The Return to the Office Will Only Succeed Through Radical Transparency

Have these conversations before moving from your kitchen table back to your desk

Jake Daghe
Forge

--

Photo: martin-dm/E+/Getty Images

After months of remote work, the leaders at my company recently announced on an all-team Zoom call that we will be heading back to the office very soon — in a modified way, following social distancing guidelines. It was an announcement we all knew was coming; many have already started migrating back to office life as states lifted their coronavirus-related restrictions.

Still, the news hit me in a way I didn’t expect: I was sad.

When we first began sheltering in place, I hated working from home. I even actively looked for excuses to make trips back to the office — had I left something on my desk that I urgently needed? But eventually, I settled into a comfortable routine, learned how to be pretty productive in my new setting, and somehow felt more connected to my co-workers than I had when we were sitting right across from each other. And I couldn’t complain about the commute.

For workers making a safe transition back to the office — a situation that I acknowledge is an extremely fortunate one to be in right now — there may be a lot of mixed feelings and anxieties. I certainly had them. After that Zoom call…

--

--

Jake Daghe
Forge
Writer for

Creative Engineer writing working hypotheses | I write what I wish I could have read when I was younger | Join my newsletter ‘I/Q Crew’ on Substack.