The ripple effects of SF’s floundering office market

One type of office furniture actually in higher demand? Phone booths, where workers can take calls in relative privacy, without worrying about distracting chatter or anyone sneaking a look at their screen — in other words, furniture that creates the work-from-home experience at the office. 

One provider, Room, is seeing 50% more customers and units sold than it did in 2019. Payroll services company Gusto, a Room client in SF, recently ordered seven booths to accommodate employees coming in on so-called anchor days.  

Before Gusto received the new furniture, there were “literal lines of people waiting for booths or taking calls on the sidewalk or hijacking conference rooms or squatting in the lactation rooms to have some privacy,” said facilities manager JP Espino. 

One of the big benefits of furniture like phone booths is that it can be schlepped in and out without major construction. 

Bigger build-outs have plummeted in the city, where the value of permitted work for office alterations and repairs sank to $432.9 million in 2023 from a peak of $1.5 billion in 2019, according to the Examiner. 

That has burned construction businesses, heavy equipment providers and installers like Conklin Bros., whose business has slowed to a trickle. 

“We’re just sitting here waiting for it to pick up,” Edson said. “I pray to God it does.”