10 Mar Is it though?
*insert meme of Thor saying, “Is it though?” here*
In today’s episode, I want to yet again revisit this idea of cronyism and how things that happen in politics, in the economy, in Corporate America, on Wall Street, etc., – those things are not coming as a surprise to the power brokers and the fat cats and the bankers. If you’re still not tuned into that reality yet, and you still think that the market has just whims, it’s capricious, it’s fickle, and we just don’t know how it works. If you’re still in that reality, I am really not sure that you’re going to make it.
– “Corpo America doesn’t surprise the state. The state doesn’t surprise Corpo America. Please wake up to this.” published on March 9, 2023 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/12367726
“There’s a ‘shock’ coming for the commercial real estate industry, but the opportunities ahead are huge, according to Mark Dixon, CEO of flexible office company IWG.
Technology enabled a ‘fundamental seismic shift’ in commercial real estate as the Covid-19 pandemic forced millions of people to work from home for the first time, Dixon said — and workers don’t necessarily want things to go back to how they were before.
‘There’s this assumption that people like commuting into a central business district. They don’t. It’s a complete waste of time and money and they don’t want to do it,’ Dixon told CNBC on ‘Squawk Box Europe’ Tuesday.” –https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/07/iwg-ceo-says-commercial-real-estate-has-a-shock-coming.html
A) Is it though? Is it really a shock for the commercial real estate industry? I don’t think so.
B) Does anyone really and truly assume that most people like commuting five days a week? Again, I don’t think so. In spite of the bizarre nonsense IMO we’ve seen from . . . interesting sponsors . . . I find it hard to believe that most folks imagine everyone enjoys a long commute. 😒
C) At a glance, this article seems to be, “Hey, everyone. RTO is losing.” But again: is it though?
“He says ‘there’s a shock coming’ for commercial real estate looking ahead. ‘Look at the United States. You’ve got some of the largest property companies in the world handing back properties to their bank.’
But it’s not all bad news; Dixon said there is a ‘real opportunity’ for the use of real estate to change. In fact, he said that offices in the future could actually work in a similar way to gas stations.
‘They’re everywhere, it’s a network of petrol stations, [you can] drive anywhere in the country. Work will be like that. You will find places to work everywhere, we network them all together and make them easy to use,’ he said.” -CNBC, Ibid.
I see. So this sounds a bit like hot-desking (although presumably, the C-Suite folks won’t share desks and work with zero privacy) and shuffling around needlessly. I’m thinking of those Amazon Hub locations where you can pick up a package somewhere else if you’re worried about porch pirates. Today I’ll go hot-desk at the hub on 7th Street. Tomorrow I might go hot-desk at the hub on Poplar Avenue. And so on. Which… WTH? Who would find that fun? It’d have to be someone highly extroverted and who prefers to work like a nomad. Personally I would find it maddening. Why would I pack my stuff in a backpack and flit around to office hubs when I could have just worked from my home office?
By the way:
“IWG Launches New Office
IWG, a leader in the world of flexible workspaces, has recently launched a 30,000 square-foot office space at Cobalt Business Park in North Shields in the UK. The three-story building is a testament to the increasing popularity of hybrid working outside of metropolitan hubs.” –https://allwork.space/2023/03/digest-iwg-launches-new-office/
Does anyone else find it weird that someone claiming to the be the leader in the world of flexible workspaces is talking about the corpo real estate market experiencing a shock as they are, meanwhile, launching new office spaces? Does that not seem odd to anyone else?
“What’s going on:
IWG, a flexible workspace provider, has unveiled a brand new 30,000 sq ft office space at Cobalt Business Park in North Shields in the UK.
This three-story building comes amidst a growing interest in hybrid working outside of major city centers, and is part of IWG’s plan to open 1,000 new locations in the coming year, according to Insider Media.
Why it matters:
Mark Dixon, chief executive and founder of IWG, said, ‘This new partnership will provide a high-quality new Regus office space in the suburbs of Newcastle, bringing hybrid working even closer to where people live. The North East is a major area of growth for us, and we’re pleased to offer yet another solution for the modern worker.'” -Allwork.Space, Ibid.
What’s going on is a good question indeed.
“As hybrid working solutions provide greater flexibility and wellbeing, the timing of this new opening makes sense; people are increasingly opting to work from smaller towns and suburbs instead of enduring lengthy commutes to centralized offices.
How it’ll impact the future:
The flexible workplace is expanding exponentially as workers come to terms with what they want for themselves. Flexible ways of working are becoming popular, and operators are trying to meet this demand.” -Allwork.Space, Ibid. emphasis mine
Ah. Now it’s becoming a bit clearer.
So it’s not that you’ll be allowed WFH forever. Instead it will transform into, “You don’t wanna make a long commute into the city, which is fine. But you’re gonna be in an office somewhere during the week. So pop into the nearest work hub as you would a gas station or a bodega and sit down at a cube. You’ll do all the same things here that you would do at home, you see, but we need to ensure that you are compliant. Don’t ask too many questions. Don’t wonder on what planet this makes sense. Just sit down, shut up, and get in the cube. K, thanks.”
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