This week, my company updated our work policy. They’re focusing on in-person connections and enforcing a three-day office requirement. They also cut telecommuting days from 40 to 30 per year, with limits on how many consecutive days we can take. The work-from-home days changed too. We used to work from home on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but now it is just Wednesdays and Fridays.
I understand the change. When I saw the email, my first thought was about my schedule. I had planned to work from home on those Mondays. But here’s the thing: I believe our leaders made this decision with the company’s best interests in mind. They likely considered the benefits of face-to-face collaboration and team dynamics.
Instead of diving into the usual remote vs. office debate, I began thinking about something different. I prefer working from home — I’m genuinely more productive there. But sometimes we need to step outside our own preferences and look at things from different angles. So, I decided to think about the other side: what are the benefits of office work that we might be missing? Not just for my company or my own convenience, but for society as a whole. What happens beyond our office walls when thousands of us make this shift? It turns out, the ripple effects are bigger than I expected.
The morning commute keeps cities running
Here in Berlin, I have the Deutschland Ticket, which costs €60+ a month for unlimited public transit. The price remains the same whether I work from home or go to the office, but the frequency changes. When I consider that across thousands of commuters, it significantly impacts the system in ways I hadn’t fully realized.
During the pandemic, I was living in China, but I noticed something that stuck with me. There were fewer cars during what used to be rush hour, and the platforms had a strange quiet that was usually filled with people. It made me wonder if this phenomenon was unique to China or a global trend.
A quick look at Berlin’s U-Bahn, for instance, tells a similar story: Before the pandemic, Berlin’s U-Bahn transported 590+ million passengers in 2019. Then the pandemic struck, and ridership fell by 40%, reducing annual ridership to just above 350 million by 2021 — barely 60% of its previous level 1 . These weren’t just numbers on a chart. They led to empty trains, less frequent service, and a transit authority trying to figure out how to stay afloat with much lower revenue, all while facing relatively fixed costs.
Other European transit systems share similar stories. In London, Transport for London relies on fares for over 70% of its operating income. The pandemic forced the agency to seek more than £6 billion in emergency government funding 2 . Meanwhile, Paris Metro’s ridership almost returned to pre-pandemic levels. During the pandemic, the systems built in the early 1900s to transport office workers to city centers suddenly had far fewer passengers, which exposed vulnerabilities 3 .
In the US, the trend is even clearer. New York’s MTA saw fare and tolls revenue drop from 52% to 39% of its operating budget 4 , and by 2024, ridership was still below pre-pandemic levels 5 .
Here’s what I didn’t fully appreciate before: Berlin’s public transit is not just about getting people from one place to another. The BVG and S-Bahn directly employ thousands. Every conductor, track maintenance worker, station attendant, and control center operator needs ridership to justify their jobs. When fewer people ride, cities must make difficult decisions about service cuts or tax increases to fill the gap.
This isn’t just about transit budgets and spreadsheets. Every train ride I take connects me to the livelihoods of thousands of workers who rely on our city’s rhythms. That realization changed how I view my commute. It stopped feeling like just my personal inconvenience and became part of something vital that keeps the city running.
The choices we make about where we spend our workdays have broader effects that I’m just starting to grasp. Transit is one part, but there’s another daily routine that affects more people than I realized: lunch.
Our lunch break matters to more people than we realize
When living in China, near my apartment, there used to be a breakfast stall that I visited almost every workday. The owner always remembered my usual order, since I’d been a regular for two years. The pandemic made me worry about their future, and unfortunately, they didn’t make it through. Now that I’m living in Berlin, I find myself wondering about the fate of restaurants here in Germany.
Whenever I grab a sandwich near my new office or meet colleagues for lunch, I realize I’m just one small part of a massive economic ecosystem. Germany’s restaurant and food service industry employs around 1.8–2 million people and generates on the order of €120–140 billion in annual revenue 6 7 . That’s a lot of servers, cooks, dishwashers, and restaurant owners whose livelihoods depend on people coming to work.
The pandemic gave us an unexpected experiment in what happens when that spending disappears. Business lunch spots that had been neighborhood fixtures for decades faced empty dining rooms. In central business districts like Frankfurt’s Bankenviertel and Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz and Friedrichstraße, many restaurants that served office workers with fixed-price lunch menus saw a decline in midday business as employees stopped going into the office regularly.
