A Gen Z WFH lament

I’ve never worked in an office full-time. Unless you count my college newspaper or my summer internship in 2019. But even these abbreviated experiences taught me there’s nothing quite like the hustle and bustle of a newsroom. Surrounded by over-caffeinated reporters and no-nonsense editors, I truly felt in the loop — an incredible feeling for a young person just starting to fall in love with journalism.

I’ve come to accept that those days are over. I’m lucky that Protocol has offices where my colleagues and I can choose to work in-person when we want or need to. But none of us commute into the office five days a week now that working from home is so convenient. I’m grateful to spend less money and energy on commuting, and I love taking calls without worrying about disturbing my desk neighbors. During COVID peaks, I’m able to keep relatively safe from exposure.

But part of me wishes I never found out how good working from home really is.

The benefits of working remotely are well-documented at this point. We’ve seen them play out in real time over the past two years.

• For the most part, workers can live wherever they want. For tech workers fed up with San Francisco’s sky-high rent, cities in Texas or Colorado have looked more appealing.
• Companies’ applicant pools grow immensely when positions aren’t limited to specific cities.
• Parents can more easily juggle childcare, pets are less lonely and hybrid work might be better for the planet.

But we’re missing out on that in-person connection. Work metaverse or not, nothing can replicate the casual absorption of knowledge that comes from simply being around your coworkers all day.

• Gen Z in particular feels left behind. According to a study from the National Society of High School Scholars, 63% of Gen Z students want in-person training from their employers. Mentorship is harder over computer screens. You have to be more enterprising, reaching out to coworkers explicitly to get advice rather than walking over and casually starting a conversation.

Hybrid is not the perfect compromise we all thought it would be. The victorious return-to-office — hampered repeatedly by the pandemic — has hit many a snag.

• Bosses want workers back in-person, full-time. Leaders like Elon Musk and Lux Capital Co-founder Josh Wolfe vehemently oppose remote work. “They should pretend to work somewhere else,” Musk tweeted about remote Tesla employees.
• But now that workers have tasted the ease of remote work, why would they want to go back? At this point, our work setups and schedules are configured for WFH. Due to the work-home boundary blurring, some workers are even working more than they would in an office.
• Now that going into the office is a special occasion and not the norm, socializing can get in the way of deep focus. And then you have to catch up on your work at home anyway.

The pandemic completely upended the workplace; of course there are growing pains. Still, sometimes I’m wistful for the daily colorful clamor of a real-life office that I’ll probably never know.