The death of the office? For many white collar workers, remote work has become the norm over the past year as businesses across the world shuttered their offices in response to the pandemic. Although questions remain about the long-term viability of the WFH model, the pandemic has prompted some businesses to reconsider the necessity of having physical working spaces, raising questions over the fate of the office in the years to come.

Employees might not want to return to pre-covid norms: Some 80% of people surveyed by McKinsey indicated that they enjoy working from home while 41% said they have been more productive than before. A separate survey conducted by Stanford University in May found that 55% of US workers wanted some mix of home and office work, if only to spare them the stress of a daily commute, while only a quarter of people polled by Gallup said they wanted to return to the office post-covid. There’s also data from well before the outbreak of covid-19 that suggests there are productivity gains to be seen in partial WFH schedules, often for simply providing a quiet environment for workers to focus.

Some companies are reviewing their need for office space: In June, S&P Global said it expected the crisis to cause a structural shift in demand for office space, causing a gradual decline as some companies make covid-era contingency measures permanent. The WFH trend, it said, “could ultimately erode tenants' demand for traditional office space and dampen overall occupancy and rent levels.” A number of large firms in the US plan to cut back on office space in the coming year, and almost three-quarters of financial services companies in the UK are considering doing the same.

The situation in Europe is slightly different, where new lease agreements with several major companies haven’t been disrupted by the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reports. “The demise of the office is exaggerated,” said Jack Pringle, director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for architectural firm Perkins & Will, who suggested that business will struggle to attract top talent offering WFH.

But rather than abandon offices completely, most are likely to adopt a hybrid model: Even with widespread vaccination efforts on the horizon it seems likely a hybrid model will become the course of action for most businesses for the foreseeable future. There are still some perks to having in person interactions, especially for collaborative projects and team building, but meetups may become more selective in the future, rather than the norm. Businesses will tailor their schedules differently over the coming period depending on their particular needs, but for a lot of places it has become clear that a lot of work can be done remotely and workers are often happier doing it that way.