545 replies to this topic

[Jackerbie]

Not Victoria, but indicative of future office trends: Best Buy is leaving their Burnaby HQ in favour of Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. New office will be half the size with one quarter the desks. Expectation is thay most work will continue to be remote. Via https://dailyhive.co...west-6th-avenue

[Victoria Watcher]

$1,999,000

https://www.realtor....-fairfield-east

 

1867 Oak Bay Ave

 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 25 April 2021 - 11:02 AM.

[TFord]

Does anyone have numbers on the amount of new commercial real estate yet to hit the market? Appears to be an incredible amount of units available all over town. I think folks (smart money) will sit on their hands for a bit and this will lead to an absolute blood bath for Commercial landlords. 

 

I would be at a loss to open a new venture in the greater downtown area.. less it was just a folly. I just can't think of anything that would hold it's own against the online world.

 

I'd say at least 50% of restaurants are already pooched. Many more won't make it through the winter. 

 

Tough times 

 

TFord

[UDeMan]

in my opinion the work from home trend will not last once covid is over.

 

hearing from my managers, productivity from home is way down compared to working in the office.  privacy breaches are way up. 

 

of course the people that screw around love working from home.  these are the people you need to have in the office so you can watch to make sure they are actually working.

 

give it a few years and majority of staff will be back in the office

[Nparker]

...give it a few years and majority of staff will be back in the office

Not me, I'll be retired. 

[Jackerbie]

in my opinion the work from home trend will not last once covid is over.

hearing from my managers, productivity from home is way down compared to working in the office. privacy breaches are way up.

of course the people that screw around love working from home. these are the people you need to have in the office so you can watch to make sure they are actually working.

give it a few years and majority of staff will be back in the office

It's the opposite among my managers, we've been just as productive of not more so with work from home (and I'm a municipal employee to boot!). Basically all of city hall is being switched to laptops, no more desktop PCs.

Also, bold of you to assume covid will ever be over.

[Mike K.]

It can vary, for sure. In conversation with friends and colleagues, the work-at-home thing is either great, not so bad, not so great, or bad, depending on what work not only the whole offices does but subsets of workers within that office.

 

We are living the new normal.

 

Moving forward it is clear that we're not going back to "normal" as it was in February of 2020. There's no way employment satisfaction can increase from where it is now by forcing people back into what far too many loathed to begin with, be it the funnelling into high density employment zones far removed from where people want to live, the office environment itself, or the time and costs of getting to/from work due to arguably terrible alternative transportation options, not to mention an under-developed road network.

 

Where's downtown going?

 

Downtown Victoria needs to re-envision what it will be by 2025. Hoping it will return to what it was is setting up for failure, in my opinion. Does that mean a mass influx of residences is needed to compensate for the loss of workers (a huge portion of which will never return), or does it mean the City ought to continue on with being the employment hub in the region, but by redefining work spaces? What about the perceptions plaguing downtown? What about the high costs of doing business?

 

Employment de-centralization is what people want.

 

One thing is clear. Too many people dislike their jobs, they dislike what their jobs entail, they spend several hours each day dedicated to that job beyond the time they're paid to do the job, and they realize while doing so political pressures want to make it harder and more expensive for them to access their jobs how they want to access them by introducing higher costs on parking, higher costs for fuel, mileage-based road taxation in addition to higher fuel costs, and other punitive measures for not living in close proximity to employment. The result? The new normal where yes, I'll work for you, but out of my home.

[Danma]

That's absolutely right. Working from home means saving $100+ on bus pass/parking, wear and tear on their car, and 4-8 hours a week commuting.

 

Once COVID is controlled and offices begin to return to normal, I'm hoping to maybe go into the office 1 or 2 times a week for face-to-face but otherwise I like working from home. I like that I can hang out with my dog, do personal chores at lunch, and if the kids are sick it's no big deal.

[Victoria Watcher]

 I like that I can hang out with my dog, do personal chores at lunch, and if the kids are sick it's no big deal.

 

i have actually trained my dog to do some of my more mundane work tasks here at home.  i never could have done that back in the office.

[Danma]

i have actually trained my dog to do some of my more mundane work tasks here at home.  i never could have done that back in the office.

 

The only job my dog's good for is paper shredding!

 

But yeah, the only thing that truly gets me down about working during COVID is not that I work from home, but that I am forced to do so.

[Nparker]

...One thing is clear. Too many people dislike their jobs...

This has never been more true than since I have had to work from home in isolation. I have learned that the social interaction I had with my co-workers was the key factor in my job satisfaction. Now it's just a drudge from which I cannot wait to be set free (9.5 more months - but whose keeping track?).

[Mike K.]

What is clear is regional dictating of sub-regional aspirations has failed. The CRD believed all 13 municipalities would follow along with its vision and stay in line.

 

Look at the Regional Growth Strategy, and how that has largely failed residents. Saanich and Victoria for generations have applied the brakes to new housing, so the West Shore picked up where they failed by building thousands of units of housing year-after-year, and what is the response from Victoria and Saanich? Create obstacles financial and otherwise for people who choose to live there, but are required to work in the core.

 

Anyone paying attention to what was going on knew eventually the tide would change and the West Shore would become a large employment zone removed from downtown Victoria. And fast-forwarding to 2021 we have a premier from Langford who is not shy about doing what's practical like opening a new government office in Langford, expanding Highway 14 and I am fairly confident we're just on the cusp of more changes that will appear out of sync with what the RGS had forecast.

[Mike K.]

The only job my dog's good for is paper shredding!

 

But yeah, the only thing that truly gets me down about working during COVID is not that I work from home, but that I am forced to do so.

 

Your employer doesn't allow you to work from the office? I though for the most part this was offered as as choice?

[Danma]

Your employer doesn't allow you to work from the office? I though for the most part this was offered as as choice?

 

I guess I can, but I'd just be by myself in the office instead of by myself at home... we DO have office space but dedicated desks were removed with a smaller number of hot desks we can use day-by-day. 

Edited by Danma, 26 April 2021 - 10:43 AM.

[Nparker]

...I'd just be by myself in the office instead of by myself at home...

I went through the "mostly by myself at the office" scenario last year, but eventually decided it was easier just to WFH pretty much full time. At least at home I don't have to put a mask on to go to the bathroom or get a glass of water. Neither scheme is anything I'd want to contemplate long-term. Very glad to be retiring early next year.

[LJ]

I think it would be easier to WFH if you had a dedicated office space in your house. I don't think I would survive working and living in a 500 sq. ft. apartment.

[Matt R.]

We took the time and the money to finish a spare room in our house in the fall to make it easier for us to work from home (not me) and it’s been great, cleans off the kitchen table a bit! We should not have put the daybed in there though.

Matt.

[grantpalin]

Been working from home the past year in a small 1br condo. It kinda works, but would love to have a dedicated office/hobby space. I passively look at apartment/condo rentals to see if any 2br on the market looks worthwhile. Those prices though.

[Mike K.]

What do you mean? The experts say renting is a cakewalk in Victoria, thanks to COVID-19, and the supposed many thousands of vacated units by students, the AirBnB industry turning to long-term rentals, and slowing population growth.

[grantpalin]

Hah. The prices haven't gotten any lower. I've got pretty good value for what I pay now, upsizing to a 2br will increase my rent quite a bit.