Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

Each week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in leadership and the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners": corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. Each day we can become a better version of ourselves.

1. The Workers Who Relish Going to the Office on Friday—When No One Else Is There

After a few hours of heads-down work at her office in Washington, D.C., Michele Late will stand up from her desk, get down on all fours and begin a series of cat-cow yoga poses in her cubicle.

“If her back is hurting, she might just lie flat on the ground. She can do so without a shred of self-consciousness or fear that a co-worker might walk by because she goes into the office on the day everyone else avoids: Friday.”

“No one is going to see me,” says Ms. Late, 51, who works as the deputy director of communications for the American Public Health Association and is required to be in the office two days a week. “I just love Fridays.”

2. 'The Fog Of War Is Lifting': More Companies Making Long-Term Decisions About Their Offices

This week’s announcement of the biggest office deal of the year was welcome news for New York City’s office market, which has been battered by high availability and low occupancy.

“Leases like KPMG’s 15-year commitment in Manhattan West — the search for which kicked off in 2018, the company said — are a sign more large corporations are finally making decisions about how they want their offices to look long-term, and what it means for the size of their spaces, industry insiders told Bisnow this week.”

“I do think the fog of war is lifting a little bit for most tenants,” Savills Vice Chairman Nick Farmakis said. “I think they’ve come to the conclusion of what they want to be, and I think that maybe the activity in the market is reflective of the fact that tenants have firmer direction than they really have at any time over the past couple of years.”

3. Construction Material Prices Starting To Cool, But Demand Concerns Are Creeping In

After two years of volatility and historic increases, prices of construction materials have started to level off — although at much higher levels than before the pandemic.

“But while prices have become more predictable, questions are starting to burble about whether demand can keep up. Total construction starts were up by 48% in July, according to Dodge Data & Analytics, but that was largely fueled by spikes in infrastructure and manufacturing — residential construction starts dropped, and the rate of commercial starts has slowed.”

Builders and experts are expecting to see prices stabilize further, but are concerned that the still-high cost of building, coupled with the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes could lead to canceled deals and further declines in demand.

4. A Different Take on the U.S. Economy: Maybe It Isn’t Really Shrinking

When the Commerce Department reported last month that U.S. economic output contracted for two consecutive quarters during the first half of the year, it raised fears the U.S. might be in recession, defined in a popular rule of thumb as two negative quarters of growth. New data sends a different message: rather than in recession, the economy might be in something closer to a stall.

“Economic output can be measured two different ways: gross domestic product, or gross domestic income. For every dollar an individual spends to buy some good or service—a restaurant meal, a car, a doctor’s visit—another individual earns a dollar of income to make and deliver that good or service. GDP captures the spending side of these transactions, GDI the income side.”

In theory, GDI and GDP should equal each other, though there is always some statistical discrepancy because they are measured using different data sets and different sources. This year the discrepancy has been unusually large. During the first half of the year GDP contracted at a 1.1% annual rate, adjusted for inflation. At the same time, GDI, made up of a measure of corporate profits, wages and benefits, self-employment income, interest and rent, expanded at a 1.6% annual rate, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

5. How to Get Published: A Book’s Journey From ‘Very Messy’ Draft to Best Seller

Jessamine Chan spent five years drafting her book. It was her first — a novel about a mother who loses custody of her toddler after one “very bad day,” and then, in a surreal twist, is sent to an experimental “school for good mothers.”

“Like most new authors hoping to break into the industry, Chan had much working against her.”

The publishing world can be opaque and intimidating to outsiders. Although Chan had published a few short stories and had worked at Publishers Weekly, a trade magazine that gave her some insight into the process, she had few connections. And she had no platform: She was not a celebrity, had no personal brand and was not on social media. She lived a quiet life in Philadelphia with her husband and her child, whose birth made her recast the book — again.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!