TRG | The Bottom Line – 9/10

After some tough talk from Wall Street executives earlier this summer, such as this from Morgan Stanley CEO Gorman, “By Labor Day, I’ll be very disappointed if people haven’t found their way into the office and then we’ll have a different kind of conversation”, more companies are making the decision to delay an employee return to the office.  Earlier this week, Microsoft became the latest company to announce it has cancelled earlier plans to have employees return to the office this fall. In fact, the company has indefinitely delayed an office return in the face of the surging COVID Delta variant. More tough talk came from President Biden this week via his plan require employers with 100 or more employees, health care workers, and federal employees and contractors be vaccinated or submit to regular testing…effecting as many as 2/3 of the nation’s workforce according to multiple reports.  Naturally, politicians and several companies have already threatened legal action. In regard to TRG’s coverage universe, we took the opportunity this week to slightly trim estimates to our furniture manufacturers who are likely to see delay in revenues as the Delta variant pushes out a healthy/safe return to the work place.