Monetizing is a word one hears quite often these days. Today's New York Times devotes considerable space to the burgeoning creation of home offices and other reflections of the fact that we are moving away from conventional workspaces. Gallup says almost half of Americans now work remotely at least some of the time. The monetizing part is that while it would be possible to fix up a corner in many places and call it a Home Office, it is now possible to create high-priced spots where the wealthy can work.
The wave of the future
This establishes work at home or remotely as the coming thing.
Then there are knock-offs. And pretty soon there is a large industry built around the home office. The pretensions involved in all of this suggest, as some films do, that this is a sort of charade, that work is becoming a badge of honor and that saying you are something is where it's at. All of this is made more plausible because there is no longer any way to contradict anyone without a visit to their remote workplace or possibly an article in the New York Times.
The high end, always
Today's Times features, under the heading The High End, someone who does digital innovation and rents "a shared workspace" and also has a home office in a place he rents in Manhattan and also has workspaces in London and Sydney.
The article says he can frequently be seen in a co-working space in the building where he lives. There he could be having a meeting or sit in front of a fire reading a book. So recounts The New York Times.
Luxury Buildings’ Latest Amenity: Co-Working Spaces https://t.co/pRjXbNxPD2
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) March 25, 2017
Turning trends into cash
All of this is called transforming "the office landscape." One might surmise that this movement out of the conventional office would have the effect of making everything less expensive since office space is a definite cost.
But the Times suggests that the migration has to do with imbibing the vibrations of "trendy startups" and building a sort of stage set that includes Coffee areas and computer bars. The price goes up. The moral is this is America now. For those who can afford it, it may be great.
