Back to work
Is it real this time?
Throughout the peaks and the valleys of the pandemic, companies have announced plans to return to the office only to be met with another wave of rising cases that’s forced them to push back their date. With cases dropping once again (what’s that you say about BA.2?), there’s been another round of return-to-work announcements. Will we finally figure out if we’ve been missing anything away from the office?
Though most policies are not mandating five days a week in the office, few are ready to let go of their lease and embrace a fully remote policy. Apple, for example, will require employees to work from the office at least one day a week starting April 11 and at least three days a week by May 23.
Before starting my current job from the comfort of home, I spent four years working remotely for reasons that had nothing to do with public health. Most of that time was spent as part of a small, distributed team, and the rest was spent as a freelancer working solo on various writing assignments.
Despite enjoying the flexibility of remote work and generating a full new set of cells since the last time I’ve seen the inside of an office, I’m eager to spend some time in the latter setting once that’s a possibility. Don’t get me wrong, if I had to choose one or the other—an office job or remote work—I’d choose remote without hesitation.
I do, however, think there’s one really important benefit of in-person collaboration. It’s less that there’s some magical creativity that only sparks in face-to-face situations and more that when you know each other as full-fledged humans, there’s more empathy to be had for each other. You start to see people with lives full of concerns outside of work rather than just another tab that needs to be closed. You start to see what rounds them out besides their professional areas of expertise, their strengths and faults.
And that’s important for anything from work to relationships to calling your cable company. The less we see each other as obstacles to be surmounted or crossed off, the more humanity we bring to working with each other, and the better the outcomes are for the people involved.
It’s hard to say whether hybrid working situations will be a gateway one way or the other. It’s incredible what we’ve been able to accomplish from the safety of our own homes, and after proving that it’s a viable way to collaborate for two years, it’s difficult to see anyone justifiably rescinding the option to work from home at least part of the week.
But I do see us getting back to the office in some capacity, following up on emails with a desk drop-by, grabbing coffee to talk about anything but work. And I think that will be a good thing. There are about 50 people I’ve yet to meet at my company, and I’m looking forward to seeing them outside the boxes we’ve been trapped in. We’ve done great things as is, but there’s so much more we can do once we’re properly acquainted.