What Really Is The Purpose Of An Office?

BizNews 9/6/22 had a great quote that to me sums up the dilemma many corporate executives are now facing. “What is the purpose of an office?” said Matthew Saxon, Zoom’s chief people officer. “It’ll be different for different companies, but one of the things I think this huge experience we’ve all been a part of has proven that it’s not necessarily to get work done.” ‘But what Zoom believes is that offices have become a place to be social. They are no longer for doing good work so much as making good work possible, and their primary functions are facilitating collaboration and fostering camaraderie…It turns out Zoom and its 8,000 employees are dealing with the fundamental problem of hybrid work the company’s technology is trying to solve: how to be productive and creative without being in the same place. It’s peculiar how many tech companies were based almost exclusively in offices before the pandemic given how easily they have now left that world behind. Zoom gave employees permission to work from home forever earlier this year, and only 1% are regular office presences, with 75% living remotely and the rest identifying themselves as hybrid workers.”  My opinion, this is a gigantic experiment with different major employers trying different approaches. Apple and others are mandating a three-day return to the office, and Zoom is at the other end of the spectrum. Companies are making huge financial decisions on signing major leases or building expensive headquarters. Others are figuring out what bells and whistles are needed to entice more workers back to the office. It will be interesting in ten years to see how this all shakes out. Will the remote worker now up at Lake Tahoe or working in a home office overlooking the ocean have less turnover thoughts than someone mandating to come in three or more days a week? We shall see!