Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday called on businesses across the city to bring office workers back sooner than a spring timeline, calling the delay “devastating for our economy.”

With the spread of the omicron variant across the city, Adams said many businesses told him that their employees do not want to return to the office. 

The mayor said that impacts businesses that don't have the abiity to work from home.

“I don’t know if my businesses are sharing with their employees, ‘You are part of the ecosystem of this city,’” Adams said at a press conference Tuesday at Pearl River Mart in SoHo. “My low-skill workers, my cooks, my dishwashers, my messengers, my shoe shine people, those that work in Dunkin’ Donuts, they don’t have the academic skills to sit in the corner office. They need this.”

He encouraged businesses to open their offices sooner than a proposed April timeline, including bringing back workers for two to three days a week until the city is ready to open its doors fully.