Last year, this week was a significant one. As the sports world continued its free fall of cancellations, offices started to think about their in-person work arrangements and whether staff should continue physically coming in to work.
This day last year was my last "official" day working, well... at work. A few days prior, my team had been given the option to work either in-person, or remotely - whatever we preferred doing. But that changed on Friday, March 13, 2020, with all of us being asked to prepare to work from home for the foreseeable future.
I locked up my belongings, put everything away in boxes and took my laptop home. And other than the occasional day in the office here and there, I have largely been working from home ever since.
At the start, I recall being elated at the idea. No commute! No rushing to get everything packed up for the day! No checking the weather before picking out what to wear! No waiting for the bus! Hallelujah, my time has come!
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| My fuzzy coworker and office mate, sleeping on the job. Again. |
Imagine my surprise, a year later, to actually miss going into the office (not all the time, but sometimes): the social aspect of work, going out for lunches with coworkers, grabbing coffee with colleagues. I miss my big, dual monitor set up, printing off long documents to read versus squinting at them on a screen, and my work "stuff" like my designated office mug and pen pot, that remain locked away in a cupboard.
If and when we, as a collective of office workers, are able to establish new work norms, my ideal situation would be to have the option of whether to work from home versus in person. I would love to be in the office a couple of days a week, but also at home the rest of the time. To see my colleagues regularly, but also have the ability to work in a quiet environment, with home typically being a place of very few distractions. What a nice balance that would be.
I do wonder if we'll ever get there. Someday?
I almost can't believe I'm saying this but, MAN I SURE HOPE SO. And not just for my downtown real estate valuation - I swear it's also for my sanity and social skills, both of which I feel have deteriorated these past 10 months. 😬 https://t.co/Jg5wBbxPt2
— Angie Natingor (@anatingor) January 27, 2021
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