Coronavirus set to usher in big changes at U.S. offices

[turbinetree]

BUSINESS NEWSAPRIL 16, 2020 / 3:18 PM / UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The novel coronavirus may do to U.S. office rentals what e-commerce did to malls, or so goes a line of thinking running through commercial real estate circles.

If anything, millions more Americans working from home may hasten corporate moves to downsize their offices, a decade-old trend partially responsible for the office sector underperforming other property asset classes in recent years.

This has come even as the leasing business boomed in New York with a surging jobs market and economic expansion that was upended by orders to close offices to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Now technology threatens to further reduce the amount of square footage companies lease after seeing how well the work-from-home experience has fared.

Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Alden Bentley and Grant McCool

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-officespace/coronavirus-set-to-usher-in-big-changes-at-u-s-offices-idUSKBN21Y334?il=0

[SheltieLover]

1. IMHO

Rational minds would perceive this pandemic as a wake up call to reset the norm. People should continue to work from home! This will cut down on emissions, as we have already seen. It will also vut commuting expenses & time for workers, leaving more of their time & money for themselves & their families.

👍

[underpants]

3. Expense of a laptop and maybe WiFi service

Versus lease, uh...landscaping, water, mechanical, power water etc, housekeeping, furniture, and on and on.

We were taking about this a few nights ago and our daughter had questions. We laughed because aside from bosses wanting the physically being boss over people we couldn’t come up with good explanations. I work in an education setting so one on one is still needed. Other than that.

[SheltieLover]

7. Even in education

you can do it via Skype, Blackboard, etc. 👍

Awesome that people are having these conversations though! Yes corp whores will want their throw away employees under their thumb.

Personally, I see this as the natural reaction to about 100 years of intense planetary abuse and humans will need to adapt to social distancing thanks to our species' greed and exploitation.

[fierywoman]

2. Would be nice if the excess office space could be converted to affordable rental (living) space.

[underpants]

4. That was the other thing my daughter brought up

See post above.

[SheltieLover]

8. Excellent idea!

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍

[musette_sf]

5. I hope that this puts an end to the "open office" BS.

I for one will be very happy to see the hot-desking (no assigned workstation) hellholes go away. I am sick of the assholes-to-elbows setups at long desks, with someone less than a foot away on your left and right, and people facing you as well. That won't fly any more. And it was completely counterproductive. No one "colllaborated" more "freely" in the "open" space - everyone has noise canceling headphones on just to be able to focus. So, will the new workplace result in less square footage needed? To some degree, no, since the workspaces will now need to be configured as stand-alone cubicles and offices once again.

[underpants]

9. New office building downtown

Big shiny Dominion Power building. You can see right through it. No walls. From what we could see and conversations I had with people getting lunch - no separation, no personal effects. Not sure about interchangeable desks.

I know it’s a trend but given the amount of time spent in the office, it shouldn’t be live sitting down with a tray at Burger King.

[napi21]

6. In some instances I can see that happening. In many, it can't be done. The one thing I see

changing in this same vein is Doctors visits. There is already a system set up to do virtual doctor visits. rom what I've heard the big hold up was how to be able to bill for these visits. Once the public is exposed to this, it will become common usage.

I know in my own case, I have a monthly visit where all they do is look at the injury to make sure it's not infected, maybe try a new treatment or not, and say have a nice month till the next visit. Many visits are annual checkups, or someone explaining their symptoms and told I'll call in this script & you'll be fine. All of those could be done virtually.

Same with classes. After so many students have had online classes during this pandemic, I see a lot of classes going back to that. Sooo much cheaper, the ability to offer lots more classes in many different subjects, to MANY students!

I think we're going to see lots of changes we don't anticipate as a result of this mess we're in. It will surprise many, especially us older people, but for the good.

[Igel]

10. I'll be the contrarian here.

Work-from-home was a big deal a decade or more ago.

The problems are know.

A lot of homes aren't set up for work at home. Even if you have a home office, it's used for a lot of other things.

Work grows until the workers are demoralized and less productive. You never leave the office.

Even if they have a quota--"must process so many insurance claims"--and meet it, it takes them longer and they have fluffier but longer days.

For the many without set quotas lower productivity is assumed to mean workers are off task doing home-stuff more. They're monitored.

Finally the workers are pulled back into the office.

Lots of mays in the article. And the optimistic "after seeing how well the work-at-home experience has fared."