Chicago Tribune (September 24)
“Many employers pushed Labor Day return to office plans back as the delta variant fueled a resurgence in COVID-19 cases—another setback for businesses catering to the Loop’s formerly bustling office crowd. While businesses like coffee and shoe repair shops are optimistic their customers will eventually return, they may be downtown less often and may need time to rebuild old habits.”
Tags: COVID-19, Customers, Delta variant, Downtown, Employers, Labor Day, Loop, Office, Old habits, Resurgence, Return, Setback, Shops
Boston Globe (September 20)
“Back-to-office plans are playing out much differently than anyone expected. Anticipation for a momentous post-Labor Day return has come and gone, but now a growing number of employers are repopulating their offices gradually and on a voluntary basis, rather than pinning all their hopes—and anxieties—onto one date.”
Tags: Anticipation, Employers, Labor Day, Office, Plans, Repopulating, Return
Boston Globe (July 14)
“The Boston-Cambridge economy may never be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic.” Throughout the region, a “long-term acceptance of remote work and changes in commuting and travel habits” are expected to continue. As employees spend less time in the office, “demand for office space could drop by up to 20 percent, and commuter rail usage could fall between 15 and 50 percent from pre-pandemic levels.”
Tags: Acceptance, Boston, Cambridge, Commuter, Commuting, COVID-19, Economy, Employees, Office, Pandemic, Remote work, Travel habits
Financial Times (June 22)
Wall Street banks “have been at the forefront of the push to convince workers to return to the office.” In the strictest vaccination policy yet, “Morgan Stanley employees and clients who have not received their Covid-19 vaccine will be barred from entering the bank’s New York offices.”
Tags: Banks, Barred, Clients, COVID-19, Employees, Forefront, Morgan Stanley, New York, Office, Return, Strictest, Vaccination policy, Wall Street
Boston Globe (April 15)
“For many people hired remotely over the past year, the workplace has largely been restricted to the two-dimensional confines of their computer screens. They may be performing their jobs just fine, but they haven’t been able to benefit from the in-office osmosis that comes with being in a shared space. They haven’t observed their bosses’ body language or picked up tricks that aren’t in the handbook.” As a result, “pandemic hires” are thirsty for the office. They miss “the ‘real’ workplace.”
Tags: Body language, Bosses, Jobs, Office, Osmosis, Pandemic hires, Remotely, Restricted, Shared space, Tricks, Two-dimensional, Workplace
Reuters (May 14)
Banks mainly seem to be provisioning for consumer debt, but “bad-debt risks could easily spread beyond consumer finance. Commercial real estate could face a brutal reckoning if white-collar workers in major cities decide not to return to the office when lockdowns lift.” When stimulus measures wind down, it will leave “over-indebted small and medium-sized enterprises vulnerable. Mass unemployment would lead to increased mortgage defaults.”
Tags: Bad debt, Banks, Commercial real estate, Consumer finance, Lockdowns, Mortgage, Office, Over-indebted, Provisioning, Risks, SMEs, Stimulus, Unemployment, Vulnerable, White collar, Workers
The Economist (April 8)
Most cities now waste a tremendous amount of space providing parking for cars that aren’t moving 95% of the time. This could change. “When autonomous cars that are allowed to move with nobody inside them become widespread, demand for private cars could fall sharply. Starting in the morning, one car could take a child to school, a city worker to his office, a student to her lecture, party people to a club, and a security guard to his night shift, all more cheaply than taxis. Cars that now sit idle could become much more active, which would drastically change parking needs.”
Financial Times (February 27)
Yahoo’s chief executive, Marissa Mayer, will require employees who previously worked from home to come to the office. “The lesson to draw from Ms Mayer’s whip-cracking – in Silicon Valley, of all places – is that this is an age of harder work. From intense teamwork at the top to monitoring and surveillance at the bottom, managers are squeezing more from employees than they previously would have dared.”
Tags: Employees, Home, Managers, Marissa Mayer, Monitoring, Office, Silicon Valley, Surveillance, Workplace, Yahoo
Bloomberg (January 12, 2012)
In Tokyo, “rents are now at the lowest since Miki Shoji started compiling data in 1990.”
Office rent fell 3.7% in 2011 from 2010. Simultaneously, the Capital’s vacancy rate climbed to 9.01% from 8.91%. With new office space set to increase by 12% in 2012, the vacancy rate is expected to remain high, with continued flexibility on rents.
Tags: Miki Shoji, Office, Rent, Tokyo, Vacancy
