The days of multitasking at home during Zoom meetings may soon be over for some city and county workers. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced that employees in the city's executive branch will be required to work in-person three days a week starting in November, up from the previous expectation of two days a week since 2022.

In a similar move, King County Executive Dow Constantine stated that employees in the county's executive branch will also return to the office at least three days a week. Notably, over three-quarters of King County employees outside of the executive branch are already working on-site daily.

Additionally, Sound Transit interim CEO Goran Sparrman indicated that the agency will prioritize in-person work for its executive branch employees as well.

These changes are expected to help revitalize Seattle's downtown core, which currently averages about 93,000 daily workers—the highest number since March 2020 when the pandemic forced many to work remotely. However, this figure is still only 58% of the daily worker foot traffic seen in June 2019. With approximately 13,300 employees in the city's executive branch, the increased presence of these workers is anticipated to further accelerate the downtown area's recovery.

This post was based on information found on Everett Post.