Bookmarks: 5 Interesting Articles That May Help You This Week

Each week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners:" corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. I welcome your comments on these articles.

1. Millennials Show Loyalty to Employers

Younger employees now entering their prime working years are so far proving as loyal to employers as the generation before them, despite a hot job market.

In January 2018, 70% of workers between the ages of 22 and 37, commonly known as the millennial generation, had worked for their current employer for 13 months or more, according to an analysis of federal data by the Pew Research Center. By comparison, that number was 69% for workers who were in the same age group in 2002 and are known as Generation X.

“When you look at millennials, they have no shorter job tenures with their current employers than Generation X did back in 2002,” said Richard Fry, senior researcher at Pew. “Ten years after the great recession, it’s still the case.”

Even when looking at longer tenures, data suggest younger workers may be more loyal than their predecessors were as they were getting their careers under way. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in January 2018, 28.8% of workers ages 25 to 34 had worked for the same employer for at least five years. The share of workers in that age group with equal tenure in 2000 was 21.8%.

2. The Truth About Open Offices

It’s never been easier for workers to collaborate—or so it seems. Open, flexible, activity-based spaces are displacing cubicles, making people more visible. Messaging is displacing phone calls, making people more accessible. Enterprise social media such as Slack and Microsoft Teams are displacing watercooler conversations, making people more connected. Virtual-meeting software such as Zoom, GoToMeeting, and Webex is displacing in-person meetings, making people ever-present. The architecture of collaboration has not changed so quickly since technological advances in lighting and ventilation made tall office buildings feasible, and one could argue that it has never before been so efficient. Designing workplaces for interaction between two or more individuals—or collaboration, from the Latin collaborare, meaning to work together—has never seemed so easy.

But as the physical and technological structures for omnichannel collaboration have spread, evidence suggests they are producing behaviors at odds with designers’ expectations and business managers’ desires. In a number of workplaces we have observed for research projects or consulting assignments, those structures have produced less interaction—or less meaningful interaction—not more.

In this article we discuss those unintended consequences and provide guidance on conducting experiments to uncover how your employees really interact. That will help you equip them with the spaces and technologies that best support their needs.

3. Never Mind the Internet. Here’s What’s Killing Malls.

It has been a tough decade for brick-and-mortar retailers, and matters seem only to be getting worse.

Despite a strong consumer economy, physical retailers closed more than 9,000 stores in 2019 — more than the total in 2018, which surpassed the record of 2017. Already this year, retailers have announced more than 1,200 more intended closings, including 125 Macy’s stores.

Some people call what has happened to the shopping landscape “the retail apocalypse.” It is easy to chalk it up to the rise of e-commerce, which has thrived while physical stores struggle. And there is no denying that Amazon and other online retailers have changed consumer behavior radically or that big retailers like Walmart and Target have tried to beef up their own online presence.

But this can be overstated.

4. Are Floating Hotels, Office Buildings the Answer to Rising Sea Levels?

More developers are building waterborne structures. Floating buildings can alleviate housing shortages in major cities at a time when land is scarce and restrictive zoning makes it hard to build up, said Koen Olthuis, whose Netherlands-based architecture firm Waterstudio specializes in floating structures.

For flood-prone cities like Miami, structures that rise and sink with the sea offer an alternative to waterfront construction that looks increasingly vulnerable to rising sea levels. “Climate change has definitely helped us spread our designs and ideas,” Mr. Olthuis said.

So far, most of these structures are little more than elaborate houseboats. But some firms are working on multistory office, hotel and apartment buildings that could extend congested cities into the ocean.

5. Living In A New Urbanist Community And Up Close To A Movie Studio

Looking for an environmentally friendly community where you don’t have to drive everywhere? This new community might just be the answer for you. (And it is next to a large movie studio if show biz is your dream.)

The exciting New Urbanist community in Fayetteville, Georgia, meets these criteria. Pinewood Forest is just 23 miles south of downtown Atlanta and is an environmentally friendly community with many of the amenities people would now like to have in just walking distance.

Residents of this community are actors and stunt doubles, as well as doctors, teachers and business people.

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

Ken Ashley