| I want to go back. Maybe not for 5 days a week, but probably 3-4 days. A week ago, I was in the office for the first time in a year. The entire floor with 100+ desks was completely devoid of people, save for one person that I passed by in the hallway. It was not a completely novel sight; I had been to the office on weekends before, for instance to pick up item that I forgot in the drawer the day before. What I did not expect is how quickly I got nostalgic about the office experience. I'm quite well-adjusted to the home office situation at the moment, but I absolutely don't like the lack of physical separation between home and work. A separate desk is just not enough for me. Also, working from home as a single is really lonely. At work, I can passively fulfil my social needs (and still block out the noise with headphones if I need to focus). At home, I have the non-choice of "alone with music" and "along without music". I have a colleague whom I hang out with on a Slack call for hours on end just for some of that office vibe, but it's a subpar replacement. Also, something that's specific to my situation: The office is in the city center, where all kinds of amenities can be reached quickly. My apartment is in the outskirts of the city, so there is not nearly the same density of services and amenities. For example, the office is 10 minutes by foot from a public indoor swimming pool. A few months before the pandemic, I was taking up a habit of going there once a week during lunch break, and that's something that I want to go back to doing. I'll be getting my first shot this weekend, so I've been starting to think about how to go forward once my immune response has built up enough. I'll probably be one of the first to return to the office on a regular basis. Even if it means having to wear a surgical mask inside the building, I think it'll be psychologically significant to me as a physical step back to a sense of normality. |