Back to the Office for Tech Workers

[JPJones]

[quote=deadzone]No surprise, now Google announcing return to the office. Obviously Google and Amazon are the leaders of the Tech industry, the rest of the industry is going to fall in line with them.

Sure there will be some niche workers who continue to remote work forever, and small companies like FLU’s where the logistically it makes more sense to remote work perhaps. But from macro scale, the reality is majority of workers are going to have to come in to the office, at least part time.[/quote]

This is the 3rd time Google has announced a return to the office in the past 10 months. I’m sure they mean it this time, though!

[Anonymous]

Looks like they mean it this time. Either way, return to work is going to happen, sooner or later. It is as inevitable as the sun rising.

[JPJones]

Hey slight tangent, do any of you watch commercial real estate? Relevant to this topic, I’ve had a decent number of friends and former colleagues mention their companies either sold or let their office leases expire to go permanently remote.

I think even the big kids won’t have a huge amount of success going back to how it was pre-covid. Employers are seeing entire teams threatening to resign when push comes to shove, and everyone in my wide circle of IT contacts that wanted to work from home permanently has either had their employer agree to it in writing, or have found another job that is 100% remote and paid more. Working remote is considered part of the overall compensation package now as well, and as long as employees have an edge, we won’t see a much of a swing back to in-office work being mandatory.

I worked in IT for 20 years up until 2017 and have never seen the job market this hot, not even during the .dot bubble. My wife decided to shop last fall and had 5 offers with better compensation in writing within the first 2 weeks, all 100% remote, and she never even got around to updating her portfolio. This has been par for the course with everyone I know working in any capacity of IT for the past year, roughly. Even if the market crashes and we head into a recession, I’m not convinced the worker shortage would even be simply offset or less.

[JPJones]

[quote=deadzone]Looks like they mean it this time. Either way, return to work is going to happen, sooner or later. It is as inevitable as the sun rising.[/quote]

Sure, but when? It’s gets kicked around here a lot that predicting the market means getting your timing right. So what timing are you committing to? Or are you just saying ‘someday!’?

[Anonymous]

[quote=JPJones][quote=deadzone]Looks like they mean it this time. Either way, return to work is going to happen, sooner or later. It is as inevitable as the sun rising.[/quote]

Sure, but when? It’s gets kicked around here a lot that predicting the market means getting your timing right. So what timing are you committing to? Or are you just saying ‘someday!’?[/quote]

April seems to be the current goalpost. I don’t expect them to move this time, Covid is over.

[sdrealtor]

[quote=JPJones]Hey slight tangent, do any of you watch commercial real estate? Relevant to this topic, I’ve had a decent number of friends and former colleagues mention their companies either sold or let their office leases expire to go permanently remote.

I think even the big kids won’t have a huge amount of success going back to how it was pre-covid. Employers are seeing entire teams threatening to resign when push comes to shove, and everyone in my wide circle of IT contacts that wanted to work from home permanently has either had their employer agree to it in writing, or have found another job that is 100% remote and paid more. Working remote is considered part of the overall compensation package now as well, and as long as employees have an edge, we won’t see a much of a swing back to in-office work being mandatory.

I worked in IT for 20 years up until 2017 and have never seen the job market this hot, not even during the .dot bubble. My wife decided to shop last fall and had 5 offers with better compensation in writing within the first 2 weeks, all 100% remote, and she never even got around to updating her portfolio. This has been par for the course with everyone I know working in any capacity of IT for the past year, roughly. Even if the market crashes and we head into a recession, I’m not convinced the worker shortage would even be simply offset or less.[/quote]

I Get reports from one of the big players in commercial. Just got 2022 office outlook for 46 US markets. PM me if you want a copy

[Anonymous]

[quote=JPJones]

I think even the big kids won’t have a huge amount of success going back to how it was pre-covid. Employers are seeing entire teams threatening to resign when push comes to shove, and everyone in my wide circle of IT contacts that wanted to work from home permanently has either had their employer agree to it in writing, or have found another job that is 100% remote and paid more. Working remote is considered part of the overall compensation package now as well, and as long as employees have an edge, we won’t see a much of a swing back to in-office work being mandatory.

