Editor's note: revised June 19, 2026. Originally published November 9, 2020. Operator quotes preserved as historical record from inside the 2020 office-closure period; retrospective analysis added.
By November 2020, eight months into the pandemic, PR agencies were running a live experiment on what the office actually was for. Some had reopened. Most had not. The decisions made in that window — by individual operators speaking on the record — turned out to predict the larger industry settlement that followed. Five years on, the calls that held up and the ones that didn't are clear.
The 2020 landscape
The picture across the agency category in November 2020 was uneven. Rubenstein Public Relations had reportedly reopened its New York office. DKC-PR, MWW PR, 5W and other market leaders kept offices closed with optional in-person access. Smaller agencies were running closer to the operator-by-operator decisions captured below.
Three operators on the record
Noel Hampton, TrizCom Public Relations (Dallas) — reopened July 17, 2020:
"We have reopened. We're a Dallas-based firm that went remote earlier this year due to the pandemic. We wanted to make sure our team was safe and protected, and we were very fortunate to continue working with our partners during that time by turning to Zoom for both team and partner meetings, but we definitely missed being in the office. There's nothing quite like communicating with your team in person. After all, communications is a huge part of our lives, and there's nothing like an in-person conversation. While we do have amazing technology, and we utilized phone calls, text messaging and instant messenger apps, you can't dismiss the power of having a conversation — especially when you're brainstorming or working on an important public relations project. We were able to reopen on July 17 because we installed Aerus' Pure & Clean with ActivePure Technology in our offices. It's technology originally designed for NASA. On top of that, we do take extra precautions to ensure that everyone is abiding by the safety guidelines set by the CDC and local government officials."
Bob Spoerl, President, Bear Icebox Communications (Chicago) — primarily remote through fall/winter 2020, hybrid planned for early 2021:
"We're in Chicago. Technically, with proper distancing, we could all be back in an office together all at once. But, over the next handful of months and particularly this fall/winter, we are maintaining a primarily work from home model. Will we be back in the office together once we feel it's safe? Absolutely. But, I anticipate that coming in phases and evaluating the impact on our team and our work as we do so. In early 2021 (as we monitor the pandemic), we will be taking an office-is-open, hybrid approach. The office will be open for all employees who would prefer to work in the space full time. We're envisioning brainstorm and collaboration days in the office to maximize our collective creativity and build chemistry for our small but growing team. Why return to an office, even a hybrid, flexible model where the definition of where we work is more liquid? Simply put: We can work anywhere, anytime. But, I believe that face-to-face collaboration, when it is safe, is when those agency a-ha moments happen."
Kyle Porter, CEO, CMW Media — voluntary return underway, watching larger organizations:
"Our team hasn't missed a beat since we began working remotely in March. The work-from-home situation created by the pandemic is likely not something we would have tried otherwise, but it has actually made our team even stronger by increasing our flexibility and communication. There is still something to be said for the sense of community that seeing your team in-person can bring, so we have begun returning to the office for those who prefer to work in-office rather than home. We are taking added precautions such as social distancing while at the office, fully sanitizing our office in the evenings, and not holding conference room style meetings. While we contemplated not returning to the office at all, we believe that having an office setting is not a thing of the past. Some employees work best when they have the opportunity to return to the office, which is why we have decided to come back. As of today, being in the office is by no means mandatory. It may be in 2021, but we will most likely follow the lead of larger organizations who have said that they will not be requiring employees to return to the office until at least summer 2021."
What held up
Three of the November 2020 calls turned out to predict the industry settlement that followed.
Hybrid as the default. Bear Icebox's "office-is-open, hybrid approach" became the dominant agency model by 2022 and remained so through 2026. Brainstorm-and-collaboration days became a standard pattern. Forced full-time return at the agency scale was the exception, not the rule.
Optional-in-office, not mandatory-in-office. The CMW Media framing — voluntary return, watching larger organizations, no mandate — proved durable for the mid-sized agency category. Small and mid-market agencies competing for talent against the work-from-anywhere model that 2020 normalized could not afford to mandate return without losing senior staff.
Phased decisions, not policy declarations. Bear Icebox's "evaluating the impact on our team and our work as we do so" was the right operating posture. The agencies that issued definitive return-to-office policies in 2020 and 2021 generally had to walk them back. The agencies that ran rolling phased decisions navigated the transitions with less internal damage.
What did not hold up
The air-purification narrative. The 2020 emphasis on building-level air systems — TrizCom's Aerus Pure & Clean with ActivePure Technology, similar installations across the industry — was real at the time and likely useful as a confidence signal for returning staff. By 2022, the air-purification frame had largely faded from the back-to-office conversation. The technology may have remained installed, but the narrative weight it carried in 2020 communications did not transfer to the longer-term workplace conversation.
The "follow the larger organizations" timeline. The 2020 assumption that large corporations would set the pace for return — articulated by CMW Media as "we will most likely follow the lead of larger organizations" — turned out to be more complicated. Large corporations diverged dramatically. Tech firms ran longer remote and hybrid windows. Financial services pushed return harder. The agency category did not have a single corporate signal to follow because the corporate side did not produce one.
The "summer 2021" anchor. Multiple 2020 statements anchored to a mid-2021 return timeline. Most of those anchors were wrong. The delta variant, omicron, and the broader cultural recalibration around remote work all extended the 2020 remote-and-hybrid period far beyond what was visible in November 2020.
The larger return-to-office story (2024–2026)
The most consequential return-to-office decision of the post-pandemic period came from outside the agency category. Amazon's September 2024 announcement — Andy Jassy's memo requiring five days a week in-office starting January 6, 2025 — became the canonical case study in what happens when a major employer reverses pandemic-era flexibility at scale.
The agency category mostly did not follow that lead. The economics for a mid-market PR agency are different from Amazon's. Talent retention pressure pushes the other direction. The Bear Icebox and CMW Media positions from 2020 — voluntary office, hybrid, watching the macro — turned out to be the structurally correct calls for the category, not the mandate-five-days model the largest corporations eventually moved toward.
The communications takeaway
The November 2020 snapshot is useful as a record of how the agency category navigated an unprecedented operating decision under live uncertainty. The operators who made phased, voluntary, optionality-preserving decisions — and communicated those decisions clearly to their teams — generally produced better five-year outcomes than the operators who issued definitive policies and had to revise them later.
The underlying principle is the same in 2026 as it was in 2020: when the operating reality is uncertain, communications should reflect the uncertainty honestly rather than performing confidence the data does not yet support. The 2020 agency leaders who spoke that way held up. More general management and internal communications coverage across the EPR archive.
Related from the EPR archive: Pandemic Upskilling and Reskilling: The Forecast in Retrospect · Voice Technology: The Dress Rehearsal for AI Communications · What Helps People Helps Business: The Marketing Read That Held Up
