[SFLemonade]

Between this $2B deal and the $5B Apple Park deal, I start to wonder how companies are justifying these purchases as remote and distributed work becomes more feasible.

They're probably focused on the fact that productivity is still higher in co-located settings and the best talent pools are in major metro areas. But what if, instead, they invested $500M in remote work research and $500M in building a remote work infrastructure for the company. Then they can go ahead and pocket that extra $1-4B in real estate costs, and perhaps another ~$10B long term as they avoid future real estate purchases and scale this across the company. Also, save several hundred million in hiring and retention, as they attract more talent from around the world and retain employees by offering remote work as a benefit.

Could this be a more forward-thinking approach? I'm merely posing the question.

Real estate is super expensive, and most people would consider being able to live anywhere a huge perk. In other words, the only reason talent is so concentrated in New York, is because it has to be right now. But what will happen as more companies offer distributed work? Will people choose to continue living in metro areas with astronomical costs of living (perhaps even away from family or in a climate they don't prefer)? Or will they leave and work from wherever they want? And then what will happen to the value of this real estate? And what will happen to the companies that invested in it?

I find it odd that innovative tech companies seem to not be questioning one of the more non-innovative and dogmatic practices of today - physical office space. Not only that, but they're investing billions into that idea. Why not challenge it?

Or what if you took a hybrid approach? Have a collaborative space in New York that everyone can use to come together, but everyone can also work from home. You may be able to cut down the required space by 3-4x.

[ionforce]

I don't think working remote has proven itself fully. Otherwise everyone would be doing it.

> They're probably focused on the fact that productivity is still higher in co-located settings and the best talent pools are in major metro areas.

Exactly this.

[SFLemonade]

Definitely. But there's also been very little investment into remote work, both from a research and infrastructure perspective.

I just wonder, if they were to take some of this cash and invest it into proving out remote work, would it turn out to be a better long term investment?

In most of the cases that I've observed, companies enter into remote work literally by just letting their employees start working remotely. Maybe they get a nice contract with Zoom and hire a specialized lawyer or two. But what if we were to really try investing in it, in the same way (or even in a fraction of the way) that we're investing in real estate?

[ghaff]

Another point that I’m not sure gets much attention is that, as these companies build huge campuses and spread out to multiple locations across a region, how co-located are employees anyway? Sure you can move people around to be with primary teams but it’s certainly not like everyone can pop over to talk with someone or can depend on a lot of serendipitous hallway conversations.

[SFLemonade]

That's a great point. Google tends to collocate teams by product, so that may be their answer to this. But it's true that you'll eventually reach a scale where you're going to have daily remote interactions, regardless of whether those people are in an office or not. Even at the Googleplex, if you're in an office across campus, it's better to connect to the meeting remotely than walk over.

[CydeWeys]

> I start to wonder how companies are justifying these purchases as remote and distributed work becomes more feasible.

I don't think this is happening. There are huge advantages to collocating teams, and Google clearly does not believe in remote employees.

Humans are social animals. You can't "innovate that away using technology".

[huac]

Google has experimented with that idea in London: https://www.campus.co/london/en. Free space with wifi and coffee and obviously nice furniture. They use the event space to hold tech talks and the like -- I wonder if it's worked out as more than just a brand investment.

[SFLemonade]

Very interesting. This seems like more of an open co-working space, but it pokes at that hybrid remote / co-located idea.