I worked in IT for 20 years up until 2017 and have never seen the job market this hot, not even during the .dot bubble. My wife decided to shop last fall and had 5 offers with better compensation in writing within the first 2 weeks, all 100% remote, and she never even got around to updating her portfolio. This has been par for the course with everyone I know working in any capacity of IT for the past year, roughly. Even if the market crashes and we head into a recession, I’m not convinced the worker shortage would even be simply offset or less.[/quote]

If the market crashes, there will be a lot less tech jobs. So worker shortage problem will be solved.
You can thank the Fed for the fact that the job market is so hot, when they print 4 trillion dollars in the span of 2 years, there’s a lot of money laying around to purchase iphones and associated apps. Without the Fed’s money spigot, there will be less demand for all of these products and many jobs/companies will disappear into the ether.

[The-Shoveler]

IMO I don’t think I will see another USA recession in my lifetime.

Or at least the next 8-10 years.

[an]

[quote=JPJones]Hey slight tangent, do any of you watch commercial real estate? Relevant to this topic, I’ve had a decent number of friends and former colleagues mention their companies either sold or let their office leases expire to go permanently remote.[/quote]My old company went fully remote mid 2020 and never looked back. Sub-leased their office and have grown dramatically over the last year and a half. With their work force everywhere in the world now AND several people I know who still work there have moved to other city/state, I don’t see them changing course and firing anyone.

[JPJones]

[quote=an][quote=JPJones]Hey slight tangent, do any of you watch commercial real estate? Relevant to this topic, I’ve had a decent number of friends and former colleagues mention their companies either sold or let their office leases expire to go permanently remote.[/quote]My old company went fully remote mid 2020 and never looked back. Sub-leased their office and have grown dramatically over the last year and a half. With their work force everywhere in the world now AND several people I know who still work there have moved to other city/state, I don’t see them changing course and firing anyone.[/quote]

Same with my wife’s old company. The counterpoint to deadzone’s claim that ‘they’ll just hire from India now’ is that she’s now working for an Australian company, so that door swings both ways. My personal feeling from the tech industry in general is most businesses are now wise to the loss in quality and productivity that comes from hiring from cheaper countries, and they’re hiring practices have changed accordingly.

[JPJones]

[quote=deadzone][quote=JPJones][quote=deadzone]Looks like they mean it this time. Either way, return to work is going to happen, sooner or later. It is as inevitable as the sun rising.[/quote]

Sure, but when? It’s gets kicked around here a lot that predicting the market means getting your timing right. So what timing are you committing to? Or are you just saying ‘someday!’?[/quote]

April seems to be the current goalpost. I don’t expect them to move this time, Covid is over.[/quote]

They’ve already given themselves and out by saying “most workers”. I bet Google backpedals from their current ‘in office 3 days/week’ position by the April 4th deadline. Winner gets bragging rights.

[Anonymous]

All the big companies are going back to the office to some degree or another. Just because you don’t agree with it, or your little po-dunk companies are fully remote, doesn’t change that fact.

[sdrealtor]

Im as wealthy as Jeff Bezos to some degree or another.

[Coronita]

[quote=deadzone]All the big companies are going back to the office to some degree or another. Just because you don’t agree with it, or your little po-dunk companies are fully remote, doesn’t change that fact.[/quote]

Lol, you keep debating yourself. No one ever said all companies would stay remote forever. But just because some companies (which tend to be the big companies) have some hybrid work model (which the ones that have announced are hybrid… 2-3 days in office), doesn’t change the fact that there are still many companies that are remote first. Many of them are public companies like mine with 500+ employees.

Also, going into the office in a hybrid model for these companies means “reporting to any location”. For practical purposes, most of these larger companies already have presence here in SD and LA in addition to Bay Area. So if you’re expecting a mass exodus from san diego tech workers to make housing more affordable… Good luck there…

[JPJones]

[quote=deadzone]All the big companies are going back to the office to some degree or another. Just because you don’t agree with it, or your little po-dunk companies are fully remote, doesn’t change that fact.[/quote]

So is that a no or…?

[Author]

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