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‘Zombie Offices’ Spell Trouble for Some Banks - The New York Times (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 9 months ago by 1984@lemmy.today to c/technology@lemmy.world

122 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This is the real reason for companies wanting people back to the office.

All this talk about collaboration and team spirit is just the publicly given reason for wanting people back to the office.

The real reason is that now the owners of the buildings are losing money.

Cry me a river.

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[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 32 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Not really. The office market is not that huge and the vacancies overall are also not that bad. It's not like every single office is suddenly empty.

On the flip side: where these offices are located, housing is extremely expensive, so you could transform some offices to apartments, pivot projects currently in construction and maybe even demolish some older buildings.

These headlines are just a sign that the current management class is utterly incapable of reacting to anything but "line go up". They can't understand that they can't exploit their way out of this for once.

[–] c0c0c0@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Turning office space into living space is often mentioned in discussions like this. It should be noted that converting the space is not as easy as it seems. In particular, moving the plumbing infrastructure to support individual bathrooms and kitchens is extremely challenging and it makes some projects impracticable.

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Some.

We're not talking about total conversion of all office spaces. Even if just 5% of the vacant offices can be converted, that's already 5% less office space to worry about. Let the market decide.

[–] aniki@lemm.ee 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It's also not even a valid talking point. Sure, SOME work will need to be done, but office buildings are built to be modular by design, and are much easier to retrofit than these bloviating idiots online love to yap about without evidence. Buildings have plumbing and electricity for a number of people that will be vastly different than if it was apartments. Think about a bathroom with 10 stalls and 4 sinks being reduced to one with a shower.