This article describes the real reason behind the push back to the office. It’s about rich people gambling on real estate and now office buildings are empty.
These same people own newspapers and media channels which is why their crying voices are being pushed.
I think most of us who had worked in city centers and had dealt with the price of office space knew it was mainly about real estate from the beginning. For others, the steep price of recently built buildings like Salesforce Tower ($1.1b) or Apple Park ($5b) would’ve been a big hint.
The problem with these real estate driven return-to-office mandates is that at the core they are each a textbook case of the sunk cost fallacy. Those office space leases were signed, but no amount of people in the office is going to help get that money back or help the companies bottom line.
Office space leases are hellaciously long. Not like a 1 year apartment lease. Like decades
My company painted it as “We’re keeping the janitors and the cafeteria staff employeed!”
Which I get. But if you really cared that much, couldn’t you just…pay them to not come in?
You could shut down locations entirely and use the rent savings to fund retraining programs for the affected staff and still come out ahead.