Will physical work offices return to normal, post-pandemic?

[satchmo]

I know many are enjoying the work from home situation with the pandemic measures in place.
Some CEO's have stated that this will become the new normal even once we have the virus under control.

While flexibility of working remotely will remain, I can't help but think things will eventually return back to working on location.
There are too many benefits with working in-person. From brainstorming, collaboration, face-to-face negotiations, water cooler and lunch room social interactions.

What are your thoughts? Please keep this non-political.

 

[yaxomoxay]

I know many are enjoying the work from home situation with the pandemic measures in place.
Some CEO's have stated that this will become the new normal even once we have the virus under control.

While flexibility of working remotely will remain, I can't help but think things will eventually return back to working on location.
There are too many benefits with working in-person. From brainstorming, collaboration, face-to-face negotiations, water cooler and lunch room social interactions.

What are your thoughts? Please keep this non-political.

Right now there isn't much choice. Then, a year or two from now, CEO's will look at the statistics, cost-benefit analysis, and general morale info and will make their evaluation. I think most companies will revert to regular office work simply for productivity reasons and team building needs.

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

I think most will go back to the office. But I do think some will prefer this just because of the convenience. The work I do involves too much hardware to bring home. No thanks. lol.

 

[benshive]

I think that it will be quite awhile before things return to normal at the office because of the benefits that you listed. All of the benefits of working in an office require exactly the opposite of what would be required to prevent spreading the virus. Looking over someone's shoulder to help them with a problem, congregating in a conference room to brainstorm ideas, etc. If you're just going to keep everyone six feet apart at their cubicles, what's the point of bringing everyone back in anyway?

Also, if things are running smoothly with everyone at home, I think a lot of companies are going to look at how much they'll need to pay to renew the lease for their office space and have some second thoughts about bringing everyone back.

 

[satchmo]

I think that it will be quite awhile before things return to normal at the office because of the benefits that you listed. All of the benefits of working in an office require exactly the opposite of what would be required to prevent spreading the virus. Looking over someone's shoulder to help them with a problem, congregating in a conference room to brainstorm ideas, etc. If you're just going to keep everyone six feet apart at their cubicles, what's the point of bringing everyone back in anyway?

Also, if things are running smoothly with everyone at home, I think a lot of companies are going to look at how much they'll need to pay to renew the lease for their office space and have some second thoughts about bringing everyone back.

My premise was based on not having to social distance. So assuming close interactions are okay, wouldn't you prefer teams working in person?
With respect to office leases, companies may have the upper hand when renegotiating, but I suspect many are currently doing that already. Plus some are locked in for 10 plus years.

And it's a balancing act. You may save on real estate costs, but it's worthless if at the same time, you're losing money in loss productivity.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

I just started a new job in July, well after they had transitioned almost everyone to working from home. (A very unique interview/hire/onboarding process, but that's another story.) As of now, we are allowed to come in, but they encourage people to work from home if they feel more comfortable and productive enough. I anticipate the company bringing most people back in the building eventually, but being more flexible with WFH for situations where it makes sense: people who are sick, but still feel good enough to work (and, in the past, would have come in); a child who is home ill or off school; an appointment that only needs minimal attention.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

Change is constant, tomorrow will never be like yesterday.

My prediction is that some parts of many companies will permanently change post-COVID. Some roles that really require on-site presence will return to the old system.

For sure, remote learning and telemedicine will figure more frequently and prominently in many people's lives.

Teleconferencing and desktop/whiteboard sharing had been making strong inroads into the corporate world years before COVID-19. The pandemic accelerated more widespread adoption but I had used pretty much every major video conferencing software (Skype, WebEx, bluejeans, et cetera ad nauseam) for years prior. That included a modern Mitel VoIP telephone system with desktop screen sharing.

When I worked in the corporate world before COVID-19 I preferred a strict separation between my personal life and work life so I never worked from home despite the fact my role was quite suited for it. (Note that I have worked from home in the past and I eventually concluded I was happier not doing it.)

For many big firms, I expect they will downsize some of their offices when leases are up. Rather than assign each employee their own desk, they will use generic hotelling desks or cubicle bullpens for some people who show up on-site. Due to the length of commercial real estate contracts, I'm guessing this will be more gradual. A lot of the big firms will consolidate property. A 5000 person campus with a 1500 person annex may eventually end up being two 1500 person campuses.

Some employees will miss the camaraderie of being in the office with colleagues.

For sure the work-life balance will be more heavily blurred for many. I am uncertain how healthy that will be for long-term happiness.

There is notable activity in the local residential real estate market with buyers looking more carefully at the room situation and locations to set up a home office(s) especially when there are multiple income earners all working from home.

 

[Strangedream]

Unlikely in the UK.

Some companies, mine included, are starting to realize working from home can be as efficient as working from the office - hence they can cut down on office costs. Even when the vaccines roll out we'll still have to observe social distancing, which means that most offices will have to be filled at half or even less capacity.

Of course this depends on the type of work you're doing, client relation departments might go back to the office earlier than say back-office teams.

