Goldman Sachs, the totemic City investment bank, today declared it would be reopening its vast London HQ on 15 June.
Chief Richard Gnodde told staff in an email seen by the Evening Standard his team had been preparing the glittering £1 billion offices for "a safe and effective transition back to office when the time is right."
With the rate of infection in the UK continuing to decline in the UK, that time is next Monday.
Goldman's move will be closely watched across the City as chief executives balance the needs of teams to work together again with the health implications and personal family circumstances of staff.
Gnodde said of the plan: "This follows many of our offices in continental Europe safely opening over the last few weeks for our people, including Frankfurt, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Warsaw.
"Our approach continues to be firmly guided by our people-first principle - your health and safety and that of your families remain our priority above all else."
The banking giant has for weeks been organising how it will enable staff to return to the huge building, which it only moved into last year. A small, skeleton staff has been operating there for some time.
Gnodde stressed the return to work was voluntary and would be phased, with "split team rotation" in and out of the office. This was the approach many banks took before lockdown forced workers to go home.
"Everyone is encouraged to adopt an approach that works for them and their own personal circumstances which might make a return to office challenging at this time," he said.
Divisional leaders would coordinate staffing patterns to ensure overall occupancy levels increase only gradually over time "in a controlled way".
Staff will first have to complete an occupational health survey and be approved by the hospital's occupational health team before being allowed back into the building.
It is not clear how many staff Goldman now expects eventually to return. Last month it was reported that it envisaged only half of them returning wtih the rest working from home. Daniel Pinto of JPMorgan has reportedly said he expects staff to rotate between work and home, with the company reducing its office space accordingly. Morgan Stanley's James Gordon has talked of having "much less real estate" for the same reasons.
Running offices where people have to distance at 2 metres will be far more costly for companiesy, adding to the driver to encourage people to work from home where possible.
