How did city employees first full week back in office go? [Video]

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — So-called water cooler chats are a time-honored way to build teamwork in an office and sometimes generate new ideas. It’s one of the things hard to replicate while working from home.

But Philadelphia’s Chief Administrative Officer Camille Duchaussee said the city was caught off guard by how literally that changed when workers returned to the office this week.

“We are going through water jugs more quickly than we anticipated,” she said. “We now know we need to increase our water order.”

DuChaussee said it’s one of the adjustments the city is finding it must make with all workers now back in the office. Last week, a judge upheld Mayor Cherelle Parker’s full-time back-to-office order for city employees, requiring them all in-person for the first time since the pandemic.

About 4,000 Philadelphia workers returned — and they did not get a reprieve from Friday morning’s global internet disruption. They were told to come in, capping …