There’s a sub-current to the employment figures and the commercial real estate numbers that the Fed watches – what’s actually happening down in the trenches of the companies who rent those offices and employ those people. Once upon a time, and hastened by the pandemic, technology was predicted to be the tool that would render all but the most specialized, hands-on work remote capable and office-free.
Hundreds of thousands of US workers found themselves safely tucked in their homes by employers grateful to be able to do so while still keeping the business – whatever it was – up and running. Employees were happy as clams not to have to face commutes, deal with the panic of childcare for random COVID school closings, or buy new office clothes.
In many cases, an assumption was made that this would be the way going forward – the norm rather than the exception – and life settled in and…
