Nap rooms, golf, doctor's offices: Why Boston offices are adding more amenities

Working from home has become an important part of many employees' routines, but the office could rival your living room if One Post Office Square is any indication.

The newly renovated tower features some major amenities for people who go to work there.

On top of automated parking, there's an entire amenity floor, which includes everything from games, a doctor's office, massage rooms, nap rooms, a full gym, a scenic patio and more.

"The best thing our clients can do is figure out how do you mirror the things people love about working from home on the days they come into the office," VP of Workplace Strategy for commercial real estate group JLL Lauren Hasson said.

Hasson is working with companies to help them adapt to a post-COVID shutdown world.

"You have to deliver a better experience than you were pre-COVID, even though employees aren’t there everyday," Hasson explained. "And that can be a very tough pill for leaders in particular to swallow."

Downtown Boston was one of the neighborhoods impacted the most by the pandemic and work from home shift. But JLL is tracking an increase in foot traffic in Boston, including in the Financial District.

"I certainly think that there is a return to office portion to that," Executive Managing Director for JLL Matthew Daniels said. "I think the retailers from an experiential standpoint are changing their offering."

Harvard School of Business professor Joe Fuller said that the biggest considerations for many workers remain caregiving and commuting.

"A lot of companies as I said are having trouble understanding what motivates their workforce to be in the office or come more often than they have to," Fuller said. "In large part because that answer is different depending on the demographics."

Fuller said more important for most workers than their office space are a forward trajectory at their job, and belief in the company they work at.