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. Nothing Like A Normal Downturn: Marci Rossell Delivers The Goods for CoreNet Global and CREW Atlanta
We’ve all read hundreds of articles on how the virus is transmitted physically. Marci was very clear; “I don’t want to talk about anything else but solving the Covid problem…I want my life back!”
However, until Marci’s talk, I’d not given thought to how the scourge is transmitted economically.
“We pass the economic infection along through income, through wealth, and through uncertainty,” Marci said. “While income has been unequivocally negative, wealth has gone in the opposite direction. This is highly unusual.” Perhaps we have an upside to a significant downside occurrence.
“There was a massive stimulus package…really a rescue package that supported incomes and worked to keep poverty at bay,” Marci said. Another impact of the package; “savings have exploded..there are somewhere around $1.6 trillion in savings on the sideline just now,’ she continued.
This time, the high heels and ties are nowhere to be found. Instead, the Atlanta real estate community dialed in from armchairs, kitchen tables and, hopefully, a few real offices. It feels like we are turning the corner in this pandemic, but does our virtual keynote speaker agree?
2. WFH’s Sheen Wears Off for Some Large Companies
Another day, another breathless survey repeating what we’ve been hearing for the last year: work-from-home is more than just a passing trend, and it just may be here to stay.
But the most recent one—from the National Association for Business Economists—gives us pause. NABE is, after all, the arbiter of when recessions begin and end. So when a mere 11% of panelists NABE surveys say they expect all of their staff to “eventually” return to pre-pandemic working arrangements, many in the CRE sector straighten up and take note.
The report compiles the responses from 97 NABE members across a variety of economic indicators and issues. Around 65% of those surveyed reported letting employees work from home during the pandemic. And of the 11% of those who think all staff will return to physical offices, the majority come from the services sector.
3. Working from home is starting to fall apart, top bankers warn
PHOTO BY LOIC VENANCE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES FILES
Senior bankers are sounding the alarm: working from home is at risk of not working anymore.
“I don’t think it’s sustainable,” Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley said Tuesday at the World Economic Forum. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s asset- and wealth-management boss, Mary Erdoes, agreed.
In the corporate world, “if you ask anyone today, it feels like it is fraying, it’s hard, it takes a lot of inner strength and sustainability every single day to continue to focus and to not have the energy you get from being around other people,” she said.
4. Productivity Of Remote Workers Could Determine The Fate Of The Office Market
Many companies haven't finalized their long-term remote work strategies yet, but office market experts say discussions have ramped up after several months of pandemic-induced paralysis, and they expect a host of tenants to reveal their future plans this year.
These decisions about how much of a company's workforce to keep remote are coinciding with a re-evaluation of their long-term office needs. And if companies increasingly choose to give back large portions of their footprints like LogMeIn did, the already-weak office market could be in for a major reckoning.
"Companies are saying 'I don't need all this space, I'm going to have more of my workforce work from home tomorrow than they did yesterday,'" said Cresa Managing Principal Jason Jones, who leads the firm's Remote Advisory Services team.
5. Job Growth in the South Bucks Losses in Rest of U.S.
The South is leading the U.S. labor market’s recovery from the pandemic’s initial shock as the only major region with continued payroll growth at the end of last year while the rest of the country lost jobs.
Southern states logged job growth across the private sector in December, including services industries, which were hit hard by the pandemic, and manufacturing, according to a Labor Department report that provides details on the job market in all 50 states. Texas and Georgia gained the most jobs in December, adding a seasonally adjusted 64,200 and 44,700 jobs, respectively.
In contrast, payrolls in the Midwest, West and Northeast fell last month, when the nation’s total payrolls slipped by 140,000 for the first decline in seven months.
In those parts of the country, a surge in virus infections, related restrictions and winter weather prompted steep job cuts in leisure and hospitality industries, which includes restaurants. In the South, those jobs held nearly steady.
Your success blesses others. I wish you a great a hugely impactful week!