 

[dk001]

Change is constant, tomorrow will never be like yesterday.

...

When I worked in the corporate world before COVID-19 I preferred a strict separation between my personal life and work life so I never worked from home despite the fact my role was quite suited for it. (Note that I have worked from home in the past and I eventually concluded I was happier not doing it.)

...

Been doing the WFH off and on for quite a while and one aspect that was critical was maintaining that Work / Personal balance. I have a separate office at home and finally got the fact across that "WFH does NOT" mean I am available for honey-do list items.

My company has taken training meant for remote personal offices (Legal, Engineering, etc) and adapted it for WFH in a broader sense. The current path is to maintain aspects of this where it makes sense.

We could do with better collaborative software.

 

[dk001]

I know many are enjoying the work from home situation with the pandemic measures in place.
Some CEO's have stated that this will become the new normal even once we have the virus under control.

While flexibility of working remotely will remain, I can't help but think things will eventually return back to working on location.
There are too many benefits with working in-person. From brainstorming, collaboration, face-to-face negotiations, water cooler and lunch room social interactions.

What are your thoughts? Please keep this non-political.

I suspect we will see a hodge podge of results. Many businesses benefit from this while others suffer.
Been doing this off and on for a number of years and find it works for me. The WFH model.

 

[Nermal]

I'm in NZ which is thankfully Covid-free in a practical sense, and everything's 'back to normal' at my work (~400 people). The vast majority of people work from the office, although there is a change: Occasionally people will opt to work from home for a day or two (usually when they need to focus on something specific) which never used to happen before Covid.

I think some other employers are still encouraging working from home, but mine certainly isn't the only one that's gone back to office-based working.

 

[Mousse]

The guy who always steal food from the break room fridge would miss working at the office.😁😁😁

For some of us, working from home isn't practical. Being a bean counter and issuing hundreds of printed checks a week requires that I sit at the office. Or at the very least come to the office to crate boxes of invoices, bills, various documents. Well hail, might as well work at the office.

Programmers can work from home. Heck, a conniving programmer can hire another programmer from China or India to do his work. Pay the guy 1/3-1/5 your pay and watch YouTube all day.😲 Ain't fiction, y'all.

 

[eyoungren]

I work for a small company that prints the stuff that I and other designers create. I can continue to work from home with no problems. In fact, I will probably ask to stay working from home if I have to.

But there are certain jobs in my company that don't have that luxury. Someone needs to run the press, sort, cut, stack, fold, box and ship and that's not a work from home job.

 

[robbieduncan]

I think the change will come. Many if not most companies who were hostile at some live to home working will have found it does work. Initially they might offer it as a perk but more and more employees will expect and demand it. Once they see the offices not full on any given day (as some staff choose to be at home) the office will get downsized.

I don't expect a 100% transition to full-time at home. I think most people will have 1-3 days in the office and the remainder at home.

An interesting outcome of this will be the need for people to carve work spaces out of their homes. Possibly even upsize their homes if they have 2 adults at home most of the time...

 

[LeeW]

Really depends on the business and how focussed they are on cost-saving. Dropping premium office could save firms millions even taking into account the support needs for those WFH. I do think many will return in time though.

 

[bunnspecial]

For me, I can't wait to get back to the office. I miss interacting with people face to face. In addition, the "mental shift" of going into the office has always been and will remain a big deal to me. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I was able to go in, albeit teaching remotely, and I did a couple of days a week. I got a lot more done on those days.

I'm not going to lie that laying on the couch sipping my own coffee in my pajamas is nice, and I typically don't get dressed until it's time for class. The amount I'm saving on gas and the extra half hour of sleep are nice perks, though. At the same time, though, until we find a bigger house, the kitchen table isn't my favorite place to work/have meetings.

Historically, pre-pandemic WFH policies have often required a dedicated office, child care, etc. With the COVID-shift that happened more or less overnight here, all of that kind of went out the window, and we made it work. Daycare also kind of went out the window since a lot of them had to close or seriously limit capacity, and the sometimes-available grandparents option wasn't necessarily an option given the potential infection dangers. Long term, are companies going to be willing to foot all the costs of people working from home? Will they cover the internet speeds needed for efficient video calls? Will they cover daycare? Will they cover their employees increased power bill? If not itemized, will the cost of not maintaining an office get passed along in the form of higher salaries for employees to do all of that?

 

[Apple_Robert]

I doubt we will see what we knew as normal any time soon.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

One thing I am pretty certain of is that COVID-19 has seriously damaged the psyches of a certain percentage of individuals even if they have never contracted the illness. Maybe permanently, at least for long-term and likely well after vaccines kick in and restrictions are eased.

There are American people fleeing prime real estate locations. Some people I know simply disappeared or pretty much abandoned their old lives.

COVID-19 isn't the bubonic plague. You still have a greater chance getting killed on the freeway if you're not in certain categories (long-term care facility residents, food processing workers, jail/prison inmates).

