Page 12 - BusinessWest August 3, 2020

Editorial
How, and Where, Will We Work?
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Nearly five months into the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the biggest issues — and questions — to emerge involves remote work and its future.
Indeed, while many people have returned to the office over the past several weeks, large numbers of employees continue to work from home. And the longer they do that — with generally positive results when it comes to productivity and overall satisfaction among managers and workers alike — the more people ask the $64,000 question: is this the future of work? (See story, page 22.)
The answer right now is, by and large, ‘we don’t know — but we’re certainly looking at it.’ And the reasons for this are obvious. Having large numbers of people working at home could save com- panies considerable amounts of money on real estate, office design and accommodations, and other expenses. And from some of the early reports, they can do this while making employees happier — most of them enjoy working from home and not commuting — and perhaps more productive, partly because, again, they’re happier and they’re not commuting.
But this goes well beyond real estate, and that’s why this issue deserves the attention it is now getting. Remote work has the poten- tial — the potential, mind you — to perhaps level the playing field when it comes to urban and rural areas, and also perhaps change the landscape when it comes to downtowns dominated by office buildings — and the businesses that serve the workers in those buildings.
That’s perhaps. We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, but not really. These are the kinds of questions — and scenarios — that are already being talked about.
As that talk goes on, so does the discussion about remote work itself. As noted earlier, most of the early returns are positive. Com- panies do talk about how they miss the in-person interactions and a loss of the some of the collaborative spirit that comes with having everyone working in the same space.
But generally, they also talk about how productivity has not been
Opinion
TSmall Businesses Need Support
impacted by people working at home, and how much employees appreciate these new arrangements. Some companies, like Google, have already told employees (most of them, anyway) they can and will work at home until roughly this time next year.
Whether these arrangements are being made, tolerated, and even applauded purely because of the pandemic remains to be seen. Maybe, when there’s a vaccine, everyone will return to the office and things will be as they were in February 2020.
But that now seems unlikely. COVID has, in many ways, shown the world that working from home is a viable option, one that could bring benefits for employers and employees alike. And this opens up a number of possibilities.
Indeed, individuals now living in Boston won’t have to live in that area to work for companies located there. They can live in Western Mass., where the living is cheaper, the air is cleaner, and the roads are less clogged (for now). Speaking of roads, do we have to worry about them being clogged again?
Meanwhile, people living in Western Mass. won’t have to work for companies located in Western Mass. Some of them don’t any- way, but now more can enjoy that option.
And what about high-speed rail? Will we still need it if far fewer people will need to travel across the state to work? Seems like the playing field may be leveled without it.
While in some respects these seem like questions for another day, they are appropriate to ask right now. And if the pandemic lingers and people continue to work from home successfully and productively into next year, these questions will be asked more and more — and the answer might well become obvious, if it isn’t already.
There have been many stories to emerge from this pandemic, but remote working may be the biggest of them all. There are many questions still to be answered and research to be done, but this may just be the future of work — or a very big part of it. And the impact could be enormous. v
he recent news that two small what they are. Businesses are not simply 90% over last year. Many of these busi- businesses located in the Shops establishments that occupy space in build- nesses have been helped by assistance from at Marketplace in downtown ings and provide goods and services. They are the federal government in the form of PPP
Springfield — Serendipity and Alchemy part of the community, and often a big part. loans, SBA loans, and small grants from
Nail Bar — will be closing permanently due to a sharp decline in business from the pandemic provides more direct evi- dence of the damage being done to the business community from this crisis.
A number of small businesses have already closed over the past four and a half months, and those numbers will surely rise as the pandemic continues to keep people in their homes. Many of these closings are seemingly unavoidable — they involve businesses, such as event venues, bars, and restaurants, where people gather in large numbers indoors, something the pandemic has made all but impossible if people want to stay safe.
But some could be avoided if the resi- dents of this area find ways to provide need- ed support. Many are already doing that, but these numbers need to grow if the West- ern Mass. business community is to avoid losing more of its valued members.
And we say valued, because that’s exactly
They employ people. They pay taxes. They support organizations like the United Way and the Chamber of Commerce. Their employees often serve on boards and com- missions and lend their support to local causes.
When a business closes, we lose a lot more than a place to buy shoes. When a res- taurant closes, we lose more than our favor- ite pizza joint. When a tourist attraction shuts its doors, we lose more than a place to take the kids on a Saturday.
Supporting local businesses has always been important, but it is even more so dur- ing this crisis because so many of them are imperiled. As we have chronicled over the past several months, ventures in every sec- tor of the economy have been rocked by this pandemic.
Indeed, companies recording sales of 60% or 70% of last year’s totals are having a good year. And most are not in that cat- egory, with declines of 70%, 80%, or even
individual cities and towns. But many have exhausted those funds, and the pandemic shows no signs of letting up.
It doesn’t take someone with a degree in accounting to understand that most busi- nesses simply cannot sustain losses like this for much longer. And some have already concluded that they can’t sustain them any longer.
With each headline like the one about Serendipity and Alchemy closing, there is regret about what we’ve lost. And as men- tioned earlier, we lose more than a shop that sells an item or makes good Italian food. We lose tax dollars, and we lose a piece of our community.
There are many ways to support a busi- ness even if you can’t visit it in person
— from buying a gift certificate to getting takeout to buying online. And by exercising these options, we can perhaps avoid losing some of the businesses that still call Western Mass. home. v
12 AUGUST 3, 2020
OPINION
BusinessWest