Twitter executives can Currently, the company’s 38 offices travel around the world, from San Francisco, Sydney and Seoul to New Delhi, London and Dublin.
But it won’t last long. On July 27, the company sent a memo to employees saying one San Francisco office would be closed; plans to open a new office in Oakland, Calif., will be abandoned; seven locations are being carefully considered as part of cost-cutting measures s future. The other five offices around the world are definitely downsizing. It’s all about getting the company ready for an Elon Musk takeover and keeping expenses as tight as possible.
Twitter isn’t the first company to cut back on its office space. In early June, there were rumors that Yahoo would be getting rid of its 650,000-square-foot San Jose campus, which is only due to be completed by the end of 2021. Later that month, Yelp announced that it was nearing total remoteness and closing 450,000 square feet of office space across the United States. A week later, Netflix followed suit, saying it plans to sublease about 180,000 square feet of property in California as part of a broader corporate layoff plan. That echoes Salesforce, which in mid-July sublet half of its namesake San Francisco tower.
Twitter is likely to be one of many companies making the same decision, said Daniel Ismail, a senior analyst at real estate research firm Green Street. “Even for some of the most profitable and valuable companies in the world, an office is still an expense — and it may not matter much in the future.”
Big tech companies have been at the forefront of some of the big issues that are shaping the future of the world of work. From Meta’s embrace of the ability to work remotely from anywhere, to spending less time in the office and more time at home, big tech companies — by virtue of the fact that they often develop infrastructure and products that support remote work — — More willing to try the concept than traditional businesses. At some point in the past four weeks, 27 percent of U.S. workers in “computer and math occupations” were working remotely, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The pandemic has shown that not only is remote work possible for many companies, but it’s something that many employees really enjoy and can be more productive,” Ismail said. It’s not just affecting the average worker, it’s extending to top management. August 2nd, Financial Times Instagram boss Adam Mosseri is reportedly moving to London, away from Meta’s California headquarters. Mosseri follows colleagues such as Javier Olivan, who spent more time in Spain after succeeding Sheryl Sandberg as COO, and Guy Rosen, vice president of integrity, who plans to move to Israel.
Phil Ryan, director of urban futures and global insights at real estate consultant JLL, said that while many big tech companies are scaling back their office space portfolios, others are continuing to buy, making it a mixed market. Those purchases often come from outside the traditional homes of big tech companies on the coast, moving inland to places like suburban Phoenix, Arizona. Ryan did admit, however, that there has been what he called a “rationalization” of office space in some large companies. “There are a lot of companies, especially in the Bay Area, that have multiple locations in a given metro area, and that’s going to solidify the space,” he said.
