In one of America’s most populous cities, the return of workers to office buildings has been notably slow, even as employees in other major urban centers have settled back into their work routines.

Philadelphia, a metropolitan area home to over six million residents, is trailing behind when it comes to office occupancy. This is despite the passage of more than five years since the pandemic initially pushed many employees to adopt remote work. According to Kastle Systems, a security firm monitoring employee badge swipes in 2,600 buildings nationwide, Philadelphia is near the bottom among the largest cities for office attendance.

Last week’s data from Kastle placed Philadelphia second-to-last out of ten metro areas surveyed for office occupancy rates. On the least busy day, only 40.3% of employees were present, while the most crowded day saw a turnout of 51.2%.

The city hosts major employers such as the esteemed Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, and media conglomerate Comcast.

Yet, despite these significant institutions, Philadelphia only slightly edged out San Francisco in terms of in-office attendance last week. San Francisco is widely recognized for its large number of tech workers who often prefer remote work options.

The City by the Bay saw 33.9 percent of staff working on-site on the lowest occupied day last week and 49.3 percent coming in on the busiest, Kastle found.

Last Tuesday, December 2, Kastle found only 42.7 percent of workers in Philadelphia made it to the office, landing it in dead last on the list behind San Francisco with its 49.3 percent rate. 

Philly consistently ranks at the bottom of Kastle’s list, with San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and San Jose regularly rounding out the bottom five.

Philadelphia — which counts more than 6million people across its metropolitan area — ranks as one of the worst big cities for office occupancy more than five years after the pandemic forced many employees to work from home

Last week, the City of Brotherly Love saw 40.3 percent of employees working from the office on the lowest occupied day of the week, and 51.2 percent coming in on the busiest

The Austin, Texas, metro area had the best return-to-work rate, with 67.5 percent of employees in the office on the slowest day of the week and a whopping 87.9 percent in on the busiest.

That put the Texas capital ahead of the next-best city for occupied offices, Dallas, followed by the Houston, New York and Chicago metro areas, Kastle found.

On an average Wednesday between March 10, 2020, when COVID-19 began spreading globally, and last week, Philadelphia has seen 36.1 percent of workers in the office — putting it above only San Francisco and its Bay Area neighbor, San Jose, during that stretch.

Philadelphia’s mayor last year ordered all of the city’s 26,000 municipal workers back to the office a full five days a week, earning widespread ire and leading employee unions to challenge the directive in court.

The battle over return-to-work has recently tipped in favor of bosses, with powerhouse companies like banking giant JPMorgan Chase and telecom titan AT&T ordering hundreds of thousands of employees to work from the office five days a week.

Other companies that had more flexible arrangements post-pandemic have also begun to stiffen up, insisting employees come into the office a minimum of four days.

Comcast told all of its roughly 8,000 employees working out of the company’s downtown Philadelphia headquarters to report to the office four days a week starting in September 2023. 

But employees say they’re not complying, with some seeing their colleagues come into the office to ‘get their swipes’ before leaving to finish off the workday at home,  the Philadelphia Inquirer reported this summer.

Philly’s largest employers include healthcare operators like the renowned Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Wendy Verna, founder and president of a small marketing firm in Philadelphia, said remote work is ‘eliminating’ role models and mentors

Philadelphia consistently ranks as the worst of the 10 metro areas for office occupancy, according to security company Kastle Systems, which tracks employees’ badge swipes at 2,600 buildings across the US

Wendy Verna, the founder and president of a small marketing firm based in downtown Philadelphia, said that while she works out of her office three to four days a week, her staff rarely comes in.

‘This remote work is eliminating role models, and is eliminating mentors, because I can’t mentor you behind a screen,’ Verna, who agreed to let her employees work from home before the pandemic, recently told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Some workers in the city want to avoid the Monday-Friday in-office routine at all costs.

Jennifer Beals, a data analyst at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told the Inquirer that working from home gives her time during the workday to do chores, visit the doctor and even stop off at the car mechanic.

‘It makes my evenings feel a little more relaxed,’ she told the publication.