For many of us, there are still plenty of people that are working from home. And that was me until a few days ago. When I first got the call from my boss telling me that I am needed back in the office, I wasn’t too happy. I felt like I wasn’t ready to give up my working from home routine just yet. I had gotten into a great daily tradition of work, exercise, healthy eating, stretching, running, going on walks, and the list goes on and on. There’s no doubt I was in a good place. So when I got the call to the bullpen that I’d be going in to work the next day, my immediate reaction was that I’d lose all the progress I made. I thought all the ideas I was generating on a daily basis and all the time alone with my thoughts would come to a halt.
The first day going in I was not a happy camper. For starters, I absolutely hate wearing a mask on my face all day. I know it’s a collective thing that we are all doing, but if it was up to me I would not participate in. I feel gross wearing it and my face gets hot and sweaty. Not to mention it can be hard to breathe sometimes with it on. Unfortunately it’s not up to me so I have to play by the rules.
But to be honest, it’s not really the masks that truly bum me out. It’s all of the tiny benefits of working from home that I’m missing out on. This is going to sound super picky, but sleeping a little later is nice. So is dressing comfortable, making a nice breakfast/lunch, sitting in a relaxing spot, getting to go for nice walks, and not having the corporate pressure of someone judging you or the small talk that comes with an office job. All that is so nice to have. In addition to these benefits, the best benefit of them all was the self-reflection. I had more time to myself than ever before even with a full day of work. I just had more time to myself since I wasn’t driving into work, getting ready, or being asked to do one more thing as I’m packing up to go home.
So yea, I miss working from home. However, Day Two was not as bad. The reason I was called into work in the first place was to start a new project that was a critical priority. And the project requires an extensive amount of training. In other words, a fair part of my first day back frustrations came from an overload of information being pumped into my brain. On Day Two back in the office, I was getting the hang of the project and started to feel more confident with it. And that confidence made Day Two much better.
Since then, I have come to terms with being back in the office and have accepted my new reality. Now it’s up to me finding balance with work and my personal life. I got so much out of the alone time I had while working from home. I was generating all types of ideas that I simply never had the time to do before. It was a great time for self-reflection and allowed me to look at my priorities in life. Self-reflection leads to self-love. And self-love leads to people-love. Although you may be back in the office, don’t forget to leave some alone time for yourself. It’s important you don’t let yourself slip away.
So what’s it like going back to work after about 3 months of working from home? Well it stinks. There’s no way around that. But, everything is relative. It just takes a bit of time to get back in the swing of things. If you’re having frustrations with going back to work, just give yourself more time. Once you get back into your routine, you’ll feel normal again. Change can be like a shock to the system. After the initial shock, we learn to cope with it and eventually thrive on it.
Dabbl 