Europe’s restaurant sector took a hard hit. Germany’s food services revenue, which had been rising steadily for years, faced its first major disruption in decades 8 . Across Europe, the trend was similar — London’s City and Canary Wharf saw restaurant spending drop from over 20% of all London restaurant spending to under 17% 9 . It may not sound like much, but for the people working in those restaurants, it meant cuts to shifts, smaller tips, and sometimes losing their jobs.
The contrast with American cities shows how significant the impact was. Manhattan lost an estimated $12 billion annually in local spending due to fewer people going to offices 10 . Workers who used to spend about $51 daily while working in the office full-time — that’s around $1,000 monthly going to local businesses — redirected that spending to their neighborhoods instead 11 . San Francisco’s Financial District, where office vacancy reached a record 35%, saw many restaurants close permanently 12 .
What’s interesting is that people didn’t stop eating out. They just stopped eating out near the offices. Quick-service places in residential neighborhoods performed well. However, the sit-down places where colleagues would meet for lunch or where you’d grab dinner after working late? They struggled. The restaurant industry overall in the US recovered its pre-pandemic employment by 2024, but full-service restaurants remained about 4% below 2019 levels, while quick-service restaurants added jobs 13 . The change in where and how people work essentially determined which restaurants could survive and which couldn’t.
When I think about my breakfast stall in China, I realize my breakfast order might also be more than just a meal. It supports that business and keeps those jobs intact. That perspective doesn’t change my preference for working from home, but it does help me understand the trade-offs more clearly.
And restaurants are just the beginning. The buildings where we work connect to a whole network of jobs that most of us never consider.
Buildings create jobs you don’t see
I walk to the fourth floor every day. The floors are always clean, the lights always work, and the bathroom is stocked. I never really thought about who makes that happen until I started to look into it.
Europe’s cleaning and facility services industry employs over 4 million people across 297K companies, generating €120 billion in annual revenue 14 . This includes janitors, security guards, maintenance workers, and property managers; it’s a whole ecosystem of jobs.
Germany plays a big part in this market. It makes up about 22% of Europe’s cleaning services sector, which is valued at €100-160+ billion in 2024 15 . The sector employs people at all skill levels, from entry-level cleaning positions to well-paid HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) technicians and property managers. These aren’t just numbers; they represent people with families, mortgages, and kids in school.
When office buildings sit empty, those jobs can disappear or be cut back. Commercial offices make up about 28.7% 15 of the cleaning services market in Europe, making it the largest segment. During the pandemic, facility services lost hundreds of thousands of jobs across Europe. Many jobs returned as offices reopened, but recovery happened because people went back to work.
In the US, the situation was even worse. Services for buildings and homes lost 273K jobs just in March and April of 2020. The sector supports around 4.5 million Americans in cleaning and maintenance jobs 16 . In major cities like San Francisco, with 35% office vacancy rates 17 , that meant less work for everyone from window washers to security staff.
The European facility management market is expected to grow to nearly €300-430 billion by 2029-2030 15 , but that growth relies on buildings being used. Large companies in Europe hire outside facility management providers. Berlin, with its growing tech industry and office developments, needs many professionals to keep those buildings running.
And it’s not all entry-level work. The industry offers careers with a wide range of incomes. Entry-level jobs in cleaning or security provide accessible employment for those without special training. However, skilled trades like HVAC technicians, electrical maintenance, and property management are solid middle-class careers that exist because office buildings need regular, professional care.
I’ve started noticing the security guard who checks badges at the entrance and the cleaning crew that comes through in the evenings. Their jobs depend on enough of us showing up. That’s part of the social case for office work that goes beyond what’s convenient for me or productive for my company. It’s about the people whose work makes our work possible.
But the ripple effects go even further than the people we see every day. They reach into something most of us never think about: city budgets.
The tax money angle surprised me
Here’s something that caught me off guard when I started researching this. I knew office buildings paid property tax, but I didn’t realize how much cities depend on that money.
