Woke workplace fads are thrown in dustbin of history

The hot-desking and ‘social purpose’ trends that dominated corporations for years died in 2023

We would all be working from home, occasionally travelling into a shared workspace in our EV to collaborate on some ESGapproved product launches, while popping out at lunchtime to graze on some plant-based meat.

There were many mega-trends which were expected to dominate economic activity this decade. Each attracted vast sums of venture capital money, and generated lots of excitement on the stock market, as capitalism was reorientated towards a more caring, inclusive way of doing business. Yet 2023 has turned out to have been the year when so-called woke corporatism keeled over and died. One by one, over-hyped fads such as working from home (WFH) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) have imploded. And it’s very likely that the system will be more robust as a result.

Looking back on the past 12 months, there have been some standout themes. Interest rates returned to more normal levels after 15 years of ultra-cheap money. China emerged from lockdown, and its path to global economic dominance no longer looks so clear. The US continued to outperform Europe, and Germany descended into what looks like a deep structural decline.

None the less, something of equal significance has been happening under the surface. Woke corporatism has started to implode. Over the course of the last year, a whole series of over-hyped fads have faltered.

Consider the shared workspace. According to the corporate visionaries, the traditional office would soon be redundant, since we would all be on flexi-time, or “working from anywhere”, and all we would need would be a space we could pop into from time to time to catch up on a corporate wellness session before a “breakout yoga class” with colleagues.

At its peak, the uber-cool WeWork, whose original tagline was “elevating the world’s consciousness”, was valued at $47bn (£36bn) on the assumption that it was revolutionising office life. Yet this year it filed for bankruptcy, with shareholders losing the bulk of their money, and many of its smaller rivals started to struggle.

It turns out that most of us liked having our own space, even if it was just a beige cubicle, and didn’t really want to hot desk in something that looked suspiciously like a soft play area designed for two-year-olds.

At the same time, the working from home bubble has burst as well. Three years after the pandemic ended, many companies have started insisting that their staff come back to the office at least three days a week, and often more. Even companies such as Google, which create much of the software that enables home working, have demanded that its own people check in to work. Meanwhile Zoom, the company that capitalised most successfully on WFH, saw its share price fall from $490 at its pandemic peak to a low of $59 earlier this year. What’s more, it was reported this year that Zoom’s founder, Eric Yuan, had told staff at an all-hands meeting that he wants employees to return to in-person work because video conferencing is making them too “friendly” and unable to build trust.

It is worth noting, however, that WFH is still rampant in the civil service, with occupancy in Whitehall departments down on pre-lockdown levels. Productivity has plummeted across the public sector since 2019.

Take a look at ESG, a movement that demanded investors prioritise social targets over the seemingly more mundane matters of profits and returns. Over the past 12 months it has been in full-scale retreat, aided by the Coutts scandal involving Nigel Farage. Investors are abandoning it, with the money committed to ESG funds falling from $339bn to $315bn by the third quarter of the year. How many people can take it seriously anymore?

The electric car, meanwhile, was meant to be taking over the roads. It was a cheaper and cleaner way of getting around. And yet, by the end of this year sales were slumping, with manufacturers offering bigger and bigger discounts to try and tempt wary buyers, and with giants such as Volkswagen shelving investment.

Only the Chinese manufacturers such as BYD, with cheaper vehicles, are still booming. The cost of insurance was limiting, charging remained as tricky as ever, and there was growing evidence that all the minerals going into their production meant EVs were not as good for the environment as previously hoped. The bubble may have finally burst, with start-ups such as Volta forced into bankruptcy.

Next, plant-based food start-ups struggled. Beyond Meat and Oatly, which makes oat-based milk, both saw their share price fall. Perhaps the future is not necessarily vegan. Finally, we were all meant to be abandoning X, the site formerly known as Twitter, in protest at the views of its new owner Elon Musk. And yet, while its value has fallen significantly in 2023, we are all still “tweeting” our views, and competitors such as Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky seemed as lively as Cheltenham High Street on Christmas Day.

There are technologies and trends that will make a real difference over the course of this decade. AI might well prove to be crucial to accelerating growth, while reformed economies in Africa and South America, led by countries such as Argentina, may start to dramatically expand.

But the over-hyped woke corporatism that has dominated the 2020s so far may be running out of road. Will anyone miss it?

Indeed, if companies can get back to making decent products at a fair price, and paying their staff and customers on time, and not worry about their “social purpose”, the system will be a lot stronger – and will generate far better returns as well.

‘Companies can get back to making products at a fair price the system will be stronger’

WeWork, left, was at the vanguard of hybrid working and at its peak was valued at $47bn (£36bn). In 2023 it filed for bankruptcy