PEORIA MAGAZINE March 2022

He was not surprised by that exodus and does not expect much change in the next few years. “Employees are working from home, and it will continue,” Camper predicted. Although the survey was limited to the city of Peoria, Camper said he’d expect similar vacancy rates in Tazewell and Woodford counties. Prior to the 2008 recession, local office vacancies were stable, under 12 percent. That doubled following the economic downturn. Office leasing and sales have been slow for a decade. “Last year, out of all the deals that we have done, there were just five or six for office leasing or sales. That is a small percentage of the deals we do,” Camper said. Sales of land for professional office space are nearly non-existent. Looking ahead, Camper expects many buildings to be repurposed, citing the example of Riverview Plaza, which was converted into apartments. A quality workforce is the lifeblood of any company, and many employers feel like they don’t have any choice but to offer remote work if they want to stay in the game. Others will confide that it’s less than ideal and nothing replaces the direct office interaction and resulting productivity. OSF CEO Bob Sehring notes the healthy collaboration, the “casual collisions” of people and ideas that can result when workers are under one roof. It’s more difficult now to maintain a company culture, said Pearl, who is giving his employees “a great deal of leeway” but still losing some. An environment has been created “where people that typically wouldn’t be looking for a job are now looking because they’re getting calls from headhunters saying you can move to this company, make more money and still work from home.”

Others just like the comfort and convenience. “March 2020 was a shock,” Dalbey acknowledged. However, because the firm had remote infrastructure in place, it was able to avoid a complete shutdown. Indeed, with technology such as Zoom, employers have the ability to let people work from anywhere. “As long as the jobs are getting completed, we don’t care if they are at the office or in their basement,” Dalbey said. That said, the company’s mantra is “better together,” he said. With 22,000 square feet of space in the company’s Downtown office in the top two floors at 301 SW Adams, there is plenty of room for social distancing. “Our office has been fortunate to have minimal COVID cases,” Dalbey said. CEFCU employs more than 900 people throughout its branches, with about 50 to 60 working from home, said Community Relations Manager Martha Kamp. “We do have a number of employees who have switched to working at home completely and don’t even have a desk in our main office,” she said. Others are on hybrid schedules. “It is a good strategy, as we are a growing company,” said Kamp. Indeed, the company can use the extra space, and plans to continue with the work from-home option moving forward, with policies to govern the practice and a corporate team dedicated to overseeing that transition, she said. N early one-third of the office space in Peoria is empty. Vacancies increased from 23 percent in January 2021 to nearly 32 percent in January 2022, said Tom Camper, commercial real estatebroker with Joseph & Camper Commercial in Peoria. Much of that vacant space is downtown.

For Dalbey at CliftonLarsonAllen, it’s not hard to imagine companies looking at their brick-and-mortar locations and asking, “Why pay for this if less space is needed?” “Remote working is not going to go away,” he said. “Coming out of COVID won’t look the same as going into it.”

The Flip Side OF WORKING REMOTELY

Sally McKee is a journalist and former managing editor of the Journal Star in Peoria. Editor-in-chief Mike Bailey also contributed to this report. Many employers have employee assistance programs covered by health insurance, and primary physicians can refer patients to a therapist, Boerke said. Also, OSF offers a free app, OSF SilverCloud, which is a support resource for managing stress, anxiety and depression. For information, visit osfhealthcare.org . In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation is also in a behavioral health pandemic, said Dr. Kyle Boerke, Behavioral Health Director for Ambulatory Services at OSF HealthCare. Working remotely can improve work/life balance formany employees; for others it can create loneliness and isolation, he said. To ease the latter, he offered the following: • Start your day with your normal work routine. Shower, get dressed, eat breakfast. It may feel fantastic to work in pajamas all day, but people need a separation between work and home. • Stick to a schedule. Include breaks and lunch. Set an end time for the day. Don’t check emails through the night. • Set up a designated work space with an office chair. Leave it at workday’s end. • Set up a socialization schedule with co-workers: video visits, a coffee shop meeting, or a simple phone call. • Seek help, if needed. It can be difficult to recognize behavioral health problems in ourselves. Someone close may need to fulfill that role. Symptoms can include irritability, difficulty sleeping, trouble concentrating, and withdrawing from social situations.

“REMOTE WORKING IS NOT GOING TO GO AWAY... COMING OUT OF COVID WON’T LOOK THE SAME AS GOING INTO IT.”

MARK DALBEY, CLIFTONLARSONALLEN

MARCH 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 19