Who Is Ready to Get Back to the Office?
October 4, 2021
The pandemic has had many workers asking “hey, who needs an office?” Maybe most of us, according to the write-up, “How Work from Home Has Changed and Became Less Desirable in Last 18 Months” posted at Illumination. Cloud software engineer Amrit Pal Singh writes:
“Work from home was something we all wanted before the pandemic changed everything. It saved us time, no need to commute to work, and more time with the family. Or at least we used to think that way. I must say, I used to love working from home occasionally in the pre-pandemic era. Traveling to work was a pain and I used to spend a lot of time on the road. Not to forget the interrupts, tea breaks, and meetings you need to attend at work. I used to feel these activities take up a lot of time. The pandemic changed it all. In the beginning, it felt like I could work from home all my life. But a few months later I want to go to work at least 2–3 times a week.”
What changed Singh’s mind? Being stuck at home, mainly. There is the expectation that since he is there he can both work and perform household chores each day. He also shares space with a child attending school virtually—as many remote workers know, this makes for a distracting environment. Then there is the loss of work-life balance; when both work and personal time occur in the same space, they tend to blend together and spur monotony. An increase in unnecessary meetings takes away from actually getting work done, but at the same time Singh misses speaking with his coworkers face-to-face. He concludes:
“I am not saying WFH is bad. In my opinion, a hybrid approach is the best where you go to work 2–3 days a week and do WFH the rest of the week. I started going to a nearby cafe to get some time alone. I have written this article in a cafe :)”
Is such a hybrid approach the balance we need?
Cynthia Murrell, October 4, 2021
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