#0050 - Everything We Thought We Knew About the Office Was Wrong, BEFORE Covid?!?

Confessions of a Recovering Landlord

How much of your office do you actually use? And I don't mean now but before Covid. A recent study suggests that office occupancy may not have been used to the extent previously thought. This study, by VergeSense, found that office spaces were greatly underutilized before Covid. And not just a little bit. We're talking only 30% utilized. As a caveat, VergeSense's business is office utilization and transformation consulting. So, they may have a dog in this race. They tracked this info using deep-learning sensors which count people as they move throughout the office. The study also states that the average utilization of offices in January of 2021 was only 7.9%. The study claims that office space is now being used more collaboratively since the pandemic with a 15% increase in the amount of overall utilization dedicated to collaborative work. So, we still need office space just build it out differently? Utilization and allocation are two different things. The study points out there is a mismatch between how much space is allocated for different uses and the utilization of those spaces. The 83% of office space allocated for individual work was only utilized 28% while the 17% allocated for collaborative work was used 35%. Going forward what is one's advice? Be careful how you finish out your office space and ask yourself and your team some hard questions-do we want to pay for individual offices and cubes so employees come to work and sit alone sending email to other employees and clients? What activities can only be done in the office? Who needs to come to the office to do their job and how many days a week? Who wants to come to the office versus stay at home, and much more.