A Whole New Workforce

I will never work in an office everrr again.

I say that with my whole chest. I imagine I am not the only one who feels this way either. There is not now, nor was there anything normal about the archaic five-day, 9-hour (commute time not even factored in) work weeks, shackled to a desk, in 2020/2021. It took a deadly global pandemic to truly turn the tide. And we are not going back.

The Great Realization

You see, I was initiating the “Great Resignation” before it became a popular 2021 catchphrase. It was at this former corporate job where I realized I was underpaid and experienced some of the most overt macroaggressions, worst leadership, resentment, retaliation, and political BS ever in my two decades of working. And most of that toxicity was experienced after we went remote. So you can imagine how working in predominantly white, micromanaged workspaces can take an even worse toll on one’s mental health.

I guarantee you Black women across the country sighed a collective breath of relief in the Spring of 2020 at the reprieve from having to commute to microaggressive workplaces. We then, however, had to deal with invasive and biased comments from coworkers regarding our physical appearance and/or our living spaces in the background of virtual calls. So we turned off our cameras, tightened our bonnets, and tailored resignation letters that would make Bob Parr proud.

Office Politics

The last office building I worked in wanted employees to have little to no privacy within open-concept areas “but check out this living room area and coffee shop we built!” Amenities that I imagine are now collecting dust. But why did we have to go through a labyrinth of approvals in order to attain ergonomic office furniture at our own desks? You know who isn’t going to be productive in a previous employee’s five-year old office chair? Derrick with the pinched nerve. I will not miss being monitiored or the need to be constantly doing “something” even though, realistically, there are legitimate down times in a workday. However, if your manager is seated beside you, you may feel the angst of always appearing busy. A task in and of itself.

And I could spend days venting about the germs that permeate office spaces. Even before the Covid virus, Karen was often bringing in her kids’ germs after they vomited on her the night before. Or the coworkers who came into the office while visibly sick, wearing no mask, but spewing spittle via coughs and sneezes. Now I can be in my own space where I know the filter has been changed or work outside when I feel like it.

Social Butterflies

Maybe it’s the INFJ-T in me, but I have never felt a need to make friends at work or socially “hang” with some of the same coworkers who, on days that end in “Y”, are trying to throw me under the bus. But that’s just me. I also find it a bit ironic that many in the technology-focused Generation Z (“Zoomers”) crave the face to face, serendipitous encounters with older coworkers and mentors in an office.

People’s Choice

As I noted before, full-time RTO is a thing of the past. Hybrid or fully remote, and four-day work weeks (4:8) are the future. Companies either need to adapt and evolve or up their retention game.

How do you prefer to work?