It’s 2023, and ‘office work vs remote work’ is still trending topic, even more now that the COVID-19 pandemic is (almost) over and offices have reopened also for us knowledge workers.

What I find most annoying in the conversations, papers, posts about it is the wording “Back to work”, and “Back to the office” when referring to office work.

Words matter, and what do those words imply (to me, at least: I don’t know if it is any different for a native English speaker)?

“Back to work”

To me “Back to work” implies that when you are not working at the office you are enjoying your free time instead, or that you are faffing around, that work outside the office is not really work.

I don’t know what has your experience been so far, I am aware every situation is different.
When it comes to me, it’s surprising how little I can get done from the office compared to working from home.
I think it’s because at home:

• the time allocated to work is entirely dedicated to it.
  On one side there is no time spent in moving around: no commute, no moving from a meeting room to the other (all my videocalls always start right on time, even ahead of time, when all attendees join remotely), no walking to get coffee or lunch.
  On the other side there is also less chitchatting (which has its downsides).
• it’s easier to focus: there is no noise, no distractions, less interruptions. I don’t have children, and I am lucky enough to count on a dedicated room to carry on work, a husband who respects my boundaries, and good internet connectivity.

So, when somebody says that it’s time to go “Back to work” I cannot refrain from thinking: “Well, what do you think I have been doing for these past three years or so?”. Truth is it has been more difficult than usual to contain work and preventing it from eating up the days.

“Back to the office”

The last three years forced us to work in a different way than before, and to me it’s a treasure to cherish.
We can extract a lot of learning from it, why should we go “back” instead of leveraging on this experience to evolve and propel us forward to new ways of doing things?

I now look at the office as a tool: it provides a default space for in person meetings, it is a release valve for the ones who have a noisy or difficult situation at home, it comes equipped with services like reliable internet access and printers, it is a place where you can socialise.
As such, I wish people were allowed to use it when it’s best, given the type of work at hand and their personal situation (and provided that the local regulatory framework allows for such flexibility).

Photo credits: Paramount