remote work cities 0
Remote Work and Cities
Vocabulary
| nail (2) | mean (3) | across (2) |
| based | pandemic | headquarters |
| expect | typically | put/put/put |
| bay | research | go/went/gone |
| rest (2) | laundry | announce |
| impact | customer | from now on |
| empty | building | corner (2) |
| barber | salon (2) | nail salon |
| repair | standard | optometry |
| fix | thing (2) | stand/stood/stood |
| bar (3) | crowd (2) | other than |
| list | less/least | far beyond |
| dry | chain (3) | dry cleaner |
| wet | garment | walking distance |
| care (2) | pandemic | see/saw/seen |
| area (3) | right (5) | nationwide |
| decline | sales (2) | focal point |
| folks | commute | hit/hit/hit (2) |
| pain | upstairs | make a living |
| suffer | focus (2) | make/made/made |
| look up | point (3) | sell/sold/sold |
| upside | room (2) | say/said/said |
| post (2) | pretty (2) | give/gave/given (2) |
| realize | trade off | office environment |
| all over | relocate | roughly (2) |
| go back | prediction | come/came/come |
| depend | incredible | do/did/done |
| groom | full-time | think/thought/thought (2) |
| vaccine | disperse | something like |
| scatter | freedom | wind up (2) |
| priority | buck (3) | bang for the buck |
| land | space (3) | come back |
| air | look for | good/better/best |
| safe (2) | stay safe | permanent |
| wait | staff (2) |
Video
Transcript
Across the country, empty streets and empty office towers don’t just mean a change in how we work, entire communities have relocated to new places.
A corporate headquarters can put tens of thousands of billions into local economies.
In Charlotte, Bank of America has one-hundred-and-eighty-thousand (180,000) employees working from home during the pandemic.
Austin-based Dell expects more half of their one-hundred-and-sixty-thousand (160,000) staffers to never go back to their desks.
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, Google and Facebook have announced that most of their workers would be at home for the rest of the year.
But Twitter has announced that its workers will be a home — from now on.
And that’s going to have an impact far beyond just empty desks in a building like this.
Nail salons, barbers, shoe repair, dog groomers, optometrists, bars . . . the list is long on those who depend on a work-a-day crowd. And they all stand to suffer is their customers don’t commute in.
Dan Miller’s chain of dry cleaners has stores in walking distance of many tech companies.
Dan Miller, President, Milberry’s Garment Care: “We’ve seen declines nationwide of between seventy and seventy-five percent (70% to 75%) in the dry-cleaning laundry business.
I would say it’s one of the hardest hit industries other than the airlines and hotels.
But it’s gonna be a new world, right?
And for the folk who make a living selling to the lunch crowd, Twitter’s announcement means the pain of the pandemic could be permanent.
Joy MacDonald, General Manager, The Market: “Our sales are about forty percent (40%) lower. Being able to service more of our community is going to be more of our focal point, instead of just looking upstairs in our building.”
Are there any upsides?
Well, a post-pandemic office might give each person a lot more room. Matt Mullenweg’s twelve-hundred (1,200) person company has worked from home for years. And he says it’s pretty great.
Matt Mullenweg, CEO WordPress: “We don’t realize how much time and money we trade off for our office environment for home. Everyone has corner office. You’re the CEO of your own home.”
So, when this is all over, will we ever come back to an office again?
Nicholas Bloom, Stanford University: “My prediction from having done a lot of research on this is that for those of us who can work from home, which is roughly forty percent (40%) of people, I don’t think many people are going to do that full-time.
The much more standard thing would be something like two or three days a week at home.”
And that might change the places we wind up living.
And because you can come in and work in the office only two days a week, it’s much easier for people to live two hours out of the city, because they’re only commuting twice a week.”
Mullenwig says he’s already seen that happen.
Matt Mullenweg, CEO WordPress: “They disperse when you give them the freedom to work from home, have people scattered.”
Typically in the first year, people look for a little more bang for the buck. If you’re not having to commute every day, moving twenty to thirty minutes out, you can get some incredible space, more land, more air, better schools. Any of a number of things that might be a priority for you. At the same or less cost.”
Working from home now is a chance to stay safe while we wait for a vaccine.
But city life may never be the same again.
Questions
City, Urban Area. In 2020 and 2021, cities will brimming with people. Cities were busy with business, traffic and commerce. True or false?
Downtown, City Center. Have all corporate employees gone to work in their offices?
Plaza, Square. Is remote working or working from home a temporary, short-term phenomenon; or more permanent and long-term?
Skyscraper, Office Building. Every is thrilled and happy that office employees can work from their homes. Is this right or wrong?
Street, Boulevard. What two examples did the report highlight of a business suffering from remote work?
Suburb. “Being able to service more of our community is going to be more of our focal point, instead of just looking upstairs in our building.” What does the restaurateur mean by “looking upstairs in our building”?
District, Quarter. Will everyone work entirely from home and never come to the office?
Satellite City. Are there major demographic changes as a result of working from home? Will this be good, bad, both good and bad, neither, in the middle?
Town. I work remotely from home. Or, I know someone who works remotely from home. Yes or no?
Village. Do people like or dislike working from home? What are the advantages of or benefits of working from home?
Shop, Store. Are there any disadvantages or drawbacks of remote work?
Country, Countryside. Is there a difference in attitude of remote work among men, women, boys, girls, old and young people?
Rural Community. What might happen in the future?
Farm, Ranch. What should people, businesses and governments do?
