It has become standard fair in real estate circles to talk about how the office is in competition with people’s homes. The thinking goes that if employees can either work from home or the office, then the office must be made more enticing to draw people toward that option. Unstated in this theory is the fear that if people are not pulled back to the office, real estate may no longer be required. But the reality is far more nuanced with both environments being equally critical for both personal and business success.
Let us start by saying something that should be obvious off the bat, but is often missed. The office is not going anywhere. I struggle to imagine any medium to large business that can successfully operate without any spaces for its teams to at least occasionally come together in person. What is true is that how an office is used is dramatically changing in many ways.
Most people have cleared the hurdle that their home is a real option for them in how they work. Before the pandemic, there was uncertainty for many that they would actually be able to work effectively when there was family, chores, and distractions around. Yet, over the course of a couple of years, they solved those items and have gotten comfortable working from home, at least occasionally, moving forward. There is one feature the home cannot solve, which is access to other employees.
Breaking the two areas down into basic buckets, the home is almost perfect for heads-down working where the only input needed from others can be obtained through email or short calls as well as for days with back-to-back meetings where there are no agenda items that are best handled in-person. The office is perfect for days when you need (or want) to speak to someone else or a group of people in-person – even if the conversation will be short and not take up the full day. While it is possible to do at-home activities from an office, it is almost impossible to do in-office activities from home.
This is why offices will not be going anywhere but must change. The amount of heads-down, independent work done within the walls of an office has decreased significantly but is still the most predominant task performed in an office. Employees no longer have a daily tether that forces them in as they have developed processes and patterns to make their days in the office as effective as possible. This is what has caused the average daily occupancy to drop. However, if you look at occupancy through the lens of how many employees are coming into the office at least one time a week or month, the number starts to look surprisingly similar (or even higher) to pre-pandemic numbers.
Here is the secret. Employees are still coming into the office today, just less frequently. The office is just as important as it has always been, but it is not being used for tasks that do not need to be done there. The office is not competing with the home. The two places are part of a network that performs better together than separately. Few employees want to work 100% of the time from home without ever seeing their colleagues. But they also have no desire to go through their commute routine if they are not going to get something out of it.