We made the decision to rent an office space.

In the world we now live in, the very idea of an office might seem like a relic from another time and place.

The forced transition to remote work for many companies happened nearly overnight.

Although for many it was a stressful transition, I think the mass exodus to remote work, for many office jobs, actually went quite well.

These workforces were used to using internal communication tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams.

Once they went remote, they were able to scale up the use of those tools, to fill the lack of in person communication.

Companies of all sizes have begun to break or back out of their corporate leases.

On the surface it seems like a decisive victory for remote work, and a potential deathblow to the typical fluorescent lit and asbestos filled office building.

However, I believe companies have underestimated just how much the ability for their staffs to work productively while remote, had to do with the previous experience they had working together in person.

Many companies were either firing, had a hiring freeze, or were hiring very little once Covid ramped up.

The influx of new staff was little to non existent as these companies fully transitioned to remote work.

I predict when these same companies start to hire again, they will find greater challenges in onboarding new hires and maintaining their company culture than they previously thought.

I predict these companies will also experience higher turn over rates from new hires, because in an entirely remote setting new hires will struggle to identify with or feel a part of the larger organization.

Do the tools exist for effective remote work and communication exist? Absolutely. But can any number of company mandated Zoom happy hours fulfill the human desire for deep and meaningful social connection? I don’t think so.

I don’t think these personnel challenges will affect all remote work companies equally.

I predict the companies that will get hit the hardest by are ones that recruit people right out of college.

That demographic of new hire more than any other expects the workplace to be a social outlet and place of community.

Companies that will be the least effected by this are ones that mainly hire people who have families and are in later stages of their career.

This demographic is the inverse of the new college hire. They have many social obligations outside of work, and expect work to be less of a social outlet and community than their younger counterparts.

I say all of this as someone who personally works remote and loves it.

But I think companies, especially larger ones, need to be careful about boarding up their old office buildings, and walking away from them forever.

When Covid finally abates I think the option to work remote, in an office, or a hybrid of the two should be a choice that an employee gets to make. They shouldn’t have either one chosen for them by their employer.

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