On Monday, I covered some financial costs and items to consider before returning to work at the office post-Covid. Making the decision to return to the office is much more than a financial one and today I am going to share some non-financially related feelings to consider before returning to work at the office post-Covid.
The decision of when, if, and how to return is a personal and unique one for each person and each job situation. This post is not me telling you what to do. In this post, I will be posing many questions for you to consider and determine how you feel or want to respond in a work situation.
Writing down your feelings in a journal or talking them through with a trusted person may be helpful for you to fully flush through the complexity of them.
Before you are in a hectic and high-pressure office situation, you should take some time to get really clear on where your comfort level is and set some boundaries. Below is a list of items to consider and evaluate how you feel and where your comfort level is before your return to working in the office or decide if you are returning to the office.
Overall considerations
- At what level am I comfortable with interacting with people?
- What do I know about the transmission of Covid among people?
- In what situations would I choose to wear a mask even if it is not required?
- How do I feel about people choosing to get vaccinated or choosing to not get vaccinated? How much am I willing to share my opinions with others?
Being really firm in your personal understanding and personal actions around Covid is key for you to set boundaries while at the office. You have the right to say No, I am uncomfortable, I will join this meeting on zoom, or I am working from home to your supervisor or boss.
The situation around Covid is continually changing and federal, state, and local mandates will continue to be fluid. It is ok to set a boundary based on the current situation and modify it later based on new information. There are no right or wrong decisions, use your best judgment to make the best decision for yourself and your comfort level.
By having these boundaries set ahead of time, you will be able to quickly implement or follow them when the situation arises without having to take time to figure out what you are comfortable with at the moment.
Comfort level interacting with people
What is your comfort level interacting with people you may encounter at work? This may include co-workers who are required to follow the return to work policy that your workplace implemented or the general public who may or may not follow any policy or recommendations.
- Interacting with co-workers in the office
- Interacting with the public or other visitors to your workplace
- Commuting- Interacting with people on the bus, subway, or other transit options.
Boundaries or comfort level may look like only having one on one conversations with coworkers you know are vaccinated or continuing to participate in group meetings via zoom only.
Mental health
In many ways, mental health awareness has increased during the pandemic, even as many people’s mental health has worsened. Check-in with yourself.
- How has your mental health been recently?
- How has your mental health changed from the beginning or middle of the pandemic? From before the pandemic?
Being at home so much has been very polarizing for people. Some people love it, others are chomping at the bit to go anywhere. Life returning to the office will look significantly different in ways that may affect your mental health in positive or negative ways. Consider how the following changes may affect you:
- Being away from home for 40 or more hours a week
- Driving to commute or commuting on public transit
- Having less time for the things you want to do because you are working/commuting more hours during the week.
- Is the busyness at the office environment going positively or negatively affect your mental health?
- Are there self-care habits or routines you picked up during work from home, that you want to continue when you return to the office?
Your mental health is an important priority for you. Set aside some quiet time to really get into how you are feeling right now and how returning to the office may affect you.
It is ok not to be ok right now.
The entire Covid pandemic has been incredibly difficult on everyone. If your mental health is poor right now, that is ok. Don’t be hard on yourself. Practice self-compassion and be gentle with yourself as you work to figure out what you need right now.
Work-life balance
One of the most common positives I heard about working from home is the ease of fixing or making better lunches and dinners at home rather than eating a “sad” lunch at your desk or picking up takeout. It is also easier to keep up on some small chores like dishes, laundry, or cleaning using short breaks during the day. When you are not at home during the day, you will need to find a new routine for these tasks.
- Meal considerations. You will need to find/settle into a routine to pack lunch and have easy-to-make dinners that you can make after you get home each day or mindfully increase your dining-out budget to cover the additional cost.
- Cleaning/tidying up at home. Those quick chores you can do during a mid-day break will now need to be done on evenings or weekends.
- Will returning to the office mean more work for you? Will you need to set boundaries so you leave at 5 every day? How do you feel about taking work home with you?
Quality of work
One of the arguments both for and against working from home is that people’s quality of work increased or decreased at home. In preparation for that, think through how workflow changes or distractions may affect your work when returning to the office.
- Do you anticipate the quality/quantity of your work increasing or decreasing with being back in the office?
- Are there some things you can do in advance to prepare and help ensure it is a positive transition?
Non-work activities
The most common justification I am hearing from employers for returning staff to the office has been missing out on team-building time, collaborations, work relationships, or connections. I would expect to see an emphasis on other team-building or community-building activities when you return to the office.
- How will you handle non-work-related work activities such as the end of the day happy hours, communal lunches, or other team-building activities that you may be expected to attend?
