The Government Is About To Put This Two-Legged Mammal On The Endangered Species List

Office jobs might be dead.

At this very moment in time, you're either nodding your head or shaking it.

You bobbleheads out there (I say that will love) prolly already agree with this and likely have been saying this for some time now. Maybe even thinking that it's about time someone actually wrote what you've known to be true.

And youz trolls out there?

You're likely just gonna be all worked up, get your shorts in a big ole wad, and leave a comment about how I don't know jack sh*t about economics or the 5 Laws of Business yadda-yadda. You know who you are.

But no matter how you slice it.

Office jobs might be dead.

A case in point is my wife. She's a baller at her job. She's part of the C-suite at a large, several hundred-person firm doing a tidy 8-figures annually. In other words, they're the type of company that usually had an office with phones ringing, computers humming, and the usual coffee break banter something like 5x a day. Otherwise known as "corporate America."

Until that dude in China went nomnom on a bat, that is.

Homie in the far east was looking for some kibble and instead set off a pandemic.

Beyond the pandemic, though, is a new way of thinking. A different way of living. A novel method of working even.

Ergo, office jobs might be dead.

The number of people who work from home is on the rise

And there's seemingly no end to it.

Facts tell stories sell. That's why I'm spinning not just something factual for you but also a bit of story woven in. And the facts just don't lie.

According to Upwork, 41.8% of the American workforce (aka: clock watchers) continues to work remotely. Although an estimated 26.7% will still be working from home through 2021, 36.2 million Americans (22% of the workforce) will be working remotely by 2025. This is a staggering 87% increase from the number of remote workers prior to the pandemic!

Not so factual and more experience-based is that people I know really well simply do not want to return to the office. Not from fear, instead because they never learned how cool it could be to work from home.

I agree.

And I've got a big smile to prove it. This leads us to this…

Work from homers are smiling more

Studies show that WFH'ers are happier, less stressed, and have lower rates of burnout than those who work in an office full-time.

I'm not making this up, folks. I mean, think about it. Stick with me here a sec.

You wake up at the crack of 8am and roll out of bed just in time for that 8:15 Zoom call. Call wraps up, coffee brews, teeth get brushed, and buns get washed, and voila.

No traffic…

No noisy commute…

You get to hang with Frank (your dog) a bit more…

What's not to love about it? Seriously? Home is where the heart is, and it's also where Frank and freshly brewed coffee are.

How many chair warmers out there would honestly love this type of life?

But don't take my word for it. I'm biased, after all. I've been a WFH'er for years now and long before the pandemic.

Here are some facts to chomp into if you need something solid to chew on.

And beyond that, there's this very personal sentiment.

Ricky (the homie writing this) is happy as a pig in sh*t

Remember when I told you about my wife and her baller job?

Well, now she's working at home, and yours truly loves it.

I realize that not many couples can spend lots of waking hours together. Let alone work at home together. I also know that for some people, going to work is an escape from boring-ass home life.

But that's not my problem.

Or yours.

If you're in disagreement about what I'm proposing, then it may be that you require some marriage counseling. Not judging. Just stating a fact.

But I get it…

It's not all unicorns and rainbows

There are some drawbacks - like how the lack of face-to-face communication can lead to misunderstandings between coworkers. Employees may feel isolated when they don't interact with others at all during the day. Happy hours disappear or get really weird over a computer screen.

But I'm not here to chat up the drawbacks.

I wrote this to talk up the positive parts of remote working and the fact that, well, like it or not…

Office jobs might be dead.

And that two-legged mammal called a "cube dweller" may be a dying breed that the government may have to list right next to the dodo bird.

The final word

What do you think about this trend - would you be happy if your company switched back to an office space, or would you prefer the freedom that comes with freelancing/telecommuting from home?

Don't be scared.

Don't be shy.

Share.