Every day at 4 a.m. for the past 19 years, Jason Wu shows up to this kitchen to make donuts and croissants. 

"This is dollar by dollar to send them to school," said Wu.

There's relentless pressure to sell enough each day to provide for his children. 

"Pressure. I got three little babies at home," said Wu. 

Gateway Croissant is about a block away from San Francisco City Hall. Most days, it's a 16-hour workday for Wu—but he says it feels like a lot more.

"Twenty-four hours, seven days a week," said Wu. 

Ten thousand city employees in San Francisco are set to return to the office four days a week starting this week, that's the mandate from the mayor's office, but there have been delays and pushback from labor unions representing those workers. 

Wu's wife Quynh Nguyen noticed an uptick in business when state employees were required to work four days per week at the office in July. But it's the return of even more workers from the private and public sectors they're hoping and still waiting for. 

"They come to get donuts and coffee for meetings, or birthdays at the office, or even if it's just because it's Friday. It makes a big difference," said Nguyen. 

Those regular office meetings are when boxes of coffee can be sold, rather than a single cup at a time or one donut per transaction.

Quynh says when online food delivery service orders lag, it's a good indicator of how many workers are in the office. 

"We accept all the online orders, like EzCater or UberEats. Those are for people in the office," said Nguyen. 

Mayor Daniel Lurie has argued the new policy will enhance government efficiency and boost foot traffic around Civic Center. 

According to Placer.ai, which tracks foot traffic trends, office visits in July were down 34.2% compared to July 2019. But the city also saw a 21.6% year-over-year increase in office foot traffic last month. 

"San Francisco is still lagging behind other cities in terms of the percentage of people back in the office," said Julian Vogel, who teaches finance at San Jose State University. 

The new four-day mandate will apply to an estimated 10,000 workers in nonessential roles like accounting, human resources, and legal services.

Vogel believes small businesses could see significant boosts.

"Now with government and public workers coming back, that incentivizes somebody to open something at that former sandwich shop location, which makes private industry more likely to come back," said Vogel. 

"Hopefully, people downtown are coming back more days per week so we can get more busy," said Nguyen. 

He won't be working less, but Wu will be a little more hopeful with the promise of more business on the horizon—even if it means long mornings, days, and nights ahead. 

"Not just talk. 'You see it on the streets?' We feel it right here," said Wu.  

The four-day return to office mandate for 10,000 city employees was initially supposed to take effect in late April but was pushed back until now after negotiations with labor unions. According to the mayor's office, about 70% of city workers in critical public safety, health care, transportation, and infrastructure jobs are already working in person full-time.