Microsoft ditches plans for 500,000 sq ft London office Microsoft has called off the search for a swanky 500,000 sq ft office in the heart of England's capital amid a cost-cutting drive that has seen thousands of employees forced out. According to React News, Microsoft's office tenancy in Reading is coming to an end in 2026 so senior management were eyeing up other options. …
The Daily Mail is not the most reliable source of information, but I can confirm that the photos presented are an accurate reflection of what Oxford St looks like at the moment
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11871611/Oxford-Street-CLOSED-business-Big-brands-abandoned-Londons-iconic-shopping-destination.html
Retail Week is a reliable source
https://www.retail-week.com/stores/exclusive-oxford-street-has-more-empty-shops-than-average-british-high-street/7043389.article
Don't know how reliable this source is, but this particular article seems to be pretty accurate
https://www.drapersonline.com/news/oxford-street-candy-shops-return-to-peak-levels
Retail Gazette is a reliable source
https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2023/03/fashion-oxford-street-american-candy/
As is the Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/candy
So I don't think I am exaggerating at all.
Now on Oxford Street, you have the sorts of boring but essential shops you would expect to find on any high street, such as Sainsburys Local, Superdrug, Boots, Vodafone, HSBC, etc. And then for actual destination retail, you basically have Selfridges and Microsoft; and that is about it. The rest is trash.
I regularly emerge from the tube at Oxford Circus, as recently as last week. I normally head west towards JL and Selfridge, then double back and head down Regent Street towards Piccadilly Circus. This takes me twice past that big armoured vehicle in the window. Yes there are a few of those crappy shops dotted about but the selective photography in the doom monger rags and the description above is absolutely not what I see.
Sure, but I don't think Apple Stores are unique enough to be considered destination retail. There's not quite as many of them as there are Superdrugs or Sainsburys Local, but most big places have one, or even places as small as Basingstoke.
For Selfridges, the next nearest would be Birmingham, Dublin (Brown Thomas, it is the same company), or somewhere in France (not the same company, but an equivalent shopping experience). For Microsoft, the next nearest shop is in Seattle.
Oxford Street is just London's high street. It doesn't claim anything else. It always was where the the chains are. It used to have some of the signature stores, like HMV and Virgin etc, but I would never have thought of going there for any benefit other than having them all together.
Now there are the Westfields, or Battersea etc which can exclude the the rain. And London has New Bond Street, Knightsbridge and the little specialist quarters like that.
I mean, with things they way they are you are going to struggle to force people to come into the office 5 days a week, probably ever again. I know some people like it, but many others don't. For me, and the work I do, I'd be happy to go in once a week or once every two weeks. If I lived closer to London, perhaps more often.
I don't think I'm alone in this, and with that in mind it makes total sense to close down some offices. Perhaps some of them can even be turned back into residential, so the area isn't completely dead in the evening.
If I'm only going in once a week, I'm happy to book a desk for the day and a room to meet up with my colleagues for a couple of hours. Well I say "happy", but I'd like a decent screen, wifi and chair as a bare minimum. I don't care much about table tennis, foosball, bean bags, slides and free beer.
So, well done Microsoft.
EDIT: And please stop with the "Cloud growth is slowing". Azure is actually growing quite strongly.
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In a secure DC you want the least number of people going in and out as possible. You probably don't even want most people to know where it is.
Also, the ones who do have to go in and out have to go through a fair amount of security which involves showing some ID, and not just waving a badge at a reader.
This is a really bad idea.
I guess you've never been in a secure Data Centre.
They have razor wire fences around the whole perimeter, and to even get your car in you would have to pre-register the number plate. Various other hoops to jump through.
They just don't want randos around the place who might accidentally set off a fire alarm or deliberately set off an EMP and fry half the servers (which would be a REALLY bad look). Or 101 other risks that you can't immediately think of.
I was working next door in TVP from the end of the lock down, and it looks like most of the Microsofties didn't bother coming back. The place was mostly dead unless they needed some bodies about when a dignitary visited. They've probably realised they would get even less of them showing up if they had to commute in to central London.
I went up north. Once. Past Coventry and I started to see urchins by the side of the road living in cardboard boxes and eating coal, so I turned my car around at the next pit and went straight back to civilization. The only other time I've been that way was safely in an aeroplane at many thousands of feet above the peasants, although even up there I suspect they were throwing pork scratchings towards the sky to ward off the evil flying things.
The only other time I've been that way was safely in an aeroplane at many thousands of feet above the peasants, although even up there I suspect they were throwing pork scratchings towards the sky to ward off the evil flying things.
In the case of the current incumbent in No. 10, he too skips the drudgery of travel by land and having to encounter the great unwashed until general election time...
Problem with desk sharing. Monday and Friday generally not a problem. Tue-Thur can be hard, especially if your team is allowed to only book specific desks or banks, the release for the desks is a little in advance and some pillock books them regardless of them even attempting to come in. Oh, and if you are off when they are released, good luck.
I like going into an office to chat with colleagues who work on the same project, do the same work as myself or are part of my team. But we are so far apart that while I get into my office easily, no one else really can and I don't want to go into an office to do basically what I do at home - talk to no one (bar the cat) and have some podcats/music on while working. I'd prefer to do that in the comfort of my own home while I can get a few other things done and remove the stress/hassle of travelling
Problem with desk sharing. Monday and Friday generally not a problem. Tue-Thur can be hard, especially if your team is allowed to only book specific desks or banks, the release for the desks is a little in advance and some pillock books them regardless of them even attempting to come in. Oh, and if you are off when they are released, good luck.
Manglement are f'ng idiots. I had this kind of conversation before I struck out on my own. Be excited everybody! We're moving to a hotdesk environment! Just like when you played musical chairs when you were lil children. Yey!
So we managed to negotiate assigned seating on account of regularly being buried in bids, designs and general paperwork, some of which needed to be kept secured. Plus whiteboards to huddle around while we tried to figure out how to make whatever sales just sold or marketing dreamed up actually work. We still had to deal with assorted people nabbing our desks, then got complaints that it was 'unfair' that we could just walk in, sit down and get to work. So I just pointed HR at the bit of the contract saying I was expected to be at my desk by 0900 and asked where the desk was?
We parted ways not long after.
It's ironic that MS pushes stuff like Teams, yet sill clings to old-fashioned ideas like being inside a physical office. I'm also unsuprised that it's employees might be.. somewhat reluctant to move from Reading to London given that commute is one of the most expensive, congested and unreliable train journeys in the world. Americans are used to long commutes, but I've had a few US execs and visitors be stunned by just how long it takes and how much it costs to get from LHR to Reading. Especially as it's only 50-60 miles.. And thanks to big tech, or just commuting in general, places like Reading are as expensive, if not more than London.
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