Tech companies in Silicon Valley, New York, Seattle, are letting their leases end or looking for ways to end them, and larger employees are closing facilities or consolidating space to both save money for their companies and to allow workers more flexible arrangements and options that are either at home or closer to home in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that forced many offices to close earlier this year.
“We polled the team and, for the vast majority, they prefer to remain at home,” Sound Commerce CEO Eric Best, who co-founded the software company in 2018 told CNBC about the decision not to renew the company's lease in Seattle, when the agreement expires on July 31. “We’re not making any decision for the long term right now. We’re thinking about what do we do for the next six to 12 months in terms of maximum safety of team and maximum flexibility of the company.”
In April, several executives loaded up a U-Haul with equipment from the office, including desks, monitors, and more and dropped items off at employees' homes to use after coronavirus orders required nonessential workers to remain at home.
Several other companies are making the choice.
CBRE predicted in May that there would be about a 7% drop in office rents between the first and fourth quarters, but since that time, coronavirus has continued to grow, and companies like Facebook and Twitter are also saying they're taking a hybrid approach to how their employees work.
Extended school closures are also making workers seek other ways to do their jobs, and office workers are finding they can be productive at home.
Best said the decision is also saving a great deal of money. The cost to run a brick-and-mortar office equaled the salary for one or two full-time employees, and as a start-up, that will allow him to hire more engineering capacity.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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