Is there going to be a mass exodus of tech workers out of cities like SF?

I think I'm less worried about mass de-urbanization, which I definitely think will happen. I do think we'll see more of a balancing that'll take place between major metropolitan areas, where there is good education and there are good career opportunities. But I would argue that long term relocation for families will be harder. It isn't really material and they may have family obligations. I think that that will slow that exodus. At the same time, I do think we'll see San Francisco and New York not be such large hubs and we'll see other places be able to develop. I think some of the social and societal changes that will end up happening, will better support somebody living in Montana, for example, and still having opportunities.

It's popular to have the idea to move out, because things look dire. I've done a lot of projects for the city of San Francisco, and I've seen it up close. I feel people are going to come back at some level. It's not going to be like it was, but there's going to be a little bit of an overreaction to get out. And then people are going to see the things that drew them to San Francisco to begin with, and they're going to see benefits to that. Once the initial shock of this pandemic is through, I think you'll see a little bit of flow back. I don't think it'll get back to the same hyper levels that it was, and that may be a healthy thing for the city, who knows. I don't think it's going to be a one and done situation.

I think, if you are a company with lots of physical plants, facilities, and offices, the glass has been broken here with the pandemic. You'd be foolish not to rethink your strategy towards where people work and how you run your business and organization: how you support culture, how you support employee engagement, how people work together. I think there's a lot of fundamental changes that people should be thinking about that could actually help them operate, get access to better talent, have a more motivated workforce, have lower real estate costs and investments. There's a lot of opportunity here that this has created. People would be foolish to not seize that opportunity when things get back to normal.

I agree. In very fundamental ways. For example, offices were not a thing for quite a long time in house design, they went away. I think moving forward, we're going to see apartments and houses designed with a clear remote work strategy. And that there's probably an opportunity in supporting that in some way. Whether it be for network connectivity or network redundancy. The new, “can you hear me now” is “Comcast is down.” And so, we may see multiple service providers being plumbed into buildings to be able to ensure effectiveness of remote employees. There are already some employers that will pay for your network connectivity. Not a lot of businesses do that, but I think that certainly will be a thing and there may be some opportunities in the way that is streamlined. I think that there's some broader opportunities in this area as well.

There's some hybrid environment scenarios as well, where you've got a group of people working in an office in the future. There'll be a material group that's remote, not offline, but in a virtual model. You have to think about the tech that's going to be required to support that kind of a platform. Virtual whiteboards, cameras, and the way in which sound is captured around the room. A lot of that stuff exists, but that hybrid mixed environment, is something that's going to be more commonplace I think, in the future. This is where it's going to be in May or June of next year, half the group is going to want to meet physically and the other half is not going to want to do that. We're going to have startups that want to pitch to us locally and startups that want to pitch to us from New York city or somewhere on the East coast. I think that's here to stay, that element of how we think and operate and drive our groups. Flexible workspace is definitely going to be a growth segment.

Real estate has fundamentally changed, and not just at the individual housing unit, but at the community or suburban unit. Can you imagine what it would be like if community offices existed like schools exist for your kids. You move into a school district, you move into a community office area. That community office has 30 different companies that have telecommunications links to it. They have separate areas where their physical security can be managed, where their confidentiality can be managed. You have coworkers that are going there from the same company, and you're able to work together.