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Comment by dudul | Hacker News Reader

So you confirm that all these talks about "innovation" and "stimulating collaboration" and all is just BS. It all comes down to cost to cram as many workers as possible in the available space.

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Did very many people ever believe it was about those things?

They undoubtedly lead to more efficient collaboration, just as they also undoubtedly lead to less efficient focused work. The reason you don’t really get a choice these days in how you want to tune the floor layout is undoubtedly down to economics. Office space costs more than it used to, and as the service sector grows, so does the demand for skilled labor performed in front of a desk (along with demand for places to put those desks).

Is that true post-COVID? There's an awful lot of empty office space now.

I don’t know about every market, but in the places I’m familiar with, generally yes. Commercial rent didn’t change much at first, now it’s dipped a little bit. If it keeps this downward pace long term, then the economics of office floor space could change significantly. But that’s highly speculative territory.

You undoubtedly have a habit of claiming your uninformed opinion is fact and ignoring decades of research to the contrary.

Cutting performance by %70 to save %15 in costs is never going to be economical.

> They undoubtedly lead to more efficient collaboration

They do? That's not been my experience. Is there data on this?

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