Will the Office Survive the Pandemic?
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2021
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Cal Newport, the author of “A World without Email” and other books, has been writing about how the shutdown has affected businesses and the culture of work. Remote operation, he says, has raised fundamental questions about the purpose of work, its role in our lives, and how productivity is measured. While most companies are asking employees to return to the office as the pandemic eases, Newport predicts that economic forces will eventually drive an exodus toward permanent remote work. Tech companies that launched as fully remote operations, he thinks, have a head start on the economic advantages of ditching the office for good.
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| 1:11.1 | I'm Dorothy Wickenden. On today's politics and more podcast, David Remneck talks with the author |
| 1:17.2 | Cal Newport. Newport, who has been writing about how the COVID-19 shutdown has affected |
| 1:23.3 | corporate culture, will discuss the challenges facing both businesses and employees as |
| 1:29.3 | offices reopen and the future of remote work. |
| 1:35.4 | The number of people leaving their jobs voluntarily, the quit rate, hit an all-time high this |
| 1:41.7 | year. |
| 1:42.6 | That phenomenon is now known as the Great Resignation, |
| 1:45.9 | and it's shaking up industry after industry, from office jobs to restaurant work. The repercussions |
| 1:52.5 | of the pandemic and how and where we work are going to play out for some time to come. |
| 1:58.3 | Helping us understand all this is Cal Newport. |
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