How Long Will the Remote Office Thing Last?

It seems like a long time ago when Digital 395 brought the Eastern Sierra into modern technological times. The anticipation at the time was that with high-speed internet businesses would want to locate in our beautiful rural area. Google has yet to open a branch office. Covid added a new twist, one with more promise. The office shutdowns allowing employees to work from home made both employees and employers rethink what ‘office’ means. Even though Covid still rages through the ranks, most businesses are going back to what they thought is normal, but the years of working at home have been good for both employees and businesses so hybrids may be the new norm. Recent population figures verified the trend. San Jose has always had over a million residents, but the Silicon Valley city dropped below that figure. San Francisco had a large population loss. Los Angeles, relative to its population size, had less of a drop, but it did lose residents. While the cost of housing is always listed as a major reason for moving, the ability to live where you want and work at home is an equal motivator. Texas and Florida have attracted many with a much lower housing cost. But many have chosen smallcity and rural addresses. Closer to what had been home. Even though many can work from home, they still have to be in the office occasionally, so being reasonably close is important, even if close means by airline. One example – Netflix. Before Covid, Netflix was growing and hiring more employees. It built a newbuilding (one with an interesting design) in Los Angeles to accommodate more employees. As Covid challenges lessoned, target dates were set for when employees would return to the office. The comeback date keeps moving into the future. Google in the Bay Area had a similar trend. The company culture has always been about team effort and employee faceto-face interactions were considered an important component. It also went on a building spree with some of the most dazzling and naturally lighted large buildings. Food courts, exercise rooms and many other incentives to attract employees are exciting perks. Google called employees back for one day a week. Then two. They are not back to full time yet as they have discovered that at-home work adds to the productivity, rather than diminishing it. Bend, OR., close to Silicon Valley by air, and less expensive than Tahoe, is growing rapidly. It is the ‘in’ place to visit in both winter and summer and is attracting internet workers. Internet-connected newcomers with higher salaries, like in Mammoth, are pushing housing prices up making it difficult for ‘locals’ – nothing new as that has always been a resort town dilemma. For as long as there have been resorts most who have moved to places like Mammoth to enjoy the outdoors, skiing and the opposite of the urban lifestyle, made a conscious decision knowing they trade salary for a special kind of sanity. Population turnover revolves around never making ends meet economically and /or recognizing that for many careers it is a dead end. Is that dilemma diminishing? This could just be a short-term change, or will it be a long-term trend. It could be that resort-living for those still employed, may be changing.