You see some of that peeking in the statistics. Things like out-of-work people who don't file for unemployment benefits meaning they are not motivated to rejoin the workforce.

My guess is that some places and population segments will return to fairly normal operation. Southeast Asia has a better chance of this than many places in the USA.

Look at Japan. Their population is 38% of the USA. They have more deaths from suicide than COVID-19.

In Japan, more people died from suicide last month than from Covid in all of 2020

More people died from suicide in Japan in October than succumbed to Covid-19 all year. And more women are taking their own lives, as they lose part-time work and take on the bulk of family responsibilities at home.

edition.cnn.com

More astoundingly, the total daily USA COVID-19 death rate now is higher than Japan's cumulative COVID-19 fatalities. That's right, more Americans are dying of COVID-19 every day than all of Japan's COVID-19 victims since the pandemic start.

Plus, Japan has higher population density and are the world champions of mass transit. Moreover, Japan has a significantly older demographic meaning a higher percentage of their population is at higher risk.

In Japan, COVID-19 has been an inconvenience but they will likely emerge from this and continue as they did before. After all, mask wearing has been accepted for decades. It's an accepted form of polite public conduct, like not talking on speakerphone while you're in public.

 

[44267547]

The Gates-Soros puppets are sending very clear signals that they have no intention of removing their jackboots from our throats. Fauci has already clearly stated that muffling and anti-social distancing must continue after vaccination.

Good. Maybe then, and only then, you might have those who need to take this seriously, given for those who don’t, just continue to prolong this longer than it needs to be. But of course, if somebody would rather lay face down with a ventilator jammed in their face with assisted breathing while their wheezing and coughing in a feeble state where permanent damage could be likely, hey that’s always an option.

***************************

But for the rest of us who want to return to a ‘semi-normal state’, will continue to be proactive and do we need to do to play a part in our communities by social distancing and masking to be the example. Is the old ‘normal life’ imminent anytime soon, absolutely not. Is it doable where we can reach a state where we can have some sense of normalcy restored with cooperation and with the help of backed science, with a vaccine coming, absolutely.

 

[HDFan]

or many big firms, I expect they will downsize some of their offices when leases are up.

Certainly happening here. I'm in a high tech area, and there are reports of expensive downtown spaces losing their renters. Driving around today I saw a lot of "for rent" signs outside former tech buildings.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I very much doubt it.

A new "normal" whereby people visit the office once or twice a week may well supplant the older model.

Moreover, whatever about "the office", I suspect that the concept of the "open-plan" office may well undergo significant revision in the future.

 

[robbieduncan]

I very much doubt it.

A new "normal" whereby people visit the office once or twice a week may well supplant the older model.

Moreover, whatever about "the office", I suspect that the concept of the "open-plan" office may well undergo significant revision in the future.

Even more so the hot-desking concept. Are people really going to want to sit at a workstation someone else was using the previous day/hour?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Even more so the hot-desking concept. Are people really going to want to sit at a workstation someone else was using the previous day/hour?

Agreed.

This doctrine of "presenteeism" will have to undergo modification, something that will not sit well with controlling and micro-managing superiors.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Even more so the hot-desking concept. Are people really going to want to sit at a workstation someone else was using the previous day/hour?

I am just glad that Covid might finally cause the death of the abhorrent concept named "open space office".

 

[dk001]

One thing I am pretty certain of is that COVID-19 has seriously damaged the psyches of a certain percentage of individuals even if they have never contracted the illness. Maybe permanently, at least for long-term and likely well after vaccines kick in and restrictions are eased.

There are American people fleeing prime real estate locations. Some people I know simply disappeared or pretty much abandoned their old lives.

COVID-19 isn't the bubonic plague. You still have a greater chance getting killed on the freeway if you're not in certain categories (long-term care facility residents, food processing workers, jail/prison inmates).

You see some of that peeking in the statistics. Things like out-of-work people who don't file for unemployment benefits meaning they are not motivated to rejoin the workforce.

My guess is that some places and population segments will return to fairly normal operation. Southeast Asia has a better chance of this than many places in the USA.

Look at Japan. Their population is 38% of the USA. They have more deaths from suicide than COVID-19.

In Japan, more people died from suicide last month than from Covid in all of 2020

More people died from suicide in Japan in October than succumbed to Covid-19 all year. And more women are taking their own lives, as they lose part-time work and take on the bulk of family responsibilities at home.

edition.cnn.com

More astoundingly, the total daily USA COVID-19 death rate now is higher than Japan's cumulative COVID-19 fatalities. That's right, more Americans are dying of COVID-19 every day than all of Japan's COVID-19 victims since the pandemic start.

Plus, Japan has higher population density and are the world champions of mass transit. Moreover, Japan has a significantly older demographic meaning a higher percentage of their population is at higher risk.

In Japan, COVID-19 has been an inconvenience but they will likely emerge from this and continue as they did before. After all, mask wearing has been accepted for decades. It's an accepted form of polite public conduct, like not talking on speakerphone while you're in public.

Massive cultural diff between the US and Japan.