The Off Topic Topic

[The Larch]

Ah, I see it's one of those ocasions in which the King goes for his full Magneto regalia. 

[Malthus]

It is weird but as I've grown old I've become more attracted to suits, which I hated when I was younger. It's so cliché I'm ashamed of myself.

Wearing a suit is easy.  I hate that business casual is a thing.  I don't want to have to think about what to wear.  I just want to pull out a suit and be done with it.

I've mechanized business casual just as much as you guys have mechanized the suit. 😉

A closet with a set of decent shirts, nice pants (not jeans), dark socks ... easy.

The main benefit is, no tie. I freaking hate ties. 😄

Nowadays, of course, just getting out of PJs is a big deal ...

[Maladict]

I share my office space with three women, consequently the temperature is subtropical. I have a dress shirt on a coat hanger in case a client turns up, otherwise it's T-shirts year round.

[crazy canuck]

It is weird but as I've grown old I've become more attracted to suits, which I hated when I was younger. It's so cliché I'm ashamed of myself.

Wearing a suit is easy.  I hate that business casual is a thing.  I don't want to have to think about what to wear.  I just want to pull out a suit and be done with it.

I've mechanized business casual just as much as you guys have mechanized the suit. 😉

A closet with a set of decent shirts, nice pants (not jeans), dark socks ... easy.

The main benefit is, no tie. I freaking hate ties. 😄

Nowadays, of course, just getting out of PJs is a big deal ...

But you had to put in some effort to get to that point.  For me it is suits or jeans. 

[Valmy]

Trousers are much more comfortable than jeans but you look weird working from home in trousers so I have been wearing jeans this winter. Before this pandemic I owned maybe one or two pairs of jeans and wore them maybe one day a week a few months a year. So getting me in jeans is one of the side effects of this deal.

Even when I start going back into the office again I would be I will be working from home much more going forward.

[Malthus]

Yeah I do wonder if offices are going to still be a "thing" after this.

Before pandemic, working from home was a potential model, but not many appeared to actually do it -certainly not many big firm lawyers. Though there is no earthly reason for most of us to go into an office, that was just what was done. The address of the office was a key prestige item. In Toronto, being at Bay and King was important, it showed the firm was well-established.

This always seemed to me to be absurdly an extravagant use of money - the overhead for such office space was and is ruinously expensive. My idea was why not keep the address if you must, but only have a few key facilities actually located there - some boardrooms for in-person meetings, some offices - and put the other infrastructure somewhere much cheaper (or at home! Give every lawyer a cut to build a home office). Would be a lot cheaper in the long run, and there is no reason everyone and everything has to be at one location.

[crazy canuck]

Trousers are much more comfortable than jeans but you look weird working from home in trousers so I have been wearing jeans this winter. Before this pandemic I owned maybe one or two pairs of jeans and wore them maybe one day a week a few months a year. So getting me in jeans is one of the side effects of this deal.

Even when I start going back into the office again I would be I will be working from home much more going forward.

I am the reverse, I hate wearing casual wear.  I suppose it is because I never really have.  growing up I only had jeans, and the one suit the local shop gave to me for game days (our high school coach insisted on his players wearing suits to school on game days which, when you think of it, showed how much influence he had in a lower class mill town school).  So it has always only been jeans or suits for me. 

[crazy canuck]

Yeah I do wonder if offices are going to still be a "thing" after this.

Before pandemic, working from home was a potential model, but not many appeared to actually do it -certainly not many big firm lawyers. Though there is no earthly reason for most of us to go into an office, that was just what was done. The address of the office was a key prestige item. In Toronto, being at Bay and King was important, it showed the firm was well-established.

This always seemed to me to be absurdly an extravagant use of money - the overhead for such office space was and is ruinously expensive. My idea was why not keep the address if you must, but only have a few key facilities actually located there - some boardrooms for in-person meetings, some offices - and put the other infrastructure somewhere much cheaper (or at home! Give every lawyer a cut to build a home office). Would be a lot cheaper in the long run, and there is no reason everyone and everything has to be at one location.

It has certainly caused us to re examine the way we look at using the space and how much more inclined to allow remote work.  It reduces overhead and increases profit so, yeah, not a bad deal.

But I worry about missing the daily interaction with the junior lawyers I have on my files and the general interaction that is necessary for training, mentoring and collaborating.  All of that is hard to reproduce through remote communications.

[Josquius]

Those seeing the end of the office are being way over the top. Certainly flexible working looks here to say. Which is good.
I'm sure I've mentioned before but if I were fantastically rich I'd be looking at shared office spaces in smaller cities as a good investment.

[The Larch]

Those seeing the end of the office are being way over the top. Certainly flexible working looks here to say. Which is good.
I'm sure I've mentioned before but if I were fantastically rich I'd be looking at shared office spaces in smaller cities as a good investment.

I'd say investing in office space is possibly the worst investment one can make at the moment.  There's going to be office space available by the wazoo once this is over. I'd pity whoever made his business renting office space in the pre-pandemic times.

[Grey Fox]

I think the longer this last, the more chances there are that office space will make a full comeback.

[Barrister]

Those seeing the end of the office are being way over the top. Certainly flexible working looks here to say. Which is good.
I'm sure I've mentioned before but if I were fantastically rich I'd be looking at shared office spaces in smaller cities as a good investment.

I'd say investing in office space is possibly the worst investment one can make at the moment.  There's going to be office space available by the wazoo once this is over. I'd pity whoever made his business renting office space in the pre-pandemic times.

Nah, Tyr might be onto something.  I think people will be reluctant to sign big, lengthy commercial real estate leases, but short-term flexible arrangements might be a good investment.

[Admiral Yi]

You could call the company WeWork.

[Habbaku]

 

[Malthus]

Yeah I do wonder if offices are going to still be a "thing" after this.

Before pandemic, working from home was a potential model, but not many appeared to actually do it -certainly not many big firm lawyers. Though there is no earthly reason for most of us to go into an office, that was just what was done. The address of the office was a key prestige item. In Toronto, being at Bay and King was important, it showed the firm was well-established.

This always seemed to me to be absurdly an extravagant use of money - the overhead for such office space was and is ruinously expensive. My idea was why not keep the address if you must, but only have a few key facilities actually located there - some boardrooms for in-person meetings, some offices - and put the other infrastructure somewhere much cheaper (or at home! Give every lawyer a cut to build a home office). Would be a lot cheaper in the long run, and there is no reason everyone and everything has to be at one location.

It has certainly caused us to re examine the way we look at using the space and how much more inclined to allow remote work.  It reduces overhead and increases profit so, yeah, not a bad deal.

But I worry about missing the daily interaction with the junior lawyers I have on my files and the general interaction that is necessary for training, mentoring and collaborating.  All of that is hard to reproduce through remote communications.

Those are some good points. It will be hard to replace actually being there, for mentoring and collaborating. Though with increasing ease and familiarity of various media and tech options, it may become more workable.