Back to the Office for Tech Workers

[an]

[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]
I guess Meta is not big.

Twilio with 5-10k employees is not big. Twitter with 1-5k employees is not big. ZenDesk with 1-5k employee is not big, SquareSpace with 1-5k employee is not big, Oracle with 10k+ employees is not big, DocuSign with 5-10k employee is not big, VMWare with 10k+ employees is not big, I can go on and on. You can easily do a search on LinkedIn for Director Of Engineering and filter for only Remote (LinkedIn have this filter now, shows you where the demand is at) and you’ll see 40 pages of jobs open today that’s 100% remote.

[sdrealtor]

And every company that says they are going back will allow exceptions. Lots of exceptions. Google/Amazon guy with millions in the bank who loves his job, doesnt need to work but says if you make me go back Im done. What do you think Google/Amazon management gonna say to that?

[Anonymous]

[quote=an][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]
I guess Meta is not big.

Twilio with 5-10k employees is not big. Twitter with 1-5k employees is not big. ZenDesk with 1-5k employee is not big, SquareSpace with 1-5k employee is not big, Oracle with 10k+ employees is not big, DocuSign with 5-10k employee is not big, VMWare with 10k+ employees is not big, I can go on and on. You can easily do a search on LinkedIn for Director Of Engineering and filter for only Remote (LinkedIn have this filter now, shows you where the demand is at) and you’ll see 40 pages of jobs open today that’s 100% remote.[/quote]

So you are cherry picking here it would seem. Also are you claiming that all of these companies are 100% remote permanently? If so, have they all sold off their office space that existed pre-Covid? I’ll believe a company is going full remote when they dump all of their office space.

[an]

[quote=deadzone]
So you are cherry picking here it would seem. Also are you claiming that all of these companies are 100% remote permanently? If so, have they all sold off their office space that existed pre-Covid? I’ll believe a company is going full remote when they dump all of their office space.[/quote]
Not cherry picking, just going down the list of companies on the first page. Do you think they’ll hire a bunch of remote people only to fire them a few weeks/months later because they won’t relocate?

Life is not black and white and I never said all. like sdr said, there will be a lot of exceptions. The office environment is not going back to pre-covid. Things have changed and will continue to evolve as different companies find their new culture.

[sdrealtor]

One thing or rather someone hasn’t changed

[Coronita]

Man someone has really bad sour grapes and crow for breakfast. Desperately needing people to lose their job and housing crash in order to not feel getting left behind. UmOk..

I’m certainly glad that I don’t have to regularlypay $5 a gallon for gas in order to go to work every single day at an office. I can now get through 2.5 months without filling up. I can drive each car for about 3 weeks but at the end of 2.5 months I have to fill up five cars lol

[Anonymous]

[quote=Coronita]Man someone has really bad sour grapes and crow for breakfast. Desperately needing people to lose their job and housing crash in order to not feel getting left behind. UmOk..

I’m certainly glad that I don’t have to regularlypay $5 a gallon for gas in order to go to work every single day at an office. I can now get through 2.5 months without filling up. I can drive each car for about 3 weeks but at the end of 2.5 months I have to fill up five cars lol[/quote]

Obviously nearly everyone would prefer to work at home. But you can’t always get what you want.

Of course remote work will be more common than before Covid. But during Covid nearly every white collar worker in the US worked remote. That is going to reverse itself to a large extent.

Again, show me examples of large companies selling off all their office space and property and I’ll believe they are going fully remote permanently.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Coronita]Man someone has really bad sour grapes and crow for breakfast. Desperately needing people to lose their job and housing crash in order to not feel getting left behind. UmOk..

[/quote]

What sour grapes? I just pointed out the obvious, that the majority of office workers that moved remote during Covid, will return to the office when Covid is over. I even provided examples with two of the largest tech companies in the world, Google and Amazon, announcing this fact and certainly there will be more to follow. It seems some of the folks on here don’t like that idea, that’s the sour grapes.

[Coronita]

Day off from work again to post here, dz? Lol…

[sdrealtor]

[quote=deadzone][quote=Coronita]Man someone has really bad sour grapes and crow for breakfast. Desperately needing people to lose their job and housing crash in order to not feel getting left behind. UmOk..

I’m certainly glad that I don’t have to regularlypay $5 a gallon for gas in order to go to work every single day at an office. I can now get through 2.5 months without filling up. I can drive each car for about 3 weeks but at the end of 2.5 months I have to fill up five cars lol[/quote]

Obviously nearly everyone would prefer to work at home. But you can’t always get what you want.

Of course remote work will be more common than before Covid. But during Covid nearly every white collar worker in the US worked remote. That is going to reverse itself to a large extent.

Again, show me examples of large companies selling off all their office space and property and I’ll believe they are going fully remote permanently.[/quote]

With real estate as valuable as it is why would anyone sell off all their real estate holdings?

But if you try sometime, you just might find you’ll get what you need.

[Coronita]

[quote]

With real estate as valuable as it is why would anyone sell off all their real estate holdings?

