Philly office workers have settled into hybrid ways, but the office evolution isn’t over yet.

At Comcast’s Center City headquarters, many people do not report to the office four days every week, several current employees said, despite the company’s stated four-days-in-office expectation.

“We’ve been informally told, like, make sure you’re in at least three days a week,” said one, a lawyer and parent of young children who said they personally average two or three days a week.

“I’m much more productive at home,” the Comcast lawyer said, noting that picking up their kids from daycare is tricky on in-office days. “It’s pretty rare that I’m going in four days a week.”

It’s been two years since Comcast, which employs roughly 8,000 at its headquarters, boosted its in-office expectations for hybrid workers.

At Independence Blue Cross, which employs about 3,000 at its Philadelphia headquarters, the rule has been three days a week in-office since spring 2024.

City workers were ordered back to the office full-time a year ago as Mayor Cherelle L. Parker eschewed the hybrid arrangements her predecessor had allowed.

President Donald Trump this year made a similar push, ending telework for federal employees, of whom there are tens of thousands in the Philadelphia area.

As workplaces in the region made their push toward a more formalized in-office requirement, some employees were concerned about how the loss in flexibility would affect their ability to meet their families’ needs and get work done. And some, who continued working remotely a majority of the time, worried that large employers pushing in-office time would inspire the same across Philadelphia.

Still, data continue to show that pre-COVID-19 ways of working have not resumed.

Since 2022, the number of Philly commuters has been rising each year, but it was still only 74% of 2019 levels at the end of last year, according to Philadelphia’s Center City District, an advocacy group for the city’s downtown.

The Inquirer checked in with employees at several large companies in Philadelphia to see how their hybrid work arrangements are working out, after their employers put specific mandates in place. Some employees are not named in this article because they feared compromising their employment or they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Employers have taken different approaches to encouraging in-office time, but all contacted by The Inquirer have pledged a commitment to work-life balance and flexibility. Individuals’ routines are often determined by what their direct manager will allow, workers said, but thanks to security systems with badges or fobs for each worker, it’s easy for employers to see who’s coming in and who’s not.

Employees’ experiences vary, but — especially as the region braces for a likely reduction in public transit options — one common thread runs through them: the future of work in Philadelphia remains in flux.

For large employers, getting people back to the office required setting some rules. But in practice, it is tricky to create uniform requirements for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of employees with various functions and personal situations.

At Comcast, the company emphasized flexibility when it announced the four-days-a-week push. Since then, the policy hasn’t changed.

“Our in-office with flexibility approach has enabled all our teams — from technology, to product development, to the customer experience — to collaborate more effectively, resolve issues faster, and boost engagement," Comcast spokesperson John Demming said.

Several Comcast employees said they’ve seen and experienced plenty of flexibility. It’s typical for colleagues to work only a partial day at the office and log in remotely for the rest of their hours. They said it’s not uncommon for people to commute in just to “get their swipes,” but not stay long.

“In general, the team morale is pretty high,” said a Comcast employee in software engineering. “We go for lunch together.”

“I don’t know if it’s helped anyone; I don’t think it’s hurt anyone,” said an employee who works in contracts. “It’s not ruining anyone’s life … that’s also tied to the fact that my team is very flexible."

At Independence, several employees said the company has communicated the hybrid policy as a strict requirement of three full, eight-hour days in the office. Several current and former employees said reviews have been mixed.

“It depends on who you talk to. Some people love coming in,” said an analyst for Independence. “I’m neutral on days that are busy and where I have meetings in person because then at least the purpose of being in the office is fulfilled. ... But other days when I have a slower day, I am annoyed.”

Different departments seem to have different rules, the analyst added. “It creates a lot of frustration and drops in morale because there are no consistent flexibilities given across the board.”

“It seems like people have gotten used to it for the most part,” said another employee, who has been at Independence since before the pandemic. But “it’s enforced unevenly, and they still haven’t addressed some of that.”

One former Independence employee said they left the company because of what felt like “increased micromanaging” with the return-to-office mandate.

Independence human resources chief Alexandra Jorgensen said in a statement that the return to office was successful, and the company finds value in the hybrid arrangement.

“We also recognize that everyone’s situation is unique,” Jorgensen said. “Our associates are encouraged to work directly with their manager, just as they did before the hybrid model was in place, to discuss alternative flexible solutions that help support their personal needs while also meeting business requirements.”

