A New Generation of Companies Moving Into San Francisco (corporate, cities)

[blameyourself]

Originally Posted by mattja

This is typical of a tech contraction, not a tech boom. Employers typically put the screws in when they feel they have the upper hand. Like in the early 1990s tech bust following the end of the Cold War. Companies like HP and IBM laid off tens of thousands in the Bay Area alone and employers took advantage of that big time. I remember my employer saying there were no raises this year and if we didn't like it, too bad. They actually said that. They paid for that dearly during the dotcom boom when tech companies hired anyone with a pulse. But then things were back in their favor during the dotcom bust.

Anyway, tech companies over-hired during the boom economy around 2018. Same thing. Anyone with a pulse could get a job. They shed 10-15% over the last couple of years, which was probably right-sizing.

Whatever the reason, clearly employees are indeed coming back. I believe I read that Salesforce is also requiring their employees to get back to 3 days at the office.

[CorporateCowboy]

Originally Posted by mattja

The jury is still out on what will actually happen with AI.

Generative AI is here to stay; ChatGPT (OpenAI, SF) was just the beginning. The vast majority of companies are already leveraging it to strengthen and optimize various processes and systems (or have interest in doing so). As such, it’s foolish to debate if it will be influential at this point; it most certainly will be. The question is, of course, how prominent in terms of societal change.

Originally Posted by mattja

Potential or not, anytime large amounts of money are available, the posers come out in droves. They want the VC money and typically have no actual products.

Venture capitalists have a stake in seeing an idea to the start of its commercialization phase; and, ironically, genAI can be implemented to play a part in one’s due diligence relative to such. ;-)

[mattja]

Originally Posted by blameyourself

Whatever the reason, clearly employees are indeed coming back. I believe I read that Salesforce is also requiring their employees to get back to 3 days at the office.

The last I heard 1/3 of their tower in SF was empty and a lot of the rest was subleased.

They subleased all of Salesforce East.

BART is still at 40% of pre-COVID levels. It's an improvement but paid ridership is still down big time. It's unlikely a lot of those Salesforce employees drive. Parking in that areas is near impossible.

We are seeing widespread revolts against returning to work. I doubt it will happen in a big way until we have an actual recession, which I expect should happen this year at some point. People will come back to work once they find no one else is hiring.

[blameyourself]

Originally Posted by mattja

The last I heard 1/3 of their tower in SF was empty and a lot of the rest was subleased.

They subleased all of Salesforce East.

BART is still at 40% of pre-COVID levels. It's an improvement but paid ridership is still down big time. It's unlikely a lot of those Salesforce employees drive. Parking in that areas is near impossible.

We are seeing widespread revolts against returning to work. I doubt it will happen in a big way until we have an actual recession, which I expect should happen this year at some point. People will come back to work once they find no one else is hiring.

I can't go by what you heard as that's not quantifiable.

Salesforce's return-to-office mandate now requires non-remote employees to go into the office three days a week. Non-remote and customer-facing employees have to go in four days a week, while engineers only have to work from the office 10 days each quarter.

[Wes927]

Some good news for San Francisco .... Despite their problems, great cities will always have their appeal....

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article...g-19385805.php

[CorporateCowboy]

Originally Posted by Wes927

Some good news for San Francisco .... Despite their problems, great cities will always have their appeal....

It’s not ‘news’ for those of us who live here; SF has a highly-educated talent pool as well as unparalleled geography and outdoor recreation. As such, from my perspective, it has more appeal than most.

[Wes927]

Originally Posted by CorporateCowboy

It’s not ‘news’ for those of us who live here; SF has a highly-educated talent pool as well as unparalleled geography and outdoor recreation. As such, from my perspective, it has more appeal than most.

America's great cities: SF; Chi; NY; etc. --have serious issues to manage, but a certain segment of American society actually wants them to fail, rather than engaging in constructive critiques. This gives motivation to only focus on the negative, and yes, I agree, ignore the great things that cities have to offer.

[CorporateCowboy]

Originally Posted by Wes927

America's great cities: SF; Chi; NY; etc. --have serious issues to manage, but a certain segment of American society actually wants them to fail, rather than engaging in constructive critiques.

It’s clear as to what ‘segment of American society’ you’re speaking to considering all the cities you mentioned are liberal, as a whole. That said, all cities have serious issues to manage relative to the large number of folks living in smaller areas of space; from my perspective, however, SF has more benefits than most (and not just regarding AI, per the thread, although its highly-educated talent pool is certainly a significant part of such).

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by CorporateCowboy

It’s clear as to what ‘segment of American society’ you’re speaking to considering all the cities you mentioned are liberal, as a whole. That said, all cities have serious issues to manage relative to the large number of folks living in smaller areas of space; from my perspective, however, SF has more benefits than most (and not just regarding AI, per the thread, although its highly-educated talent pool is certainly a significant part of such).

As a whole, nearly ALL big cities are liberal …

Zero cities with over one million people currently have Republican mayors.

[CorporateCowboy]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

As a whole, nearly ALL big cities are liberal …

My point is that some are considered more progressive than others (and politically-liberal relative to the state as well). It’s not rocket science to interpret Wes927’s comment as politically-biased, and SF is at the top of the list.