At home or back to the office – How will things work out?
Crown Castle is one of the largest employers in Washington County, but because its staff is working at home, nary a car is parked near the company's Southpointe offices.
Available parking spaces are more plentiful outside the Horizon Properties building at Southpointe today than when the pandemic began a year ago.
Betsy and Bill West in a file photo from 2020
Observer-Reporter
Mike Swisher of Horizon Properties Group, in a photo from 2018, envisions a post-pandemic workforce operating from a variety of workplaces.
Jeff Kotula, Washington County Chamber of Commerce president
So, where will the majority of the workforce be when the pandemic is gone, or largely under control?
Still at home? Back in the office? Or a compromise between the two – in a smaller, homier office?
A sampling of regional real estate professionals resulted in a diversity of opinions.
“I know a lot of major companies are seeing the benefits of people working at home. They’re getting their work done in a timely manner,” said Armand Ferrara, an agent and Realtor for SWC Realty, which has eight locations, including Washington, Uniontown and Waynesburg.
“If you own a company with 10,000 square feet of space with desks, do you want that? You walk around and no one is there. What’s the use of having 10,000 square feet when you don’t need it.”
Ferrara, who is based in Washington, does not frequent his company office as much anymore. “I go there only if I meet a client. I can search listings and do other things at home.”
He cited regional malls as locations that may not need much “retail space because so many people now shop online.” One mall, Ferrara added, “was like a ghost town” when he was there recently.
“But we do need brick and mortar.”
Marv Levin likewise believes that working remotely will endure. He is vice president of the commercial division of Berkshire Hathaway, based in Wexford, and works often in Washington and southern Allegheny counties.
“I think there is now a lot of office space for sublease because people can be just as productive, or more so, at home,” said Levin, an associate broker who has been in the business for 36 years. He works frequently in Washington and southern Allegheny counties.
“You don’t have to have a lot of office space now, and I think the subleasing will continue for a while. I also think suburban office space is normally less expensive than in a central city center.”
Unlike some economists and real estate personnel, however, Levin believes “that retail will come back after the virus is under control.”
Mike Swisher, principal for Horizon Properties, said he envisions a mix. He understands that some employees, a year into the pandemic, prefer working at home. But …
“I do think a lot of people will want to be in offices,” Swisher said. “Mentorship and training – you can’t get at home. You can’t get skills the way you do in a workplace.
“People will come back to the office, and be very flexible with the schedule. The next time someone has a hiccup, people will hunker down and work at home again. That’s not going to go away.”
Swisher also is an advocate of co-working spaces, which he believes “is going to be model of future.” This is a popular initiative, featuring open work areas in what is regarded as a “professional-casual atmosphere.” Horizon has finished two co-working loft office projects in Southpointe.
“Workspace going forward is basically a desk, a chair, a place to put your computer with secure WiFi. Furniture manufacturers are looking at a new way to design office space,” Swisher said.
His office is in the middle of the Cecil Township mixed-use park, where – a year ago – vehicles filled lots. Many lots sit abandoned or only partly filled, especially near bigger companies, whose employees are mostly toiling remotely. Crown Castle, which has one of the largest workforces in Washington County, had one car in its massive employee lot one day last week.
“A number of companies, especially publicly traded companies with more liability, are not as likely to bring people back,” Swisher said.
Betsy West is a Berkshire Hathaway agent and real estate teammate with her husband, Bill. They reside in Cecil Township, work largely in Washington County and belong to the Washington-Greene Association of Realtors.
She said the industry “is flat” for now, and its dynamics have changed. “Bill and I have learned to work out of our home,” she said. “Everything is online now.”
Home, however, is not necessarily where her professional heart is. West also wonders how the remote working environment is affecting students and workers in other industries.
“What we’re missing is no different than what high school students are experiencing,” she said. “It’s Zoom and all, but they’re missing the human element. I miss collaborating with clients and co-workers in an office.
“Now we kick our shoes off and work when we want.”
Home or office? Jeff Kotula, president of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, is anticipating an eventual mix.
“We have heard from employers both ways,” he said. “Some are going to continue to offer hybrid models, where their employees work from home and the office, while others are eager to get back into the office. Southpointe is well positioned to benefit from both situations, where traditional office work can remain in the park, and also accommodate co-working spaces where employers can offer collaborative environments for their remote workers.
“We have also seen continued high demand for flex and light industrial space in the county. It appears the market is responding to the pandemic by looking for logistics and last-mile warehouse/delivery facilities. This is a growth area for the county we should consider developing.”
A recent article on forbes.com cited a COVID-19 Surveillance Report by Randstand, a Dutch-based consulting firm, about working remotely. It said “78% of companies found that remote work was more effective than they thought it would be, and studies overall have found that productivity has remained the same or has even improved as employees have worked from home.”
That article, however, went on to add: “recent studies have found that gains in productivity seen at the outset of the pandemic may have started to erode toward the end of 2020, signaling a rise in work-from-home fatigue that has caused workers to struggle with anxiety and a lack of focus.”
It remains an interesting debate.