Posted on 07/02/2024 9:34:39 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The pandemic turned the world upside down. People stockpiled toilet paper, did yoga over Zoom, baked banana bread, bought Pelotons, went crazy for online shopping, and anyone who was even thinking about buying a pool went and got one. Pretty much all of those trends have since returned to normal, but a major one has remained: working from home.
According to new data published in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Time Use Survey for 2023, ~35% of all employed persons in the US spent the average working day doing at least some of their work from home — up from the previous year, which saw a slight downturn after peaking at ~38% in 2021, and 16% more than two decades ago.
While employees initially had to create home office setups by necessity, factors like work-life balance, reduced time spent commuting, and generally becoming accustomed to the comforts of their own desks (and/or couches) left many with a taste for the hybrid 9-5 model that still lingers today… despite mounting pressure from businesses trying to clamp down on remote working.
Indeed, the desire to WFH remains strong: research cited by The Economist indicates that the typical worker worldwide wants 2 days at home — an entire day more than the actual average — and a LinkedIn survey in January found that now only 39% of US employees want a fully in-person job.
With WFH looking increasingly established, one sector in particular is struggling to adjust to the new normal: commercial real estate. In fact, although US office vacancy rates are already at record highs, according to a report from Moody’s published yesterday, they are set to continue rising up to 24% by early 2026, driven by the expiration of leases and an influx of new office buildings onto the market.
As we noted earlier this week, the pressures on the commercial real estate sector are weighing heavily on REITs and other real estate-exposed stocks… but, while there might be short-term pain, the outlook is not entirely bleak. Moody's foresees vacancy rates eventually stabilizing as redundant offices are either demolished or repurposed into warehouses and residential properties.
The company at which I am contracted recently bough a new headquarters. There is an open floor plan, but numerous miscellaneous offices, all underutilized:
Focus Rooms
Phone Rooms
Bookable Offices
Huddle Rooms
Meeting Rooms
Nursing Rooms
etc.
Plus break rooms, common areas, exercise rooms, etc.
Further, depending on the day of the week, anywhere between 25-80% (Friday) of employees work remote.
It is a comfortable setup (I often take a bookable office, as I am loud, and annoy the people near me), but not very efficient.
“I am loud, and annoy the people near me, but not very efficient”
You are loud, etc., in addition to being not very efficient?
>> There is an open floor plan, but numerous miscellaneous offices, all underutilized:
Cool, they can move wetbacks in to desecrate the space permanently. ;-) Because fighting racism and imperialism.
Damn I’m glad I moved from “Moscow on the Colorado” out to the country! Ain’t NEVER goin’ back!
Pssst... your persnickety pecking is annoying people near you (like me for instance).
Get thee to a safe space. Pronto.
My oldest son started working for a company in Albany many years ago. They owned the office building he worked in. They sold the company to an international company, and they were renting floors from the original owner for their office needs. The lockdown started, and all the employees were set up to work from home. During the lockdown, the building was sold to someone else. The new owners were going to renovate. In the meantime, my son’s company told everybody who worked at the building, to go in and take whatever they wanted for their home office. My son went in and got his chair and some other things. As far as he knows, the company isn’t planning on leasing anymore offices for his group because there was never an interruption in the work. In fact, the company had their best years financially during the scamdemic. Go figure.
You didn’t get the joke?
>> You didn’t get the joke?
I guess not... and I’m normally pretty good at perceiving humor in replies.
My bad. Explain it please?
Let’s just drop it. I’ll try to not annoy you.
And one of the reasons while the suburbs, quiet country towns, rural towns are being destroyed by liberals.
I'm old enough to have spent all my working life in offices. Some people would goof off if they could get away with it. I imagine it's easier to goof off at home.
How do you build something like a house or ship working at home?
Most those at home jobs will be replaced by AI in a few years.
I need a computer to help me do my job, but I could do without it.
If you have zero inter-personal value, that means your skill set is begging to be converted into computer code.
Found the nervous middle manager
I’ve been 100% remote since Covid. I’m not going back to the office. There is no upside in it for me.
Oddly there is more traffic going to and from NYC and New Jersey from Long Island than I’ve ever seen in forty two years. Even more oddly it’s more backed up during office hours than it is during rush hour and it’s the worst I’ve seen at rush hour.
Trains no longer safe for anyone . . . even New Yorkers.
I am a straight commission commodity trader.
I work on a trading floor with about forty other traders.
If you have ever seen the movie Wall Street that was pretty similar to what it was like when I started there in 1985.
Except for the fancy suits.
Just this week the boss announced the the pool table room right off the trading floor was going to become the new day care room.
That curtains would be added to the French doors so people would not be able to see in when there was Breastfeeding going on.
Within an hour we were calling it the Lactation Room.
One of the women traders is returning from maternity leave next week.
Another is due in October.
All of us traders love the two ladies.
So, in 38 years we went from a place that had one female trader to now nine.
Times change.
FYI, we also don’t smoke or drink on the trading floor either anymore.
Swearing is also generally frowned on.
Glad I retired back in 2018.. if I was still working I’d be involved in numerous HR lawsuits by the LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ freak show and anyone playing the work from home BS would have been fired.
The folks around me called me Mr Sensitivity because I didn’t give a shxt about your personal problems because you leave them home not at work. I wouldn’t deal with any of the LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ crowd because I wouldn’t have some freak make the rest of the normal people feel uncomfortable. My team liked me and how I worked and when I hired someone they knew that person would fit in.
My response to the work at home crowd would be “Get your MF azz back to work now or you’re fired”.
It is easier to goof off at home. I don’t, personally, but a bunch of Wells Fargo remote employees just got fired when the company discovered they weren’t really working, but utilizing a program that sent the company a bunch of pre-set keystrokes and mouse movements to make it look like work was being done. Good riddance to them!
I like WFH and resent this attempt to shove everybody down crowded freeways back to the office, but there are certain advantages to having people come into the office, at least from time to time.
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