Rory Sutherland

The US had a very strong culture of presenteeism, of people effectively getting in early, staying late, being absolutely desperate to show their face. And the office occupancy rates are much, much lower in the US and Canada than they are in Europe or the UK. Yeah.

That reminds me of an agency back in the 1990s who sent their staff on assertiveness training, and they all came back and half of them resigned.

That reminds me of an agency back in the 1990s who sent their staff on assertiveness training, and they all came back and half of them resigned.

That reminds me of an agency back in the 1990s who sent their staff on assertiveness training, and they all came back and half of them resigned.

It is interesting, by the way, because one thing that's disappointed me is I expected to see much, much greater levels of investment in really interesting remote working hardware. And by which I mean really, really good tech at home. There is a project apparently in the works called Google Starline, which is a kind of 3D video conferencing, which there's a team at Google probably still working on.

It is interesting, by the way, because one thing that's disappointed me is I expected to see much, much greater levels of investment in really interesting remote working hardware. And by which I mean really, really good tech at home. There is a project apparently in the works called Google Starline, which is a kind of 3D video conferencing, which there's a team at Google probably still working on.

It is interesting, by the way, because one thing that's disappointed me is I expected to see much, much greater levels of investment in really interesting remote working hardware. And by which I mean really, really good tech at home. There is a project apparently in the works called Google Starline, which is a kind of 3D video conferencing, which there's a team at Google probably still working on.

I hope so. But, I mean, don't forget you have a problem now in that offices have mostly shrunk their footprint. They still aren't kitted out for the frequency of video calls. In other words, the number of private pods in an office is too few. The number of meeting rooms is probably too many.

I hope so. But, I mean, don't forget you have a problem now in that offices have mostly shrunk their footprint. They still aren't kitted out for the frequency of video calls. In other words, the number of private pods in an office is too few. The number of meeting rooms is probably too many.

I hope so. But, I mean, don't forget you have a problem now in that offices have mostly shrunk their footprint. They still aren't kitted out for the frequency of video calls. In other words, the number of private pods in an office is too few. The number of meeting rooms is probably too many.

So there's a whole architectural problem to be addressed in terms of how – because if I had a day with mostly video calls, I'd want to do it at home because it's easier to do that. than it is to try and find the right conditions in an office.

So there's a whole architectural problem to be addressed in terms of how – because if I had a day with mostly video calls, I'd want to do it at home because it's easier to do that. than it is to try and find the right conditions in an office.

So there's a whole architectural problem to be addressed in terms of how – because if I had a day with mostly video calls, I'd want to do it at home because it's easier to do that. than it is to try and find the right conditions in an office.

The other point I make is that there are a lot of things where it's very difficult to sell people on the new behavior, but once they've experienced the new behavior, the old behavior seems ridiculous. An example I always gave of that is nobody minded buying CDs when it was the only way you could listen to music. OK, you just accept it. OK, I don't really want to buy a whole album.

The other point I make is that there are a lot of things where it's very difficult to sell people on the new behavior, but once they've experienced the new behavior, the old behavior seems ridiculous. An example I always gave of that is nobody minded buying CDs when it was the only way you could listen to music. OK, you just accept it. OK, I don't really want to buy a whole album.

The other point I make is that there are a lot of things where it's very difficult to sell people on the new behavior, but once they've experienced the new behavior, the old behavior seems ridiculous. An example I always gave of that is nobody minded buying CDs when it was the only way you could listen to music. OK, you just accept it. OK, I don't really want to buy a whole album.

I just want to buy a track. But, you know, it's just what you do if you buy music. Then you had downloads. Of course, the music industry resisted this furiously, the whole idea of downloading. Even to the point of not making it possible for people to download things legally. And the problem there is once you'd experienced downloads, the CD seemed suddenly ridiculous.

I just want to buy a track. But, you know, it's just what you do if you buy music. Then you had downloads. Of course, the music industry resisted this furiously, the whole idea of downloading. Even to the point of not making it possible for people to download things legally. And the problem there is once you'd experienced downloads, the CD seemed suddenly ridiculous.

I just want to buy a track. But, you know, it's just what you do if you buy music. Then you had downloads. Of course, the music industry resisted this furiously, the whole idea of downloading. Even to the point of not making it possible for people to download things legally. And the problem there is once you'd experienced downloads, the CD seemed suddenly ridiculous.

And to some extent, we didn't mind commuting in the same way when we just thought this is just a necessary part of getting to the office. It's just work is the place you go to. It's Wednesday. It's Friday. So I go into the office. That's the deal. The time you spend on the train, the time you spent cleaning your teeth and getting up early and doing your ablutions didn't feel like a waste of time.