As offices are gradually opening up, either partially or fully, many employees are returning to their workspaces rather reluctantly, either out of nervousness or habit. Many countries worldwide have even begun to offer ‘workation’ destinations – places to unwind while staying connected.
What started as an emergency solution to the lockdowns following the global pandemic, working from home, or WFH, transformed from being a novelty, a distraction and, finally, a way of life for many.
As we perfected our Zoom background and invested in gadgets and clothing to work online, we began to forget what the regular office looked like.
Not many of us miss the long commute, the pungent coffee rooms or the forced small talk that is the bane of offices. But in many cases, the return may not even be happening at all. In fact, according to CNBC, less than half of the traditional offices are going back to work in the way that they had two years ago. In fact, “the formal end to the full office return is coming – if not yet already here,” according to BBC Worklife.
But is this new reality ideal? For all its focus on flexible work hours and saving time and money on travel and other incidental expenses of a typical work day, working from home may actually reduce and even erase some of the skills we develop while being physically engaged in a traditional office.
Humans learn by watching and doing. We learn to navigate the culture of a workplace by reading faces, body language and silences. We also make friends while passing by in the corridor, or at the water cooler. These are not opportunities that we can take advantage of when sitting in front of a digital screen.
Collaboration of ideas also happen when people sit together – not at a pre-defined time and place but spontaneously, often when brainstorming a range of talking points. This creates a sense of common purpose that is possible when colleagues feel connected to a common institutional mission.
Without it, a company is just a few random people going in several directions, even directionless.
Perhaps most of all, the workplace gives one a sense of belonging. It is difficult to prod yourself back to being a designer, a teacher, or whatever else your professional role may be, huddled in the confines of a home while simultaneously being a parent, a cook and every other role integral to us.
Defining the office as a space for professional work also creates mentally creative, uncluttered spaces.
With both employers and workers differing in their attitudes to workspaces, a growing hybrid model may soon become the norm. According to NPR, “there is a danger of being hardline” and insisting on coming to the office everyday may result in mass resignations, as seen in the United States in early 2021. The growing preference seems to be for some sort of hybrid attendance, with a compulsory ‘full’ day when everybody signs in and possibly two other days when employees could choose to come to work.
Sandhya Rao Mehta
The writer is an assoc prof,
Dept of English Language and Literature, SQU
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