Are San Francisco's empty offices another sign of tech exceptionalism, or are they indicative of a true change in the location of work? On the back of the pandemic and more recently layoffs, technology companies seem increasingly willing to do without their physical locations. Their white collar workers also seem to prefer a more flexible working relationship with their employer, packing up for the forests, mountains, lakes and oceans.
In the NYT article "What comes next for San Francisco's downtown?" (New York Times), the CEO of Yelp argues that productivity is the same or better for his company in a remote environment, while there are benefits to individuals and communities by doing away with the commute and concentrations of industry in specific cities.
Outside of San Francisco though, it seems that many companies are keeping their real estate, and having their employees come back to the office. And for all the downsides of the commute and the office, it does seem that people often do want to be with other people.
In "How technology is redrawing the boundaries of the firm" (The Economist), the magazine suggests that for jobs related to technology, finance and professional services, there has been some shift to more remote work. "We find that such jobs have become far more distributed across America since the pandemic."
Interestingly though, for the firm looking to optimize the work it controls internally vs transacts externally, it could also mean less permanent employees and more part time and independent contractors. Technology may help firms break down the activities of white collar roles into tasks that could be better outsourced over time.
In the same issue, and on a lighter note, the columnist Bartleby discussed how tedium could be a better enabler of creativity than the hellishness of group activities, often seen as the benefit of being physically located together.
After decades, if not a century, of delivering increasing efficiency in "blue collar" work, resulting in huge changes in numbers and the nature of the work for people (vs technology), perhaps we have seen the beginning of the same efficiency journey in "white collar' work. Once those roles are outside the physical office, it's far easier for bosses to imagine how a combination of AI and task delineation could in fact deliver the needs of the organization.
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