I’m going back to the office. Here’s why.
It’s not out of a sense of duty. Or some grasp at getting back to “normal”. It’s not because my family is sick of having me around the house. It’s not because I miss commuting. It’s not because I feel there is a statistically acceptable level of risk to now ride the subway, enter an office building for work and go grab a sandwich at lunch provided I do everything I can to maintain distance, wash my hands frequently, use sanitizer and be masked up.
It’s because my pandemic experience (and I know it is mine — I speak for no one but myself) has left me even more steadfastly convinced of a few things than ever.
Please understand, I am fully aware that I’m compartmentalizing here. I know I’m only talking about my specific situation and work. I’m speaking from a place of privilege on a lot of levels and wouldn’t for one moment have the temerity to think my experience might translate to yours or anyone else’s. I’m also deeply aware that every one of us who made it through the last year had a unique and personal experience — many tragic and forever life-altering — so I can speak and will ONLY speak for myself.
Maybe you can relate, perhaps not. Maybe you agree with parts or think I’m full of it. Just understand: This is not advice. It’s not a prescription. It’s just how I feel.
When it comes to the work I do, the pandemic stress-tested some of my core beliefs about what I produce and how I produce it. Attitudes and approaches I’d developed over years of effort at wildly different companies were challenged. And I can now say without hesitation or hyperbole that the last year has made me re-dedicate myself to my raisons de l’effort. I believe in these things more than ever because they’ve been pushed to the limit and emerged unbroken. Stronger than ever, in fact.
I’m going back to the office. And here’s why.
1. I love the work I do. I solve puzzles and challenges for a living. I’m lucky enough to have the privilege of doing deep, brainy dives on complicated topics and discover ways to communicate them with simplicity, impact and effect. I get to play psychologist, sociologist and anthropologist every time I get in the head of the user and uncover the right message for them. And I get to play engineer and architect when I devise new schemata on ever-changing, increasingly sci-fi platforms.
I love the work and respect the audience. And if I’m not continually improving the quality of work I produce — even in small increments — then I’m wasting my time. Another 2020 truth driven home? The value of my time in relation to what I do within it.
And sure, the work can be frustrating and grind your gears with every setback, detour or distraction. But I love the pitch, the swing and the hit. I love it when a campaign launches. I love the war rooms and the whiteboards and debating into consensus — I love pushing ideas and deciding the best course of action. I love course-correcting and living in perpetual beta. I love digging through the data to discover “why?” I love finding the best possible path when the ideal one isn’t feasible. The only thing better than uncovering a great idea is executing it greatly — breathing life into it and then releasing it into the wild.
2. I love the people I work with. At a certain point, I realized my career aspirations were pretty simple. I want to do work I’m proud of with people I love. People I respect. People who are curious and driven to always improve. People who share in the effort, share in the kudos and share in the blame. People are great. We’re all hypocritical, messy, sometimes brilliant, and always flawed. All of us, without exception.
And while we may come from similar or disparate backgrounds — while we may share some POVs or disagree on others — we all have a lot to learn from one another. That’s the magic in surrounding yourself with people of different ages, stages, backgrounds and outlooks. We can surprise one another. We can disappoint one another. We can impress the hell out of each other. Especially when we share a common goal.
I love the people I work with because we prop each other up and hold each other accountable. We’re responsible to one another and for one another. There’s a unique respect and trust on great teams. It’s beyond friendly and not quite family — but it’s definitely a kind of love. It’s not enough for me to exchange notes with my team via cloud docs, IM or video call. I want to work with them, not with an image of them on a monitor.
3. When we work together, our work is better. Collaboration isn’t something I take for granted. You have to tend to it and care for it, otherwise it degrades into unaccountable groupthink, cliquey politics or a friendly dictatorship. Collaboration is Queen because while you may be the smartest person in the room (and I wholly believe you are), you’re never as smart as you PLUS the person sitting next to you.
When our team is together, working on a challenge, there’s an energy no video conference can approach. Exchanges are more free and more immediate. Ideas are birthed and battle-tested faster. Whiteboards are filled, photographed, erased and filled again. The work ends up better and gets done faster.
I’m not exaggerating when I estimate my team gets more done in one day together than we do in a week when working remotely. It’s not that we’re unproductive when remote — it’s that the connection of being together makes us more productive on the axes of both quality and quantity. And it’s not just the results. The work experience is better as well — the shared effort and excitement around ideas and the camaraderie of seeing those ideas executed. It’s a higher quality journey to a better quality destination — arrived at faster.
If you would’ve asked me this time last year, I would have told you that remote work was probably here to stay. I saw too many upsides — from reduced real estate costs to being able to recruit talent from any geography. I was wrong, at least for myself. And while the future will probably allow for more flexibility with some days WFH and some days WIO, my personal reasons for going back to the office are simple. I love the work I do. I love the people I work with. And our work is better when we are together.
