Sometimes I think we get sucked into a narrative that offices are bad and remote work is the answer.
That’s an oversimplification and it’s not really correct.
Here are a few ideas that I think are actually true:
- In most cases, the office of 2019 no longer makes sense for most companies.
- Companies that have resorted to mandates to get people back to the office will ultimately lose their best talent.
- The office was rarely the romanticised place some CEOs think it was. We tolerated a lot of behaviors until we were away from it for a while.
- We do miss seeing people in person.
- In person meetings are important. they just need to be intentional and meaningful.
- The office isn’t the only place to collaborate. Retreats, cruises, co-working spaces, and coffee shops are also great places to get together.
- Commuting is the main reason people in North America are returning to the office less than the rest of the world. The average commute in the US is almost double what it is in European countries.
- U.S. Cities will become more mixed use and there will be multiple focal points within cities. It will revert to many of the city planning approaches pre WWII.
- Offices need to support a purpose such as collaboration or provide an important functional access point relative to customers or suppliers.
- Older offices will continue to be removed from the market and converted into other uses.
- People will want more remote services from government agencies – licenses, benefits, counseling, paying taxes/tickets/fines, etc.
- Offices were parts of ecosystems that largely collapsed during the pandemic. Bars, restaurants and other services that supported offices closed. They aren’t coming back any time soon.
- AI will not save the office space market.
- Public transportation patterns are going to change. Less rush hour ridership and more nights and weekends.
- More people will come into cities as a destination, and less will come in for work.
- Cities need to start selling themselves again.
- All companies need to support staff working from home for some portion of the week if the job allows it.
- Companies who haven’t adjusted their policies and procedures to ensure everyone has the same work experience regardless of where they are, are not implementing remote/hybrid work correctly.
- Remote work is sort of a gateway drug. It’s not just about about the future of work, it’s about the future of living. This is a much bigger topic.
- We will end up with a continuum of offices which are based on a new definition of need. It could be 0 up to close to what we have now. But it will be based on how the space is used and how often. It won’t just be 150 sq ft per person.
This list isn’t complete and I’m sure there are exceptions. The bottom line is that the world changed a couple years ago. It’s been through ups and downs, but it is finally settling into a new normal. And it doesn’t look the way it did before. We will still have offices, but we will have thought more about what we need and how we use them.
