I went back to the office and here’s what I found

Yap, after 19 months I went back to the office. Luckily for me it was my choice to actually return as opposed of being imposed to be back 2 or 3 days a week (or even the full week!).

Here’s what I found:

1 – I did enjoy my morning commute despite an uber early start. I left the house at 06h15 and walked the 20m to the station and even managed to arrive 10m before the train. It was busier than I was expecting for a 06h40 train, but still quite manageable. I didn’t read much like I used to as I just wanted to watch through the windows.

2 – The best part of the day was actually the experience of being in the office (despite me battling the whole day to try to connect to the headset as no one could hear me in the meetings – seems sound quality is better at home). In my “section” I was the only one, the only people passing by was the cleaning staff or the coffee staff. I managed to get a desk with window view and could watch people passing by downstairs as if it was a normal day. I even had my first face to face meeting! I think quite a lot of people are really missing those face to face interactions, even the introvers like myself. I almost went lunch outside with another colleague but given the business of meetings just managed a panini at my desk. (Did anyone notice the prices going up by quite a lot or was I the only one???)

3 – On the way back home though was a different story. It really felt almost proper rush hour. The trains were quite busy, you had people running to the door and that’s when I’ve realized that actually I’m not ready to be back on a regular basis. Yes I’m craving after work pub as much as everyone else, but am I really ready? Don’t think I am. If I bring the virus home and my daughter is off-school I would really struggle to work big time. If I will be back? Probably, but not regularly – not while I can avoid it.

Which now brings me to the point of: why are people being forced to be back?

And I’m referring to groups of people that can do their work remotely (and are not mandated by any regulator to physically be in the office) – for a lot of people work from home is definitely not a choice. But for those that is….

Why?

Why can’t leaders recognize that if you want flexibility you have to give flexibility back. The employees with a good transfereable (and sellable) skillset will jump to whichever company allows them flexibility. Do you really want to loose your best resources because you can’t trust them to work from home? Were they actually rolling their fingers for the last 18 months or were people in general working a lot more? (I wrote about it here on “I don’t trust you therefore I need to see you“)

Is it because leaders tend to be extroverts and therefore do not recognize there are a lot of introverts out there that feel a lot better and more productive being at home without all the social exposure in the office? (good article about it here)

Seriously it should be a choice and leaders should have try to find the best solution for their team, not just what’s better for them as individuals!

I find that it’s up to us the younger generations to show there are so many other alternatives that work for the company. Going to the office should be an experience by itself, for team bonding and for specific reasons like a dynamic workshop and removing people from the day to day activities and discuss specific topics together (my views on the new office here).

Just because it’s the way things were done before it doesn’t mean they need to go back exactly as they were!

Return to the office

I’m pretty sure most of you have seen this viral video already, but I’ll share it anyway

Hands up if you feel like this dad! I certainly do!

Why does it feel so hard to be back into the office?

We got used to work from home and work with comfortable clothing. While we are social creatures, we do adapt pretty easily, so we’ve managed to adapt to be able to hide ourselves. Even with the meeting here and there on camera, we didn’t had to pretend to be spot on at all times. And this could be all the way from working on our comfortable clothing (dear PJ’s I’m looking at you), to not having to hide the tired look from your face.

I know there’s a lot of people out there who would love to be back into the office and to the hustle and bustle, sushi takeaways for lunch and all the lot, well I don’t. Well, not on a regular basis that is.

If I go back to the office – and I am so lucky I don’t have to return right now – I will struggle to take my daughter to work, I won’t be able to have lunch on my table with my husband (even if it’s just 15m). I won’t be able to give my daughter a hug as she comes from school and I won’t be able to get so much s* done at work either!

I know a lot of people are having to return even if on a flexible basis not because their work always demands that to be the case but because there’s still a lack of trust on the employees (as I wrote here).

I will actually be in the office this month for one random day (mainly to see if I can find my shoes and the stuff I left in the office and because I’m curious to know how it feels like to commute back) so I can write all about it another day.

I do hope somehow we move forward and drive towards a new flexible future that works for everyone (I wrote some of my views here).

Happy Sunday (because there’s no happy Mondays).