Three recently published stories that may give you an idea where the office market is headed, or not:
"We got a peek at JPMorgan's latest plans for its new NYC headquarters, which reveal clues about how the bank views the future of office work…" Business Insider
"HSBC Scraps Executive Offices; CEO, Top Managers Will Hot Desk..." GlobeSt.com
"Herman Mill and Knoll to merge in $1.8 billion deal that will create design leader as companies reimagine office.." MarketWatch
What does this mean for real estate?
Well, if one of the world’s largest banking corporations is looking at the future of office in a different way, it may wise to “follow the money”. It’s not unreasonable to take away lessons from the past year and apply them to future dynamics. One thing that we do know is that most of JP Morgan Chase’s customers also WFH whether employed by a corporation or on their own. And there is no doubt that their algorithms along with all the other banking institutions are noticing where their customers are doing their banking, purchasing and all other online activities as well.
Moving onto the HSBC restructuring of the, “Corner office,” this is another step in the evolution of work and how we work whether at the top of the corporate pyramid or at the middle and bottom. Simply put, there is a leveling of the playing field in office life and one wonders if this will also lead to a democratization of both decisions making as well as wage disparity? Only time will tell how this shakes out but will be something look at five to ten years down the road.
As for this furniture merger and some of the rationale stated by the principals involved, this dovetails well with the JP Morgan and HSBC stories about how these huge banking corporations are viewing work and the workplace.