A recent blog post from the VC Marc Andreessen on the rise of remote work went like this.
It is perhaps the most important thing that's happened in my lifetime, a consequence of the internet that's maybe even more important than the internet. Permanently divorcing physical location from economic opportunity gives us a real shot at radically expanding the number of good jobs in the world while also dramatically improving quality of life for millions, or billions, of people.
And it really had me thinking about a recent blog post on BoFB – Office Workers Are Not Returning Soon Enough – and that perhaps this hiatus could be permanent. If you peeled through the < 300 word sound off on what restaurants could do till they return, I didn’t consider the alternative, or even if they did return, that it might not last.
A recent analysis by McKinsey found
that the potential for remote work is highly concentrated among highly skilled, highly educated workers in a handful of industries, occupations, and geographies.
More than 20 percent of the workforce could work remotely three to five days a week as effectively as they could if working from an office. If remote work took hold at that level, that would mean three to four times as many people working from home than before the pandemic and would have a profound impact on urban economies, transportation, and consumer spending, among other things.
Changes in office workers’ schedules will require changes from the restaurants that serve them. Introducing a subscription model is a great near-term channel to begin developing a long-term strategy against the migration patterns of future workers. And offering premium content, goods, and services is a sure-fire way to generate predictable, steady revenue while also having the flexibility to experiment with new ideas and provide customers with another level of service to fit their new lifestyle.
The workplace will continue to evolve over time, as will the communities that house its workers and the restaurants they visit. Many of these shifts are already under way. In June, a study from New York City estimated that only 62% of workers will return to the office, and for most, three days a week. And even before Le Bernardin shed its jacket policy in March, the industry had already seen a number of disruptions and early adopters in its ranks, from delivery to scheduling to invoicing – all being managed by an app. The omnichannel era was already in play, the pandemic just ushered in those who had been watching from the sidelines.