Miami has long had a reputation as a classy party destination, a place where spring breakers, Lamborghini-driving showoffs, Cuban culture and clubs converge.
But the South Florida city has undergone a major transformation in the past 15 years. It became an international center for art with Art Basel. Its fine dining scene has blossomed, becoming one of the best in the country. And, somehow, it is calmly become “Wall Street South.”
Both JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs now have large footprints in the city, and several hedge funds are also based there. a lot Silicon Valley companies set up shop in Miami Even after the pandemic, in search of lower taxes and fewer covid restrictions.
Perhaps it’s not so surprising that Miami, flush with new major corporations, has seen a larger post-Covid office return than almost any other American city. According to data from Placer.aiA startup that drives office foot traffic.
yesterday, Explained today A small series of post-pandemic works looked at how American workers are leaving the country in search of work-life balance and found it in Portugal, where the country’s unique digital nomad visa programs have led to a thriving expatriate remote-worker community. .
For today’s installment, Today, explained The podcast team is back Stateside, visiting Miami to learn more about why companies there are once again calling knowledge workers back into the office, and what it can show us about the delicate dance employers across the country face as they try to restructure their corporate culture.
Going back to the office for “culture”.
Four years after the pandemic, only 35 percent of Americans with remote jobs still work entirely from home, according to a 2023 report from Pew. They tend to be knowledge workers—those whose jobs demand that they sit at a computer most of the time.
So why are Miami’s knowledge workers going to the office instead of staying at home?
The same industries that are pouring into South Florida cities — financial services and technology — are telling workers it’s time to invest in “culture.”
“I think people are actually choosing to work in this culture,” Alex DiLeonardo, Citadel Securities’ chief people officer, told us when we visited the financial firm’s sleek headquarters in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood in September.
DiLeonardo used a lot of HR speak, but what he described to us was a vibes-y idea among recruiters that collaboration and values are created from human interaction. Do they think they can foster that creative “culture”? So that employees come to the office. At the Citadel, I mean at the office, five days a week.
The concept of workplace is almost “culture”. always shows up When a CEO calls people back to the office. Last month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told workers they would have to return to the office five days a week. In a statement Entitled “Strengthening Our Culture and Teams,” Jacey makes this case for office work: “[C]Alaborating, brainstorming and innovating is easier and more effective; Teaching and learning from each other is more seamless; And, teams are better connected to each other.”
That’s what Hassan Altaf was looking for when he recently graduated from college. “I think in the office, it’s just creativity, collaboration, everything,” she told us.
Altaf, 22, is now a software engineer at Citadel in Miami. During the pandemic, she spent eight months working an internship completely remotely and said the whole thing felt empty. “I felt disconnected from my team. [T]Hey there was just, like, face on the screen. I have not met them personally.” Now, he’s got an easy commute on the metro, the building has killer views of the ocean and city, and he can take lessons from his peers in real time. “The juices are flowing here.”
To be clear, not everyone is fully opting into office life: One expert we spoke to said that of the 100,000 workers surveyed, only 20 percent said they wanted to be in the office five days a week. Another 30 percent wanted to work from home 100 percent of the time.
While people are returning to the office at higher rates in Miami, in general, workers across the country want more flexibility.
Company vs. Worker
Many workers have tasted a different kind of life over the past four years, and for most, working from home has provided an unprecedented sense of work-life balance. According to Pew.
Many of them are unhappy with the idea of giving up the flexibility of hybrids or working at home entirely. Open concept office tight pants A A recent survey of remote workers It found that nearly 60 percent said they would resign if asked to return to office.
And there’s evidence that flexible models can be good not only for workers, but also for organizations.
According to a recent USA TODAY Blueprint Survey58 percent of white-collar workers prefer a hybrid model (working from home at least three days a week). A McKinsey survey This summer found that 87 percent of workers would say yes to flexible working if it were offered.
This means that a company that adopts a full in-office policy team may see the plan backfire accordingly. Nick BloomStanford University economics professor who studies workplace trends.
“[O]There are a ton of exits in this game out of no way. They find it hard to hire,” Bloom said. “I know from talking to my own undergraduates and MBAs, they don’t want to go five days a week. So it will be difficult to recruit them,” he said.
Bloom says many organizations get bogged down with the concept of productivity. Companies, he argued, should measure their office policies against profitability. Not paying for an office is a huge cost saver. “It also turns out, if you hire people remotely, you can get a lot better bang for your buck because you’re not looking locally, you’re looking nationally or even globally.” The talent pool is the entire world.
Bloom recently A study published Looking closely at this question of productivity. Working with a large Chinese travel agency, Bloom and his team compared two teams: the first worked in the office five days a week, and the second offered a hybrid schedule. They found that hybrid workers were happier with their jobs and fewer quit. They also found that performance reviews were not affected. People finished their work and they were happy.
“Give me a good reason to come every day”
When talking to workers in Miami, we heard some complaints: “Give me a good reason to come every day.” “I don’t need to babysit my boss for my job.” “It’s bad to travel.”
Although many people were willing to meet half of the CEO culture warriors and admitted that some time in the office was great for getting to know the people they worked with. They were able to build trust with colleagues and learn from watching others do their work. For companies in the tech and financial spaces of Miami’s rebirth, meeting employees in the middle helps them navigate several issues beyond “culture,” including data privacy.
Workers will be the final judge of whether Citadel and other companies with strict office policies are right for them. If they don’t agree, they can choose to develop their career elsewhere.
For DiLeonardo, these complex choices are just part of the new world order — and perhaps a sign of how far work culture has progressed.
“As someone who has spent my entire career in people’s places, I think it’s great that all these different types of work are forcing organizations and societies to ask questions about how to best enable individuals to succeed in their different roles and their different careers,” he said. said. “But I also think that companies can choose the kind of environment they provide and be very clear in the social contract about what it means to work at that company.”