Amy Piccola, a partner at the law firm Saul Ewing, works in the firm’s Philadelphia office two or three days a week. Before the pandemic, she worked remotely “very rarely” but now calls herself “a convert to the hybrid way of life.”

“There are some times when it is just more efficient to cut out a commute,” said Piccola, who lives in Bryn Mawr and uses SEPTA Regional Rail to get to the office. Now it’s no big deal to meet a home repairman or get back to the suburbs for an early evening event.

“I have new appreciation for all of those things that I wouldn’t schedule on weekdays or that would create stress,” Piccola said.

Saul Ewing has a “four-plus-four” policy for hybrid work. Most employees are expected to be in the office every Wednesday and any four other days of the month.

Meeting with clients outside of Saul Ewing offices or appearing in court counts toward those extra four days, said Chandra Kilgriff, the firm’s chief talent officer. Kilgriff said the policy is “here to stay,” even as some large employers push for more time in the office.

“We have no plans to dial back our flexibility or change our policy,” she said. “It’s a key differentiator for us in terms of recruiting and retaining talent.”

Piccola, the firm’s Philadelphia managing partner, appreciates that commitment. “Giving people autonomy, it builds respect,” she said.

Piccola noted that law firms are “very rarely at the cutting edge of corporate changes,” but she’s seen a shift at their firm toward emphasizing quality work over “face time.” Among clients in Philadelphia and nationwide, she said, she’s seen a range of policies, from fully in-office (she works in higher education, where this is often a necessity) to various hybrid and remote arrangements.

About 200 of the firm’s 850 employees work in the region. The firm is planning an office move in Philadelphia, and it will be a smaller space, Piccola said. But it will still include individual attorney offices and span multiple floors, she said — not a full adoption of the open-floor-plan hoteling model.

Experts say the evolution of hybrid work is not complete.

“The overwhelming majority of working mothers want flexible policies,” said Liz Tenety, cofounder of parenting-focused media company Motherly. “Even millennial men want family-friendly policies.”

The University of Phoenix and Motherly recently released a report, titled “Moms in the Sandwich Generation,” which focuses on professionals with young children who are also caring for older relatives. More than half of the dual-caregivers surveyed for the report said they had left a job due to caregiving responsibilities.

A growing population of workers are caring for both younger and older relatives, the report said. And as more of their generation ascend into leadership roles, workplace flexibility will likely increase.

“We need to start with leadership that acknowledges that most of the workers at any corporation are caregivers,” Tenety said.

While some prominent voices, like JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, have decried remote work, linking it to poor work ethic or productivity, Tenety has noticed the opposite. Motherly, with 10 employees across the U.S., is fully remote.

Motherly and other employers like it, Tenety said, have “shown what is possible” with remote-work flexibility. “We have seen the light.”

Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University economist who researches remote and hybrid work arrangements, has found that work-from-home time has stabilized at about 25% recently, compared to its peak of 60% during the pandemic.

Hybrid work is more profitable, Bloom said at a recent conference covered by workplace publication Allwork.Space, because it often allows companies to downsize their offices and reduce employee turnover.

Generally, the expense of being flexible with work arrangements is less than the cost of losing and replacing good employees due to inflexibility, said Ruth Veloria, chief strategy officer at University of Phoenix.

“The tenure and expertise that people who have been in the workplace for a while have is really important to recognize,” Veloria said.

Just as many workers had settled into post-pandemic hybrid arrangements and commuting routines, SEPTA inched toward a fiscal cliff.

The area’s transit system warned of possible “draconian cuts” several years ago due to funding shortfalls. Gov. Josh Shapiro swooped in with a solution late last year to avoid a fare hike in 2025.

But now, as legislators in Harrisburg have yet to reach a budget that includes millions in additional transit funding, SEPTA is preparing for major reductions to bus, Regional Rail, Market-Frankford, and Broad Street Lines, and trolleys. The first austerity measures are set to take hold later this month.

“There’s a lot of stress around cutting SEPTA,” said the Comcast contracts employee.

Leaders at three of the regions largest employers — University of Pennsylvania, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Comcast — wrote in a commentary for The Inquirer about their “deep concern” over the service cuts and how they will affect their workforces.

Jorgensen, of Independence, echoed that concern. She said employees “have been encouraged to work directly with their manager if their commute is affected.”

“Access to a robust transit system is critical to many of our associates and members, who rely on SEPTA to get to and from work and other activities,” Jorgensen said. “While we hope an agreement will be reached, we have also advised our associates to begin preparing for rate increases and potential changes in service.”