Is the office dead?

a reply to: Edumakated

For sure some industry is more adaptable to working at home.

originally posted by: Lysergic
People who work in offices always look dead to me.

At least on the inside.

It can be soul crushing...

People that work from home should look into tax deductions, stuff like Internet fee, computer accessories they need to work from home, office chair/desk etc.

It way past time to stop using the COVID scare, as an excuse for poor performance and low productivity. My people returned to the office full time this week, no excuses. My sales manager turned in his notice. Oh well, I’m the boss and may my will be done. If we don’t get the company back on solid financial footing it will not survive.

I’m in property management and run a large commercial campus. While the majority of tenants are still working from home, the current plan for 99% of them is to stagger employees returning to the office after January 1st. The only tenant we’re unsure of is in the cruise industry and they’ve had some greater setbacks than many this last year.

I’m a BOMA member (Building Owners And Managers Association), which basically networks all of us in property management. It seems to be this way across the board here in Broward and Palm Beach counties (employees returning after the 1st).

Furthermore, we didn’t have any new tenants in 2020. At the start of 2021, we have 2 new tenants moving in and just received a letter of intent for a 3rd, so we’re actually ahead of where we were at in 2020 (as well as 2019 and 2018, actually).

It was a concern of mine for a while until we reached out to the tenants to find out their game plans, then met with BOMA members and discussed how their properties were doing. This place has been a ghost town since March, with tenants slowly working their way back since August.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: Never Despise

Well, the company I work for will be requiring all office employees to return full time on June 1st which would be around 10,000 people. So there's that.

Huh. I didn't realize the headquarters in Langley had that many on-site employees. 🤯

Something like 400%% increase in cyber attacks, let a few joe six pack types open a vulnerability causing federal fines and possible lawsuits and the line will rocket the other direction.

a reply to: Irishhaf

I wouldn't say 400%, but you're not far off. As for the legal ramifications, I think a lot of security teams are having to finally implement the projects they had been putting off for years due to budget or what have you. Now budget still is a concern, but the attack surface is now so much broader that CFO's and other holders of purse strings are really starting to open up and want to get a lot done, especially to prevent the type of lawsuits you're talking about from becoming reality.

Certain industries are going to continue to need physical office presence. Lawyers are one example. There are going to be sensitive issues people don't want to risk being recorded or overheard on the internet and will only talk to their lawyers face-to-face.

Labwork, engineering, and medicine are all going to need physical presence.

Another thing is that certain types of innovation that depends on close collaboration between small groups just work better in real space than over the net. For whatever reason, it has been proven that much innovation thrives best when you have the group all sitting together sweating, drinking coffee, scribbling on the back of napkins and so on. It just doesn't achieve that spark over Zoom the same way.

originally posted by: ZombieZygote
Huh. I didn't realize the headquarters in Langley had that many on-site employees. 🤯

Don't forget all the off site locations like the van parked across the street from your house.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: ZombieZygote
Huh. I didn't realize the headquarters in Langley had that many on-site employees. 🤯

Don't forget all the off site locations like the van parked across the street from your house.

Most people simply won’t get it. May your PPK remain ready and hushed.

originally posted by: Nickn3
It way past time to stop using the COVID scare, as an excuse for poor performance and low productivity. My people returned to the office full time this week, no excuses. My sales manager turned in his notice. Oh well, I’m the boss and may my will be done. If we don’t get the company back on solid financial footing it will not survive.

What industry if you don't mind me asking? Yes, I'd imagine that is a problem for some members and management and the workforce. It's finding that balance and reinventing yourself, definitely think "Who Moved my Cheese" is apropos in today's new business environment. One of my bosses had all of his salespersons read it, it's so easy to get into using the same practices selling, and you have to come up with other ways to approach the whole process.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Never Despise

No..
The office will fill back up when employers see how little work gets done when employees are not supervised.

That and employers will subcontract workers at home. You get this much for this task that is due Friday.

In our case our leaders told us we have INCREASED productivity by a lot this year. We've all been working from home since March 16th, some 300 or so in just our building. We were told yesterday by our admins that there is no date to return at the moment. I wouldn't mind a once a month thing but we're all pretty happy working from home.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

You should do the shiny red stapler bit. And then burn the place down...Classic.

a reply to: HalWesten

WFH is working out well here in the UK.

A lot of my Court hearings (most non urgent ones are just getting put back) are being done by phone or video. Before Covid some hearings were quite often by telephone anyway.

There is talk about this becoming the new normal.

With stuff like Microsoft Teams making meetings easy, who needs an office? My organisation is paperless and so are most of the Higher Courts.

a reply to: Never Despise

Indeed. The lowest pay for services achievable seems to be a hallmark of our economic system

originally posted by: Ahabstar
You should do the shiny red stapler bit. And then burn the place down...Classic.

LOL. I am that guy...

a reply to: Xcalibur254


I recall reading speculations back in the 80s about the decentralization of the work force based on the advent of the home computer and the then future internet. How ''cottage industries'' would spring up and people would become their own independent contractors. That has been rather slow in coming but it appears as if it could now pick up speed and become the reality it was projected to be.

As for the cities and near vacant office buildings, well, we will have to wait and see how that all plays out. Myself, my wife and I took early retirements and fled the cities two decades ago because among other things we saw metropolitan demise on the horizon.

originally posted by: HalWesten

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Never Despise

No..
The office will fill back up when employers see how little work gets done when employees are not supervised.

That and employers will subcontract workers at home. You get this much for this task that is due Friday.

In our case our leaders told us we have INCREASED productivity by a lot this year. We've all been working from home since March 16th, some 300 or so in just our building. We were told yesterday by our admins that there is no date to return at the moment. I wouldn't mind a once a month thing but we're all pretty happy working from home.

My wife also experienced increased productivity at her company when working from home. She’s on the corporate side of a charter school system and before they all went back to the office, they had to get 75 schools in 13 different states ready to start the 2020 school year. That alone might have been where the increased productivity came from because they were hauling and busting ass for up to 16 hours a day navigating all that. Every school district needed 3 sets of plans (in-school learning, out of school learning and a mixture) and she was in charge of coordinating all of it between her company, education coordinators and the districts. While a lot of my work is physical labor in the Florida sun, I was feeling bad for her at the end of each day.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

The adoption was slow primarily due to internet not being as readily available. Also, companies and management get stuck in their ways, demanding face time.

COVID accelerated what was already happening and the technology was ready which helped.... zoom, email, cell phones, everyone has a computer...

Imagine if this happened in the 80s or even early 90s... I think it would have been a worse disaster.