Cast your Vote

Posted 11/14/2025

The worldwide pandemic changed the meaning of work for a lot of people. Once a short-term experiment, working from home has evolved into a more permanent situation, transforming the lives of millions of people. This begs the question: is remote work here to stay or will traditional workspaces return? Employers learned during the pandemic that their employees could be just as productive without the overhead costs of a physical office. In turn, this eliminated the need for about 2 billion square feet of office space, drastically affecting the commercial real estate market... Click Here.

In 2025, millions of workers still preferred to work either hybrid or be fully remote, especially with companies offering incentives in the form of wage premiums. Wage premiums are a way for employers to pass their savings on to prospective employees. It may be appealing to employees that they may also spend less on their wardrobe, their lunch, and have fewer expenses for their vehicle.

A Harvard study showed that some workers are willing to take up to a 20% pay cut to work from home because of the flexibility. Flexible work models are also now used by major employers like Google and Microsoft, and even startups have chosen to work remotely, entirely using collaboration tools to route work process online.

The advantages are clear: workers save commuting time, have great work-life balance, and can live in more affordable places. Employers gain access to a global talent pool that is not tied to geography. Of course, there are challenges introduced by remote work - digital fatigue, breakdown of team cohesion and boundaries of work and personal life become blurred.

Economists warn us that even though remote work will increase efficiency for some, it may also take away from innovation that occurs with in-person collaboration. Certainly many industries won’t be able to adjust to remote work. For example, hospitality, healthcare and manufacturing still rely on people being physically present at the job site.

Most likely the future of work will be a hybrid model that allows for freedom and in-person work time together. Companies are looking to have new office spaces as creative spaces where people come together to think of and develop ideas but don't necessarily have to meet there each day. Employees are now demanding mental health support and ergonomic tools to support their remote office at home. At the end of the day, the office of the future could be defined by equality, trust, balance and connectivity; not by walls and desks.