In Germany, property tax (Grundsteuer) might seem low compared to some countries, typically between 0.26% and 1% of the assessed value. However, commercial properties and office buildings are taxed at higher rates than residential properties. They contribute significantly to city budgets. Property tax ranks as the third most important revenue source for German towns and municipalities, following trade tax and income/VAT. It covers about 15% of municipal tax revenues. In 2017, Germany collected around €14 billion in property tax, with commercial properties (Grundsteuer B) contributing €13+ billion 18 .
This matters because those tax dollars fund schools, public transportation, parks, police, and fire departments. Everyone uses these services, whether or not they work in an office. When office buildings lose value or sit vacant, cities feel the impact on their budgets. Across Europe, property taxes represent an average of about 0.41% 19 of private capital stock, though this varies significantly by country.
There’s also the construction angle. Office construction and maintenance drive a lot of economic activity. The European facility management market, excluding construction, reached nearly €300 billion and is projected to reach €400 billion by 2029 20 . If you include the actual construction of new office buildings, renovations, and infrastructure development around business districts, this creates hundreds of thousands of jobs and generates substantial government revenue.
In the US, the numbers are even more striking. Commercial and industrial properties account for 56% of total property tax collections nationwide, even though they occupy less space than residential areas. In cities like Boston, commercial property generates nearly 36% of total city revenue 21 . Office buildings in major American cities pay property taxes at rates 1.7x higher than residential properties on average. In places like New York and Boston, those rates are 4x higher.
Berlin’s property tax system underwent a major reform in 2025, updating valuations that hadn’t changed since 1935 in the former East Germany. The new system considers factors such as location, building age, property size, and local land values. This means office buildings in prime locations, like Mitte or around Potsdamer Platz, contribute significantly more to city revenues than the old system reflected.
When companies commit to office space, it creates demand not just for the buildings themselves, but for all the infrastructure around them. Investments in transit connections, road maintenance, and urban planning around business districts occur because of concentrated office employment, which makes them economically justified.
It’s strange to think about, but every time I go to the office, I’m indirectly contributing to the tax base that funds the parks where I enjoy walking and relaxing, and the school in my neighborhood. The social benefits of office work extend to everyone in the city, not just those who work in offices.
And that leads to something economists have studied a lot: how one job creates other jobs around it.
One job creates more jobs
There’s this idea economists call the multiplier effect. When one job is created in a certain area, it leads to additional jobs in other areas. Research across Europe shows that each job in the tradable sector creates an average of 0.9 extra local jobs, and this rises to about 2.5 jobs for high-skilled positions 22 .
Office districts illustrate this pattern clearly. Office workers need their clothes cleaned, hair cut, coffee made, and groceries bought. They shop during lunch breaks, grab drinks after work, and use local services. This creates a network of economic activity that goes well beyond the office building.
During the pandemic, when office attendance dropped, the cascading effects were visible. The coffee shop on my corner, which once had a line out the door every morning, was suddenly almost empty. With fewer commuters, spending at local bakeries dropped. Restaurants lost lunch customers and, as a result, began cutting evening hours. The reduction in foot traffic also left convenience stores struggling.
Research on urban centers supports this. Concentrated business districts generate much more economic value compared to their size. Downtown areas usually account for only about 2% of a city’s land but approximately 24% of jobs 23 . In London, the central business district, which is only 1.7% of the city’s land, produces 9% of the economic output 24 .
This trend is even more striking in US cities. Studies found that downtown D.C. generates 12.9% of the city’s revenue, with a projected net fiscal impact of $645 million annually 25 . Research in smaller American cities revealed that downtown mixed-use buildings generate much more property tax revenue per acre than suburban developments. The economic density of office districts operates as a fiscal engine for entire metropolitan areas.
There are also what economists call agglomeration effects, or the productivity advantages from clustering. A meta-analysis of 47 studies by the Centre for Cities found that doubling city size results in about a 4.6% boost in productivity 26 , and a separate study they cite estimates an 8+% elasticity for business services 27 — the strongest sectoral effect. The investment in London’s Elizabeth Line shows these benefits well. It is expected to bring major economic gains by improving productivity. This will happen through better connections and increased clustering of businesses. The project could add about £42 billion to the UK economy 28 .
Learning this changed how I view my daily routine. Every time I go to the office, I’m a small part of something much bigger— a network that supports not just my job but dozens of others. That perspective makes me appreciate what’s at stake when thousands of us make choices about where we work.
