Going Back to the Office After 6 Months WFH
The news broke late last week via email. Out of the 3 teams which usually inhabit our large, open-plan office, my team has been selected to return to work in 6 weeks’ time on a rota-basis — 3 in, 3 out — expected to run the whole office on skeleton staff for who knows how long.
I suffered a sleepless night that night, tossing and turning both physically and mentally, as I examined the situation and my resultant emotions from every angle. This is the news I’d been dreading and whilst other members of my team — those who have not embraced and relished every moment of WFH as I have — were no doubt celebrating, I was commiserating.
Logically-speaking, it’s not as if work are asking us to do anything unreasonable. Pre-pandemic, we were office-based staff, they have assured us that all the correct COVID-secure measures will be in place by the time we return, and are going over and above by insisting that all staff and customers wear masks at all times whilst on the premises. I also understand why it is specifically our team that has been selected to return — we are the largest and most customer-facing. It makes sense, yet to me it feels unfair when the other teams can continue to WFH for the foreseeable, although no doubt this news has caused mixed reactions across their teams also, with staff who are dying to return feeling that it’s unfair that we get to and they don’t — it’s impossible to please everyone.
Emotionally-speaking, I’m dreading my return to the grind of office life: the earlier get-ups, the extra 2 hours per day I will lose to the commute, and the constant, underlying stress I suffer from working in a large, open space and having to be ‘on’ all day, not to mention the background noise and interruptions, all of which hamper my clarity, calm and ability to think. I’m especially dreading returning to work under COVID-conditions and with only skeleton staff to rely on. Where can I run to and hide for solace during my precious lunch-breaks? What if one or more of us get sick or want to take holiday?
The finer details have not yet been worked out, nor will they be for the foreseeable future is my guess, due to the uncertainty of the times. Our geographical area has already been placed into local lockdown, as our COVID-cases ramped up once national lockdown restrictions relaxed. Who knows what else could change over the course of the next 6 weeks?
Having had a few days to reflect on my impending return, I’ve formulated a plan — I always feel better with a plan — and have started taking the necessary steps.
1. I’ve spoken to my reportee, an early-bird, whom I plan to have on my small team of 3, and she’s agreed to cover the ‘early shift’, so to speak, meaning that I can arrive later, thus allowing me a later start. As someone who can be a very poor sleeper at times, just knowing that I can wake up half an hour later takes some pressure off my mind when trying to coerce it to switch off.
2. I’ve invested in some good quality, wireless ear phones — no more spending half my commute detangling wires, something that drives me nuts! They are noise-cancelling, so great for escaping into the safety of my head, both on my commute and during my lunch-breaks, should I be physically unable to go somewhere quiet. Their app comes with a range of calming nature sounds, e.g. birdsong and the ocean, perfect for pretending that I’m not back in the soul-crushing, concrete jungle. For all my other musical needs, there’s YouTube.
3. Where possible, I’m planning to spend at least one full day at home every weekend. From lessons learnt in lockdown, I’ve discovered that going out every day is hugely draining for an introvert like me, and that I need to take my downtime away from society at large, in the safety and solace of my 4 walls. And work-nights-out will be an absolute no-no. There’s nothing more anxiety-inducing than blurring the lines between office professionalism and alcohol’s inhibitions. Not only will going out less aid my mental health and wellbeing, but it will boost me financially too. Since the pandemic began, I’ve learnt to bake and make all the café classics — no more spending £7.50 on artisan sandwiches, which I can make at home for a fraction of the price and calories!
4. When I arrive home each evening, I will to aim to lie down in a quiet room for half an hour to rest and collect both myself and my thoughts after my day at work, or maybe just have a nap.
5. I’m going to try to see my work differently — ‘attitude is a small thing that makes a big difference’, right?
a. Honestly, I’ve always had a dim view of people whose main motivation for doing their jobs is to help others. As someone with a disillusioned, cynical world-view, changing said world, even a small corner of it, seemed to me a one-way ticket towards costly personal sacrifice for very little gain. However, last Friday, suffering from the aforementioned terrible night’s sleep brought on by the news about returning to the office, I had no mental energy beyond setting myself 3 goals to achieve that day: to help our customers to the best of my ability, to support my reportee, and to bless my poor mother with a cake and a visit after she’d been away supporting a family member with a big life-change. All these goals involved putting myself out for others, and on a day when I was lacking the foundation of a good night’s sleep, yet achieving them made me feel great, like I’d had a day well-lived. My job is conducive to helping others, and there are always ways to bless family and friends. I guess I need to learn to focus on these things, rather than seeing my work and life as a series of tick-boxes to complete and tasks to finish — a sense of achievement isn’t always attained by being productive as possible.
b. My perception of work is also improved by looking at it through the lens of gratefulness. With the UK seemingly spiralling into recession, I am lucky to have a job and one which, for the most part, I enjoy and which plays to my strengths. I’ve read that happiness / fulfilment lies in the middle ground between boredom and stress, and whilst my job errs on the stressful side a little too often, I am almost never bored, an issue I’ve had in every other job before my current one.
Formulating this plan for coping with the return to office life has led me towards some kind of acceptance of my fate, so to speak. I will miss WFH in more ways than I can possibly describe. Yet, I’m comforted by the fact that, certainly in the short-term, I will be back at the office on a rota-basis, rather than full-time, thus enabling a period of transition. I’m also daring to hope that work will have seen how well its staff have operated from home during this period and will build some home-working allowance into our schedules moving forward, for those that want it. I sincerely hope that lessons learnt in lockdown will not be wasted and that balance will prevail moving forward, with people spending more time at home, whether for work or play, not always relying on the outside world for stimulus and entertainment, thus creating less crowded places and roads, and also benefitting the environment.
