You’ve probably heard about tiny homes, which usually range from 100 to 400 square feet and provide affordable alternatives to traditional houses, opportunities for a simplified lifestyle and a potentially smaller carbon footprint. It’s a small but steadily growing part of the residential real estate market. And now, with some companies letting their employees work from home most of the time or permanently, could the small space concept translate to the office environment as well, with similar benefits? As a matter of fact, yes. Tiny offices, which are often installed in back yards, are gaining in popularity too, with demand having “skyrocketed amid a surge of interest from private homeworkers looking to redesign their work and home life,” according to the BBC. Tiny offices suit people seeking fuller separation of their professional and personal lives. But many workers “don’t have the space [for a home office] and they don’t want to spend all of the money to remodel their house with a room addition. That’s why I think we’re seeing so much of this,” says Bob Clarizio, a builder of tiny houses in Elgin, Ill. Early in the pandemic, some tiny house and garden shed manufacturers pivoted to create home office structures. “A soon as the quarantine and having to work from home started, the requests for our sheds doubled,” said Brennan Deitsch, a manager for Heartland Sheds in Glendale Heights, Ill. Tiny office styles can range from classic cottages to modernist miniature house designs, equipped with solar panels, energy-efficient windows and other amenities. And they’re mobile, so if the owner moves, “for relatively little cost you can just take it with you, plonk it in your garden and get up and running before your house is even finished,” says Mike Hyde, operator of...

With the pandemic still affecting much of the economy, remote work – utilized by about 16% of the U.S. workforce in 2019 – has become even more entrenched as a business norm. Some employers are making remote work available permanently while others are adopting a hybrid model. Gains in employee satisfaction, productivity Data collected by a team from the Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology, Stanford University and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business through March 2021 found that nearly six out of 10 workers reported being more productive working from home than they expected to be, compared with 14% who said they got less done. As far back as May 2020, four in 10 Americans who worked from home at least one day a week said they would look for another job if their employers ordered a full-time return to the office. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics weighed in with a report that labor productivity, defined as the value of goods and services produced per hour of work, increased by 1.8% between the second quarter of 2020 and the second quarter of 2021, compared with an average annual increase of 1.4% from 2005 to 2019. (Some of those gains occurred in durable-goods industries such as car and appliance manufacturing that are largely unaffected by the working-from-home trend.) The shift toward working from home isn’t universally embraced. CEOs such as David Solomon of Goldman Sachs and Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase have claimed that the practice is detrimental to creativity and culture. Partisans on either side can bolster their cases with a spectrum of arguments: better sleep; less time lost to commuting; reduced spontaneous communication with colleagues; enhanced employee retention; fewer opportunities for the personal interactions and mentorships that advance careers....

The topic of safely re-entering the workplace has now been top of mind for over half a year. While some businesses are still closed and employees are working remotely, there are a growing number of offices who have decided to open their doors following local safety guidelines. On a recent BOMA webinar, a group of service providers ranging from software vendors to elevator engineers to wholesale suppliers discussed best practices for ensuring employee health and safety while successfully reopening their physical spaces. Brian Sutherland, Yardi industry principal, detailed some trends that Yardi has seen based off research from CommercialEdge: Office vacancy is currently at 10-15%. Since April, subleasing is up 35% as tenants try to either downsize or upsize for distancing purposes. New construction is down 40% from the previous year among office assets. Office demand is changing: f leasing terms, private office demand and suburban models are all growing. Rent is being paid, but physical occupancy is at risk: landlords are considering whether long-term leases are sustainable or whether tenants will not need the space they’re paying for. Only about 12% of New York City workers are back in office, as of latest estimates. There are specific questions to analyze when considering a move back into the office. Employees who want to confidently re-enter the workspace are asking how to accurately report health status updates and how to stay connected with colleagues. Office managers, on the other hand, are tasked with ensuring a safe and orderly re-entry while assessing how to limit available workspace to promote health and safety and follow guidelines. Landlords want to encourage tenants to return to the office, but they first need to understand their tenants’ use and occupancy of the space. In order to help answer some of...

