As the mandate takes effect, Salesforce employees will return to in-person work in downtown San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The traffic jam of cars leaving San Francisco during rush hour Tuesday night may have felt a little different.

That's because Tuesday, October 1, was the first day that Salesforce required many of its employees to return to the downtown San Francisco office.

“This is the week, this is the week ahead,” Chelsea Yocius said.

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ABC7 News spoke with Yocius and her friend Priscilla Yip at the popular downtown cocktail bar 83 Proof. Both work for Salesforce and were back in the office on Tuesday.

“I’m happy about it,” said Yip. “I’m looking forward to reconnecting with my colleagues and just being able to see people in the office, and the face-to-face contact I think will be really valuable.”

“Our teams are super, super flexible, but they definitely want to see more personal contacts, and you can already see in the city center how lively things have become with the new mandate for this week too,” said Yocius.

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Both Yip and Yocius will be back in the office at least three days a week. Other employees say that different teams have different tasks, be it three, four or five days a week.

ABC7 News spoke with two other Salesforce employees in the engineering department who said they like the new policy, but it doesn't apply to them.

Jeff Bellisario of the Bay Area Council is cautiously optimistic, saying the number of people returning to downtown San Francisco has declined somewhat over the past nine months.

“It’s definitely a step in the right direction and will be helpful for small businesses in the area,” Bellisario said. “Of course more people are back, but the more pessimistic part of me says: well, who is really coming back and how often will they come back? I think that’s the question that’s still open right now.”

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BART officials say new ridership records were set on three different days in September, not because of regular downtown work, but because of special major events like A's Games and Dreamforce.

“In general, our ridership has been very consistent without major events, but it's these special events that have really kept us at peak performance,” said BART's Chris Filippi.

They hope that new, clean trains, along with increased safety measures, will help future train commuters feel more comfortable.