America’s offices remain, at best, half-empty six months into what looks like a very long plague season, indeed. JPMorgan Chase, in the face of good sense and inconvenient facts, is doing its best to rectify that. Deutsche Bank is not.

Deutsche Bank AG told U.S. employees they don’t have to return to the office until July 2021…. “Many of you do not wish to return to 60 Wall Street soon,” the memo said, a reference to the bank’s office in downtown Manhattan.

Well, allow Deutsche Bank to do you one better: How about never, either because the Germans plan to complete their U.S.-heavy layoffs by then, or because if you’re one of the bedraggled survivors you’ll get to survey what’s left of the bank and New York City from the former Time Warner Center?

The bank plans to open a new office—and trading floor—in Columbus Circle next summer…. Deutsche Bank employs about 8,000 people in the U.S., and 5,000 are set to occupy the new U.S. headquarters in 2021.

Deutsche Bank Tells U.S. Staff They Can Wait Until Mid-2021 to Return to Office [WSJ]
America’s Offices Sit Half-Empty Six Months Into the Covid-19 Pandemic [WSJ]