Thread by @bopinion

After fifteen months of isolation, lots of us are feeling some social anxiety about returning to the office.

But thankfully, it doesn’t need to be scary

trib.al/LYgJ1VG

A majority of U.S. workers would like to be in the office two or three days a week … eventually, according to most surveys.

Aside from a few notable Wall Street firms, there seems to be no rush to return trib.al/0O40xSg

The return-to-office anxiety is entirely understandable.

@DrAliceBoyes, author of “The Anxiety Toolkit” and a former clinical psychologist, has some advice: “Be patient with yourself” trib.al/0O40xSg

About 65% of employees say they’d return to the office once all of their coworkers are immunized against Covid-19.

“We have spent the last year and a half basically making ourselves phobic,” says psychiatrist @gpetriglieri trib.al/0O40xSg

Don’t expect to be able to just flip a switch and go back to normal.

Instead, approach returning to the office gradually, like an athlete coming back from an injury trib.al/0O40xSg

The first few days and weeks back at work will be exhausting. During meetings, you’ll have to:

👀Make sustained eye contact rather than checking your phone or your email
👔Look professional from the neck down
👠Wear shoes — all day
trib.al/0O40xSg

You may feel especially unproductive and distracted when you first return to the office.

But remember what the office is for: strengthening social ties. Relationships, like parking meters, need to be fed trib.al/0O40xSg

Before the pandemic, the average American spent about 54 minutes commuting.

Surveys show that workers used this reclaimed time to:

🍳Cook
🏃‍♀️Exercise
📚Read
😴Nap
🐈Hang out with pets
trib.al/0O40xSg

Nonmanagerial remote employees gained more than an hour of personal time. Managers gained only 23 minutes, in part because their workdays got longer.

It’s also obvious why employees might resist: In many cases, remote work made their lives easier trib.al/0O40xSg

Many employers — outside of the financial sector, anyway — are embracing hybrid work.

A hybrid approach will let bosses coordinate more easily on in-person days, and let employees retain the flexibility that enables some semblance of work-life balance trib.al/0O40xSg

Expect the return to the office to be bumpy.

“It’s almost like going back to work is like a new job,” @DrAliceBoyes says. “Expect to feel more fragile” trib.al/0O40xSg