Viewed in The Wall Street Journal.
Someday,” Wall Street Journal reporters Dana Mattioli and Konrad Putzier write, “the coronavirus pandemic will release its grip on our lives and we will return to the workplace.” But will the workplace as we know it still be there?
Opportunity to rethink the way they do business
The coronavirus pandemic has offered an opportunity for all businesses to rethink the way they do business, including possible expansions of remote workers.
At Twitter, for instance, many employees have been offered the opportunity to work from home indefinitely.
At other companies, such as OpenText Corp. and Skift Inc., the trend toward remote work has led to decisions to permanently close office buildings.
Morgan Stanley has expressed pleasant surprise
Some companies, such as Morgan Stanley, have expressed pleasant surprise that their companies have functioned so successfully under remote working conditions.
“If you’d said three months ago that 90% of our employees will be working from home and the firm would be functioning fine, I’d say that is a test I’m not prepared to take because the downside of being wrong on that is massive,” Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman told The Wall Street Journal in this article.
Profound economic ramification
The rise of remote workers is sure to inspire profound economic ramifications.
Some remote workers in more costly urban areas, near their former workplaces, may choose to relocate the more affordable suburban or rural areas, representing an influential population shift.
The trend, unfortunately, will not likely be good news for the commercial real estate market, where demand is likely to diminish amidst this trend, this article argues.
