Ode to the office

When I said goodbye to my office in August 2021, I was about a year and a half behind the rest of the tech world who had all moved to working remote in March 2020.

While I did have an initial stint upstate early in the pandemic, I was lucky enough to have been able to go back to the office starting in June 2020. I was the only one in our office, but it was glorious.

Everyone else said they were so happy to not have a commute– I love the commute! I had a ~30 min walk each way, where I listened to podcasts, called people, saw other humans, and felt the air on my face and the muscles in my legs moving.

Everyone else said they loved working from home– I hate working from home! I need the mental shift that comes with a physical change of scenery. I need a proper workstation setup. I need to be wearing shoes.

Everyone else said they loved being able to spend more time with their family– Obviously that is nice, but it's also super distracting and frustrating! I actually like to go our different ways for the day, have our own experiences, and then coming back in the evening to share how our days went. And then we really look forward to the weekends for concentrated, uninterrupted family time.

In short, I just love love love going to the office.

Shutting down our office was quite emotional for me. It represented the true end of an era, and the end of my involvement with MAZ. The exit sign illuminated in that tweet was a symbol of my own exit. Something I wanted of course, but bittersweet.

I also enjoyed working in that office with other humans (although that's actually more of a mixed bag– perhaps a discussion for another day), but what the pandemic taught me is that the thing I crave is the office itself, not the people in it.

And so, after 6 months of being office-less, this week was my first in a new dedicated office in a co-working space. It's much smaller and much less window-y, but it's mine! I need to set it up properly, but I now once again have an office.

I don't know what will happen in the larger sense once Covid is "over" as far as offices opening back up, requiring people to come in person, the future of remote work, etc. All I know is that I, personally, love the office.