Nine reasons we’re starting to really miss the office

When office blocks closed their doors at the beginning of lockdown, we were almost excited to spend Mondays in our living rooms. Fast forward a few months and we’ve realised even Glen from HR was a better co-worker than the cat.

Here’s why we’re missing the much-maligned water cooler culture – for all its many faults…

1. The invigorating effects of the commute

The average Monday morning train carriage is so dead-eyed it’s tempting to start checking pulses, but for all its sins the commute does ensure you’re mentally and physically engaged by work time. Rolling out of bed into your swivel chair feels wonderfully languorous – until you realise it’s an hour into the day and your brain is still two thirds asleep.

2. The stationary cupboard

Post-its, paper clips, and piles of ballpoint pens, the stationary cupboard is exactly the kind of backroom benefit you only appreciate when it’s gone. Top tier offices may even have stocked a complimentary coffee machine. We’re sorry for your loss.

3. The office gossip

Whinging about Sharon from accounts is risky when you don’t know exactly who’s on the call, and with the office party cancelled workplace drama is at an all-time low. There’s something delightfully conspiratorial about water cooler whispering, and a frank exchange of emails just doesn’t scratch that itch.

4. The tech support

Domestic broadband, faulty VPNs, and your own limitless incompetence – your home set-up probably isn’t a patch on the dual screens and tech support teams that inhabit most modern offices. No office worker spends an entire shift poring over the instruction manual for the printer, only to realise it was switched off at the wall.

5. The work-home divide

Everyone needs to separate home and work – physically and figuratively – and there’s something uniquely irksome about having to sleep next to your desk. When you wake on a lazy Sunday morning there it sits, regarding you with a sense of dormant authority, like a teacher seeing a student away from school. Routine is a powerful thing, and work-sleep-repeat just won’t cut it.

6. Bouncing around ideas

No office worker is an island, and in a functional office ideas and information should be free-flowing. The threshold for a video call is far higher than a throwaway remark to a desk buddy, and we hate to think of all the eureka moments gone to waste because home workers had nowhere to vocalise them. There’s no ‘I’ in team, and the ‘I’ in office is purely coincidental.

7. Going out for lunch

Perhaps you were one of those keen beans that always made a packed lunch (please, teach us your ways), but we like feeling we’re making a choice even if we make the same choice every time. In the office you can opt for your bag, a supermarket, or local eateries depending on time, money and inclination. At home it’s the bottom shelf of the fridge, or starvation.

8. The ease of concentration

You cannot rationalise your home as you might your office cubicle (does your stapler ‘spark joy’?), and any house worth its mortgage will be teeming with distractions. You could watch daytime television, embark on long overdue tidying, or get lost in the depths of YouTube. There’s nothing stopping you. No one is watching.

9. Basic human contact

When it comes down to it, most people are people people, and a simple hello each morning makes the universe a slightly nicer place. It doesn’t matter how soulless the decor, or how overpowering the air freshener, offices are social hubs, and we miss them.

Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto