From Ikea to Cherry Street Pier, Philly workers are changing what it means to work from ‘home’

When Sean Duffy “works from home,” he’s not always in his Italian Market house. He’s been known to set up shop throughout the city: at the John Heinz nature preserve, the Navy Yard, Cherry Street Pier, multiple coffee shops between South Philadelphia and Fishtown, a West Philadelphia Indian grocery/casual restaurant and …

Ikea.

Specifically, the store on South Christopher Columbus Boulevard. More specifically, its cafeteria.

“I love the view,” said Duffy, an associate psychology professor at Rutgers University-Camden, referring to the floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto the Delaware River and the rusting hulk of the SS United States. “It’s a large space, so you don’t feel like people are breathing on you. There’s even free coffee if you have a membership card, which is also free.”

The COVID-19 shutdown forced people out of their offices and into their dwellings. That was also true for those who regularly “worked from home” but actually spent most of their on-the-clock hours at coffee shops, cafes and libraries. Now, in summer 2022, some believe the worst is behind us while others warn that the worst is what we need to prepare for. Businesses — and employees — aren’t sure which is the best way forward: All office or all virtual?

» READ MORE: 7 surprising Philly spots to do remote work, and skip the coffee shop

A hybrid was the most popular response to a survey of more than 110 Center City and University City businesses conducted by the Center City District in January. One quarter of responding companies remained entirely remote. The remaining three-quarters are again using their offices, but a few — 15% — said they had staff on site for five days a week.

Working from home was a “huge lifestyle lift” for many employees who hadn’t had the opportunity before, said David J. Wilk, an assistant professor at Temple University’s Fox School of Business. Wilk believes that there will always be a need for a central office: “If you want to get ahead in a company, you need to be visible,” he said. “Networking is a way of creating positive energy between yourself and others, and it’s so different when it’s on Zoom versus in person. It’s hard to create the same chemistry when you’re on screen versus when you’re in person.”

But he also thinks that employees now have more power over when they show up in person. “There’s been a flip from the company in control and you the employee having to follow the rules to the employee-centric workplace of the future,” Wilk said. “That makes it really hard for some companies to call everyone back to the office because what are the employees saying? ‘If you force me back to the office, I’m going to find a job somewhere else.’”

Wilk speaks from his own experience. He considers his iPad “the eighth great wonder of the world” because its existence — and his understanding family — made it possible for him to teach a two-hour class in a car traveling from Florida to Philadelphia. (He was not the driver.)

“It came up in some of my student evaluations: ‘I can’t believe he was traveling with his family and didn’t cancel class and taught the whole time,’” Wilk said. “I like the variety of not going to the same place every day and still being able to work hard and get stuff done but not to have a fixed location.”

In December 2020, the Hyatt chain, which includes the Bellevue, began offering its “Office for a Day” program that included 12 hours in a private room and other hotel amenities. The cost was dependent on room availability and the day’s standard rate, but the chain advertised the package as starting at $65. One unexpected consumer group? Health-care workers, who rented space to relax and unwind after long shifts.

“While slow to catch on, we saw increasing demand starting in mid-2021, when everyone was working from home and needed a change of pace and to get away from their typical routine, including the other people in the house they share, such as their spouses and children,” said Brian Lang, general manager of the Bellevue Hotel. “Those who did take advantage of it found value in the offer and came back multiple times.”

While the hotel still offers “Office for a Day,” increasing hotel occupancy has limited its availability. But another out-of-office office that’s still available is the Quorum Lounge on the first floor of the University City Science Center. The 5,000-square-foot space is open to anyone, free of charge, free WiFi, no need to register in advance. It opened in 2011 as part of the organization’s mission of encouraging innovation and invention.

It was designed “to create that kind of coffee shop work environment without having to make people buy a cup of coffee or feel like they needed to keep buying and drinking coffee all day long to justify having a seat for eight hours,” said Kristen Fitch, the science center’s senior director of marketing, adding that there is a coffee shop on-site.

“You can also have a casual and informal meeting there if you don’t have dedicated office space,” Fitch said. “There are different seating options, and it’s rare that there are zero seats available.”

Pre-COVID, the lounge had about 10,000 annual users. The number dropped when the pandemic began, and at one point the lounge was closed. In the last year, user numbers have climbed to almost pre-pandemic level, with fluctuations based on the concerns of the latest virus variant. To address safety concerns, the center took the steps to receive accreditation from the Global Biorisk Advisory Council, an international agency that advises businesses on how to stay safe when they require a higher-than-normal level of cleaning and disinfecting.

Still, some people worry about sharing confined air indoors with strangers. Those folks would benefit from Marion Leary’s experiences exploring the city’s wide open — and smaller, but still open — public spaces. A committed coffee shop writer pre-pandemic, she became a wandering worker during the shutdown. Among her favorite places to work: Dilworth Park; Girard Fountain Park; Race Street Pier; Cherry Street Pier; and “about 100 places on Penn’s campus,” including spots near the Fisher Fine Arts and Van Pelt-Dietrich Libraries and the James G. Kaskey Memorial Park BioPond.

“I like to change locations because no matter how stuck I am or burned-out I feel, I change locations and my creativity begins to flow,” said Leary, director of innovation at Penn Nursing. “I like being outside but not being near too many people. I bring my phone hot spot, which works perfectly, but sometimes I don’t even need it.”

Working outdoors requires preparation, Leary said: Will there be electrical outlets available? Do you need to bring a chair and/or table? Can you easily buy food and drink? Have you packed up bug spray, sunscreen, noise-canceling ear buds, and sunglasses?

“You’ve got to plan ahead if you want to have a productive experience while working outside,” Leary said.

Perhaps not having to plan ahead is one reason Duffy enjoys working in the Ikea cafeteria. (Which is OK with Ikea’s U.S. corporation, according to a company spokesperson.) He joked that the store has “free beds to sleep on until someone wearing a yellow vest tells you to get up,” although he’s never had to be chased away from a Hemnes bed or a Strandmon armchair and ottoman.

He has, however, done some shopping before and after working, picking up household items with unpronounceable names. Because he is never alone in the cafeteria, he wonders how many other people have discovered this unlikely work space.

“I noticed one time six people like me were on their laptops,” he said. “I actually thought, ‘I wish I could create a little club, the Exiles in Ikea.”