Wu: Fidelity returning to office 5 days a week is ‘great news’ for downtown Boston
Mayor Michelle Wu said Monday that employees returning to in-person office work more often is “great news” for downtown Boston, which has struggled to regain its economic footing postpandemic.
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Wu’s comments came in response to news that Fidelity Investments will require employees at its Boston headquarters on Summer Street and its new waterfront complex to work from the office full time starting in September.
Speaking on WBUR’s Morning Edition, Wu told host Tiziana Dearing that Fidelity’s return to office mandate is positive news at a time when many companies and employees are navigating hybrid work.
Fidelity’s announcement “was great news” for small businesses, which will feel an economic “boost” after workers start spending more money downtown, Wu said.
The mayor said she was anticipating Fidelity’s announcement, which made headlines at the end of April. The financial services giant employs more than 6,000 people in Boston, and 80,000 nationwide, with offices in Merrimack, N.H., Smithfield, R.I., Kentucky, and New Mexico.
Fidelity workers at those sites will be required to be in the office five days a week, except for employees below the vice president level at the Smithfield site, because it’s not large enough to accommodate everyone, The Boston Globe reported.
Fidelity has been requiring Boston employees to work in-person for two full weeks out of every four. The full-time in-person requirement essentially doubles employees’ commute time, the Globe reported.
Wu said Bostonians are always going “back and forth,” debating in-person versus remote work, and the importance of work-life balance. Wu used herself as an example, telling Dearing that she started dropping her third child off at day care about three weeks ago.
“As a person who is juggling the live-work, sometimes it feels very intense,” said Wu.
Downtown Boston has struggled in recent years after the pandemic enabled many people to work from home. Years later, many workers still only go into the office two or three days a week, and the lack of foot traffic downtown has put a financial strain on restaurants, bars, and other businesses that cater to workers.
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Almost halfway through 2026, many storefronts are empty and longstanding watering holes, such as Clarke’s at Faneuil Hall, have shuttered.
Data from the Downtown Boston Alliance showed about 20,000 fewer people worked downtown in 2025 than did before the pandemic. Last year, workers came into the office, on average, about three fewer days per month than they did five years earlier, the Globe reported.
In the WBUR interview, Wu said Fidelity and other Boston companies have found that in-person work allows employees to collaborate better.
“They and many others have been seeing real value in collaboration, and the kind of work product, creativity, and just general culture and morale that can come from people being in spaces together,” Wu said.
Boston’s public transportation must become even more frequently available and reliable to help workers commute to offices, Wu said. The city must also create more child-care options, she said.
Wu told Dearing that 90 percent of city employees work in-person five days a week. She said that workforce of nearly 18,000 employees does more than just manage the city, they’re drivers of economic growth.
“Not only are we the decision makers, policy makers, and budget writers, but we’re also major economic actors in the city’s economy,” Wu said.
There are small businesses, events, and pop-up art to experience in Boston that workers can only take advantage of by being downtown regularly, Wu said.
Ideally, workers have “a vibrant experience after work . . . check out events that are happening . . . places where you can come across something beautiful and unexpected that you can only see in Boston,” Wu said.
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