Some city employees may soon be able to work remotely again, Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday.

When asked if City Hall would consider allowing its employees to work from home ever again, Adams said he had been asking city agencies to “come up with creative ways of having flexibility.”

His remarks marked a major shift in his stance towards remote work from last year, when he criticized work from home as being unproductive and anti-social.  

“You can't stay home in your pajamas all day. That is not who we are as a city. You need to be out, cross pollinating ideas, interacting with humans,” Adams said in February 2022. “It is crucial, we are social creatures and we must socialize to get the energy that we need as a city.”

The mayor also argued that office workers were vital to Manhattan’s economy and stressed the return to office as a way of boosting the city’s business districts.

However, many employees have resisted and just months after Adams’ infamous “pajama” comment was made, Gothamist reported that New York City agencies were struggling to fill thousands of jobs, partly because of the refusal to allow hybrid work.

Still, the shift in Adams’ opinion comes as a surprise to some as just days ago, Bloomberg News reported that hybrid work is causing Manhattan to lose about $12 billion in revenue per year.

While it remains unclear what “flexibility” Adams would grant some city agencies, he did say he wanted to ensure any new work arrangements would be fair to all essential workers.

“How do we make sure that we don’t create a two-tiered system where some can work from home and others cannot? So we want, as a team, to say, ‘How do I look out for my fellow civil servant?’ To say, ‘You have to come in, so how do we compensate you in some way?’” Adams said.

It remains unclear what city agencies are being looked at for remote work and when that shift may happen.