Remote work environments have their fair share of advantages and disadvantages. Seven months into telecommuting, Yardi employees across the U.S. weigh in. March madness, IT edition In mid-March, Yardi’s IT department miraculously (read: after much hard work and dedication) managed to transition more than 30 global offices into a remote work environment in about two weeks. It was no easy feat. The diligence of the IT department and the patience of fellow employees made for a relatively smooth transition. Virtual town hall meetings kept employees up-to-date on the latest developments from the corporate headquarters. Productivity remained steady as team members learned to navigate workflows from home. Gradually, a new normal set in: video conferencing replaced conference rooms and chats replaced quick conversations over cubicle walls. Social committees reconvened team-building activities to maintain camaraderie and engagement. Pets became coworkers who made (sometimes) unsolicited appearances on calls. Yardi team members around the world began to witness firsthand the joys and challenges of their remote work environments. Different, but still efficient Some characteristics of office culture simply cannot be replicated when working from home. Chatting with coworkers in the lounge, grabbing lunch together and team functions are just a few of the office features that employees missed. “Working at home can be a bit stagnant,” admits Luis Estrada, a marketing writer in Miami. He conducted his interview for this post via Microsoft Teams chat. “My dining room is my new office. It’s routine, same old stuff.” “I miss my coworkers and the close collaboration in the office,” says Evan Hearn, energy management analyst in Atlanta. Taylor Leandro, HR generalist in Santa Barbara echoes the sentiment. “I mostly miss the daily interactions with my teammates and fellow colleagues. I also miss the ability to walk over to someone...

One of the most significant factors hindering a smooth return to work has been the legal uncertainties surrounding COVID-19. The main concern is the lack of uniformity in the laws between jurisdictions, and the tightening and loosening of restrictions as cases rise or fall. Therefore, employees, tenants and landlords all need to understand what can and cannot be enforced. Contract clauses, deferrals and concession negotiations have been ongoing since March, and the ramifications of these changes will carry on for months to come. Compliance for reopening If a manager cannot ensure the safety and wellbeing of workers, then an office simply cannot reopen. On a recent Realcomm webinar, Evandro Gigante, partner at Proskauer law firm, explained that compliance for reopening varies by jurisdiction, but New York, where their main office is located, has a thorough set of rules laid out for businesses to reopen. “There is a very robust set of guidelines that include, among other things, the development of a comprehensive health and safety plan which requires a close look at screening, testing, contact tracing, signage and social distancing procedures to be put into action,” he said. The guidelines require a written document detailing expectations for landlords and employers. Administering questionnaires regarding self-health is going to be a key, and there will be many questions about the legality or requirements involved with temperature taking. “Under Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines, you can diagnostically test your employees,” Gigante explained. “But the EEOC has not sanctioned antibody testing for the purpose of making employment decisions.” You can legally collect medical information on individuals, according to the EEOC, including their temperature or their symptoms, as long as you maintain it confidentially and separately from personal files. But here is where different jurisdictions and different guidelines...

Gallup reported that the percentage of employed adults working from home because of the coronavirus went from 31% in mid-March to 49% a few days later, peaking at 62% in mid-April. That’s a lot of people suddenly forced to accept drastic new circumstances. How is working from home, which the COVID-19 pandemic made a necessity in many sectors, affecting business productivity? Problems made worse? Some workers weren’t fully enthusiastic about the work-from-home concept even before the pandemic. About 29% of respondents to a poll of full-time U.S. employees taken in 2019 by outsourcing marketplace platform Airtasker said they experienced difficulty maintaining a healthy work-life balance; 23% of office workers reported the same problem. Remote workers also reported higher levels of stress, anxiety and procrastination. (Telecommuting respondents did appreciate eliminating their commutes and reported putting in longer workdays than their office-based counterparts.) The initial stages of the pandemic amplified those issues. “The scale and scope of what we’re seeing, with organizations of 5,000 or 10,000 employees asking people to work from home very quickly, is unprecedented. So, no, organizations are not set up for this,” Tsedal Neeley, a professor at Harvard Business School, said in March, citing concerns about ensuring employee access to hardware, software and other resources. Neeley also addressed the social aspects of work: “People lose the unplanned watercooler or cappuccino conversations with colleagues in remote work. These are actually big and important parts of the workday that have a direct impact on performance.” She wasn’t the only one bemoaning the loss of in-person collaboration. “I fear this collapse in office face time will lead to a slump in innovation,” says Nicholas Bloom, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy and Research. “The new ideas we are losing today could show...