The fight over the future of the workplace has just begun
MOST PEOPLE associate the office with routine and conformity,
but it is fast becoming a source of economic uncertainty and heated dispute.
Around the world workers, bosses,
landlords and governments are trying to work out if the office is obsolete —
and are coming to radically different conclusions.
Some 84% of French office workers are back at their desks,
but less than 40% of British ones are. Jack Dorsey, the head of Twitter,
says the company's staff can work from home "forever" but Reed Hastings,
the founder of Netflix, says home-working is "a pure negative".
As firms dither, the $30trn global commercial-property market is
stalked by fears of a deeper slump.
And while some workers dream of a Panglossian future without commutes
and Pret A Manger, others wonder about the threat to promotions, pay and job security.
The disagreement reflects uncertainty about how effective social distancing
will be and how long it will take before a covid-19 vaccine is widely available.
But it is about more than that: the pandemic has revealed just how many offices
were being run as relics of the 20th century,
even as it triggered the mass-adoption of technologies
that can transform white-collar work. As a result the covid calamity
will prompt a long-overdue phase of technological and social experimentation,
neither business as usual nor a fatal blow to the office.
This era holds promise but also brings threats, not least to companies' cultures.
Instead of resisting change, governments need to
update antiquated employment laws and begin reimagining city centres.