But if you try sometime, you just might find you’ll get what you need.[/quote]

To move to Utah I guess. I look at my real estate as my retirement pension.

oh funny story sdr. Remember that tenant that cancelled his lease because he went on vacation for 2 months and didn’t want to pay rent while he was on vacation? He called me yesterday and asked if my place was still available. I was like dude,.I rented it out less than 10 days after you moved out for almost $300/month more, and there were like close 40 applicants… And then he went on a mini rant that he can’t find a anything 1/1 less than $2k/month and that single rooms in houses were going for $1500/month…. I was kinda dying laughing inside and tempted to say I “told ya so, you idiot, I was trying to talk you out of it for your own good” and rub it in…but I just kept to “well good luck to you finding something
….”

I think if I were to bring each place to current market price for rent, I’d bring in about $10.8k/month , which a few years ago I would not have thought would be possible without purchasing 1+2 more rentals.. but I won’t be greedy and jack up rents unless..the next tenant that doesn’t want to pay for rent when he goes on vacation and moves out over it…lol

Interesting thing that also happened….One of my friends put a MM rental on the market…The rental turned into a bidding war. Where tenant prospects ended up paying above asking for rent. It ended up about $250/month than asking. I hadnt seen that except in the Bay Area rental market. Welcome to Bay Area housing dynamics.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Coronita]Day off from work again to post here, dz? Lol…[/quote]

I work from home like everyone else, have a lot of free time to Jerk Off.

But based on traffic I’ve noticed on the freeways recently during rush hour, makes me wonder how many folks actually still work from home. When everyone really begins to return to to the office it is going to be a blood bath out there.

[teaboy]

[quote=deadzone]
Again, show me examples of large companies selling off all their office space and property and I’ll believe they are going fully remote permanently.[/quote]

Yesyesyes.
I have been surprised that commercial real estate has not hit a bigger downturn since the pandemic started. With more online shopping, I had expected to see more stores shut completely. And with more companies leaning in to wfh, I’d expected more offices to close permanently.
It also continues to surprise me to see rush hour as busy as it is (..at least anecdotally on the occasions when I find myself driving somewhere during those times.)

Actually, all this is anecdotal observation, as I haven’t seen much compelling data on commercial real estate that fits my previous (layman) expectations.

tb

[Coronita]

[quote=deadzone]
Again, show me examples of large companies selling off all their office space and property and I’ll believe they are going fully remote permanently.[/quote]

Um… Most companies don’t own their own offices anymore but….

https://www.globest.com/2021/09/20/san-diego-office-vacancy-heads-up-again/

“San Diego Office Vacancy Heads Up, Again
In the second quarter, office availability grew 30 basis points to 20.7%, the highest since 2011.”

BUT….If you read the article though. life sciences/biotech is one area where there’s huge demand.

And it probably makes sense. Life sciences/biotech usually requires an onsite lab facility. It’s not conducive to work at home…. .

“While tech and life science companies aren’t saving the market, they are driving the bulk of the leasing activity, thanks in large part to venture capital investment. In fact, demand for lab space increased 280% since March 2020 and office demand has already surpassed pre-COVID levels, according to research from JLL. This will likely support most office leasing activity and help to improve the metrics into 2022. According to JLL’s Tim Olson, senior managing director, the demand is driving both leasing and investment activity in the market.”

And we do know that here in San Diego, the investments in life sciences and biotech has been significantly expanding. $2.5 billion invested in San Diego.

https://www.costar.com/article/1595642948/biotech-investment-is-booming-in-san-diego

Here’s another article about how demand for life science facilities is actually in short supply…

Biotech Firms in Hot Race for Space – Demand Outstripping Supply in San Diego, Other Top Markets

“emand for new life sciences space is outpacing speculative construction among the top 12 U.S. life sciences hubs, including San Diego, according to a new report from CBRE.

Life sciences companies, rapidly expanding amid a race for new drug development, collectively sought nearly 23.8 million square feet of new laboratory space in those markets in the third quarter.

That exceeds the amount of lab space under spec construction – meaning space being built without a tenant already signed – by nearly 2.8 million square feet. The gap has widened steadily since last year – even as construction has ramped up considerably, growth in demand continues to outpace it.

The San Diego research and development lab vacancy rate currently sits at 2.2%, tighter than the Bay Area.”

So perhaps, simply put, none of us understands how the commercial real estate market works. Maybe not all commercial real estate is the same, and some buildings cannot simply be repurposed easily for the in-demand life sciences facilities….

It sure sounds like for SD, remote work friendly or not, that’s not entirely driving demand for housing locally. There might be a component to that. But it sure sounds in addition to that, there’s also a lot of companies setting up shop here in SD now… And maybe what we have is a perfect storm of both factors is why housing is in such short supply (that and builders not building enough)…

Speaking of heavy SD investment….it’s not just life sciences/biotech investments are pouring in….

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/story/2021-10-14/sd-fi-sandiego-venture-capital

“In rare twist, San Diego tech startups outmuscle life science firms for top money deals”

I mean, let’s think about this. When that new MM 3Roots community started taking waitlists for new home buyers, there were 14k+ people on a waitlist for 200 homes, and that’s before they stopped taking additional people on the wait list….

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/story/2021-05-19/why-14-000-people-are-interested-in-these-200-new-san-diego-homes

Think about that… That’s a 70:1 ratio….
How bad does the real estate market have to get to knock off demand when it’s a 70:1 ratio

[sdrealtor]

The vacant office space in SD is predominantly downtown. Suburban office space is doing much better

[Author]

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