It’s Memorial Day weekend, as in, Surely by Memorial Day this thing will be over. That’s what we were saying a couple of months ago. We’re still saying it, only now we’re talking about Memorial Day 2021. The good news is that next year the holiday falls on the last possible date, May 31. So we have more time for a vaccine!
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The Plain View
Like a lot of you, I’ve been working from home for two months now. I have no idea when my office will be open, or whether I’ll feel comfortable getting in the elevator to ride up to my tiny workspace when it does. It all depends on the virus. But in the past couple of weeks, there’s been increasing talk about how this may be moot, because offices may never be much of a thing again—even when the Covid-19 crisis passes. Are joint workspaces over?
As with many things, the tech industry is leading the way. Facebook and Google told employees earlier this month that they won’t be required to show up until at least 2021: Zuckerberg later added that he expects that by 2030, half his workforce will be WFH. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey dropped the other shoe, promising his employees that they’ll never have to cross the threshold of the company’s louche headquarters building again if they don’t care to. He later extended the offer to his workers at Square. The term “permanent WFH” began to trend. Then Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong proclaimed that after quarantine, his company would be a “remote-first” operation. “After a period of WFH, we think remote work (or part in-office and part remote) are options that many people, including the top talent we’re focused on hiring, will come to expect from employers. It also means we can capture top talent from all over the world.” Piling on was Shopify’s CEO Tobi Lutke, who tweeted that his company is “digital by default,” and proclaimed that “office centricity is over.”
There’s an irony here. For years, Google and its imitators have been known for the lavish benefits supplied to their employees. Sign on with one of the Silicon Valley giants and you get three squares a day, dry cleaning, haircuts, medical services, and even massages. It’s like The Good Place, only with meetings and OKRs. There are two general rationales for this pampering: One is that an attractive workplace will lure and retain the best employees; the second is that all those amenities make sure those employees spend as many waking hours at the office as possible. (Also included: comfy couches if you want to spend a few nonwaking hours on campus.)
But now the message seems to be: Stay home. That’s the way to draw talent.
There’s another related trend: the end of business travel. Unable or unwilling to hop on a flying virus incubator, people are managing to get by with remote meetings. I was at a dinner recently that paired a