Why this matters beyond company walls
This isn’t an argument that remote work is bad or that flexibility isn’t important. I still enjoy the home-office days. However, understanding the wider impact changes how I view the policy shift my company just made.
When leadership made this decision, they likely thought about team cohesion and productivity. They probably didn’t consider how it would impact the BVG’s budget or whether it would help a restaurant in our neighborhood survive. But those effects are real.
European cities have spent over a century building infrastructure based on the idea that people commute to central work locations. Transit lines, restaurant clusters, and commercial tax bases are all connected. Berlin’s U-Bahn opened in 1902 to link residential areas with commercial centers. London’s first underground line in 1863 served the same goal. These systems grew alongside office work and still rely on it.
The past few years taught us that we can work from anywhere. But they also showed us what happens when we do. Transit systems required billions in emergency funding. Many restaurants closed, and cities faced budget shortfalls as jobs vanished. In Germany, many restaurants in office areas struggled or shut down. Meanwhile, Europe’s cleaning and facility services sector experienced major disruption.
So yes, going to the office three days a week instead of two means changing my routine. But it also means contributing to something larger. The person checking badges at the building entrance keeps their shift. The lunch spot around the corner stays busy enough to maintain its staff. Berlin’s public transit can provide more frequent service because ridership supports it. Property values in commercial districts remain stronger, which leads to better-funded infrastructure for everyone.
I’m not suggesting that everyone needs to be in the office five days a week or that remote work is wrong. I still believe flexibility is important, and I value the days I work from home. But understanding the bigger picture — seeing how our individual choices connect to transit workers, restaurant servers, maintenance crews, and city budgets — seems important. When thousands of us arrive at work, we participate in an economic ecosystem that reaches far beyond our job descriptions. That social reason for office work doesn’t eliminate every personal preference, but it’s significant enough to deserve a place in the conversation :)
Off-Topic: A broader lesson about complex decisions
Working through this research changed how I approach decisions that initially frustrated me. When my company announced the new policy, my gut reaction was simple: this is inconvenient and maybe even short-sighted. Why make things harder when remote work clearly works?
But exploring the effects of office attendance taught me something broader. In any large system, whether it’s a company, a city, or a country, decisions that seem straightforward on the surface are connected to many factors that we often overlook. One choice can pull on countless threads, impacting people and systems we don’t see.
I often think about how we learn to anlayze problems. In school, we learned to isolate variables, simplify conditions, and find clear answers. Real-world decisions don’t work that way. The interests are tangled — transit budgets, restaurant livelihoods, tax revenues, facility jobs, productivity metrics, team dynamics. There’s no clear “right answer” that satisfies everything at once.
This doesn’t mean every policy decision is smart or that we shouldn’t question choices that affect us. But it does suggest that labeling something “obviously stupid” often shows how little we understand about the trade-offs involved. The person making the decision might see ten competing priorities we haven’t thought about. Or they might be wrong — wrong in ways that are more complicated than we first assumed.
What strikes me most is this: the complexity itself is why we need to keep learning, asking questions, and trying to understand systems beyond our immediate experience. Not so we can accept everything without criticism, but so we can engage with decisions more thoughtfully. The world’s messiness is not a reason to stop trying to understand it; it’s exactly why understanding matters.
When I walk into the office now, I still prefer my home setup. That hasn’t changed. But I view my commute differently. It’s not just about my preference vs. company policy. It’s one small thread in a web I’m only starting to grasp. Maybe that’s the point — not to have all the answers, but to realize how much more there is to see.
