By Rick Jarvis
I've been in the real estate business for 30 years –– besides myself, it is all I really know.
Real estate, residential or commercial, is the tangible manifestation of human behavior. Real estate is a lagging indicator, but it always represents the preferences of the humans it shelters.
And if you want to really see the case where real estate has become a manifestation of humanity, look no further than the ‘Work From Home’ movement spawned by Covid.
Work From Home
In March of 2020, my team held an emergency meeting at the One South office to talk about this strangely named sickness that suddenly had markets in convulsing. As the calendar turned from January to February, I had watched the stock market tank, Twitter explode, travel bans spike, and politicians argue (even more than normal.)
Little did I know how much, and how quickly, our world would change.
So when I heard Capital One had sent its workers home as a test to see if they could, as an organization, function without everyone coming into the office, I figured it was time for us to do the same. If Capital One, with their thousands of employees and multiple campuses saw the need to shut everything down, we should probably do the same.
The Great (Inconsistent) Return
Fast forward to 2024. The whole issue of returning to the office is still up for debate. Jamie Dimon of Citibank (as an example) has been an outspoken critic of remote work –– and has on multiple occasions demanded employees return to their cubicles. Many other employers, large and small, have mandated the same.
Their views are largely based on the perception that working remotely and/or in a distributed arrangement is somehow less productive than when everyone sits elbow to elbow and interacts face to face.
But is forcing everyone back to the office in an attempt to regain the pre-Covid office culture the correct decision? I’d argue it falls short.
Leadership Sets the Tone
Every organization has a leader, and it is not a stretch to say that a company or a team tends to take on the personality of those who call the shots.
My hypothesis: Show me an extroverted leader, and I will show you an extroverted company.
Ever since the ‘end’ of Covid, I have been asking my peers how they are handling the ‘work from home’ vs. the ‘work from the office’ debate and what their stance is –– and while this admittedly is a wholly unscientific poll, I have found that leadership’s opinion of remote work is nearly 100% predictable by their personality.
Jobs First, then People, then Personality
If you work retail, the job dictates the arrangement. You can’t help someone try on a new pair of shoes from your home office, and you definitely can’t install a granite countertop over Zoom.
But excluding the jobs that require someone to be physically present, what is the right balance of remote work for your organization?
Look no further than Insights® (or the personality assessment of your choice).
If you are reading the Floricane newsletter, you should have a passing familiarity with the Insights® wheel and its colors, as well as the continuums of thinking/feeling and introversion/extraversion.
As a reference, I lead with a blend of Red and Blue energies, which makes me a bit of a data-driven ambivert.
I need time in the office to help implement some form of process and order, but I also need a lot of time away from unstructured interaction to write, plan, and think.
When I first started One South, I spent nearly all of my time at the office -- because that is what leadership is supposed to do, right? Over time, I became increasingly frustrated at my inability to accomplish concentration-based tasks in a busy, growing work environment.
The gotta-minutes nearly killed me. They are necessary for anyone in a growing business, but I did not realize how poorly suited my personality was to the interruptions that are inherent in management.
If I am being intellectually honest, I struggled in my role because I didn’t understand my own personality. It took several years and a lot of help from Insights® and Floricane’s team to help me find my optimal environment.
But I’m lucky –– I have the flexibility and the resources to craft my own environment. Many don’t have that option, and right now, are sitting somewhere they would rather not be.
Office Space Is Downsizing
I cannot think of any industry whose need for space hasn’t shrunk since 2019. (Okay, maybe the medical profession, but that’s about it.)
Take a drive through any office park. You will see a bevy of ‘for lease’ signs, or a new apartment building going up where an office used to be.
The market is de-officing as we speak.
Why?
Because there are a lot of folks who are both far happier and far more effective working from their extra bedroom, coffee shop, or from their sofa from 11pm to the wee hours of the morning –– and forcing those folks back to the office is the wrong decision.
So How Much Space Do You Need?
So if you are struggling with finding the correct amount of space for your team as we exit the credit contraction of 2023, I would challenge you to examine the personalities of the people behind the tasks.
As I said earlier, look to Insights®.
If your team has a strong Blue energy preference, I guarantee you could use a lot less space –– like a LOT less.
If your team leans more into Yellow energy, you probably still need every bit of space you used to need.
And if your team lives closer to the middle, you can probably decrease your footprint by a third, if not a half.
‘Right-sizing’ your footprint is always important. When you are incorrectly ‘officed,’ it is a net negative to the bottom line –– AND it detracts from performance.
Including your team’s personality in your analysis (not just leadership’s personality) will lead you to a much more accurate version of space for both you and your team. When you can spend less on space yet enhance your team’s performance, you win on all levels.
Rick Jarvis is the co-founder of One South Realty, one of the Richmond regions largest residential and commercial real estate companies. A longtime friend and client of Floricane’s, Rick is more than slightly obsessed with using Insights® Discovery to better understand his behaviors, his team and his clients.
This is the first guest newsletter post celebrating Floricane’s 16th orbit around the sun in 2024. Future posts will feature former Floricane employees and interns, clients and community leaders, and other interesting, smart humans.