from what I have seen in the US, big life companies were already starting to scale back office space years ago. I think this was still fallout from 2009 and the continued low interest rates. Anyone holding long tailed reserves can no longer afford bloated expense budgets that the 90s/early 2000 allowed them to amass.
Lol, this reminded me of when I was a teen. There was no heat in my bedroom and I had to get up at 5:30 for work, before the woodstove got started. Iād put my clothes beside my bed, then pull them into bed with me to warm them up, then get dressed under the covers. What a lifestyle.
I was buying wood some years ago from an old farmer guy and we got talking about the cold and he mentioned that he used to do the same thing, for the same reason. We both agreed that things are a lot better now than they were :).
I used to do that when I went backpacking. Pull my clothes into my sleeping bag to warm them up.
was going to say, the difference is whether someone uses the closet
More residential and less commercial real estate would help solve the affordability problem of housing in urban areas, but at this point it is speculation. Office designs change every few years - the previous trend was to tear down offices to help with collaboration, then they realized that too many people in one area so they built more private spaces. After 9/11 people thought that there would be far less business travel and that nobody would want to live in downtown NYC, but that never really materialized.
And itās a bit of a feedback loop I think. If there are fewer offices then that also saps the demand for the residential space to begin with. The pessimistic view for the cities is pretty pessimistic, but who knows how much all of that will stick.
1 Like
I do this. But replace husband with wife. And bathroom with TV room
I would love to move back to my hometown but there are no jobs for me there. Iām hoping my company will let me WFH forever so I can move closer to family.
No Microsoft Teams? Thatās about all I use. It has made the transition to WFH much easier.
Eh, that would be a pretty major renovation.
Our solution works just fine. I donāt think he minds walking down the hall to get to his closet anymore, and Iām fine with him having the bigger room for an office.
Whatās with actuaries and old houses? Every tenured actuary couple (double income, at least 200k each) I know seems to live in expensive areas, but likeā¦very not visually appealing houses.
I love new and fully renovated houses. Shiny and tiled floors, no white walls, no white ceilings, extravagant decor. Even new and fully renovated, these typically donāt run over 1.5M in a decent suburb, which I think is quite affordable on a 400k combined income.
Kids perhaps make a dent. Canāt relate.
Iām neither tenured, in a double income situation (let alone an actuarial one), nor making $200k, but I like old houses. Mine has lasted almost a hundred years. Most houses built post-war look dumpy by the time theyāre 30+years old.
Kids do make a dent. More like a crater. Maybe a black hole.
I like old houses, with wooden floors, white (or cream, or pastel) walls, white ceilings, and simple decor. I fill that simple space with clutter, which I also like. I like that everything toxic that was going to outgas has already done so. It does mean more calls to the plumber, etc., though. Tradeoffs.
1 Like
Yeah, I love century homes. when we were first married we found one in our price range, but my SO wouldnāt budge. I finally sent flowers to her at work with a card that said āplease please please pleaseā.
Two hours later I get called to reception, thereās a package for me. They sent me a bunch of flowers with a card that said āno no no noā.
We ended up buying newly built. Itās OK, everythingās square and thereās no funny stuff like asbestos. And the builder left everyoneās backyard natural bush of mature trees. Over the years everyone else has made theirs like a park but Iāve left ours untouched; it still looks like a forest in our little patch.
1 Like
Itās much easier to just walk over to someoneās desk and have a real conversation rather than over video. A lot easier to share stuff. Not click this, click that, share this, share that. Itās more like: check this out and just point.
2 Likes
yeah, itās definitely easier to walk over than to arrange a zoom call or teams call or whatever. i view teams and zoom as the same thing. not sure why @The_President is even distinguishing them. i might hold back from talking to coworkers at all if i need to take that added step of arranging a call on anything rather than walking over.
wfh is never gonna be ideal from the coworker interaction perspective.
1 Like
1 Like
Our CEO reminds us every month that we should expect to return the office at some point. But he concedes there could be a little work-from-home allowed. He says we canāt work at our full potential without being at an office - not sure I agree with that but that could be truer for others.
At home, Iām more apt to be caught on the GoA by my wife than at work by my boss.
2 Likes
Interesting. The opinions of the decision makers may vary quite a lot with this WFH issue, an issue that I will allocate to the realm of HR and Employee Benefits in general.
I know of one very large P&C company that is moving in the opposite direction, and mandating people adapt to WFH permanently.
My company hasnāt yet hinted at long term WFH options which I find odd. For the time being, WFH is completely optional and most people are taking the option.