Moving and changing: how lockdown impacted office workers

Salesforce, the American software company with offices in Dublin, has announced it is listing its job offerings by time zone and not location. Co-chief executive Bret Taylor was quoted as saying it was a logical move to find the best and brightest minds beyond cities such as San Francisco, where it is headquartered, and New York, to include entire time zones. Salesforce employs more than 73,000 people globally and 90 per cent of its staff can choose where they wish to work, and at the times they prefer.

In Ireland, for many employees their actual place of work has changed over the past two to three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Joanne Geary, managing director of Myhome.ie, points to some fascinating trends in people migration.

“Back in 2019 and into 2020 we started to see the searches for houses fan out all over the country. We called it the regional Ireland story. There were lots of searches for west Cork and Kerry for example, with Clonakilty being a hot trend. Donegal and Westport were also in demand.

“Once people realised they could work remotely they went for some of the most beautiful parts of the country. They didn’t need access to major cities, just broadband,” says Geary.

The knock-on impact was price increases in the regions.

“In all my 25 years in real estate it’s the first time I’ve seen regional prices outstripping Dublin ones with regionals averaging at a 14 per cent increase and Dublin prices lagging at 8.6 per cent.”

Finding broadband

It’s not all smooth sailing as finding reliable broadband can be an issue. Caolán Walsh started working with Wachsman PR just as lockdown struck. After just four days in the office he was sent home to work. However it was very difficult to get reliable broadband at his parents’ house in Galway.

“I tried working from home but it was terrible. My home is only just outside Galway but it just didn’t work.”

Conversely, Tony Higgins, knowledge base team lead with tech company Wix managed to skirt under the price increases to buy a house in his native Galway but it took time and it had to be in rural Galway.

“It was absolutely impossible for us to afford in Dublin or Galway city so we spent 2½ years looking for something we could afford.”

With good broadband he and his partner are very happy.

“It’s much better for us as we’re both digital workers without a daily commute and we were looking for a quieter life than you find in city-centre suburbs,” he says.

Commuter towns

Lockdown easing could not come soon enough for people like Walsh and the return to the office was witnessed in the searches for commuter towns such as Gorey, Navan and Dundalk.

“Now in 2022, the searches have pulled way back from the regionals, it’s down by 30 per cent actually. Also, whereas people were looking for larger houses to include offices for home working, the return to the office and rising prices have reduced interest too,” says Geary.

Robert MacGiolla Phadraig, chief commercial officer of Sigmar Recruitment, says the power is very much with employees. Employees in situ were forced to work from home and as the lockdown eased up they could do a compare and contrast.

“As restrictions have lifted I think the overarching trend is that employers’ rhetoric around returning to the office has softened; it has had to because of the level of flexibility being demanded by their employees,” says MacGiolla Phadraig. A recent survey conducted by Sigmar found that 35 per cent of Ireland’s current workforce has never been to the office.

“That means there’s a whole generation of the workforce now who can no longer compare and contrast, because it’s all they know is their current employer,” he says.

So while much is made about employees leaning into their new lives with a better work-life balance, for those whose experience was wholly remote there was a deep desire for better communication with their fellow employees.

Relationship capital

Sigmar Recruitment recently held a delayed Christmas party in San Sebastian in Spain bringing 100 staff out for a weekend. MacGiolla Phadraig really felt the impact.

“I really got a sense of what we’ve lost over the last two years of not being together. I just saw the camaraderie and the friendships that were formed. Our collective relationship capital was topped up. But I think that the younger cohort can’t compare and contrast as it’s their first job and all they know is home working.”

Walsh found his experience as a newbie challenging, although less so with his Wachsman colleagues and more in building other relationships.

“Internal culture remained intact throughout the pandemic, however making external connections was more difficult with the lack of physical opportunities to network. I also felt starved of social interaction during lockdown. Now there are loads of opportunities to get out and meet people. Blockchain Ireland is coming up this month so I’m very glad to be back at it,” says Walsh.

Many workers voted with their feet. “It was the one thing they could now change; their clothes, their laptop or their job,” says MacGiolla Phadraig. “They had a choice.”

Richard Blythman, founder of AI software company Algovera, was one of those who used the lockdown to resign. At 31, he had been working as a machine learning engineer for a large tech company and started his own company. But he had a craving for interaction with other people and real events.

“Beginning my own AI company during the pandemic was tough. I started working in crypto during the pandemic, but I’d never been to an IRL [in real life] crypto event. I barely knew anyone working in the space in Ireland.

“My first event was Blockchain Ireland and it was incredible to feel the energy and start building relationships with people locally.”

Alan McDonald, chief executive of Unbanx, also started his own business in lockdown. Ironically, he was able to do this as remote working made them both return to Cork to live rent-free in his girlfriend’s homeplace. “Without this unplanned subsidy, I don’t think I would have been able to afford to do it.”

It’s an ill wind, or lockdown, that blows no good.