I see this as a win-win situation. A recent survey in the US found that, on average, an employee will save $3,500 per annum and an employer will save $11,000 per employee per annum.
Office space will be much smaller. Office blocks could be converted to social housing. Or levelled and rebuilt as social housing. This will go a long way to solving the housing crisis and may steady house prices.
Google has converted new office space in Dublin to a food market.
Office workers (as were) can stay at home to read/write emails and talk on the phone rather than commute to an office to do the exact same thing.
Offices won’t be gone forever. Just reduced. Showing your face one day a week will suffice.
“Commuterville” which is normally a ghost town will come to life. Instead of being busy with traffic during rush hour only, there will be people there and life during the day. Cafes, etc., will open up.
Losing one’s job will lose its stigma to an extent. It won’t be as obvious that Mr/Mrs AcrossTheRoad isn’t leaving for work anymore. The pretence of continuing to leave the house every morning at the same time will disappear.
The environment is another big winner.
What interests me most is what impact will it have on career choices. In the past, for many that go to third level education, they know they’ll spend their working life in offices. But not any more. Home versus office working is now a new variable.
In the past a potential web developer saw his/her future working in a funky digital hub in a cool city (at least, that’s the way RTÉ would present it). In the future that same developer may see a future at a desk in a box bedroom. And may choose a different career instead.
Last March when the Covid pandemic kicked in I was thinking, “this is amazing, we are living through history.”
Now I’m also thinking, “this is amazing, we’re living through as seismic as event as the Industrial Revolution”.