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Comment by betwixthewires | Hacker News Reader

Covid is basically over and it is still like this. It will probably stay more like this than it will revert. Global paradigm shifts don't usually revert.

The less number of days workers go into the office, the less companies can justify renting the space and paying for the supplies. I think companies will begin to either go 100% remote except for on location workers that have to be there such as data center people, and others will try to go 100% back to office, and the latter will lose because the economic incentives are stacked against them. Increased cost, including a premium on talent willing to commute, make companies that do this less competitive. Unless you believe the water cooler has some property that boosts productivity significantly, in which case you're right. But I doubt it.

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I actually worked for a company pre-pandemic that had this epiphany and almost went fully remote just based on cost. The reason they didn't was because there were people who couldn't work from home for family reasons and some who didn't want to.

We may find that being able to work remotely becomes a commodity the employee can offer the employer. As it's certainly still true that working from home doesn't fit everyone and we still haven't solved that I don't think. Renters can't build on an office they don't have for one example, and I don't think it's reasonable to expect an employee to work from their living room. But maybe co-working spaces will become more popular for the edge cases.

I think co working spaces are going to become popular, but they'll likely get rolled into the hospitality industry. I doubt you'll see pay by the month office spaces, what's probably more likely is bring your own laptop cyber cafe style settings that provide food or drinks.

When the "can you work from home" question gets a high enough incidence of "yes" answers, you'll see diminishing returns on renting office spaces. People that can't answer "yes" to that question will be priced out of the market.

I wonder sometimes if the future of office work is something like a Star Trek Holodeck. Most people won't have one at home and will commute to a local remote work office used by people working for various employers.

I don't know where you live but covid is not over here.

Not here, either: Folks are still getting it and folks are still dying from it. We simply don't have as many restrictions right now - though we are getting those again. Yesterday, some places in California are mandating masks again and I still have to prove I'm Covid-free to visit family in the US, and it doesn't matter than I'm a citizen.

>Not here, either: Folks are still getting it and folks are still dying from it.

If that's how you measure it, then covid will NEVER be over (People are still dying from flu every year)

Pandemic is over. COVID19 is never leaving us.

It will never be over. We just have to live with it and move on with our lives.

And I shall, but it turns out my reality isn't the only reality.

So the disease isn't over. And I hate to break it to you, in case it isn't obvious by now, it never will be.

But the panic and response are over, the public has accepted it as a part of the world now, the world is just the world and life is just life again.

I am well aware of the long term outlook of it all. I am fully vaxed, living life as I always used to, and I am all for returning to normal now that we have done all we can with vaccinations. But society globally is still changing and being impacted very seriously by the pandemic and will be for years yet.

Keep in mind that both places, people and policies change state to state, country to country. You are talking like your experience is the only possible one. Where I live is seeing the most deaths it had the entire pandemic, we have still removed all restrictions but that doesn't stop people changing their behavior. Some places are still having lockdowns. Some borders remain shut. You get the idea.

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