Jambo

On Sunday Dec. 25th, the New York Times ran an article about telecommuting. WorldatWork estimates that more than 26.1 million people work at least one day a month at home (from telecommuters to self-employed to contractors). Of the days that are spent not working in an office, it would be interesting to know how much of those days are spent in a WiFi hotspot like a coffee shop. With the introduction of WiFi, Starbucks and many other coffee shops have seen traditionally non-peak hours during the day become just as filled as some of their peak times. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that people miss that face-to-face interaction they get from working in an office as well as the need to get in a “work” frame of mind by stepping outside their home.

Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy at New York University, said that “In an era when so much of our communication is electronic, the value of a face-to-face meeting has actually intensified since the phone and email have become routine while a meeting reflects the importance of the person or topic. . . . . . . The reason Manhattan rents are as high as they are is because people want to be near people - there is an enormous productivity gain when people have access to people”.

The connection between high rental rates and the desire for people to be near people is interesting.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 26th, 2005 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Face-to-Face. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.