Yeah, I’d guess this is the real reason driving many companies to force a return-to-office. Nothing to do with productivity at all; just shoring up their property values.

Back in 2015 I did an analysis for the company I was working for of how much it cost for each employee based in our largest office (central Sydney).

It was pretty detailed, all insurances, utilities, staff amenities, even factored in the 2-3 accidental fire brigade callouts we averaged a year! Literally the complete total cost averaged out for each person.

The numbers blew me away. It showed that even if staff working from home were 35-40% less productive, we’d still be ahead if we didn’t need to provide them with office space in the centre of the city.

At that point I though, oh shit, one day companies like this aren’t going to give us a nice city centre office are they…

I figured there would be a shift over the next 10-15 yrs as companies started thinking about this and WFH became a bigger thing. But COVID will have accelerated things

I reckon we will eventually move from a situation where WFH is like a privilege, to one where being provided a decent permanent office to work out of will be the privilege. One probably reserved for only the most senior staff.