Tech CEOs predicting WFH will be permanent, and many employees will never come to an office again

[Anonymous]

Tech CEOs stating that productivity is still good.

That just may be the beginning: At least six prominent tech companies are considering permanently moving a large slice of their workforces to work-from-home status, their chief executives told MarketWatch this week.

“It’s hard to not see 20% to 40% of our workforce be remote,” Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield told MarketWatch in an interview Thursday on — appropriately enough — a Zoom ZM, -5.80% video call.

“We need to make real-estate decisions long in advance, two to three years, and are in the speculative conversation now if we have 30%, 40% fewer desks,” Butterfield said in discussing conversations he was having with fellow Slack executives this week. “We may make the office more of a hotel.”

The financial impact on cities like San Francisco and Seattle, where tech is the chief economic engine, could be devastating. Use of commercial real estate and public transit are likely to decline. Restaurants, bars and other gathering spots could be endangered. And then there is the toll on workers, many of whom feel increasingly isolated and stressed, worried about the security of their jobs even as they log long shifts at home.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/work-from-home-productivity-gain-has-tech-ceos-predicting-many-workers-will-never-come-back-to-the-office-2020-05-15?mod=mw_quote_news

Finally businesses are seeing the writing on the wall. Get with the 21st century. Office jobs are soooooo 20th century, and it isn't worth the cost to locate yourselves in horrendously overpriced urban centers where you have to pay quadruple the premium in terms of office space and salaries just to compensate. Businesses are starting to realize they could save huge amounts of money if their people can WFH and live in lower cost of living areas of the country. Bring it on. Hopefully the RE markets in horribly unaffordable cities like Seattle, SF, DC start to implode.

I would leave this area in a heartbeat if I were guaranteed permanent WFH. I'd much rather retire faster by saving more money also not have to deal with horrific traffic in this area.

[Anonymous]

All I can say is my employer, and the employers of my close friends, are chomping at the bit to get employees back in offices.

[Anonymous]

“I would leave this area in a heartbeat if I were guaranteed permanent WFH. I'd much rather retire faster by saving more money also not have to deal with horrific traffic in this area.”

Once this happens, the salaries would readjust to reflect the lower cost of living areas where many of the employees reside combined with potentially larger pool of potential applicants / employees who otherwise may not have applied for specific positions if they had to physically move.

[Anonymous]

My bil and sil are essentially full-time telework but they still have to go to the office once every week or two -- so they still have to live somewhat close. And talented folks are always going to PREFER to be close to job centers for job hopping and concentration of professional peer groups, right?

But I do suspect a city like New York is going to take a dip. Even Gov. Cuomo called their density unhealthy and problematic! I also think public transportation -- nyc subway, dc metro, chicago el -- and even ubers are going to take a dip in popularity for the foreseeable future. Everyone is going to reappraise how filthy some of the things we do are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All I can say is my employer, and the employers of my close friends, are chomping at the bit to get employees back in offices.

Yeah I agree. It depends on the industry. Here in this region, we’ll be back in the office in no time. Silicon Valley, otoh, probably a little bit different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All I can say is my employer, and the employers of my close friends, are chomping at the bit to get employees back in offices.

Are you a realtor? Swear I've seen this same phrasing in every thread on this topic.

[Anonymous]

So this has been tried in waves within the tech sector and it always bounces back to more in person work environments. In reality, people are more productive when they can interact in person. In the tech sector there is a lot of mentoring/help given to the younger engineers by the older ones. The "team" structures are as much about having people watch out for each other to avoid mistakes/figure stuff our faster as they are about morale or less vertical management.

Google basically is set up so you never need to leave the office. High level tech employees who have moved to Nevada or other areas out of the Bay Area often have a hard time finding a 100% telework job so ones who have tried it have had to move back.

For tech workers who are renting, can afford moving costs and already work someplace that has announced telework for another year and they feel secure in their job/their company is making a good profit now then moving out of the area to save on rent and moving back when telework ends may make sense. I doubt others will try it unless they choose an area that also has other job opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I can say is my employer, and the employers of my close friends, are chomping at the bit to get employees back in offices.

Are you a realtor? Swear I've seen this same phrasing in every thread on this topic.

No, and neither are my friends, and I haven't posted on this topic before.

Weird, don't realtors already essentially work "remotely"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I can say is my employer, and the employers of my close friends, are chomping at the bit to get employees back in offices.

Yeah I agree. It depends on the industry. Here in this region, we’ll be back in the office in no time. Silicon Valley, otoh, probably a little bit different.

Agreed. Silicon Valley has always been like this. These companies also have given 6 month paid maternity leaves for at least 5 years now.

While the rest of the US workforce is lucky to get 4-6 weeks.

[Anonymous]

My boss, who is the CFO and chiefly responsible for real estate decisions used to be very hesitant about letting people work from home. Now that we have successfully done it for over two months, he is seeing $$$ signs and is excited about the prospect of saving rent $.

[Anonymous]

I'm sure the CEO of Slack and probably Zoom that are enjoying a windfall for their products which are being used to facilitate teleworking have no profit motive in pushing the idea of permanent teleworking -LOL.

SV will allow teleworking for much longer than other industries but it won't be forever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My boss, who is the CFO and chiefly responsible for real estate decisions used to be very hesitant about letting people work from home. Now that we have successfully done it for over two months, he is seeing $$$ signs and is excited about the prospect of saving rent $.

A lot of companies are looking at this. Federal government will eventually return to pre covid but many private companies will be different in some ways in terms of how and where people work. Tech will be one extreme, government the other, and many other companies somewhere in the middle.

[Anonymous]

Of course productivity is still good.. Comparing notes with my colleagues, we easily work an extra 3 hours a day now. Breaks have become a rarity too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So this has been tried in waves within the tech sector and it always bounces back to more in person work environments. In reality, people are more productive when they can interact in person. In the tech sector there is a lot of mentoring/help given to the younger engineers by the older ones. The "team" structures are as much about having people watch out for each other to avoid mistakes/figure stuff our faster as they are about morale or less vertical management.

Google basically is set up so you never need to leave the office. High level tech employees who have moved to Nevada or other areas out of the Bay Area often have a hard time finding a 100% telework job so ones who have tried it have had to move back.

For tech workers who are renting, can afford moving costs and already work someplace that has announced telework for another year and they feel secure in their job/their company is making a good profit now then moving out of the area to save on rent and moving back when telework ends may make sense. I doubt others will try it unless they choose an area that also has other job opportunities.

+1 I work with SV tech companies. COVID will cause wfh for a while, but eventually, they will go back into the office. It maybe next year or the year after, but most companies will have their FTE come back at some point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course productivity is still good.. Comparing notes with my colleagues, we easily work an extra 3 hours a day now. Breaks have become a rarity too.

IMO, productivity is only good right now because people are afraid of losing their jobs. IMO, it takes a lot of discipline for people to be productive while wfh. I have been wfh for 6 years now.