The Off Topic Topic

[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.

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.

And what's preventing existing office space from being turned into exactly that?

I mean, you're basically describing some sort of coworking space.

[Barrister]

You could call the company WeWork.

I typed up something about WeWork, but wasn't sure how many people had followed that story.

They're going public soonish.  It's nowhere as big as it was pre-crash but there may indeed be a viable business model there.

[Malthus]

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.

Not so much the end of the office, as its relocation.

A big part of the cost of certain types of offices, such as lawyers, is prestige location - there are certain places that are considered top locations, and being in one of them is important.

Problem is, such locations are, naturally, very expensive.

So the idea would be to keep the address for certain functions (like meeting clients), but move much of the other stuff elsewhere, where things are cheaper - including in some cases people's homes.

This would suit me fine, just because of the nature of my practice - even prepandemic, I rarely physically met clients anyway.

[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.

And what's preventing existing office space from being turned into exactly that?

I mean, you're basically describing some sort of coworking space.

Well, yeah.

I think the difference is short-term flexible rentals would require a lots more hands-on work to manage.  Big commercial leases are signed for years or decades, and the tenant is responsible for the furnishings etc.  The trade-off should be that margins are much higher.

[Josquius]

A big part of the cost of certain types of offices, such as lawyers, is prestige location - there are certain places that are considered top locations, and being in one of them is important.

Problem is, such locations are, naturally, very expensive.

So the idea would be to keep the address for certain functions (like meeting clients), but move much of the other stuff elsewhere, where things are cheaper - including in some cases people's homes.

Yeah, the company I worked for in Japan did that. They had an official hq in a premium central Tokyo location....and their head office where everyone was 2 hours north of there in a shit hole little town.
I could see more companies somewhat following this only instead of a big extra office somewhere it'd be scattered spaces and wfh.

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.

And what's preventing existing office space from being turned into exactly that?

I mean, you're basically describing some sort of coworking space.

Location.
It's mostly located in the centres of larger cities.
With people being more free to work anywhere however, why should they go all the way to the centre of the local metropolis every day?
If you work for a London company and have a meeting with a bunch of people who all live north of the city then why go to the centre for this and not to a meeting space in Luton or the like?

[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.

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.

The thing I miss is the serendipitous communications.  Walking down the hall and hearing people talking about an issue, popping my head in with a possible solution.  That sort of thing.

[Tonitrus]

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.

Jeans around the house?  Even with WFH?  Heck no man, business up top, sweatpants down below.

[DGuller]

Yeah, jeans are not what I would call a comfortable wear at home.  Sweatpants or a tracksuit are much more comfortable.

[Tonitrus]

Yeah, jeans are not what I would call a comfortable wear at home.  Sweatpants or a tracksuit are much more comfortable.

This is America. 

The only patriotic alternative would be cargo shorts.

[Eddie Teach]

Yeah, jeans are not what I would call a comfortable wear at home.  Sweatpants or a tracksuit are much more comfortable.

This is America. 

Have you never seen The Sopranos?

[Syt]

Started watching this video ... JFC; that accent.

According to the comments he's from Yorkshire - any Brits can confirm/deny the accent?

https://youtu.be/iXcVz7eOZ_w

[Josquius]

Started watching this video ... JFC; that accent.

According to the comments he's from Yorkshire - any Brits can confirm/deny the accent?

Yes. Yes he is. Somewhere around the south end of North Yorks/West Yorks?
I want to hear him sing On Ilkley Moor Bar T'at.

[Richard Hakluyt]

He has a mild problem pronouncing r properly, which doesn't help. His accent sounds more generically Northern than proper Yorkshire, maybe he lived in Lancashire for a spell 

[Syt]

Thanks, guys. I like a lot of English accents, but this one I had to stop watching because it was really grating for me.

[Admiral Yi]

I like all British and Irish accents.