BOSTON — The Retailers Association of Massachusetts is pushing for a concrete timeline to return to in-person work as the group says the pandemic is beginning to ease. The retailer advocate says so many small businesses are in limbo as they make decisions about the future, but have no information on when the state might return to a workforce in anybody.

Boston’s heart isn’t beating exactly the way it did before COVID-19. Boston Barber Company manager Jerry Savino told us that their Beacon Hill store used to have lunchtime and after work. “You would see people everywhere, so that would help us, they would stop to get their hair cut, they would pass and go straight in,” Savino said.

Massachusetts Retailers Association President Jon Hurst called on big business and government leaders to set a clear timeline for when we can return to a full, in-person workforce. “We need a vision, we need a clear plan, we need to decide what date we should aim for to get back to our offices, back to the T, back to normalcy,” Hurst said. Hurst says even in his own office building near the Government Center — it’s empty. “We need to urge them to take action to get people back into the workforce and back to a routine (Robert Goulston: Are they saying why they’re waiting?) I think that’s a lot of the government’s message that, you know, keeps changing,” Hurst said.

Talia Carpinteri is working remotely from her home in South Boston. “I think the remote is working. I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to go back. I’m not ready,” Carpinteri said. It seems like a lot of people are of the same mind. “I just think the new variant is safer indoors and I think companies will lose a lot of people if they decide to do that full work week in person,” Carinteri said.

The governor’s office tells us that there are currently no statewide restrictions on in-person work.

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