Dust Off Desks and Boot Up Terminals: Wall St. Returns, Fitfully

At the peak of New York’s virus outbreak, Mr. Mudrick shared his fund’s 14,000-square-foot space on Madison Avenue with just one other employee — his analyst Matt Pietroforte. The market meltdown presented enough fresh opportunities that Mr. Mudrick, who invests in distressed debt, felt he could work best from the office. Once the infection rates in New York fell, other colleagues returned.

Mr. Mudrick installed devices to gauge body temperatures. He forbade the use of public transportation, covering everyone’s travel to and from the office. Only one person was allowed to use the bathroom at a time. To avoid conference-room gatherings, employees used videoconference technology from their personal offices. Even so, some employees, including one who was pregnant, asked to continue working from home, to which Mr. Mudrick agreed.

Pershing Square, the 36-person hedge fund run by the billionaire investor William Ackman, has done the opposite. Mr. Ackman’s team is fanned out across the country in apartments, beach houses and rental homes, using replicas of the workstations in their offices on the west side of Manhattan to analyze and trade investments.

Like other hedge funds, including Mr. Russell’s UBS O’Connor, Pershing Square has set no timetable for return. Carlyle Group, the private equity firm, has barred people from its Midtown office, mostly to save them the trouble of moving twice, because the firm is planning to move to a new office next year.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/business/wall-street-return-to-office.html