The CEO of Morgan Stanley this week said he expected company employees to return to the office in New York as vaccination rates continue to rise.
“If you can go to a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office. And we want you in the office,” James Gorman said Monday during an investing conference, CNN reported.
“[By] Labor Day, I’ll be very disappointed if people haven’t found their way into the office — and then we’ll have a different kind of conversation,” Gorman said.
Gorman also said that employees continuing to work in parts of the country with a lower cost of living should not expect to still draw their big city salaries.
“If you want to get paid New York rates you work in New York,” he said. “None of this ‘I’m in Colorado and working in New York and getting paid like I’m in New York’. Sorry, that doesn’t work,” Gorman said.
However, Gorman added that the company would not be “dictatorial” in its policy and would offer some flexibility in terms of splitting work hours between home and the office. He also mentioned that “well over 90 percent” of Morgan Stanley employees have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and that he expected the number to rise to 98 or 99 percent.
New York on Tuesday reached its goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the state’s adult population. As a result, the state said it would be lifting coronavirus restrictions.
“That means we can return to life as we know it,” Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday. “Effective immediately, state-mandated COVID restrictions are lifted across commercial and social settings.”
