‘Oh wonderful, liberated from the office!’, says psychologist Sophie Franken, calling from the bicycle in Amsterdam, on her way to a terrace. “That outside air immediately gives energy again.”
But it is mainly the alternation of work and living space that pleases, says de talent consultant at Reveal, where she guides fallen military personnel to a new job. Now that she works in the office more often, home has once again become a place to relax.
It also takes getting used to, all those office incentives, she sighs. “I have a headache now. If no one takes a break, I am not inclined to do so.”
What seemed temporary at first lasted two years. Due to the corona pandemic, many people traded from one day to the next office life for working from home, sometimes combined with home education and commuting between living and working room. Some were able to work hybrids – occasionally to the office – if keeping an appropriate distance was possible. Others were forced to stay at home until the government dropped the advice to work from home. Now that that’s done, we can go back to the office.
How do you like that?
Unplanned meeting
Wouter Rootmensen, account manager at ICT company P8, from the office in Varsseveld, Gelderland: „Back here we inspire each other again. You can discuss something, just brainstorm out loud ins Blue hinein† He enjoys the fact that there is room again for unplanned consultations.
Johan van Dijkhuizen, department head of advice and operations at the municipality of Kampen: “I spontaneously spoke to a colleague from the works council at the coffee machine this morning and we discussed an idea. That would not have happened at home.” However, working online also has advantages, he sees. “Many meetings have become more focused. If you come together physically, you waste more time.”
That hybrid work is ‘top’, says Gerben Benjamins, business architect for the RDW in Veendam. “The best of both worlds come together. At home you work out what you come up with at the office. But I really need it to see people. Not just for fun – I can do my job better too.”
His job is to map out customer needs, he explains. “You get less non-verbal communication through a screen. And you notice that.”
This is also what Sander Groosman, project leader water technology at the Arcadis engineering firm in Arnhem, missed when working from home: body language and micro-expression. He understands his clients much faster when he can look them in the eye, he says. He notices that colleagues are happy to see each other again, but that they still plan days full of online meetings, including at the office. “You continuously see people walking around the department with headphones on and laptops in hand, looking for a call box.”
Online meetings were in fact a godsend for Lotte Bloemendaal, a business journalist at Rijkswaterstaat. “I am blind, so suddenly I was more than before an equal in the group. That felt safer in that sense. I always warn people that I can stomp like an elephant in a china shop because I can’t tell when someone has been hurt. Now we all stamped together.”
undisturbed pounding
Bloemendaal also learned something from the corona time. “In an online meeting you can raise your hand with the push of a button. I will continue to do that, even in real life. Just like in kindergarten.” But she is no longer going back to the office full-time. Stiff: “It’s really nice, having a cup of coffee with a colleague. But the work is not getting along.”
Hilje Wolfson, head of communication and fundraising at animal welfare organization World Animal Protection in The Hague, has to get used to the hustle and bustle at the office again. “At home you can pound undisturbed. I found that low-stimulus environment a luxury, before corona I came back from the office exhausted. But, of course you have to keep in touch with each other.” She went to visit all her seventeen team members during corona.
In the human resources departments they talk a lot about returning to the office, and how to deal with it. After all, people have also gained new experiences with working from home, says Eric van der Giesen, HR advisor at the Public Prosecution Service. “Office life has to reinvent itself.”
Van der Giesen has to learn to be patient again for offline meetings, he says. “When people come together, they feel more freedom to be clothed for longer.” But he likes having the choice between working at home or in the office. “The coffee tastes slightly different in the office, there is a printer here and that chat gives something extra. Everything can be done digitally. But whether it is always appropriate is a question we must keep asking ourselves.”
The wife of Ron Hendriks, private banker at ABN Amro MeesPierson, says that he is already back to normal is, he laughs. “In other words: you are away a lot.”
Hendriks is socially oriented, he says, he finds working in the office more pleasant. It also gives more substantive involvement. “You can see that there has been more flexibility in forms of collaboration, both within the bank and among customers. Online has become an addition, but not a replacement. Friday afternoon drinks taste just a bit better at the office than at home.”
commotion and tranquility
Merijn van Bussel, consultant at Brout leadership training agency in Breukelen: „The bustle of the office makes me happy. We both thrive on making a cappuccino for a colleague.”
He says that things are “going crazy” with customer requests for team bonding training. “We can see from customer demand that working from home has made the world more digital and efficient, but has put a strain on the interconnection.”
Kim Verhagen, team member risk and control at Unilever in Rotterdam, she likes the combination of working from home and the office, she says. “At least my teenage daughters don’t complain that I’m away from home. I also got a bit overcooked and grumpy doing everything from home.” The variety, she says, gives peace and balance. “I can’t imagine going back to the office full-time.” And another thing: “I had never met some of my colleagues in real life. It’s so nice to be able to do that now.”
It is a challenge for companies, Van Bussel notes, to retain employees who have entered the workforce during corona times and have therefore built up a less close relationship with colleagues. “After all, connection, security and trust are the basis of any collaboration.”
Rootmensen, from Varsseveld: “The fact that I don’t have to travel to Maastricht or Heerhugowaard for every customer contact saves petrol, CO2emissions and time. But meeting new people online – that remains difficult.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of 11 April 2022