Friday, October 9, 2020

Microsoft Says Employees Can Work From Home Forever


 The kaleidoscope continues to turn.

Microsoft Corp. is giving employees the option to work from home permanently under a "hybrid workplace" plan during and after the COVID-19 lockdowns, according to a report in The Verge.

Microsoft will now allow employees to work from home freely for less than 50 percent of their working week, or for managers to approve permanent remote work. Employees who opt for the permanent remote work option will give up their assigned office space, but still have options to use touchdown space available at Microsoft’s offices.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all of us to think, live, and work in new ways,” says Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief people officer, in a note to employees. “We will offer as much flexibility as possible to support individual workstyles, while balancing business needs, and ensuring we live our culture.”

I would not want to be the owner of an office space building right now. This is not going to stop with Microsoft.

If an employee's work can be monitored from any location such an employee is an ideal candidate for remote work.

It will also crush the tax base of cities like New York.

I do, however, believe businesses will attempt to bring workers together for occasional in-house conferences at least a couple of times a year which could be a bonanza for hotels with large meeting space.

-RW

3 comments:

  1. Or...office buildings will convert their space into areas that can accommodate conference-like meetings. I doubt they will simply stand still. But no one knows, as RW's previous post points out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Was Mayor DeBozo thinking of this when he imposed such stringent and unnecessary lockdown? Apparently not.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Seems like we should be looking for some investment opportunities here. Hopefully all these socialists running these cities get knocked down from trends like this, something has to stop them.

    ReplyDelete