The Move to Move

… A twist on working remotely

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has seen many employees, across a span of sectors, quickly forced to work from home. From the local TV meteorologist bringing you the weather, favorite coffee mug in hand, live, from a kitchen studio complete with the five year old’s masterpiece on the fridge as a backdrop, to a Zoom meeting with your corporate legal advisor, looking more the part of gardener than attorney. It was improvise/adapt/overcome, across the spectrum. However, as the nasty little bug decided to dig in its heals and delay business-back-to-normalcy, companies and business owners have had time to see the benefits of having flexible workplace policies, even embrace it, increasingly using flexible work options as a way to entice new employees. In one Linkedin survey, it was found that 82% of employees want to work from home at least once a week. Also, 57% want to work from home at least three days a week.

These are the employees that are seeing and enjoying a plethora of obvious work-from-home trends and benefits that improve their productivity. They can save time not commuting, save on their gas money or Uber fares, save on clothes and laundry from not dressing up and save money from not eating out, among others. Essentially, telecommuting professionals can just roll out of bed and get to work on their desks (or work in bed). Employees can spend more time with their families at home. They can eat healthier by having more time to cook. They have more time to exercise. Commuting time turns into walk time with the Berner…

Now, the twist – an unexpected move to selling primary residences and allocating those funds into what was just a vacation residence project. This is happening to a fair percentage of clients. The traditional “work in the city, weekends in the country” mantra is being replaced with “Get out of Dodge and work/play everyday”. Not a return to the second-home McMansions that we saw before the financial crisis, but a thoughtful, compact combination of the everyday practicalities of “home”, enhanced by design/use features of an active, healthy-soul, Zen, vacation-mode kind of home; the best of all worlds, rolled into one White Cedar wrapped package. Makes a ton of sense. Your dog will love it, too …