I'm on the leadership team of a 600-person software company. I have responsibility for HR and Facilities, amongst other things, so have spent a ton of time on this topic over the past 12 months (when I joined the company).

First, we have the luxury of fully-remote work if needed, due to the nature of our business. That clearly makes things easier, and we have in fact been fully remote since last March. We were headed toward full reopening next week (except in a few international locations where reopening is not yet allowed). Then, a few weeks ago, we decided to dial it back. We still intended to reopen, but canceled all our reopening festivities, disallowed non-essential visitors (i.e. only deliveries, maintenance, etc.), and required masks in common areas (not at your desk). This was the plan until today.

That's because yesterday, the counties in which our two largest US offices are located both announced moving to their highest risk levels, which essentially equates to "if you're not vaccinated you should stay home." The discussion I had today with our leadership team was whether we should (1) continue with soft reopening but follow the local guidance (tell employees not to come in if they're not vaccinated); or (2) postpone.

We are leaning toward the former, but not because we are really pushing to get people back into the office. We're inclined to reopen because we know we have a subset of employees who have really struggled for the past 17 months, don't have an ideal work-from-home set-up, or maybe are just really sick of their families. Those employees really, really want to come back to work, at least a few days a week, and we're trying to accommodate them.

A few other points in our case: we are not requiring anyone to come into the office, at least for the foreseeable future. The long-term plan is hybrid, and most will have the option to work remotely nearly full-time (I only say "nearly" because many roles will have the occasional requirement to be in for some reason). It also means vaccination will never be a condition of employment, because the unvaccinated can still work from home. We're also not requiring proof of vaccination in this current phase; rather simply telling employees not to come in if they're not vaccinated (and trusting them to do the right thing). And we'll dial back the vaccine and mask requirements over time, following local guidance for each office.

This stuff is really tricky. I get the mistrust of leadership at certain companies. We've tried to be really transparent about our plans, and balancing the needs and desires of different groups of employees with different personal situations and beliefs. Time will tell if our approach is the right one (I'm not even convinced we've got it all right) but I do feel good about the thoughtfulness with which we've approached the situation.

Anyway, one company's/leader's perspective.