Reports of the Death of the Workplace Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

For millions of office workers around the world, work has been consciously uncoupled from its usual location for the first time. And what’s been pleasantly surprising — interrupting children, pets, and roommates notwithstanding — is that most people are pretty good at working from home.

But why should we be surprised? Key corporate functions have been cloud-based for years and billions of frequent flyer miles show that lots of people have been working outside the office for a long time. In addition, we’ve had smartphones firmly in our grasp for well over a decade, so Zooming, Slacking, and Dropboxing are second nature to a whole generation of workers.

As a result, numerous leaders are asking if their companies need workplaces at all. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently told most of his employees they never need to come back to the workplace and Nationwide Insurance announced it’s closing most of its office locations. The CEO of one client challenged his real estate team to prove that his company shouldn’t sell off its entire real estate portfolio. Another exclaimed that COVID-19 is “the 9/11 of workplace,” meaning just as travel and security were transformed in the wake of that tragedy, our workplaces will never be the same. As we enter the reopening phase of the pandemic and some defiantly demand haircuts, shopping trips, and nights out at the bar, there’s no one in the streets protesting to get back to their office.