The Office Gym Is Finally Back, and So Is Your Sweaty Boss

“I was done with my workout and then, as one does, I was trying to take a shirtless selfie—just being a little vain—and then suddenly the door opened behind me and my co-worker walked in with her husband,” says Mr. Kerbrat, who works in accounting in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Corporate fitness centers have been one of the last workplace perks to come back due to Covid-19 restrictions. Fans of work gyms—and the convenience they provide—say they make returning to office life more appealing, if occasionally awkward when you’re waiting for your boss to stop hogging the elliptical. Yet post-Covid, the company gym may be more of an etiquette minefield than ever as many of us shake the pandemic rust off our social skills, some employees say.

Caught off guard in front of his surprised co-worker, Mr. Kerbrat says the couple quickly took off while he pulled his shirt back on. Later, as they were leaving, he mumbled something about the moment being awkward.

“My co-worker was like ‘I didn’t see anything!’ and just scurried off,” he says.

Landlords and some bosses hope the office gym gets workers pumped about returning to in-person work settings.

Architecture, design and real-estate companies like Gensler and

CBRE Group Inc.

say big office buildings are upgrading equipment from typical stationary bikes to Peletons. Floor-wide “amenity spaces” also are trending, they say, where conference rooms, a cafe, a lounge and fitness center or basketball court are built to be within steps of each other. Some companies have requested conference rooms that can be easily converted to a yoga studio so workers can get a short burst of movement midday.

Architecture and design firm Gensler created this space to be flexible. It can be used for meetings, but also for yoga.

GENSLER

Some new office gyms are no longer in the basement, instead on higher, more prominent floors where there’s natural sunlight, says Whitney Burns, global client strategy lead at Hines, a real-estate developer and management company. Some of Hines’s newer buildings have gyms that include private studios for Pilates and kickboxing equipment, as well as personal trainers.

Returning to the office can be costly with gas or transit fare, not to mention more expensive salads and sandwiches. Having a free or subsidized gym is a valuable perk that some employees say allows them to keep up their daytime workout habits established while working from home.

Jeff Mailly, 36, started going back into the office five days a week this summer at his credit union in Hudson, Mass. He says he was lured back by the free breakfast and lunch on offer, the air conditioning and, especially, the newly reopened fitness center.

“They have better gym equipment than I do at home,” the development operations engineer says. “I have a few dumbbells, but I don’t have treadmills and I don’t have a bench press.”

Even better: The company eliminated the already subsidized $12 monthly fee, he says.

The convenience of getting in a workout during the day, without adding more to and fro on a freeway, led Jeff Mansell, 43, to cancel his paid membership to an outside fitness club he used when working remotely.

“It was just really tough to schedule time to go,” says the lawyer in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Now, Mr. Mansell says he’s hitting the free office gym three times a week and reads hearing transcripts from a treadmill desk.

Ivory J. Simmons, a 23-year-old client services manager in the Baton Rouge, La., office of insurance company

Arthur J. Gallagher

& Co., says he likes that he can get in a workout right before work and not have to worry about a rushed commute. Amanda Yoelin, a 26-year-old data analyst in Englewood, Colo., says she likes to take three 15-minute breaks throughout her day to do resistance weight training.

“It’s really great for my mental health,” she says. 

Leora Maccabee returned to her law firm’s offices in Minneapolis three days a week this past spring, after a maternity leave. But she studiously avoided the fancy new gym in her office building, in part, she said, because it required debuting her postpartum body in front of fit colleagues. 

Last month, she finally used it and realized her peers were in the same boat, trying to better themselves and their bodies, some after two years of pandemic excesses. She decided to get back to working out and doing it during her lunch hour.

“We have to tell ourselves not to be embarrassed. We’re all working out for the same reason, which is to be healthier,” Ms. Maccabee says. “Having the gym there makes me more likely to work out than I otherwise would because with three kids and a busy work schedule and family obligations, there really is no other time that I can find.” 

