Manhattan has about 1.5 Million office workers.
They support small businesses, restaurants, and retail real estate.
The NYC vacancy rate has reached 15% in January.
As a response, Governor Cuomo has outlined a plan for pop-up testing to ensure a smooth transition to the office.
This is no quick fix because according to a Pew Research Center study, more than 50% of employees want to keep working from home even when the pandemic is over.
The issue here is that many businesses that relied on these workers commuting and living in cities will now suffer.
The industries that support white-collar office culture in major cities have become increasingly emaciated. The coffee shops, food trucks, and food delivery companies that catered to the white-collar workforce before, during, and after their workday, are no longer in high demand (Starbucks reported a loss of $2 billion this year, which they attribute to Zoomification) ( Dersimonian, The American Genius).
But if work from home is more productive as the majority of studies seem to suggest, why are we trying to live in the past and prop up small businesses that are no longer necessary?
This is an argument similar to that of keeping dying industries such as coal mining alive — so that people don’t lose their jobs.
Is it right to maintain an artificial economy just to keep jobs or should we move forward in humanity towards using the technology we developed?
There is no easy answer. Both options have huge societal costs.
There is no question that we have the technological means to employ a work-from-home system that will not only improve our efficiency and productivity.
We must go down the path of logic.
Just because it is uncomfortable for some people to lose their jobs in archaic sectors is not a rational consideration to keep these sectors alive.
We must adapt to a new economy.
I am not saying “learn to code” or dismissing how complicated it is to adapt to a new economy — but we must move forward.
Inevitably there will be growing pains when moving to a new system.
We saw this with the industrial revolution.
Many people will be obsolete or out of a job temporarily until new sectors and jobs are found.
New generations will have to be reeducated — but it is necessary if we are to move forward as mankind.
A temporary fix to this could be universal basic income (UBI) which I addressed in one of my other articles.
The only thing stopping progress is the old dogs in business that use their emotions to believe that the old way of doing things is the right way.
The argument that we must be face to face with people in order to do business is archaic and inefficient.
I’ve been in an office, and I’ve seen the sheer waste of time that older generations spend in speaking to each other or clients — and while yes, there is a human and social aspect to work, I don't think it should replace familial and friendship interactions.
Younger generations seem to want more leisure time as opposed to wasting time in the office joking around with coworkers.
This doesn't mean that they aren’t “team players” or “unaligned with company culture” — it simply means that while they like their coworkers and bosses, there is a reason that they remain acquaintances.
We are not with them by choice — but to make money to survive and to spend with the ones we actually love — our friends and family.
Small businesses need not despair too much though. It looks as if most companies are opting for a few days required at the office.
A shift to flexible and remote work will keep more people home … Still, millions upon millions of people will find themselves back in an office, at least a few days a week, in the not-so-distant future (Density).
Considerations for this include nature of the employment — does the company require a constant meeting with clients or a team, or is the work more independent in nature?
Obviously, jobs like manufacturing and retail won’t be included in this scheme.
The consensus tends to be 1–2 days allotted to employees to work-from-home for most companies when the pandemic is over.
This flexibility pays dividends because according to a study conducted before the pandemic regarding telework, employees allowed to work from home were 13.5% more productive and were half as likely to quit their job over the next 6–9 months.
Despite this, it is important to point out flaws in work-from-home.
Many employees who worked from home were less likely to get promoted because of a lack of face-time between their bosses.
This is completely arbitrary, however, and practices like this should be discouraged.
Are the promotions occurring because of actually documented productivity, or just because an emotional and old-fashioned boss is more chummy with one of his mates?
What, in reality, is better for the company? The People? Society?
Brent Hyder, Salesforce’s President has it right when he says,
An immersive workspace is no longer limited to a desk in our Towers; the 9-to-5 workday is dead; and the employee experience is about more than ping-pong tables and snacks” (Brent Hyder, Salesforce).
We must cut out the arbitrary aspects of work and make a workplace better for the humans in it.
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