Hm ... how about we tax work from home? Like, tax homes for doubling as office space. I think it's a brilliant idea
Stop treating people and business separately. Problem solved. Otherwise get lost. Not your business what I do inside my house.
US offices are sitting empty – business owners will have to adapt
11–20 of 129 posts
Re: US offices are sitting empty – business owners will have to adapt
#12Rezone for mixed residential, remodel into loft space.
Done and done.
Re: US offices are sitting empty – business owners will have to adapt
#13I think one thing people aren't considering is how remote work makes people more easily substitutable. Why live in SF if you can live in a small Colorado town? Why pay for a remote developer in SF when you could pay for a remote developer in Arizona? Why hire in the U.S when you can get a good dev in South America? There used to be a geographic monopoly on labor, but making remote the norm moves us away from that. Ma…
It’s why hybrid work might be a better choice for those with competitors globally.
Demanding remote only invites remote talent from anywhere not just for existing employees
Re: US offices are sitting empty – business owners will have to adapt
#14Ultimately, the money for these projects comes from the government. Major works projects which have revolutionized how we live never begin as private enterprise; those are relegated to products and services with incremental contributions to our advancements.
The USA needs State-based Socialism and not this consumeristic crony capitalism that is killing our humanity in every respect. Global socialism is just other countries stealing from each other and calling it equity. Strong nations are the basis for production and when incentives don't exist to engage people in those nations because of international influence, money, and elitism the outcome is stagnation and degradation of the system.
Real estate speculation has gone absolutely wild over the last sixty years as the Federal Government, the Federal Reserve, and its agents, sit on hundred of millions of acres of livable land, and hundreds of thousands of homes, as a means of maintaining investor value. Which is a complete affront to social government and the purpose of this nation - the ability to choose how we live.
None of us choose this save for the inheritors of massive capital who are generally "citizens of the world" because they are liquid enough to owe no loyalties. This has to end.
Re: US offices are sitting empty – business owners will have to adapt
#15I think one thing people aren't considering is how remote work makes people more easily substitutable. Why live in SF if you can live in a small Colorado town? Why pay for a remote developer in SF when you could pay for a remote developer in Arizona? Why hire in the U.S when you can get a good dev in South America? There used to be a geographic monopoly on labor, but making remote the norm moves us away from that. Ma…
This is what programmers wanted right? The right to work from wherever they wanted. Except, that includes cheap areas where salary requirements tend to be much lower and pushes down wages.
As someone hailing from a popular outsourcing destination, the lower the costs of living in a location, the higher IT salaries are in comparison to the median.
I moved to a smaller (population 600k vs 1.7mln) city and my salary didn't change much working remotely, while costs, especially real estate, are approximately 30% lower.
All my friends who stayed there did so simply because they had someone to finance their housing.
Re: US offices are sitting empty – business owners will have to adapt
#16I’ve been a remote engineer for over a decade, but only recently switched to a hybrid schedule on Tuesdays and Thursdays. IMO, these two days are effectively useless for any kind of productive technical work. There are simply too many visual distractions, interruptions, and a complete lack of comfort in an office. …But I do enjoy these in-office days for what they make up for in remote work: Face to face chats; Real…
> We don’t need a Chipotle on every corner. We don’t need another $20 box salad store.
These are the only types of business that can afford the rents though. Even if you get another lower cost place in there, they have to cut corners on quality and end up going out of business or just being really bad food. How do you overcome that?
Re: US offices are sitting empty – business owners will have to adapt
#17I think one thing people aren't considering is how remote work makes people more easily substitutable. Why live in SF if you can live in a small Colorado town? Why pay for a remote developer in SF when you could pay for a remote developer in Arizona? Why hire in the U.S when you can get a good dev in South America? There used to be a geographic monopoly on labor, but making remote the norm moves us away from that. Ma…
Every CEO has, for the last 20 years at least, outsourced and offshored every role that they possibly could.
All the bullshit about co-location and productivity is dropped instantaneously when there is a chance of saving a dime.
The flat out truth is that the off shored teams are either good enough to do the job (they they have the job already, or would have in short order remote or no) or they aren't.
I agree that low cost onshore locations are likely to benefit, and wages will be lower there - this is a good thing for the developed economies though. I am in the UK and there are many cities that have complex and extensive infrastructures that could be a great place to live. These would benefit hugely from even 250 remote working IT people going to the restaurants, sending their kids to the schools, showing up to local events and so on. The IT folks would (and are) benefiting from not sitting on the Tube for 1 1/2 hrs a day and not having to work in the chaos and bullshit of a London office.
The trade off is worth it. London will be ok as it was literally bursting before Covid, I think that about 2x the people will have a job "there" in the long term.... showing up for 1 or 2 days a week and then retreating to the NORTH...
Re: US offices are sitting empty – business owners will have to adapt
#18Hm ... how about we tax work from home? Like, tax homes for doubling as office space. I think it's a brilliant idea
We already do that. The home office tax deduction used to be available for W2 employees, but it was suspended in 2018 under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Theoretically it's meant to resume in 2025, but I'll be surprised if that actually happens.
Re: US offices are sitting empty – business owners will have to adapt
#19I’ve been a remote engineer for over a decade, but only recently switched to a hybrid schedule on Tuesdays and Thursdays. IMO, these two days are effectively useless for any kind of productive technical work. There are simply too many visual distractions, interruptions, and a complete lack of comfort in an office. …But I do enjoy these in-office days for what they make up for in remote work: Face to face chats; Real…
> We don’t need a Chipotle on every corner. We don’t need another $20 box salad store. These are the only types of business that can afford the rents though. Even if you get another lower cost place in there, they have to cut corners on quality and end up going out of business or just being really bad food. How do you overcome that?
Lower the rent.
Re: US offices are sitting empty – business owners will have to adapt
#20It’s weird going to downtown SF these days. Everyone seems from out of town. Or if they live nearby, just downtown for their teams onsite. It’s like a decrepit city district that exists for the sole purpose of flying people in to meet in person. Less a thriving center for tech. More a default place for leadership to get everyone together. Obviously the vicious cycle of nimbyism, lack of affordability, and homelessnes…
SF should have turned some of that office space into more affordable housing long ago. This would have created a community. The Castro is cool, because people live there. There is a little central downtown area and then it is surrounded by housing. Downtown SF is completely devoid of that.