This article first appeared in Seacoastonline on November 5, 2020.
By Paul Briand, business@seacoastonline.com
PORTSMOUTH — For Barry Greenfield, the new normal of working remotely enhances the need for the type of shared office space his company – LocalWorks – is offering in Portsmouth and Rochester.
"Because of COVID, a lot more people are not going into an office but would like to," Greenfield said. "What we're seeing is an acceleration of a trend that began five, 10, 15 years ago where more and more companies are going to cut down on their total footprint of office space."
The highly contagious and sometimes fatal COVID-19 virus has changed everything about our lives, including how we do our jobs. A lot of companies, in order to maintain social distancing recommendations to reduce the spread of the virus, are having their employees work remotely, usually from home.
Greenfield said his shared office spaces give those employees the option of working in a safe environment but out of the house.
"At some point they say: I want to be around other people, even if I don't know them. Even if you have a private office in your house, with kids being remote schooled, there's a lot of distractions," he said.