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January 7, 2022

Citing COVID concerns, The Hartford pushes back return to offices

Photo | CoStar The Hartford's Asylum Hill headquarters in Hartford.
By Zachary Vasile

Property and casualty insurer The Hartford is again delaying its planned return to the office for employees, citing the ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases and the rapid spread of the omicron variant.

“Due to spikes in COVID-19 infections across the country and the increased transmissibility of the omicron variant, we are delaying the Jan. 18 return-to-office date of many employees to our offices and will reassess the situation in February,” said Matthew Sturdevant, a spokesman for The Hartford. “Employee health and safety continues to guide our decisions as we work through this dynamic situation.”

The insurer last month scrapped plans to have senior leaders return to their offices by Dec. 6, ahead of most other workers. At the time, omicron had just begun to spread internationally, and company officials said they would wait on further information from medical experts to better understand the new virus strain and the risk it might pose.

Plans to bring most workers back to their offices by Jan. 18, however, remained in place.

The Hartford now plans to further assess the situation next month.

“While there is no perfect time to activate our new work model, our intention is to do it as soon as health trends support larger numbers of employees coming together safely for meaningful interaction,” Sturdevant said. “We’ll continue to monitor health conditions and will provide an update to our employees in February regarding next steps.”

Connecticut’s COVID-19 positivity rate stood at 22.8% as of Thursday, and the state is seeing a corresponding rise in hospitalizations. Hartford HealthCare reported Thursday that COVID-19 hospitalizations at its locations have now surpassed the health system’s previous April 2020 peak.

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