An opportunity for a reset?
Returning back to the office now gives you a bit of a reset to some of the habits you had pre-covid. Think about some of the things that caused you to stress in the office pre-covid. Can you change your behavior around them to make the workplace healthier for you?
One habit I had was to accept work from people at 4:45 pm and feel like I needed to get it done that day. I can now re-set and get in the habit of accepting the work with the phrase “Thanks, I will get this started tomorrow and let you know if I need anything else to complete it”.
How to handle pushback
No matter where you stand with your thoughts on returning to the office, you will encounter others who believe something different than you and do not understand your discomfort with certain actions. Based on the comfort level and boundaries you explored earlier, brainstorm some possible situations where you may face resistance or push back from someone?
Before you are in an awkward situation with a boss or co-worker, Come up with some phrases ahead of time you can use when you are in an uncomfortable situation.
- I am not comfortable with being around a large group of people right now (or more than 3 people, or whatever your comfort level is). I will be attending the meeting/training remotely.
- At the moment, I need to leave work right at 5 to go home, so I will not be at today’s happy hour.
- I am eating a lunch I brought from home today, so I can’t go out to lunch with you and the group.
- I need to focus on a big project today and will be working with my door closed. Please only interrupt me for an emergency.
Returning to the office is a tricky situation for both employers and employees to navigate. During this time, remember that your comfort level and choices matter. Don’t let a boss, policy, or individual person push you into a situation that makes you uncomfortable or violates a boundary that you set.
By taking the time in advance to determine your comfort levels and set boundaries in place, you can reduce the anxiety that comes with making a big change like this.
What are your thoughts and feelings on returning to work in the office? Have you been working in the office the whole pandemic or is your work asking you to return to the office soon? Share your thoughts in the comments or over on our Instagram page.
Note: Please keep politics or science/vaccine-related thoughts out of the comments and focus on the personal return to in-office work feelings only.
As a happy introvert, I have been enjoying not being around people and not thinking of excuses to turn down events. Lol. So returning to the office is not an option for me. It has been interesting convincing friends and colleagues who prefer in person interaction to limit that, but I have compromised on more, even unnecessary, zoom calls.
Now, I just have to get my family to get that me being home is not time for home responsibilities during work hours.
I am in the happy introvert camp with you! I love being home, but the zoom calls can get out of hand at times! Thanks for sharing and I am glad you get to stay home as well!
It is hard to work with people who are not vaccinated. I find them selfish for not wanting to avail for the sake of everybody
I understand it can be hard to work with people who have different beliefs than you do. It helps to be really strong in what you think and where your personal comfort level is at.
I think your overall consideration points are extremely helpful! Especially, to decide now on when you will wear a mask. Making that decision before hand makes it so much easier to follow through in the moment. You need to decide for yourself, and not be swayed by what others around you are doing.
I agree! I have been caught in the moment with someone pressuring me to wear or not to wear a mask and I usually just do it without considering how I really feel and what my comfort level is at! Having thought it out ahead of time helps to stay true to my beliefs! Thanks for a great comment!
I work from home so it has been an ok time for me. I am also an introvert. However, I can see how many people are really impacted by this pandemic in the sense that mental health issues are on a rise, many are feeling lonely. Wonderful tips that can help us be more mindful of our struggles and focus on the things we can control.
Ooof. I don’t envy people who have to go back to work in an office. But these are great tips I’ll be passing along to my hubby! Thanks!
Great reminder to consider before joining work again. Hopefully I’ll remember the lessons i have learnt while staying at home.
Happy introvert here too! I took this last year as a gift. Left my corporate grind and launched my own business. So far…no regrets about not having to go back to an office, whatsoever. And my sincere hope is that all people will allow space for each other’s opinions on the matter.
Your journey sounds similar to mine! Launched a blog and took a big step back from working as an accountant! I have no interest in returning to an office either! Best of luck with your new business!
So many things to consider, I am so glad and blessed hat we worked from home 7 years prior to pandemic and have no plans on ever going back to a office again. Honestly it is the new way of life, we have been saying it for years.
Oh this is excellent. I really appreciate the “its ok to not be ok.” In general, I think your post gets at how invasive office culture can be, and how we’ve realized that in deep ways because of the pandemic.
It is so true! I think people working from home for the past year caused them to re-evaluate some of the normal office things and see if they are truly useful for them! It will be an interesting transition for those returning to the office.
Ahhh so many good points. You are right it is very complex! Well done on explaining this topic so well <3
Thank you! It is definitely a personal comfort decision and that is going to lead to many different opinions and some potential conflict! Thanks for the comment!
These were great tip! It’s so hard to go back after all this.