#SanFrancisco #RemoteWork #downtowns #WorkPatternsChange
Three years ago, San Francisco’s business district was bustling.
Tech workers were heading in and out of train stations by the droves.
People rushed to grab lunch at a favorite salad bar.
Visitors crowded the sidewalks when a big conference was in town.
Today, San Francisco may be the most deserted big-city downtown in America.
Conor Dougherty and Emma Goldberg explored this in an article for The New York Times.
It was also published December 29, 2022, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Occupancy of the city’s offices is roughly is roughly 7 percentage points below that of those in the average major American city,” the article quotes Kastle, a building security firm.
Because San Francisco’s economy revolves around the tech industry, and those workers have found the idea of working remotely appealing, in any given week, office buildings are at about 40 percent of their pre-pandemic occupancy, the article says.
It’s been almost like sport to predict how remote work would affect many things. This article shows what can happen when people go home to work, and don’t come back.
In another article published a few days later, Zachary Hansen, development reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote about how Atlanta’s older office buildings are being, if not deserted, emptying out. The article attributes that to more remote working and moving to newer office spaces. The private sector and the city are working together to convert some of that old office space into housing, the article says.
The good news: the more people who work from home, the fewer people are on the roads commuting. The bad news: businesses who thrived on busy downtown areas are closing. The Times article talks about one owner of a salad shop who has moved her store to the suburbs, because many of those remote workers still like to grab a quick salad for lunch.
This phenomenon could bring about many trends, as has been discussed. Your employer could be based in place X, where living expenses are high. (San Francisco is a classic example of that).
But, because of technology, you could do your job from anywhere, preferably a less expensive location, and live there.
Or, you could work from your favorite vacation spot.
Regardless, the downside could be big-city downtowns becoming relatively deserted. Another downside is the loss of face-to-face contact with colleagues, clients etc.
With the shortage of affordable housing just about everywhere, some of these office buildings could be repurposed, as Hansen’s article says. But, if that’s done, the owners and builders of those buildings may not see the return on investment they had expected for a good long time.
The live-work-play concept may gain even greater popularity, because it might give people the best of both worlds – working from home with easy access to the office as needed, with all the amenities and necessities of life within the same complex.
Fear not, however. SOMEONE will find a way to turn this downtown problem into a solution that will benefit all concerned. Atlanta seems to be out in front of that trend.
One’s imagination could think of a downtown that’s active, fun, but not overcrowded. No traffic gridlock is visible. Individuals saving money either by not commuting at all, or commuting less.
Change is no longer coming, it’s here. How can you best take advantage of it?
Peter
Tag Archives: remote work
REMOTE WORK BECOMING A TREND?
#RemoteWork #WorkingRemotely #coronavirus #COVID-19 #FlattenTheCurve
If you thought working from home, or, at least, away from the crowded office was a temporary solution to combat a contagion, think again.
Now, 40.7 million Americans expect to be working remotely by 2026.
Meanwhile, 86.5 million freelance workers are expected by 2027.
Those statistics come from Upwork Inc. Statista data, and were part of a Bloomberg News article also published Sept. 30, 2021 in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The article says that businesses, in a survey of 1,000 hiring managers, have increased their willingness to use freelancers.
The coronavirus pandemic was a catalyst for this trend. But it probably has been building for a long time.
If you are in business, it’s better to pay for tasks than hours. When employers hire people as employees, there is a tacit, if not written, agreement that the employee will work, and be paid, for however many hours they are hired for.
Sure, employers can cut, or add to, an employee’s hours at will, in most cases.
But the employers are essentially paying for time. It means more security for the employee, and more obligation for the employer.
Sometimes, that security and obligation also comes in the form of non-salary benefits, adding to the employers’ costs.
When employers hire freelancers, there is no such obligation. The freelancer performs a task(s) and gets paid for that task. That’s much less secure for the worker, but, at the same time, provides more flexibility for the worker to do other things.
The ultimate flexibility for the worker is the ability to work from home. He or she may not get as much from the employer in this arrangement, but the tradeoff (no commuting to a work site, for example) may be worth it.
