I really wonder how boneheaded micromanaging you have to be to not even want the massive bonuses from saving on all that real estate, heating and power bills from removing a giant portion of your office space. Nevermind how much money you can get from cities due to making space available for housing.
The class of person heavily invested in commercial real estate happens to overlap pretty heavily with the executives pushing for a return to office. It has little to do with work or productivity and a lot more to do with commercial real estate investments going tits up.
I completely agree with you and am happy that my employer peddled back when the decided we should all come back to the office. Going to the office has many more negatives than benefits for everyone. I sadly learned that a lot of local city councils give incentives and tax breaks for companies to bring back the people so they can stimulate the local economy by eating the unhealthy shit that we can usually find around offices and be stuck in traffic for an hour.
Damn, I had not thought of that. It’s the opposite here as the public transport network is overburdened and underfunded, so they don’t mind the daily commuters working from home instead. But of course I hadn’t considered eateries. 🤔
Eateries can adapt though, as they adapted to commuters.
It hasn’t always been the case that all eateries were only in major city centres. For a long time there were local cafes in small town/village centres that today just don’t exist because there hasn’t been anyone around in the day to eat at them.
I like the idea that we may see a return of more local cafes/restaurants (at least I see this being possible in my country), but I’m not sure how likely it is given the smaller turn over there’s likely to be.
When I worked in an office there were often food vans that drove to each car park offering lunches. If they improved the lunches they offered I could also see something similar to this in suburban areas.
This suggests it’s not necessarily a malicious thing as suggested, but just pre-covid rules that expect businesses to not do significant work from home.
Still, it means a lot of businesses are making this decision with tax breaks in mind.
I really wonder how boneheaded micromanaging you have to be to not even want the massive bonuses from saving on all that real estate, heating and power bills from removing a giant portion of your office space. Nevermind how much money you can get from cities due to making space available for housing.
The class of person heavily invested in commercial real estate happens to overlap pretty heavily with the executives pushing for a return to office. It has little to do with work or productivity and a lot more to do with commercial real estate investments going tits up.
I completely agree with you and am happy that my employer peddled back when the decided we should all come back to the office. Going to the office has many more negatives than benefits for everyone. I sadly learned that a lot of local city councils give incentives and tax breaks for companies to bring back the people so they can stimulate the local economy by eating the unhealthy shit that we can usually find around offices and be stuck in traffic for an hour.
Damn, I had not thought of that. It’s the opposite here as the public transport network is overburdened and underfunded, so they don’t mind the daily commuters working from home instead. But of course I hadn’t considered eateries. 🤔
Eateries can adapt though, as they adapted to commuters.
It hasn’t always been the case that all eateries were only in major city centres. For a long time there were local cafes in small town/village centres that today just don’t exist because there hasn’t been anyone around in the day to eat at them.
I like the idea that we may see a return of more local cafes/restaurants (at least I see this being possible in my country), but I’m not sure how likely it is given the smaller turn over there’s likely to be.
When I worked in an office there were often food vans that drove to each car park offering lunches. If they improved the lunches they offered I could also see something similar to this in suburban areas.
Where did you learn about that, if you don’t mind me asking. I’ve seen this repeated multiple times, but never seen a source.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-02-21/another-threat-to-work-from-home-tax-breaks
This suggests it’s not necessarily a malicious thing as suggested, but just pre-covid rules that expect businesses to not do significant work from home.
Still, it means a lot of businesses are making this decision with tax breaks in mind.