Footnotes
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Grokipedia. “Berlin U-Bahn: Ridership and Urban Impact.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://grokipedia.com/page/Berlin_U-Bahn#ridership-and-urban-impact ↩
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Institution of Civil Engineers. “How Should Transport for London Fund Itself?” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.ice.org.uk/news-views-insights/inside-infrastructure/how-should-transport-for-london-fund-itself ↩
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Urban Institute. “Transit Ridership Hasn’t Recovered from the Pandemic: What Can the US Learn from French Transit Systems?” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/transit-ridership-hasnt-recovered-pandemic-what-can-us-learn-french-transit-systems ↩
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New York State Office of the State Comptroller. “DiNapoli Report Tracks MTA’s Shifting Revenue Streams.” May 2025. https://www.osc.ny.gov/press/releases/2025/05/dinapoli-report-tracks-mtas-shifting-revenue-streams ↩
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New York State Office of the State Comptroller. “MTA Revenue Streams Report.” 2026. https://www.osc.ny.gov/files/reports/pdf/report-4-2026.pdf ↩
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Germany Travel. “Deutscher Hotel- und Gaststättenverband e.V. (DEHOGA).” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.germany.travel/en/trade/global-trade-corner/deutscher-hotel-und-gaststaettenverband-e-v-dehoga.html ↩
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Mordor Intelligence. “Germany Foodservice Market.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/germany-foodservice-market ↩
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“Foodservice in Germany - November 2024 Update.” PDF. https://assets.ctfassets.net/pn8wbiqtnzw9/pYLNDZOn9rZxkM6vOidhF/efd115ceb4b601afa74b83488f123521/Foodservice_in_Germany_-_Nov_24_update.pdf ↩
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London Loves Business. “Stats from Mastercard on London’s Dining and Nightlife.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://londonlovesbusiness.com/stats-from-mastercard-on-londons-dining-and-nightlife/ ↩
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Bloomberg. “Manhattan Work from Home.” 2023. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-manhattan-work-from-home ↩
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“Downtown Office Impact.” YouTube video. Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6s-vjf9fkI ↩
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ABC7 News. “Downtown San Francisco Office Vacancy, Stores Closing, Crime.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://abc7news.com/post/downtown-san-francisco-office-vacancy-stores-closing-crime/14125753/ ↩
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National Restaurant Association. “Restaurants Added Nearly 70K Jobs in September.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/restaurant-economic-insights/analysis-commentary/restaurants-added-nearly-70k-jobs-in-september/ ↩
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EFCI. “The Cleaning Industry in Europe: EFCI’s Report 2021.” February 2022. https://www.fm-house.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/The-cleaning-industry-in-Europe-EFCIs-Report-2021.pdf ↩
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Market Data Forecast. “Europe Cleaning Services Market.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-cleaning-services-market ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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BizPlanr. “Cleaning Industry Statistics.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://bizplanr.ai/blog/cleaning-industry-statistics ↩
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ABC7 News. “Downtown San Francisco Office Vacancy, Stores Closing, Crime.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://abc7news.com/post/downtown-san-francisco-office-vacancy-stores-closing-crime/14125753/ ↩
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IAW. “Grundsteuerreform.” December 2018. https://www.grundsteuerreform.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2018_IAW_Heinemann-1.pdf ↩
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The Luxury Playbook. “Property Taxes in Every European Country.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://theluxuryplaybook.com/property-taxes-in-every-european-country/ ↩
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Mordor Intelligence. “Europe Facility Management Market.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/europe-facility-management-market ↩
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City of Boston. “FY26 Property Taxes.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.boston.gov/departments/budget/fy26-property-taxes ↩
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What Works Growth. “Multipliers Toolkit.” PDF. https://whatworksgrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/Multipliers_Toolkit.pdf ↩
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International Downtown Association. “IDAVODT24 Comprehensive Executive Summary.” November 2024. https://downtown.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/IDAVODT24_Comp_ExecSum_Web.pdf ↩
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Economics Observatory. “How Important Is the City to the UK Economy?” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.economicsobservatory.com/how-important-is-the-city-to-the-uk-economy ↩
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DowntownDC BID. “DowntownDC BID’s State of Downtown 2024 Report Shows Positive Trends.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.downtowndc.org/news/downtowndc-bids-state-of-downtown-2024-report-shows-positive-trends/ ↩
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Tom Forth. “City Size and Productivity.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://tomforth.co.uk/citysizeandproductivity/ ↩
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Centre for Cities. “Office Politics: The Impact of Agglomeration on the Economy.” Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.centreforcities.org/reader/office-politics/the-impact-of-agglomeration-on-the-economy/ ↩
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Transport for London. “TfL Elizabeth Line Benefits Framework.” PDF. https://content.tfl.gov.uk/tfl-elizabeth-line-benefits-framework.pdf ↩