We Have To Go Back
On the return to the office…
“You’re on mute.” Three words I look forward to never hearing again, let alone several times a day, sometime soon. This possibility has been on my mind recently as the U.S. seemingly races towards reopening. With each passing day, we’re moving from cautious excitement to actual excitement.
Of course, the reality of the world we’re returning to is going to be far more nuanced. While it does seem like we’re moving fast now with regard to vaccine distribution and business re-openings, it’s not going to be a 0-to-60 overnight thing. The return to “normal” is going to be slow and staggered, as it should be. And so Zoom fatigue isn’t fully going away anytime soon. We’re still going to be on mute by accident while talking constantly.
That said, talking to various folks over these past few weeks has been rather interesting. It’s anecdotal, but my perception is that the tone has shifted from one of caution to one of exuberance. Not in a reckless way, I just get the sense that if and when the world is ready for us, and things can fully be open again — say, late summer or early fall (hopefully) — we are going to get a bit of a rush back to the office.
All the talk over the past many months (year!) has been about how the pandemic has forever changed the way we work. And I’m sure that’s true. But I do wonder now if we’re not going to get a more immediate reaction that’s almost the opposite: when we’re allowed to and it’s safe, everyone will want to come back to the office full time, all the time.
The reason why is obvious: we’ve all been stuck in our work-from-home hells for over a year. Yes, things about it are great. But eating ice cream is great too — unless you have to do it every single working minute of every single day for a year straight. You will puke. We are collectively at the point of puking from overconsumption of work-from-home.
We need a palate cleanser.
And that cleanser will be work-from-office.¹ All those things we disliked about working from a strict office environment are memories lost in time at this point. We desire to go back and remember what we hated.
So I’m now thinking there will be an almost unnatural surge the other way. And this could last for a few weeks until we settle into some sort of new equilibrium. The new “normal”.² A few days in the office. A few days at home, on Zoom. On mute.
Update 3/27: On the other hand…
¹ With a taste of work-from-cafe and the like mixed in.
² Not for everyone, or all companies, of course. Two big factors why. First, a number of companies have now been started that are remote-first and that’s not going to change. But even with those companies there will be a strong desire to meet up in person with colleagues — some of whom you will have never met in person, which is wild! Second, a number of people have moved from their main hub during the pandemic and will not or cannot move back. Still, same idea: I suspect business travel to surge in the first few months back so that people can catch up in person.
