask mandates in offices,” he said.

“We need to support our CBDs and offices particularly with economic uncertainty on the horizon.“

Among the casualties of the small businesses who are severely affected by employees working from home is The Barberhood in Martin Place.

Foot traffic has returned in the Sydney CBD but not quite to pre-pandemic levels. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“Personally for our business, because everyone is working from home, we struggle to roster on barbers because we don‘t know when or if people are going to be overstaffed or understaffed,” General Manager Nicole Bou-Samra said.

Most of The Barberhood’s customers are workers from nearby office buildings, if they’re working from home they’ll simply get a haircut elsewhere.

Barber Jonatas Correia at Barberhood in Martin Place in Sydney is still feeling the effects of the slow return to the CBD. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“The foot-flow of people is really vital for our business and in the city without the foot traffic back in the street it’s hard to sustain (the business),” she said.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said there must be a “risk-based” approach to managing the challenges of Covid to keep workers and customers safe, and the economy ”working”.

“With one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, we can’t retreat to Delta or early Omicron settings which will stifle our recovery and hamstring small business,” she said.