Seeking the Elusive Workplace Culture
Workplace culture? I hardly know her!
That was a joke. I feel like I have to tell you this, because it was a bad joke. Beginnings are hard, man. Anyway…
I am now 3.5 months into my new job, and I have been trying to be physically in the office two days a week. I think back on the days pre-pandemic, when I was still living at home in Westchester and commuting into midtown five days out of five. That version of me was a superhero. This version of me has been finding it very hard to make even a minimal commitment. This version of me looks at the 25-minute suggested commute on Apple Maps and groans in privileged agony.
People of my generation are finding it very hard to get back into the office, back into the way things were before COVID. And many companies are not doing a great job of incentivizing this return. You want me to put on “real” clothes, pack a lunch, and descend gleefully onto the 90-degree subway platform? I am going to be needing some treasure at the end of that perilous trek.
More company-wide social initiatives that take place in person. Transit vouchers. Catered lunch once a week, regularly. Happy hours or free snacks. Food always works. These are all things that employees value, that employees cannot get from their lonely, cramped apartments.
But here’s the Catch-22: if there were more people in the office, that would be enough of an incentive to get me there—dare I say—three days a week. In my opinion, free lunch is nothing if I don’t have colleagues to share it with. There is no point in going into an office and sitting by myself all day. I can do that much more comfortably here, in my apartment, in my pajamas. Office culture develops naturally when the office is full of people and life, but people aren’t biting, because of the lack of office culture.
One solution, of course, is for companies to say, “Hey, you need to be here three days a week, as a term of your employment.” This is, naturally, a very divisive tactic that has already caused massive walkouts at companies across the country. Perhaps it would seem softer if it came from a team lead: “Hey team, I would really appreciate it if everyone started coming into the office on Thursdays.” I would dig that.
I miss in-person meetings, where we can all sit around a conference table and react live to something we’re hearing on the line. I miss the wine bottles opening in the communal kitchen at 4pm on a Friday. I miss being able to pick up my laptop, walk over to someone else’s desk, and ask them a question in person, rather than sending them a message and waiting for them to respond, if they see it at all. I miss getting sidetracked by a random conversation about the pop culture topic of the day and needing to interrupt the chit-chat to go, “Actually, I have a meeting, let’s pick this up later.”
As a copywriter, I want to be able to sit side-by-side with an art director and create seamless work—work that was not hampered by communicative distance but rather strengthened by physical closeness. I want to know how tall people really are, get to know their personal styles, run into people in the bathroom (yeah, even that!), and step out of the building for one-on-one coffee runs.
Office culture is something that exists within its people, so if the people aren’t present neither is an atmosphere that fosters optimal creativity, collaboration, and just overall better work. We all have to be willing to slowly but surely return to a time of true work-life balance—a time when both of those things don’t happen in the same 100 square feet.
Someone needs to flip the switch, and it probably cannot be me. But I just want to put these thoughts out there, considering I know countless others who feel the same way I do, people who are comfortable staying remote because this is what we’ve come to know but isn’t what we know we need. Maybe if enough of us say something, change will come.
Now, I am not advocating for an immediate return to five days in-office. That’s gag-inducing. But something, anything more than what we have now, what we’ve grown used to… that’s a needed change.
Anyhoo, time to fetch my laundry, take out my banana bread, and take a mid-workday nap. Another joke. But for real, if that’s what a home office offers, the office office needs to step up its game.