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I want to see what statistics management are looking at where going into an office is better than the current WFH arraignment. Tech stocks are at all time highs

I want to see what statistics management are looking at where going into an office is better than the current WFH arraignment. Tech stocks are at all time highs with the current work situation. I'm personally never working full time in an office again. I can only see an office being good for junior engineers.

akomtu 5y ago
Real estate prices, probably. I remember google has something like 100B in assets. If it's necessary to make employees suffer to keep the RE prices up, they will.
- phillipcarter 5y ago
  Yep. The entire article can be summarized as "SUNK COSTS!" and all the balloons and "gen-z friendly" office layouts are just them putting on a show.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  This kind of requires everyone else to play along, otherwise the winner is the big, real-estate heavy corporations that keep doing their core business without bringing people back on campus, and convert surplus real estate to some other profit making venture (whether they run it themselves, or spin/sell it off.) As first mover advantage would be an issue here, it would be a pretty big gamble for Google to try to signal the rest of the market on this the way you suggest.
  - akomtu 5y ago
    Those giant offices are often built in downtown areas next to shopping, eating and renting places that will all go bankrupt if nobody comes to the offices. I can totally see how the top brass at google owns a part of that commerce and that there are contracts with deadlines there, so if they don't bring employees on time, they'll suffer massive personal losses.
- mycologos 5y ago
  > google has something like 100B in assets I'm confused, are these assets their offices or...real estate investments that they own for some reason? If these assets are just offices, what is the value to Google if those offices are worth more or less as real estate? It's hard to imagine that the market for a giant complex of offices is super liquid?
ThrowawayR2 5y ago
> "Tech stocks are at all time highs with the current work situation." The logical conclusion to draw from tech stocks being at all time highs is "the general public being isolated at home forced a huge increase in tech usage and purchases", not "WFH is great for tech companies".
- HDMI_Cable 5y ago
  To be fair, some of that growth for those tech companies comes from WFHers (like people buying on Amazon more), but I get what you mean.

akomtu 5y ago

Real estate prices, probably. I remember google has something like 100B in assets. If it's necessary to make employees suffer to keep the RE prices up, they will.

phillipcarter 5y ago
Yep. The entire article can be summarized as "SUNK COSTS!" and all the balloons and "gen-z friendly" office layouts are just them putting on a show.
dragonwriter 5y ago
This kind of requires everyone else to play along, otherwise the winner is the big, real-estate heavy corporations that keep doing their core business without bringing people back on campus, and convert surplus real estate to some other profit making venture (whether they run it themselves, or spin/sell it off.) As first mover advantage would be an issue here, it would be a pretty big gamble for Google to try to signal the rest of the market on this the way you suggest.
- akomtu 5y ago
  Those giant offices are often built in downtown areas next to shopping, eating and renting places that will all go bankrupt if nobody comes to the offices. I can totally see how the top brass at google owns a part of that commerce and that there are contracts with deadlines there, so if they don't bring employees on time, they'll suffer massive personal losses.
mycologos 5y ago
> google has something like 100B in assets I'm confused, are these assets their offices or...real estate investments that they own for some reason? If these assets are just offices, what is the value to Google if those offices are worth more or less as real estate? It's hard to imagine that the market for a giant complex of offices is super liquid?

ThrowawayR2 5y ago

> "Tech stocks are at all time highs with the current work situation." The logical conclusion to draw from tech stocks being at all time highs is "the general public being isolated at home forced a huge increase in tech usage and purchases", not "WFH is great for tech companies".

HDMI_Cable 5y ago
To be fair, some of that growth for those tech companies comes from WFHers (like people buying on Amazon more), but I get what you mean.