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The
disruptions to the global supply chain caused by factory
shutdowns in Asia, congestion at U.S. ports and a nationwide
labor shortage have led to widely publicized microchip and
building materials shortages. Now these issues are causing
shortages in everyday office supplies, everything from printer
ink and toner to paper to lightbulbs.
When anthropology professor Sara Becker returned to her office
at the University of California, Riverside, in early November,
she noticed several bulbs had burned out over the eight months
she'd worked remotely. An assistant in her department contacted
the facilities unit for replacements, and Becker was asked what
percentage of lightbulbs in her office were out.
"I'm an anthropologist not a mathematician!" Becker joked on
Twitter. Becker said in an email interview that, instead of
counting bulbs, she sent photos of her darkened office to the
facilities department, which, university spokesman John Warren
said, is short on lighting materials and lamps.
For offices and workers, these supply issues - which can trickle
down to cause workplace headaches - are only adding to the
obstacles companies face in getting people back to the office.
Variants of the coronavirus, such as Delta, have already forced
companies to push back the dates when they hoped most employees
would begin to return to offices. It is possible the Omicron
variant, first detected in the United States on Wednesday, will
delay openings further.
Now, just securing general lighting supplies is taking eight to
13 weeks longer than normal, said Cheryl Carron, whose duties
include heading facilities management for global commercial real
estate company Jones Lang LaSalle.
"It's a significant challenge as we look at how we bring people
back to work," Carron said in an interview. "It's a real
critical need and one we take for granted."
Companies across the globe have sounded the alarm on supply
issues, which have boosted prices on raw materials from
chemicals to steel. The concern dominated the last earnings
season, with mentions of the issue by chief executives jumping
412%.
U.S. Customs data showed imports of glass bulbs for use in
incandescent lamps fell 25% from the fourth quarter of 2020 to
the first quarter this year, a period when the supply-chain
issues first hit supplies. Imports have since rebounded but are
still below pre-pandemic levels. The United States gets most of
its incandescent bulbs from Taiwan.
In addition to lightbulbs, a source at one of the big retail
banks, speaking on condition of anonymity, said replacement
parts for heating and air-conditioning units across its branch
network were in short supply.
In a recent earnings call, ODP Corp Chief Executive Gerry Smith,
whose company owns the Office Depot and OfficeMax superstore
chains, said the company anticipates a shortage in printer ink
and toner until early next year. And one Midwestern law firm
asked staff in an email last month to cut back on printing
because they are short on paper, according to a copy of the
email seen by Reuters. The law firm did not immediately respond
to a request for comment.
Peter Lorenz, director of facilities and office operations at
law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, said they also
experienced paper shortages and delays in obtaining lightbulbs
at the firm's New York City office, a 360,000-square-foot
(33,445-square-meter) space that used to be occupied by about
500 employees before the pandemic.
Supplies have been ramping back up since mid-October, Lorenz
said, as employees began returning to the office as part of a
hybrid work model, in which they split time between that
workplace and working remotely.
"I think a lot of the suppliers have sort of bulked up so that
they have a pretty good inventory of what we need," he said in a
phone interview.
If there is a silver lining to be found in this facilities
management headache, Jones Lang LaSalle's Carron said, it is in
the lessons that building managers learned from last year's
pandemic-triggered shortages.
"They've got toilet paper," she joked.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall and Maria Caspani;
additional reporting by Herb Lash; editing by Megan Davies and
Jonathan Oatis)
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