After all of the HQ2 drama, Amazon workers will be WFH indefinitely

[sentinel]

Lol

[DCReid]

Originally Posted by C.

I'll be celebrating. The main reason for locating an office in the suburbs was a race to the bottom in terms of affordability. Now you can give up the office completely and save on leasing costs for a nominal increase in an IT budget. Suburbs are just going to have to re-purpose the land. There is a housing shortage, so a smart suburb should just rezone everything mixed-use and go for the live style centers that seem to be popping up these days.

Originally there was a worry about if people would be as productive at home than in the office. Looking forward to seeing more studies on this, particularly with low-level office workers.

In places like the DC area, I am reading that some of those empty suburban and city office buildings are being converted to apartments. I've read that some in Boston are converted to lab space. I think some of the suburban office complexes and retail malls may be demolished and rebuilt as in-fill residential to be convenient to the class A offices and retail in suburbs like Plano or cities like Alexandria.

[EastSideHBG]

Commercial real estate and all of the surrounding businesses and services that depend on them is my main concern and I don't know how they are going to survive this. Yes, you can repurpose some of it but how much? I live next to a very nice but now almost completely empty mid-rise office building and its layout wouldn't be conducive to a conversion to residential. I walk by it every day and it's sad to see such a nice building so empty.

I summed up my stance on WFH in another thread and here are my thoughts:

As for me pre-pandemic I was able to WFH whenever I wanted to and as time went on I enjoyed the option more and more (but still only did so occasionally). Since the pandemic, etc., I have not been in an office in 1.5+ years (hard to believe actually) and have zero plans on going back permanently; I do not mind occasionally but will not want to for more than two days/week, but preference is rarely. Things I don't miss:

- The commute.
- Office politics/gossip/drama.
- People being disgusting in the bathrooms and kitchens.
- Seeing the same people over and over and over...
- Having to really plan out personal appointments.

Things I do miss:
- The social aspect (but not nearly enough to outweigh the negatives).
- Easier to read people and intentions and get a true feel for them when you see how they operate in person.

Once in a while I do get sick of being home all day/home all night but I take a lot of walks and hit up local parks and what not to break up the monotony. Also, I moved into a big building and by default have the opportunity to run into more people (although not nearly as often as I had expected to and many people here seem to be recluses, rarely leave their apartments and have everything delivered).

I do wonder what will happen to commercial real estate. While some companies seem to dislike the WFH culture the almighty dollar always wins and I can't imagine that they aren't seeing the immense savings if they close up some shops and how some of the costs are on the employees in many cases now e.g. electricity, internet.

Originally Posted by C.

I'll be celebrating. The main reason for locating an office in the suburbs was a race to the bottom in terms of affordability. Now you can give up the office completely and save on leasing costs for a nominal increase in an IT budget. Suburbs are just going to have to re-purpose the land. There is a housing shortage, so a smart suburb should just rezone everything mixed-use and go for the live style centers that seem to be popping up these days.

Originally there was a worry about if people would be as productive at home than in the office. Looking forward to seeing more studies on this, particularly with low-level office workers.

You will be celebrating people losing their livelihoods for good? These large suburban office buildings employee custodial staff, in some cases cafeteria staff, security officers, etc.

[iheartthed]

It says that they will allow working from home indefinitely. It doesn't say that everyone will actually be working from home indefinitely.

[C.]

Originally Posted by EastSideHBG

Commercial real estate and all of the surrounding businesses and services that depend on them is my main concern and I don't know how they are going to survive this. Yes, you can repurpose some of it but how much? I live next to a very nice but now almost completely empty mid-rise office building and its layout wouldn't be conducive to a conversion to residential. I walk by it every day and it's sad to see such a nice building so empty.

I summed up my stance on WFH in another thread and here are my thoughts:

As for me pre-pandemic I was able to WFH whenever I wanted to and as time went on I enjoyed the option more and more (but still only did so occasionally). Since the pandemic, etc., I have not been in an office in 1.5+ years (hard to believe actually) and have zero plans on going back permanently; I do not mind occasionally but will not want to for more than two days/week, but preference is rarely. Things I don't miss:

- The commute.
- Office politics/gossip/drama.
- People being disgusting in the bathrooms and kitchens.
- Seeing the same people over and over and over...
- Having to really plan out personal appointments.

Things I do miss:
- The social aspect (but not nearly enough to outweigh the negatives).
- Easier to read people and intentions and get a true feel for them when you see how they operate in person.

Once in a while I do get sick of being home all day/home all night but I take a lot of walks and hit up local parks and what not to break up the monotony. Also, I moved into a big building and by default have the opportunity to run into more people (although not nearly as often as I had expected to and many people here seem to be recluses, rarely leave their apartments and have everything delivered).

I do wonder what will happen to commercial real estate. While some companies seem to dislike the WFH culture the almighty dollar always wins and I can't imagine that they aren't seeing the immense savings if they close up some shops and how some of the costs are on the employees in many cases now e.g. electricity, internet.


You will be celebrating people losing their livelihoods for good? These large suburban office buildings employee custodial staff, in some cases cafeteria staff, security officers, etc.

This is like reminiscing the loss of payphones and those that use to maintain them when cellphones became widespread. Neighborhoods change over time. The lunacy of the suburban office park may be over. It was never going to be sustainable in the long run, so yes, this is a good thing. It had a decent run over the last 60-years.

[dchan]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

It says that they will allow working from home indefinitely. It doesn't say that everyone will actually be working from home indefinitely.

Also, indefinitely ≠ permanently.

[EastSideHBG]

Originally Posted by DCReid

In places like the DC area, I am reading that some of those empty suburban and city office buildings are being converted to apartments. I've read that some in Boston are converted to lab space. I think some of the suburban office complexes and retail malls may be demolished and rebuilt as in-fill residential to be convenient to the class A offices and retail in suburbs like Plano or cities like Alexandria.

This is what I think is going to happen. Live/work/play centers could easily pop up around existing structures or from razing and rebuilding.

[C.]

Posted in the Niagara Falls thread, but I thought it will be appropriate here too.

• Video Link

With suburban office parks falling due to widespread WFH, maybe this could be the catatalist for redevelopment and mixed-use centers similar to how we built cities in the past.