The Problem: There is more office space than is needed now that people see the benefits of working from home.
The Solution: Offices should merge with hotels to offer accommodation to staff to make the trips to the office more enjoyable and enable longer commutes.
It’s been a rough old year, and we’re not even in the home stretch yet. Of the few silver linings from lockdown, the realisation that the commute to work each day is, for most people, a ludicrous waste of time, ranks high on the list.
Post lockdown, people are likely to move to a 2-3 day week in the office, with the rest spent at home. This offers up big time and money savings, as people save both on commuting less and off-peak, and can also move to areas with cheaper housing.
As people do move further away from their offices, there will be an excess of space. Rather than simply returning this to the landlords, companies should see it as an opportunity to create hotel accommodation.
That accommodation could be used by staff on the nights in between their days in the office, saving them the hassle of multiple commutes and maximising the benefit and enjoyment of the days in the office. How much better is a two-hour commute into the office if you only do it once a week, and it means you stay up in town for one or two nights, maxing out on the culture and nightlife of the city without a long commute home afterwards, and another the next morning.
Businesses that offer their staff free or subsidised hotel accommodation have the opportunity to massively increase morale among their employees. And they can more effectively monetise their office space; instead of standing empty on nights and weekends, half the space would be used as a hotel, providing benefits for employees and generating revenue from friends of employees who would be allowed to use it for themselves, much like some member’s clubs.
Free or low-cost accommodation combined with only being expected to be in the office 2-3 days per week could massively overhaul work and life; living anywhere in England and working in London would be perfectly feasible, opening the way for far more affordable housing and the opportunity to live in the countryside while still working in a city. City life could be overhauled, too, with no more peak Friday nights, but instead every night being a busy night, as people go out on their nights in office hotels, not just at the end of the work week.
A friend’s flat to sleep over in London has been a major benefit for me over the last few years, making London a much more fun place to be as I don’t have to perform the Cinderella exit to get the last train home; it’s time millions of workers around the country got the same benefit. It would make work more enjoyable and help restart the economy.
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