Write to Ray A. Smith at [email protected]

“I was done with my workout and then, as one does, I was trying to take a shirtless selfie—just being a little vain—and then suddenly the door opened behind me and my co-worker walked in with her husband,” says Mr. Kerbrat, who works in accounting in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Corporate fitness centers have been one of the last workplace perks to come back due to Covid-19 restrictions. Fans of work gyms—and the convenience they provide—say they make returning to office life more appealing, if occasionally awkward when you’re waiting for your boss to stop hogging the elliptical. Yet post-Covid, the company gym may be more of an etiquette minefield than ever as many of us shake the pandemic rust off our social skills, some employees say.

Caught off guard in front of his surprised co-worker, Mr. Kerbrat says the couple quickly took off while he pulled his shirt back on. Later, as they were leaving, he mumbled something about the moment being awkward.

“My co-worker was like ‘I didn’t see anything!’ and just scurried off,” he says.

Landlords and some bosses hope the office gym gets workers pumped about returning to in-person work settings.

Architecture, design and real-estate companies like Gensler and

CBRE Group Inc.

say big office buildings are upgrading equipment from typical stationary bikes to Peletons. Floor-wide “amenity spaces” also are trending, they say, where conference rooms, a cafe, a lounge and fitness center or basketball court are built to be within steps of each other. Some companies have requested conference rooms that can be easily converted to a yoga studio so workers can get a short burst of movement midday.

Architecture and design firm Gensler created this space to be flexible. It can be used for meetings, but also for yoga.

GENSLER

Some new office gyms are no longer in the basement, instead on higher, more prominent floors where there’s natural sunlight, says Whitney Burns, global client strategy lead at Hines, a real-estate developer and management company. Some of Hines’s newer buildings have gyms that include private studios for Pilates and kickboxing equipment, as well as personal trainers.

Returning to the office can be costly with gas or transit fare, not to mention more expensive salads and sandwiches. Having a free or subsidized gym is a valuable perk that some employees say allows them to keep up their daytime workout habits established while working from home.

Jeff Mailly, 36, started going back into the office five days a week this summer at his credit union in Hudson, Mass. He says he was lured back by the free breakfast and lunch on offer, the air conditioning and, especially, the newly reopened fitness center.

“They have better gym equipment than I do at home,” the development operations engineer says. “I have a few dumbbells, but I don’t have treadmills and I don’t have a bench press.”

Even better: The company eliminated the already subsidized $12 monthly fee, he says.

The convenience of getting in a workout during the day, without adding more to and fro on a freeway, led Jeff Mansell, 43, to cancel his paid membership to an outside fitness club he used when working remotely.

“It was just really tough to schedule time to go,” says the lawyer in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Now, Mr. Mansell says he’s hitting the free office gym three times a week and reads hearing transcripts from a treadmill desk.

Ivory J. Simmons, a 23-year-old client services manager in the Baton Rouge, La., office of insurance company

Arthur J. Gallagher

& Co., says he likes that he can get in a workout right before work and not have to worry about a rushed commute. Amanda Yoelin, a 26-year-old data analyst in Englewood, Colo., says she likes to take three 15-minute breaks throughout her day to do resistance weight training.

“It’s really great for my mental health,” she says. 

Leora Maccabee returned to her law firm’s offices in Minneapolis three days a week this past spring, after a maternity leave. But she studiously avoided the fancy new gym in her office building, in part, she said, because it required debuting her postpartum body in front of fit colleagues. 

Last month, she finally used it and realized her peers were in the same boat, trying to better themselves and their bodies, some after two years of pandemic excesses. She decided to get back to working out and doing it during her lunch hour.

“We have to tell ourselves not to be embarrassed. We’re all working out for the same reason, which is to be healthier,” Ms. Maccabee says. “Having the gym there makes me more likely to work out than I otherwise would because with three kids and a busy work schedule and family obligations, there really is no other time that I can find.” 

Write to Ray A. Smith at [email protected]