OT: With graduation next month, anyone worried about perm WFH/hybrid's impact on Michigan?
Ford just announced 30,000 white collars can basically work from home forever.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-let-30-000-employees-141820262.html
Safe bet GM, Stellantis, and many (most?) other large employers around the state do the same. Even if you have to be in the office once every two weeks or once a month (work-office hybrid), doesn't it seem like a heck of a lot of folks, especially new college grads, will just bolt out of state (ex. Chicago) instead of living in Royal Oak, Detroit or Ann Arbor? It's only $60 RT to train from Chicago into SE Michigan. And many senior employees will mull living up around Traverse City or flee the state entirely e.g. Sun Belt for warmer weather? I'm concerned this could trigger another recession for the state and more specifically hammer SE Michigan especially hard. University graduation surveys pre-pandemic show we've had challenges keeping UM (and MSU, GVSU, CMU, EMU) grads in the state after college, i.e. brain drain, won't this make things a heck of a lot worse? Half of UM are non-residents but we've been struggling to keep the in-staters too.
I was granted permission to WFH permanently and that was the decision that allowed me to move back home from the west coast. It can cut both ways, but I do think we are entering a new world.
I would not be surprised to see the pendulum swing back the other way at some point. Some folks just cannot handle working from home.
I was granted permission to WFH permanently and that was the decision that allowed me to move back home from the west coast.
Back home...to Michigan?
Based on the variety in the replies there is not yet a consensus on which way this will go. It seems the work that relies heavily on a social component is hesitant, but if your job pre-pandemic was driving to an office to sit at a computer all day, yeah those are going to be very WFH friendly indefinitely.
Without a requirement to work on-site there will inevitably be a gradual population shift from areas where “all the jobs are” to “best places to live” which will see net population gains for places like Ann Arbor and net losses for huge expensive cities.
It’s not going to be gradual. It’s already happening, and at a truly shocking speed. The official metrics where this will actually show up will take a while to register, but this is squarely within my sphere of work and I’m able to see it in a leading-edge kind of way that is pretty unique. I can absolutely promise that when those official numbers catch up they will be truly stunning population shifts.
March 19th, 2021 at 10:09 PM ^
It’s not going to be gradual. It’s already happening, and at a truly shocking speed. The official metrics where this will actually show up will take a while to register, but this is squarely within my sphere of work and I’m able to see it in a leading-edge kind of way that is pretty unique. I can absolutely promise that when those official numbers catch up they will be truly stunning population shifts.
What's your prediction for SE Michigan? Wasn't sure if you're specifically referring to SE Michigan, the entire state of Michigan, or in even more general terms? I think Ann Arbor has a lot of appeal (especially on this board) for being a smart college town with solid public schools. And northern Michigan, especially around Grand Traverse Bay, is super idyllic. But outside of that, this is a fairly expensive state with cold weather and a lot of costly infrastructure to fix.
March 19th, 2021 at 10:01 PM ^
Great post, thanks. I found it very interesting
March 19th, 2021 at 10:50 PM ^
There is a lot of value and innovation that comes from the "Oh, hey, do you have a minute? I was thinking . . ." type of interactions that happen commonly when people are in physical proximity. You miss out on much of that when working remotely.
Once the Covid transient dies away, there will probably be more remote working compared to prior to Covid, but I think that companies will return to doing a lot of work in the office.
March 19th, 2021 at 11:04 PM ^
No offense, but I don't see how those "hey do you have a minute" interactions can't happen over Zoom.
March 19th, 2021 at 11:02 PM ^
There is going to be a minimum impact on Michigan. Sure some Michiganders might leave because WFH let's them, but Michigan isn't the only state seeing WFH changes. In fact, most of the West Coast is starting to adopt it (except my company which is only going to allow WFH on some days each week).
With the amount of Michigan transplants out there, WFH will allow a lot of people to move back to Michigan.
I spent ten years in Chicago and loved it. It’s the city of broad shoulders and the best big in the world
They are in a bad way right now. Office space is free and empty and the domino effect from construction to real estate to banks to the corner restaurant selling lunch dogs may take a years to recover.
Perhaps you have not lived in London, Munich, Barcelona, or Amsterdam then yet. I love Chicago but with due respect I believe London has Chicago beat. The others aren’t really in the same scale but neither are they backwaters.
Munich is awesome. I have never been to the other two. But as a Midwestern guy I’m bias on what works for me.