For some, the fear of loss of secure employment may not be desirable. Some depend on an employer’s benevolence. But, for others, being one’s own boss, essentially, provides coveted freedom.
Given issues with child care, inflation and the increasing costs of commuting, being one’s own boss, in the long run, may be a great tradeoff to the old time-for-dollars, strict schedule model.
To work successfully from home, however, you have to be sure that distractions, like children, won’t hurt your productivity. You still have to give the boss what he or she wants, when he or she needs it.
In short, the trends toward more freedom, flexibility and freelance work are coming. That may not suit everyone, but there may be little anyone can do about it.
It’s best for everyone to prepare for those trends now. That may mean staying with your on-location job and work a gig on the side. Perhaps that gig could be your answer to following the coming trends.
Peter
REMOTE WORK BECOMING A TREND?
#RemoteWork #WorkRemotely #WorkingRemotely #jobs #coronavirus #COVID19 #FlattenTheCurve
What if you could live wherever you wanted, regardless of where your job is?
Matt Kempner, business reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, tells the story of a couple who work for Atlanta companies, but live outside of Nashville, Tenn., some 240 miles away.
His article was published May 2, 2021.
The story of Emily Weddington and her husband goes like this: she works in marketing for one company, he in finance for another.
They had a house with a small yard in Brookhaven, Ga., just outside Atlanta. Now, they own and live in a bigger house on five acres outside Nashville. Each has his and her own office. They have the same jobs they had living in Atlanta.
But, in Tennessee, they are closer to his parents and their dogs have more room to run.
When the pandemic hit, employers became more open to allowing people to work from home and avoid close contact in offices.
In fact, a headline on Nedra Rhone’s “RealLife” column in the Sept. 2, 2021, edition of the Atlanta paper, says: “Why no one wants to go back to the office.”
Rhone’s column talks about Zeena Regis, who, though she loves the personal contact of working outside the home, loves the flexibility of having multiple ways of doing her job.
Some stats from Rhone’s column: An April survey from FlexJobs says 60 percent of women and 52 percent of men said they would quit their jobs if they couldn’t continue to work from home at least part of the time. Some employers aren’t on the same page. In a digital.com survey, only 10 percent of employers surveyed said they would make remote work mandatory, while only 17 percent said they would follow a hybrid schedule.
Experts expect these relaxed standards to persist well after the threat of spreading disease has subsided, Kempner writes.
This opens up many possibilities for many working adults. First and foremost, the cost of going to work – the commute, beverages and lunch at work (unless you brown-bag), work clothes etc. – will be lessened.
Secondly, you don’t have to live in a high-tax, high-expense area where your company may be located. You can lower your cost of living without giving up your job.
Thirdly, you can live in, say, your favorite vacation spot without having to be on vacation.
In short, this trend has endless possibilities and choices for those able to take advantage of them.
Certainly, there are disadvantages. As Regis points out in Rhone’s column, personal interaction with colleagues is greatly reduced. Secondly, staying in your house all day, or all night, depending on the hours you work, can be limiting. That’s why you are seeing more folks trick out their houses because they are spending so much time there.
There can also be some tax consequences working in one state and living in another. Those could potentially wash out with the savings in the other areas.
The other disadvantage – some may see it only as a tradeoff – is that you could be available to your employer 24/7. Chances are, though, if you have a job that allows you to work remotely, you have always been available to your employer 24/7.
What can you do if you don’t have a job that gives you such flexibility? There are many programs out there that, by spending a few, part-time off-work hours a week to start, could provide you an income that could allow you eventually to say goodbye to that burdensome employment.
Yes, these programs can be done from anywhere, under any circumstances. And, you don’t need specific education, experience or background to pursue them. You just need a mind open enough to check them out.
To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.
The pandemic is changing many work environments. Not everyone is benefiting from these changes. If you are not, you have options. If you are, take full advantage.
Sometimes, progress results from catastrophe. It’s up to each person to make lemonade from lemons and adapt to the changes that have come, or will come.
Peter