City workers say they feel like ‘pawns’ for Center City revival as Mayor Parker pushes for full-time in-office requirement

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker made clear last week that she wants to see city workers in the office full-time.

“Philadelphia can only truly say we are ‘open for business’ when all of our workers are back in the office Monday through Friday, and you’ll be hearing more from me on the city’s plan to bring city workers back,” she said in a statement to The Inquirer.

That quote reverberated among the city’s workforce. Philadelphia employees who spoke with The Inquirer said they worry such a policy would make people leave municipal employment, and some said they and other colleagues are already job-hunting.

The pivot to full-time office work comes amid a staffing crisis in which almost one of every five municipal jobs is vacant.

» READ MORE: City workers say they feel like ‘pawns’ for Center City revival as Mayor Parker pushes for full-time in-office requirement

“We know that the removal of hybrid will just demolish morale,” said David Wilson, president of AFSCME Local 2187, District Council 47. DC 47 represents much of the city’s currently hybrid workforce, including professional and supervisory roles. “This is 2024. We would like to see the city of Philadelphia’s workforce be treated like the modern-day professionals that they are.”

During last year’s mayoral campaign, Parker spoke about bringing municipal workers back to the office more often. She argues that it is important to have parity between the city’s office-based workers and those who have jobs that require them to be on-site. She has also said ending hybrid work would boost foot traffic in Center City, help small businesses, enhance public safety by putting more eyes on the street, and make it easier for private-sector employers to ask their workers to come back more often.

“As the Parker administration readies a return-to-work policy, it does so with a central principle in mind: We seek to establish a framework of collaboration and efficiency and delivering on the Mayor’s promise of a more visible and accessible city workforce for our citizens,” administration spokesperson Joe Grace said in a statement. He estimates 80% of city employees are already working in-person.

“We’ll continue to work closely with a wide array of stakeholders on the implementation of this important policy in the months and time ahead,” Grace added.

The Inquirer spoke with workers across nine departments about Parker’s forthcoming proposal. Most of those interviewed asked for anonymity to speak frankly. The administration recently instituted a rule that all public statements by municipal employees be approved by the mayor’s office.

City workers argue that the policy would penalize parents and other caregivers, that COVID remains a risk, and that the commute and City Hall station itself are unsafe.

Others noted that because of the city’s residency requirements, making them spend more time downtown would just shift where in Philadelphia their dollars are spent. The idea of coming back to the office to support the revitalization of downtown, in many cases, offended them.

“It’s really clear that she’s just using us as pawns to make Center City look [better],” said a Water Department engineer. “That’s not what my job is for.”

Engineers with the Water Department, urban planners with the Department of Planning and Development, and social workers with the Department of Human Services are some of the city employees who currently benefit from a flexible hybrid work schedule that they argue is the new norm in the private sector and in the federal government.

“A lot of the best people who are working for the city will not stay,” said a city outreach employee whose job involves office work and interacting with residents in their neighborhoods. “Multiple people I know saw [Parker’s statement] and immediately said, ‘It’s time to look for a new job.’ ”

The Water Department engineer noted that workers in the agency have begun receiving messages from recruiters on LinkedIn, who are using the potential end of hybrid work as an inducement to leave municipal employment.

“I had never really gotten LinkedIn messages before, but now I’ve started getting some that say [things like], ‘With the recent changes to the remote policy at Water, maybe you’re interested in other opportunities,’ ” said the engineer.

Under former Mayor Jim Kenney, the administration established a virtual hybrid policy with the unions that allowed departments to individually bargain how many days a week their workers had to be in the office. At first, two days a week in-office was standard, but some agencies eventually had their workers come in more often, creating a patchwork of requirements across city government. One worker with the Office of the Director of Finance told The Inquirer they are required in the office only once a month.

Parker’s planned policy change comes as some major private-sector employers in the region, including Comcast and Independence Blue Cross, are trying to bring their workers into the office more often. But few companies are asking for five days a week.

Boosters of hybrid work say that city government should preserve perks such as work from home because it is not able to pay its workers as much as the private sector. Wilson of Local 2187 said average pay across the unit is $66,640. The vaunted benefits of public-sector work have also been reduced, they say, specifically citing a 2019 pension change that pushed younger workers toward a 401(k) system.

“Part of taking a city job is that you’re usually paid less than your private-sector counterparts, but it comes with good benefits,” said another Water Department employee. “One of those benefits right now is the hybrid schedule. They’re not paying us any more, but they’re taking away our work-life balance.”

Many municipal jobs have residency requirements. Data provided by Local 2187 show that many local government employees reside on the edges of the city. Roxborough, parts of the Northeast, and West Philadelphia near City Line Avenue have the highest concentrations of these unionized city workers.

Although the city purchased SEPTA Key Advantage cards for its employees, reducing the financial cost of commuting, the trip to Center City from those outer neighborhoods takes time that many municipal workers are not happy to surrender.

That’s especially true as SEPTA service continues to fall short of pre-2020 levels, as operator shortages result in frequently canceled buses, and Regional Rail schedules still aren’t back to pre-pandemic frequency. Some city workers who use the Market-Frankford Line and, to a lesser extent, the Broad Street Line emphasized that they did not feel safe commuting by public transit.

“Because of the safety concerns on SEPTA, and the increase in violence and uncontrolled guns in the city, it’s causing anxiety,” said a social worker with the Department of Human Services who lives in upper North Philadelphia. “It affects your mental health, thinking about trying just to get to work with the way the city is right now.”

Workers also emphasized that with hybrid work, they could support businesses in their neighborhoods, as well as those in Center City.

“We’re supporting other Black and brown businesses throughout the community that don’t get the same kind of financial support as Center City businesses,” said the social worker.

Many municipal workers in fields such as sanitation, streets, and fire were never able to work from home because their roles require in-person work.

And other city employees, such as most City Council staff, have already moved toward more in-person work. Each Council member has decided the policy for their staff, and several Council members decided five days in-person would be the best arrangement, said Vincent Thompson, communications director for Council President Kenyatta Johnson.

“We are more effective as a team and certainly more accessible to our constituents when we’re here all the time,” said Max Weisman, Councilmember Isaiah Thomas’ communications director, noting that Thomas has allowed case-by-case flexibility for personal and family needs.

Wilson, president of Local 2187, says Parker has argued to him and other labor leaders that increased in-person requirements for office-based workers is an equity issue because large swathes of the public-sector workforce never had the option to work remotely.

But some workers argued that there are better ways to achieve equity between garbage collectors and Revenue Department auditors.

“Bringing city workers who can work from home back to the office full-time doesn’t improve the quality of life for city workers who work in the field or at branches,” said a worker with the Department of Planning and Development. “If you want to improve their working conditions, they should just be paid more.”