Unum leaving downtown Worcester, having 400 employees work from home
Photo | Grant Welker
1 Mercantile Street in Worcester
Insurance company Unum, headquartered in Chattanooga, Tenn., will close its Worcester office at CitySquare and direct its 400 employees to permanently work from home, the company announced on Thursday.
Media relations manager Kelly Spencer said the decision was not spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, she said, the decision was prompted by a significantly decreased headcount in the company’s Worcester office, and the belief transitioning to a work-from-home model would increase Unum’s business resiliency in the face of unexpected events — like a pandemic or storm.
When the company moved into its Worcester office, Spencer said there were between 650 and 700 people working there. Now, there are roughly 400.
In 2013, Unum received a 15-year tax break from the City of Worcester where the company would pay targeted tax payments instead of the commercial property rate, in exchange for retaining 600 jobs and investing $25 million in the city. The deal ended up being decertified by the state government for failure to meet the job-creation goals, although the city kept the deal in place.
Unum’s CitySquare lease extends until 2030, Spencer said, and the company plans to sublease the space until that contract expires.
The coronavirus pandemic, Spencer said, affirmed that employees were able to work well in a remote setting.
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