A large-scale return to the office would benefit the nation’s social fabric, the commentator argued in his keynote address.
The shift to remote work, and the dramatic decline in office use that followed, is often viewed as mostly a concern for owners, managers, occupants and other stakeholders. Yet Michael Smerconish sees it as part of a prime example of an even larger and worrisome trend. “We have lost so much as a society because so many are working remotely,” the commentator and media personality said during a wide-ranging keynote address at BOMA International’s annual convention in Philadelphia on Sunday.
The remote-work trend is a telling symptom of broader feelings of social isolation. Smerconish cited studies indicating that workers feel markedly less connected to their colleagues than they did just a few years ago.
That is a reversal from Smerconish’s own experience decades ago as a young lawyer in Philadelphia. On the daily commute to his office, he would routinely encounter people from multiple walks of life and across the economic spectrum. The rise of remote work has further limited those opportunities, and Smerconish called it evidence that “the class divide is shutting down interaction.”
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