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!
Welcome to the world of working from home. We should all be experts by now given it’s been more than 1 year right? Some people are looking forward to be back in the office and have human interactions again while others are more than happy to continue like this.
From my side, I had already worked from home quite a lot in the past prior to becoming the new normal, especially as I used to travel weekly so the Friday was from home and sometimes I would try to squeeze in a whole week of working from home. After having my daughter I felt the need even more but I was in a project where I had to come up with a million reasons why that day I needed to work from home and let me say that was extremely frustrating. I see the world more goal oriented, either you deliver or you don’t. For all I care people could be working from the beach as long as the goals are met. I know a lot of people will totally disagree with me on this.
Ok, I really want to eleborate a bit more here. I do believe if companies give you flexibility – e.g. if you need to work from home providing your goals and those of your team are not impacted, then you can – then you will also end up giving flexibility back to the company – e.g. cram in weekend work due to a very important deadline. They can’t be one sided only otherwise you’ll just end up with frustration. If you don’t trust the people on your team to be working while at home, then they shouldn’t be in the team, should they? (scrap this point if the employement laws make it next to impossible to get rid of someone even with valid reasons).
Anyway, no matter if you had experience working from home, if you prefer to be in the office or at home, when suddendly all of us were home it impacted us all big time (and for those with kids at home: you guys are superheroes).
Before I carry on and because I love memes, here’s another one
So how do you keep sane if you’re working from home?
Idea 1 – Maintain a routine. You would have one if you were going to the office right? You would live the house give or take at the same time, and return back home at the same time. So the same rules are valid at home as well. Decide what you want to do with your commute time in the morning, e.g. you might want to sleep all of it like I do now, you could do half / half and wake up earlier to have time to enjoy a morning walk so you are by your desk when you would normally be in the office. You should reverse the slot to have your food – you would eat in the office wouldn’t you? So ensure you block your calendar for eating – refer to my show to your calendar who’s the boss for more tips on this – and also define when you will stop your working day.
I think it’s the stopping most people struggle because they don’t have to commute back home and then home and work just blend in as one and the same where you are still constantly checking emails. Well, don’t. Just define a time when you will be stopping – except emergencies – and stop it.
Idea 2 – Find ways to make a clear cut between when you’re in working mode vs at home – It’s so easy to just roll from bed and start working immediately but this means your brain doesn’t have the time to shift from resting time into completely work mode.
You can always do like this guy here (now a meme)
Note: I’ve googled this one, but don’t know who owns the original picture and it’s so good!
Ok, maybe not like this one, but the idea if you do something that allows your brain to move between states (the state where you were sleeping so well and now you have to face work). If you could get dressed and go for a quick walk around the block before turning on the pc that would be great, but it can be as simple as having a quick shower and getting dressed, then stopping by your local coffee machine (in your kitchen) and make your favourite coffee and then turn on the pc. On Lockdown 1.0 I was doing morning yoga before starting my working day, by lockdown 2.0 (given it was winter) I had given up all my energy so just do the coffee bit. Before I start working I also open all the curtains and windows to let the light in before turning on the pc. I check a few emails and then will have breakfast before coming back to meetings as this is something I did a few times in the office – arrive at 07, check emails, and get breakfast at 07h30 downstairs.
Once you stop working the same is necessary. I stop far too late so I can no longer go for a walk outside (I do the walk to take my daughter to school in the morning), but I just shut the lid of the pc and go to the kitchen. The moment I live my desk I know I’m done and I won’t be coming back to this desk until next day. On the weekend I put my personal laptop on top of the work one so I know even if I’m sitting on the same desk, I’m doing non work stuff (like writing this post).
Idea 3 – Do breaks! You would do breaks to speak with your colleagues or to get another coffee, so why not do the same at home? I do reserve slots on my day to chit chat with my colleagues, sometimes we even do camera content. The current favourite is to show who has the funniest background. I can’t recommend this enough, but try to connect to people and reach out to them to ensure they are ok.
Idea 4 – Find “a space” that will be your working area – When lockdown started, I didn’t had a desk. My husband already worked from home for a few years so he had the office and no space for me so sit and place my pc. So my office for a good 4 months was my daughters IKEA chair and I would have the laptop on my legs.
Eventually I ended up buying a small desk and moving some furniture around so it would fit in the living room. I know the concept of having an office in your home it’s something which most of us can’t really accomodate, so just find a corner in the house where you can fit a small desk and a comfy chair so you can work. If it’s the kitchen table (because no space for even the tiniest desk) then ensure you get a comfortable chair for your back. I currently have a corner of the living room which has my desk and a frame on top of the desk and I have a plant too. But if you’re spending so many hours, make it comfortable and accessorize it to your taste. You can even put some shoes around like you would in the office (or not).
Idea 5 – Make the most of it! – If you are not in meetings you can have your favourite songs playing in the background and you won’t be disturbing your colleagues and no need for headsets, you might even squeeze in a quick dance! Do you need to make the laundry? Then just go for it. Comfy clothing? Yes bring it on.
Idea 6 – Let go of any perfectionist idea – There’s no time for it and you’ll have to compromise somewhere, so just accept what is key and what needs to stay behind and not be done, because no one can have it all, no matter how many books say “here’s 5 leaders that have it all”, they don’t.
Finally I would take the time to think about what you believe the new normal will be and what you would like to maintain even when we return to normal life. For me it was already clear I wanted to work regularly from home a few days (prior to know this was going to be happening) and now I’m convinced this is what I would like to do so I can take my little one to school and can help out with dinner (which I never did in the past during the week).
Also, I used to use my commutes to read books, so I’ve decided to shift that to the evenings before falling asleep and quite happy to have done 17 books already from January to now.
So what’s your new normal? Whatever it is, stay sane.
FYI, you're TBB 