Remote Workers: Stay Away
As retailers and airports pull the plug on electrical outlets and pump in music, remote workers find fewer places to work. Why leaders should care.
The remote worker planned to attend a key meeting while waiting for her flight at a New York airport. But there were no outlets in any of the restaurants. Then a DJ started spinning tunes loudly in the main waiting area. All she could do was cancel.
Remote workers may make up a fifth of the job force, but the restaurants and airports that once welcomed them with open arms are pulling the plug on once-plentiful electrical outlets and pumping in loud music that makes Zoom calls impossible. Some cafés and retailers are also capping WiFI use at an hour. "They’re making it less than convenient to sit in a coffee shop for hours,” says Chris Fuqua, senior client partner and head of the Restaurant practice at Korn Ferry.
For the 45 million-plus people who began working remotely in 2020, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and who found restaurants and retailers welcoming and eager to serve their needs, the shift is shocking. But experts say the development, which is disrupting a sizable chunk of the workforce, may become a concern for company leaders too. Many remote workers rely on outside venues to avoid the distractions of family and home.
Experts say the tide began to turn a year ago. Given their low margins, restaurateurs adjust when they’re concerned that customers might not have extra funds for eating out. “They get more aggressive about trying to drive in more customers,” says Fuqua.
Now those restaurateurs are prioritizing turnover, which means more income as well as better brand experiences for incoming customers. One strategy is to discourage “dwellers”—the term the restaurant industry gives to customers who purchase a cheap item, stay for hours, and often shift into prime seating as others leave. Restaurant owners regard them as dependably uncool and unfun. “A frazzled employee logging into an eight-person board meeting changes the energy of the location,” says Fuqua.
Nowhere is this shift more evident than in airports. For decades, business workers dominated weekday travel. They needed quiet for work calls and plenty of outlets, as well as hot-desk spots near the gate where they could charge their laptops. Today, the Wednesday customers at O’Hare International Airport are a much broader mix, and include more leisure travelers. “Airports and their retailers are just not feeling the need to respond to business travelers to the same degree,” says engagement expert Mark Royal, senior client partner at Korn Ferry Advisory.
Currently, café-design aesthetics call for covering or removing outlets—an upmarket aesthetic that eliminates plastic facings cracked from overuse. “Cracked outlets don’t look as good, and customers are not as attracted,” says Fuqua. Getting rid of outlets also saves money, because maintaining them costs a bundle and encourages turnover (without them, workers’ laptop batteries have only about 30 minutes’ worth of power). Turning up the music further dissuades unwanted customers.
Approximately 1 in 5 workers still work remotely each month, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and they’re not responding well. “It’s brutally painful,” says JP Sniffen, head of the Physical Security practice at Korn Ferry, who works remotely from Charlotte, North Carolina. “I do reconnaissance work on weekends to find new places. In the last six months, it’s gotten harder.”
Paradoxically, the difficulty of finding a place to work in urban centers reflects the strict return-to-office policies of nearby companies: The local coffee shops are once again focusing on providing office workers with a quick cup of coffee between meetings or a brief, ten- to twenty-minute reprieve. “Now RTO people are competing with office workers for seats,” says Sniffen.
If you’re still looking for a place to log in, savvy businesses travelers have a solution. “When I’m away on business, I like sitting in hotel lobbies or hotel-lobby coffee shops,” says Shanda Mints, vice president of AI strategy and transformation at Korn Ferry. “Shhhh, don’t tell anyone.”
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