I have posted this on Reddit (askeconomics) a while back but got no good replies. Copying it here because I don't want to send traffic to Reddit.
What do you think?
I see a big push to take employees back to the office. I personally don't mind either working remote or in the office, but I think big companies tend to think rationally in terms of cost/benefit and I haven't seen a convincing explanation yet of why they are so keen to have everyone back.
If remote work was just as productive as in-person, a remote-only company could use it to be more efficient than their work-in-office competitors, so I assume there's no conclusive evidence that this is the case. But I haven't seen conclusive evidence of the contrary either, and I think employers would have good reason to trumpet any findings at least internally to their employees ("we've seen KPI so-and-so drop with everyone working from home" or "project X was severely delayed by lack of in-person coordination" wouldn't make everyone happy to return in presence, but at least it would make a good argument for a manager to explain to their team)
Instead, all I keep hearing is inspirational wish-wash like "we value the power of working together". Which is fine, but why are we valuing it more than the cost of office space?
On the side of employees, I often see arguments like "these companies made a big investment in offices and now they don't want to look stupid by leaving them empty". But all these large companies have spent billions to acquire smaller companies/products and dropped them without a second thought. I can't believe the same companies would now be so sentimentally attached to office buildings if it made any economic sense to close them.
It's not just real estate. We've already seen over the pandemic the collapse of some businesses that depend on office workers. Many of the places I used to hit for lunch are gone now.
And by sending people back to the office it's the business outside downtown that are suffering instead.
Decentralize businesses!
Is it tho? It's exceptionally rare for me to eat it for lunch when I'm working from home. When I was in the office it was regularly once it twice a week.
You're still buying food from somewhere, you just make it yourself.
Sure. But WFH or in the office doesn't effect where I grocery shop. Whereas it does effect where and how often I'm eating out.
You're still buying more food from the grocery than you would otherwise and you can make the effort to buy from specialists (like directly from a butcher) instead of going to whole food or similar chains.
You are probably correct, but eating at home is way more efficient/cost effective at home than out. I make a little more to have leftovers or I buy an extra lb of cold cuts for the week.
Yeah but I don't. 😆
Just to be clear I wasn't making an argument for forcing people back into the office. I'm squarely against it for most jobs that can be performed remotely. I was just pointing out that it's not just landlords and lazy managers who were effected. I know of at least a couple shops who's primary business was the lunch crowd that are now closed due to the pandemic.