2020 was the year the world as we knew it, changed. With Covid-19 came a different way of living and working. Prior to the crisis, 1 out of 50 Americans worked from home but now 1 out of 3 people are working from home, turning the office into an expensive artifact.
Prior to the Industrial age, many worked from home, in a time when local communities fueled life, but as the Industrial age came, and large industrial complex began to mass produce everything we had ever known at a pace never seen before, the idea of working as a collective towards the same common goal, under the same roof was ideal for a manufacturing based economy.
As the American economy has changed and manufacturing and the industrial revolution has jumped continents, many businesses remained stubborn in adapting their work environments to a more robust modern way of doing business and managing employees. With the coronavirus we see the dinosaurs models struggle because of high vulnerability to tangible expenses.
Cities have become too expensive to live in, with too much traffic, too much stress that smaller communities can alleviate. With the power of the internet and services in larger cities becoming common in smaller communities, the city orientated type of living is no longer necessary in a society that has passed the industrial era. We are at a place, where we can live in a community where we know were our grain comes from and where our milk comes from without depending on mass production of consumer goods, without large developing cities, these mass farming complexes are less necessary.
A majority of the ‘good jobs’, the high paying jobs, are knowledge jobs and these positions are vidal to smaller communities as each knowledge job supports 5 none knowledge jobs, jobs such as baristas, hair stylists, dry cleaners, yoga teacher, etc. By expanding the location of these individuals, companies can expand the reach of the overall economy shifted to the roots of the type of economy that made the US, small businesses. Companies can also save money, as employees move further from expensive real estate, their financial needs are less and their quality of life is more, leading to happier, more productive cheaper employees!
The cost of the office space per employee is estimated to be about $10,000 annually, which was a need when workers were located in high density areas were traditionally people produce at a faster rate, take for example the lifestyle New Yorkers versus the relaxed atmosphere of Oregon. But we are no longer living in the era of data entry, as one self titled, ‘Digital Nomad’ who travels the world yet maintains a 9 to 5 working online puts it, “I dont need much to be productive, just connect me to Wifi.”
Silicon Staffing
1202 Kifer Rd Sunnyvale, California 94086 || (866) 99STAFF || Fax 866 997-8233
