Last week, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said working from home was “not a new normal” for the investment bank, calling it an “aberration.” My heart dropped...
Financial institutions, like this giant, where one of the fastest to react when Covid hit. And for an industry known for its toxic culture and crushing hours, it felt like something big might be shifting. “What does this mean?” I asked a friend who has a senior role at a similar company. “It’s over,” she said. “When Goldman act, everyone else follows. They set the standard for the entire industry.”
The last year has brought a lot of new stresses: furloughs, remote-working hiccups, home-schooling and endless Zooms to name a few. But it seems they pale in comparison to the stress caused by companies now demanding bums in seats, without so much as a conversation. For many, re-entry is proving harder than shutting down in the first place.
Friends in London and the US have described the habits that are proving hard to break. The sense of safety you feel at home, knowing you won’t put your family at risk by going to work. There’s the regular check-ins with kids, partners and pets that have become second nature. Like, say, getting a cuddle mid-morning from a toddler you might ordinarily need to drop at daycare for 10 hours. And for many women I know, while working from home intensified the invisible labor they do and put even more pressure on them professionally and personally, being able to juggle professional and domestic duties as and when they pleased has helped them get on top of both workloads.
"Many people find that despite being at work, they are still spending the whole day on Zoom calls because only a third of the team can be in on any given day. There are so many new rules. And then there is the stress of navigating other people’s comfort levels around personal space, as well as your own. It’s more exhausting than being at home, in some ways, they shared."
Brooke Le Poer Trench
Then there are the lifestyle changes many people have made, seeking out more affordable cities and suburbs now available to them with remote working on the table. “I have friends who have moved out of the city, in some cases several states over, who are still remote-working with a New York company but living in states where they can be closer to family and afford a family home,” says my NY-based friend, Natalie.
Of course, it’s not all bad news. The Harvard Business Reviews’s Women at Work podcast hosts asked listeners across America to call in with what they’re enjoying about being back to work, and there were many positives. Women talked about seeing their coworkers faces; the joy of being able to check in with people after so many months; closing computers at the end of the day; actually going home to see your kids and partner; the ability to simply care about work instead of all the other chores around the house; having a commute provide a buffer between home and work; and one that many women felt was having physical freedom back.
But even if you’re excited about getting back to the office—the other issue many listeners shares, along with the hosts, was that the office is a completely different place. For many, it’s just plain weird. A lot of offices mandate face masks be worn all day long. There are arrows and circles all over the floors. Many people find that despite being at work, they are still spending the whole day on Zoom calls because only a third of the team can be in on any given day. There are so many new rules. And then there is the stress of navigating other people’s comfort levels around personal space, as well as your own. It’s more exhausting than being at home, in some ways, they shared.
And what of the way employees are left feeling when companies, with very little care, mandate a back-to-work policy without so much as a conversation. “Our company sent around an in-depth questionnaire about what people want their work-life-balance to look like, and then told everyone to get back into the office anyway,” says my friend Hannah, who has been working from home in the English countryside for almost a year. “My younger colleagues are excited, but the truth is I don’t ever want to go back to five days in the office… which I know is the end game.”
The real issue is that our eyes are now open. We have seen that while juggling work with home-schooling and partners across the dining table isn’t ideal, neither was five-days a week in the office. We want to design our own working lives, and strike our own bespoke balance between the office and home. This will allow us to be better at our jobs. Someone tell David Solomon, okay?