I just read through who’s hiring post here and almost every post offered remote or hybrid. To my memory there was one offering onsite only and it made them look sad. Most companies don’t want to look sad.
I know some of the major banks who were adamant about return to office have quietly surrendered that hybrid is here to stay.
You’ll find all sorts of companies though and I suspect if we head into a recession the remote rights crowd will lose ground.
What I am waiting for is the day that accounting gets the CFO to realize if they got more people working remotely they could reduce real estate. Once the emotions of the situation die down sooner or later the accountants will point out that productivity didn’t drop during remote work lockdowns and there’s money that could be saved. This is the moment things really shift. But that’ll be 5 years IMO.
Edit: to be clear they already know these facts but right now it’s all emotions based decision making. Once the emotions fade and a little water goes under the bridge a profit motive in cost cutting will be the thing that strangles in office work. If you think about it it’s quite a luxury to spend that much money just to collocate bags of mostly water for their social pleasure. And accounting doesn’t give a rats ass about your social pleasure.
Most companies tend to not flat out own their real estate but lease it, sometimes through a special purpose vehicle that only owns that building and was financed by the company. This allows a lot better flexibility and isolation from bankruptcy etc. But I would expect if my prediction is true a big write down for those owning and holding large campuses as other corporate real estate “right sizes” to what the accountants can convince the board of.
I hope the glut of office space can be rezoned to mid use - smaller office foot prints combined with residential and commercial. We are frankly overweight office space in regions saddled with a massive shortfall of residential space.
However I really emphasize with commercial businesses right now. Downtown seattle is a ghost town. The lunch crowd businesses are suffering, and the streets have been taken over by the mentally ill and those that feed on them.
I know some of the major banks who were adamant about return to office have quietly surrendered that hybrid is here to stay.
You’ll find all sorts of companies though and I suspect if we head into a recession the remote rights crowd will lose ground.
What I am waiting for is the day that accounting gets the CFO to realize if they got more people working remotely they could reduce real estate. Once the emotions of the situation die down sooner or later the accountants will point out that productivity didn’t drop during remote work lockdowns and there’s money that could be saved. This is the moment things really shift. But that’ll be 5 years IMO.
Edit: to be clear they already know these facts but right now it’s all emotions based decision making. Once the emotions fade and a little water goes under the bridge a profit motive in cost cutting will be the thing that strangles in office work. If you think about it it’s quite a luxury to spend that much money just to collocate bags of mostly water for their social pleasure. And accounting doesn’t give a rats ass about your social pleasure.