Elon Musk didn't make many friends when he took over Twitter, but some bosses liked that he banned remote work.
Too bad you've already given up on that idea. When Twitter was forced out of its Seattle offices because Musk was no longer paying rent, he told Twitter employees in Washington state that they now had to work from home.
Yes, the leaders stuck in the XNUMXth century want everyone back to their burrows of offices and cubical farms, but the working people don't. And they are the ones who have the upper hand in today's tight job market.
Yes, according to a survey, 450% of business leaders want their employees back in the office. (And I want a XNUMX Mercedes-Benz EQS XNUMX+ sedan or pony. More likely neither of us will get what we want.)
As Bloomberg recently reported, "job openings are at an all-time high." Now is not the time to discourage future employees.
According to Zippia, an employment company, "XNUMX% of Americans would rather be completely hidden." It's not just people in the US. The BBC reports that today's office working week is Tuesday to Thursday.
If you take a closer look at the data, you'll find, as Gartner did, that we're entering a "permanent era of hybrid work for office workers."
Furthermore, as Robert Boersma, vice president of operations for Talent.com North America, recently wrote: "Most employees don't want to feel tied to their desks for 8 hours the day after the experience of opening the remote work. With With the world returning to "normal" after a couple of years at home, employees are not willing to give up the things that have dramatically improved their quality of life to return to the office 5 days a week."
Instead, "we will continue to see hybrid work environments adopted by organizations, allowing employees the freedom and independence of remote work they value while giving teams the ability to meet in person and cooperate in the office." Boersma told me.
Another interesting look at the shift towards working from home and hybrid work comes from Stanford economics professor and work-from-home specialist Nick Bloom, who tweeted: "Transit commitments stabilizing at XNUMX% below levels of two thousand and nineteen".
It's not just local trips. Business travel specialist Gary Leff wrote: "There is a balance developing where considerably more work is being done from home than before the pandemic. We are not going back to the office entirely. This means there is a lot of travel of business that no longer make sense."
What does all this mean for the regular business owner?
First, he admits to working from home. This is how the work will be done from now on. This is going to be true for a significant minority of office workers, if not the majority.
This, in turn, means it's time to get rid of expensive office buildings.
There's no point investing in expensive space in Manhattan or the Bay Area if you're not using it.
It's not just the rent; You can also save money on utilities and parking – even, by the looks of it, on toilet paper, according to Twitter reports!
On your site, rent offices in central cities like Atlanta, Denver or Chicago. This way, you can reduce your travel and real estate costs when you want to get everyone together.
While you're at it, invest in fast internet for your employees. You may not like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, but that's how we host business meetings today.
Plus, good cameras and audio equipment are going to be more essential in the coming months and years than paying for business class airfare.
You also need to invest in technology that can make people more productive from home. For example, do you need the minutes of your online assemblies? You can either write them by hand or do what I do and use Otter.ai for good quality, accessible voice transcription.
Sometimes you still need people to do the jobs that grease the gears of work.
For this, consider using virtual assistants. No, there's still no tech virtual assistant I can advise, but it makes sense to watch where AI chatbots like ChatGPT are going.
Plus, hiring freelancers to set hours, organize conferences, and do the bookkeeping can save you money.
And again, these people don't need to be in your office.
When you add up all the advantages, I think you'll find that your company will do much better in XNUMX by cooperating with the work-from-home and hybrid work trends than by trying to fight them. Ultimately, it's about making money by running an efficient business with happy workers.
Follow the program and let go of the past.
Copyright © two thousand twenty-three IDG Communications, Inc.