Real Estate and the Return to Offices
Enough has been written about the negative impacts of the Pandemic on the real estate office market. However, it seems that not much attention has been given to the human element of real estate.
Technological advances have encouraged more people in our world to become more disconnected with reality and each other. Of course, the most obvious factor is social media and the seemingly endless content of which consumers fear missing the opportunity to consume. In fact, it appears that the era of introverted caving away with your technology is starting to fade. Recent retail report trends have shown more consumers wanting to return to shopping malls and brick and mortar establishments as opposed to only shopping online. Maybe there is an issue with online inventory, or maybe online inventory has been shown to be unnecessarily efficient from what selections consumers can choose.
Whatever the case may be, the unintended effects of technological efficiency in which consumers and households stay home to do everything is far less favorable now than even last year. And so, it is true with the office sector of the broader real estate market.
Some had theorized that more time is wasted in office settings where colleagues take breaks, take time to speak with each other, and maybe get distracted with other technological distractions like social media on phones or websites unrelated to work. What was never discussed as much was the inherent nature in all humans to touch, see, and feel one another. To put it in dollars and cents perspectives, there are more people now who seek mental health counseling and in general time off than we have ever seen. I would argue that part of that increase in seeking counseling is the isolation of working at home combined with dealing with far more distractions. The employee working at home now feels the weight of those distractions at home more than when he was in his office where he could physically and psychologically separate the environments.
Therefore I would advocate for a return to offices but with some much needed changes so that there is no “zero sum” change from working at home in comparison to returning to the office. First, increase the amount of paid family medical leave. U.S. companies don’t entirely have to compete with European companies although it is well known that the paid medical leave of Europeancompanies helps with both productivity and family life cohesion. However, theexisting family medical leave laws are for developing countries and have no place in the United States. All U.S. voters should demand for better than what we have now.
Second, flexible work schedules should be offered across all industries. This serves the purpose of not having to necessarily increase paid medical leave but at the same time leaves the door open for employees who want to work more with the opportunity to earn more. It will also allow for sustained longer term employment. Why should one administrative assistant run an entire company and get pushed to carpal tunnel syndrome or nervous breakdowns? Why shouldn’t three distribution center managers alternate shifts or even four?
Third, change the pay structure to employees. In the real estate brokerage industry, there is the opportunity to get rewarded for increases in productivity every year. In the tech sector, the same is mostly true. Why can’t all sectors finally realize that the marginal revenue productivity of labor of each employee is not consistent within a short term fixed time period and can change? One size does not fit all anymore.
As the work world has changed, employers need to change as well. One thing will always remain true though. We must see more of each other so that we can interact and grow together. If there is less time that we have to sit in a corner and get lost in meaningless social media content, then societal stability will return once again to what was once accepted as normal.
