Posted on 08/23/2021 7:57:08 PM PDT by Brookhaven
With the latest wave of return-to-office delays from Covid-19, some companies are considering a new possibility: Offices may be closed for nearly two years.
That is raising concerns among executives that the longer people stay at home, the harder or more disruptive it could be to eventually bring them back.
Many employees developed new routines during the pandemic, swapping commuting for exercise or blocking hours for uninterrupted work. Even staffers who once bristled at doing their jobs outside of an office have come to embrace the flexibility and productivity of at-home life over the past 18 months, many say. Surveys have shown that enthusiasm for remote work has only increased as the pandemic has stretched on.
“If you have a little blip, people go back to the old way. Well, this ain’t a blip,” said Pat Gelsinger, chief executive officer of Intel Corp. , whose company has benefited from the work-from-home boom. He predicts hybrid and remote work will remain the norm for months and years to come. “There is no going back.”
Return dates have been postponed repeatedly. On Thursday, Apple Inc. told corporate employees that its planned return to U.S. offices would be delayed until at least January.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Remote work is here to stay, especially since it reduces costs in having office space.
I’ve been working remotely for five years. I could never go back to the office drama.
yes, I think the finance people are looking at the enormous costs of renting office space, and doing some calculations about how much money can be saved by not renting all that space.
And people now can live wherever they want, and move to cheaper locations and work remotely. The impact on real estate will be interesting.
Meanwhile, in rest of the world, everyone needs to go back to the office or get fired.
Working great in terms of federal court hearings - most by telephone, many by Zoom. I hope they never go back.
We're already breaking leases for office space in Downtown Shitcago. Good riddance, I say. None of us want to go back to that crime infested shithole run by the stupid lesbian licker liberal lori Lightfoot.
Most of us fear getting mugged or murdered far more than we do the china virus.
Or move the jobs to India.
Well that was happening even before COVID.
Some of my co-workers have already moved out of state. Some hundreds of miles away. It will be impossible for many of them to come back to the office as before.
Our company announced some time back that they weren’t going back. They plan to retain some space for appropriate projects, but will release most space as leases expire to move to a footprint that better fits the new model.
I would go farking nuts if I stayed home
I faked going to work briefly during the bullcrap covid shutdown
Anything to get out of the house
Remote workers, thanks to COVID.
Now, employers mandating vaccines, so employees can get back to waking up, fighting traffic, weather..
For the privilege of working in an office full of super spreaders.
I wonder how many COVID related remote workers are going to be facing this dilemma.
Gee, I got to go back in the office?
That sucks
I’m with you. I like a strict segregation between my home and work life.
Remote work is just fine for mundane tasks where nothing more than a computer and a solid connection is required. It totally unacceptable for projects that require iterative thought and creativity. There is NO SUBSTITUTE for people gathered together in a room bouncing ideas off each other and discussing the pros and cons of the various ideas together. Human interaction is a valuable and essential asset.
“If a business can run its operations with minimal disruption with its staff working from home for two weeks, it can do it for two decades.”
My EE/IT husband was working remote months prior to the Marxist lockdown. He’s still working remote and we’ve been able to sell our home in NJ and move to Florida. Many workers don’t need to be in an office and can do the same job from home without a commute, etc. Florida just got two new DeSantis voters. Hopefully, that will offset some of the new anti American First voters.
I remember reading an article in one of my homesteading magazines, oh 30 years ago, about being on the homestead, working remotely, and using the time saved from commuting to do homestead activities or have a quality family life.
That could be in reach now.
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