“My experience of working from home is you spend an awful lot of time making another cup of coffee and then, you know, getting up, walking very slowly to the fridge, hacking off a small piece of cheese, then walking very slowly back to your laptop and then forgetting what it was you’re doing” – Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister.
The pandemic arrived in the United States in March 2020 which was quickly followed by a two week quarantine lockdown. State and local governments passed emergency mandates that required non-essential businesses to close. Establishments such as restaurants, gyms, salons and movie theaters were shut down and those who worked for them were out of a job. Knowledge workers such as those working in finance and IT were generally allowed to work from home and apps like Zoom became popular as a way for employees to stay in touch with management and coworkers. My office closed for two weeks till the pandemic had passed. We were instructed to take what we needed to do our jobs remotely. Two weeks became two months and then two years and I am still working from home.
For many, this “new normal” afforded them the opportunity to spend more time with their loved including their pets. No longer having to deal with office commutes, expensive lunches and difficult employees, the work life balance and quality of life improved for those working from home. There are many advantages as a remote worker. All those chores that may have waited till the weekend could be squeezed in between Zoom conferences. You could take the dog for a walk and do a virtual workout in your lunch hour.
After most people had been vaccinated and the pandemic had passed its peak and became endemic, there was a push to get people back to the office. Some who’d gone a long time without human contact looked forward to being back in the office but the majority of virtual workers wanted to keep remote working.
In some industries such as the financial sector, senior management felt their employees worked better in the office collaboratively. David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, said “I do think for a business like ours which is an innovative, collaborative apprenticeship culture, this is not ideal for us and it’s not a new normal. It’s an aberration that we’re going to correct as quickly as possible” (McKeever). The British prime minister Boris Johnson said “We need to get back into the habit of getting into the office. There will be lots of people who disagree with me, but I believe people are more productive, more energetic, more full of ideas, when they are surrounded by other people.” Boris felt that workers were unproductive while working remotely and were more likely to spend their working hours drinking slow brewed coffee and hacking off pieces of cheese (Taylor).
Some employees threatened to quit if their company forced them to come back to the office and in the age of the Great Resignation there were plenty of remote working jobs out there. A few few were scared to come back to the office for fear of catching Covid-19 but most wanted to keep their work/life balance.
Not every company was so demanding. Many CEOs recognized the benefits of remote working and employees found they were more productive working from home. In order to meet remote workers half way, some companies proposed a hybrid working environment whereby employees would come into the office a few days a week and work from home the rest of the week. Apple Corp created “return to office plans” that allowed employees to work a hybrid schedule with some days in the office and the rest working from home.
Check out this funny YouTube video on “when meetings are no longer virtual” (Foil Arms and Hog).
The pandemic has changed the lives of office workers forever. Working Monday to Friday in the office from 9-5 is over. Hybrid and remote working schedules are here to stay.
Social Media Trends as of May 20, 2022
Facebook #returntooffice: 5,500 people are posting about this
Instagram #returntooffice: 9,494 posts
TikTok #returntooffice: 34 million views
YouTube #returntooffice: 153 videos and 108 channels
Google Trends: “return to office” as a search term has been around for a while but its popularity peaked in August 2021 as vaccines became widely available and state and local governments decided that it was safe to come back to the office.
Sources:
Elly | Corporate Millennial. “When they announce the ‘return to office’ plan.” TikTok. December 30, 2021. URL: https://www.tiktok.com/@1corporatemillennial/
video/7047542286145834287?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en.
Foil Arms and Hog. “Back to the Office: When Meetings are No Longer Virtual.” YouTube. September 2, 2021. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU9VYcQWSOc.
McKeever, Vicky. “Goldman Sachs CEO Solomon calls working from home an ‘aberration’.” CNBC.com. February 25, 2021. URL: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/
25/goldman-sachs-ceo-solomon-calls-working-from-home-an-aberration-.html.
pooiekoo. “Welcome Note with Hand Sanitizer and Mask on Work Keyboard, Return to Workplace Pandemic” image. Adobe.com. File no: 359144776.
Taylor, Harry. “Boris Johnson says cheese and coffee can distract when working from home.” The Guardian. 14 May 2022. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/
2022/may/14/boris-johnson-urges-more-people-to-return-to-office-working.