Office life (216/365)

[white_hart]

Somewhat without quite intending to, I appear to have returned to working in the office full-time and am, on the whole, much happier for it. It's definitely easier to just have one workday routine rather than having two and having to remember which one I need to be following on any given day; it's also much easier to work when I have a big desk and two big monitors and a laptop to take notes on (though note-taking on the laptop is a slightly new thing - I used to use it for face-to-face meetings pre-lockdown, then ended up moving back to using paper and pen while I was working from home, but since being back in the office I've found myself using the laptop again. This may be at least in part because it's not that easy to see my notebook through my new computer glasses...), and when I don't have someone in the next room coming and interrupting me with domestic questions. While I do miss my morning walks I also suspect that it does me good to space my outdoor time throughout the day; a walk to work, a walk most lunchtimes (or, today, a swim), a walk home from work. And I like having that liminal time, actual physical and mental space between work and home.

Having started off thinking that I needed to model being back in the office more to try to encourage my team to return, I now find myself wondering if I should actually be making more of an effort to model a hybrid working pattern if I want to make it clear to people that that would be OK in the post-pandemic world, even though I'm not sure I want that for myself. (Or maybe when I'm working five days a week again, instead of using annual leave to make four, I'll want to spend the fifth day working from home.)

Comments

[serriadh]

I’m glad it’s working so well for you - a lunchtime swim sounds idyllic!

You may find that when more people are back in generally you want a day at home away from people ‘popping in’. Swapping for domestic interruptions would at least be a change 😂

[white_hart]

That's true! I used to do that occasionally in the Before Times, but since last March working from home just has connotations of endless Teams meetings.

[girlyswot]

I think you could model making the choices that work for you, and make clear to your team that they can make the choices that work for them.

[white_hart]

Yes, but what one does as a manager always counts for more than what one says :-(

[muninnhuginn]

It's fascinating how we've all reacted to the changes in our work sites/situations. What we've missed, or not, from the mostly in the office life; what we've loved, or hated, about working from home. I'd never have pegged myself as needing the company of co-workers. I did know I needed the physical gap between work and home (especially when I had no gap between bed and desk--and did return to the office).

Huge amounts of adjustments to be made--for those of us lucky enough to have jobs that permit choice.