Companies and their Office

When working in an office, a differentiator between companies in the same industry is the office.

If one office appeals to you more, there’s a likelihood you would work in that company over the other - given everything else is the same.

What if the whole industry was like that?

Say, the “industry standard” for an office is really high? Then, every company in that industry becomes more appealing than those in other industries.

When I worked in an office and came in for the on-site interview - there was something about the office. You can feel the difference, maybe it’s the architecture, the neighborhood, the commute, the vibe, or something.

The office part of the job added (or took away) from the appeal of the job.

A company can invest more into its office because it’s easier to amortize this cost and executives get a massive upside (they can get the best office!)

After leaving companies with nice offices, I am starting to come to the conclusion - companies with nice offices are over-compensating for something. Competitive advantage? Culture? Mission? Something!

If the company can spend that much on real estate, why not spend it on your people, like, training?!

Unless the job requires inspiration from the physical space, like the job of an architect, money spent on the office is kind of a waste, especially in the age of remote work.

Heck, why not spend the office money on an awesome company off-site?

Who knows?!

I’ve interviewed at companies that had great offices and that enamored me - at the end, I enjoyed the building more than the job.