The Red Hat is going away

And kamikaze pitchers.

Do they own the property that they occupy, I wonder? Or did they negotiate really sweet 20-year leases and have been paying below-market rents for years?

Cost of occupancy is not the whole story in these businesses, but it is a key factor in every restaurant that thrives or fails spectacularly (pandemic aside).

At least when I was in college the under 21 crowd seemingly kept this place afloat. No students in nearby dorms probably didn’t help this past 16 months.

law firm there. The place was frequently packed with State House, Government Center and Suffolk U employees.

Remote work likely hurt them, as it has many Downtown and FiDi joints that rely on weekday breakfast, catering, lunchtime and after-work trade.

think people who prefer it are necessarily any less valuable to their organizations. Showing up in person is great if the job demands it and that works for you and your management -- I and many of my colleagues have been in hybrid mode since we got fully vaccinated -- but for many roles, it will not be essential.

Further, I think companies that insist that their workers show up in person every day when it's questionable how essential that is for their jobs are going to find themselves struggling to fill positions. The pandemic proved that for many roles, productivity isn't tied to location. (In my case, not commuting 90 minutes a day gives my company hours of more effective work every week.)

And consider what remote work means to parents or caregivers to elders that struggle to find or afford daycare, or to folks that care deeply about the environmental impact of long car commutes. Then there's the stress reduction of driving less often amidst a churning sea of aggressive Massholes. (Spoken as a former member of the tribe that eventually achieved lower blood pressure through more courteous driving, a tough slog to unlearn long-bred instincts.)

Myself, I never did and still don't want to work from my damned dining room all the time. I like seeing my colleagues outside of Zoom calls, and find in-person teamwork more efficient *some of the time*. (My lunch options are much better a short distance from work than home, too, a huge plus in my book.) But I doubt my company will ever return to "everyone in the office five days a week" model.