Workday abandons new-build Dublin office project SaaS biz application vendor Workday has pulled out of a new-build development in Dublin as it rethinks plans to expand EMEA HQ. In April 2022, the $7.3 billion annual revenue company opened up on a project to create 1,000 jobs over the following two years by constructing swanky European headquarters at Grangegorman, Dublin, a …
They have many stupid customers. The stupid customers have many stupid employees. The stupid employees need many support staff.
Additionally...
There are many stupid enterprises who aren't their customers, ergo a need for a vast fleet of salespeople (and those salespeople also need access to support staff).
If the employees don't have to pay the higher prices to live in commuting distance of the large city in which the HQ is located the employee then they can more easily afford to live somewhere with a suitable workspace.
I know of one such Dublin-based company where the employees can live and work at home anywhere in the world e.g. West Yorkshire.
"I know of one such Dublin-based company where the employees can live and work at home anywhere in the world e.g. West Yorkshire."
Even if a middle-manager wants to shoulder surf the people they supervise, it can actually be faster to do so remotely. They can't just walk up to have a chat, but can pick up a phone or equivalent and talk to anybody they need in seconds.
All of this doesn't eliminate the need to have people going to jobs to make tangible things, but it does massively cut down on traffic. Those factories can also be situated in more places that provide for a more reasonable cost of living and quality of living. The improvement in communications also includes transportation.
There are the substantial changeover costs which need to factored in. In Australia you pay the government a large tax ( stamp duty) when you purchase your new home, eg for a 1 million house (median price in much of Brisbane), you give the government over 30k. Add 20 k for real estate commission and moving expense and you are looking at a 50k changeover cost.
"Have they realised that with work at home they can reduce their HQ building to little more than a post-box?"
I get the feeling that there's still a giant meme in business that states "everybody knows that a big company needs swanky downtown offices to be taken seriously". "Stands to reason".
In the early 1920's, that was true. There wasn't the same level of communications that there is today so we had "garment districts", "financial districts", jewelry district" and giant wholesale food markets. When the telephone started catching on it was expensive and not everybody had access so companies still needed to be rooted where they were with the vast majority of their employees all in the same building or on the same block. When I was younger there was "local long distance" charges to call a phone ~20 miles away. Now, I can call somebody thousands of miles away for no more expense than my monthly bill. There are plans to call internationally for a pittance. Not only can I call, I can send documents and media. I don't need to make an expensive copy of a set of plans and have them in the post for a week or two.
There is still something to be said for face to face meetings, but travel has also become easier, cheaper and faster. I hope we see a resurgence of train travel where business people that work remotely can continue to do that work while they travel for meetings, conferences, etc. A business class section on a long distance train (thinking in terms of the US) could have space for small teams to gather for work with wi-fi/internet robust enough to support that so companies aren't paying for "travel" days where the employee is standing still in terms of their job.
I've had headhunters try to recruit me for jobs in big cities and areas such as the Silicon Valley. The pay seems generous on the surface, but when I look at the realities of living in those places, even double wouldn't be enough to tempt me. I'd be back to renting with no hope of buying a home in the area. I'd be fighting traffic twice each day and living in a shithole just to keep alive the myth of business only being able to happen in such places. It's Sunday so I'm going to potter around in the garden and work on some projects in the workshop. Two places I'd not have if I lived in a big city.
I'd be back to renting with no hope of buying a home in the area.
Some start ups I know would have rented a couple of houses in the area and let their employees live there for free. Smaller one would basically work from such house and they would have a token office nearby for customers or investors to visit.
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