Tacoma health system selling 2 buildings as staffers now permanently work from home
One of Tacoma’s two health systems is reducing its office space in the city as a result of changing workplace realities amid the pandemic.
MultiCare told The News Tribune this week that plans for the change were in the works before this year, but COVID-19 moved things along.
“We have been working for several years to create regional business support centers that would replace a hodgepodge of office space we have across the state and free up space in our hospitals for clinical activity,” explained spokeswoman Marce Edwards via email in response to questions.
“A few years ago we opened the Auburn Business Center, which houses our call center, our customer service teams, our patient experience teams and others. In 2018, we moved our corporate headquarters out of Tacoma General and to 820 A St. Earlier this year, we opened 1313 Broadway as the regional business support center in Tacoma.”
As a result, “We have planned for years to sell 124 Tacoma Ave., which housed our (information services and technology) department, and 737 Fawcett, which housed our finance department, once we created the regional center in Tacoma.”
The Fawcett Avenue site is listed at $6 million, and the Tacoma Avenue building is listed at $5.6 million, according to Edwards.
Hundreds of MultiCare workers have been working from home since March.
“We learned over the spring that a virtual workforce was a good option for many employees. We heard gratitude for the flexible work hours, reduced commute and more time with family,” Edwards explained.
“In May, we shared with employees that the remote teams were working well and we would move about 1,500 employees to permanent virtual status in the Puget Sound region and the Inland Northwest region. Some of those employees worked in the two buildings that are for sale.”
In May, MultiCare also announced furloughs for 6,000 workers amid a $160 million revenue shortfall from reduced medical services during the start of the pandemic.
A representative for CHI Franciscan, also based in Tacoma, told The News Tribune in response to questions that the health system was not taking any similar actions at this point, and its current policy is to “work from home whenever possible.”
The resulting down-scaling of office space comes one week after another major employer in Pierce County, State Farm, announced it was pulling its regional call center from its DuPont office location and switching to work from home permanently, after initially sending workers home in March on a temporary basis to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Don’t expect the trend to let up.
Tech giants such as Google and Facebook have either extended or are making plans for broader work-from-home protocols, while Twitter has made its work-from-home status permanent.
The Atlantic in August reported, “When the pandemic is over, one in six workers is projected to continue working from home or co-working at least two days a week, according to a recent survey by economists at Harvard Business School. Another survey of hiring managers by the global freelancing platform Upwork found that one-fifth of the workforce could be entirely remote after the pandemic.”
