We asked if people want to be in the office Mondays Fridays — or neither. A big landlord says 5-day workweeks are dead.

With the return-to-office debate heating up, Insider polled readers on LinkedIn to see whether they like going into the office on Mondays, Fridays, or neither.

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• One of New York City's biggest landlords said the office is dead on Fridays and maybe Mondays, too.
• Data on office occupancy rates also shows Mondays and Fridays are the most vacant days of the week.
• We asked Insider readers on LinkedIn to tell us whether they agree. Here's what they said.

With major companies like Amazon, Disney, Salesforce, and Meta trying to wrest reluctant workers back to the office, the corporate world is grappling with a big question: Are we ever returning to the office five days a week? 

Insider previously reported that Steven Roth, the chairman of Vornado, one of New York's biggest private landlords, said Mondays in the office are "touch-and-go" — and Fridays are likely "dead forever."

Meanwhile, a report from Placer.ai, a firm that tracks mobile-phone data from 800 sites across the US, found that those who come into the office are indeed more likely to do so in the middle of the week. They appear to be avoiding the workplace on Mondays and Fridays, according to the data.

Insider asked readers on our LinkedIn page if they're going into the office on Mondays and Fridays, Mondays or Fridays, or neither.

LinkedIn

So Insider polled readers via LinkedIn to see if they agreed with the stats. We asked: "Given the choice, do you go into the office on Mondays and Fridays?"

As of Monday, just over 16,000 people had already responded, and the results — not scientific, of course, but an interesting snapshot — corroborate Roth's contention and the Placer.ai data.

A little less than half of the respondents said they wouldn't go into the office on either Mondays or Fridays. Another 29% said they would go in on either a Monday or a Friday — but not both.  And only 22% said they would go in on both Mondays and Fridays, given the choice.

Why do some people choose to come in on a Monday, a Friday — or both of the days? 

An academic administrator wrote that "the commute is easier on both days because less people work those days, it's more peaceful in coffee shops as well."

Steven Roth, the chairman of one of New York's biggest private landlords, Vornado, said Mondays in the office are "touch-and-go" and Fridays are likely "dead forever."

Misha Friedman/Getty Images

And an academic based in the UK agreed on the ease of a Friday commute: "Love working Fridays ... nice and quiet and commute is easy. Also sense of relaxation as the weekend approaches," he wrote. "Hate Monday working though — for the converse reasons."

Robert Parlaman, who works as a Facilities and human resources coordinator at Levolor, a company that manufactures window coverings headquartered in Atlanta, told Insider via LinkedIn message that he never had the option to work from home even during COVID-19.

On the one hand, the mandate has helped him feel more connected his job, he said. "I go into the office Monday-Friday. I enjoy being at the office and feel more connected to the company I work for when I'm in the office," he wrote in the comments section of Insider's poll on LinkedIn.

Offices are less than half full across the US

City	Wed 6/14	Wed 6/21
New York metro	48.1%	50%
San Jose metro	39.4%	38.1%
San Francisco metro	44.4%	45.4%
Chicago metro	54.7%	54.0%
Washington D.C. metro	46.9%	46.3%
Philadelphia metro	40.9%	41.2%
Houston metro	60.6%	60.8%
Austin metro	58.3%	58.2%
Dallas metro	54.5%	54.4%
Average of 10	49.7%	49.8%
Los Angeles metro	49.6%	49.7%

_{Source: Kastle Systems building swipe data from 2,600 buildings in 136 cities}

But in an ideal world — or at least one with more choices — he'd like to go in just four days a week. "I would choose Monday-Thursday in-office, and the office CLOSED on Fridays," he said. "4-Day work weeks over 5-Day Hybrid schedules," he suggested. 

A four-day workweek seems a long way away for most US workers, but still less than half are coming into offices.

Kastle Systems — which tracks when employees swipe their badges at office entrances — found that the average office occupancy rates across the week for the country's 10 major metro areas were just under 50% for the weeks beginning June 14 and June 21.

Have more thoughts to share on returning to the office? We want to hear from you. Contact reporter Lakshmi Varanasi at lvaranasi@insider.com or on encrypted messaging app Signal at 262-408-1907. 

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