Irreal readers know that I’ve been fascinated with remote work for a long time and consider it a good thing for most people and the companies they work for. COVID-19 has accelerated the trend as many companies—and their employees—discover that working from home is not only possible but actually works pretty well. This realization has led many companies to extend or consider extending their work from home programs post COVID-19. Indeed, Twitter has announced that most employees can work from home as long as they like.
Of course, as with every change of this magnitude there are unintended consequences. Manhattan in New York City is especially likely to suffer from those consequences. The big advantage for companies is, of course, that they save on expensive office rental fees. In Manhattan, Barclays, JP Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley alone rent office space amounting roughly to all that available in downtown Nashville. The consequences for the Real Estate industry are pretty clear but that’s only the beginning. Restaurants, corner bodegas, bars and many other small businesses depend on all those workers for their livelihoods. And then there’s the tax base. Real estate taxes account for about a third of the City’s revenue. Add in the loss of taxes from all those restaurants, bars, and so on, and it’s easy to predict that the city could take a huge hit.
Of course, New York City is famously resilient and has bounced back from such disasters as 9-11 but even many usually sanguine New Yorkers worry that this time might be different. As liberating as the remote work movement is for most people, it’s not without its dark side and that dark side could be devastating to many people and businesses large and small.