Navigating Office Culture Again After Finally Returning

We all spent years working from our kitchen tables in tracksuit bottoms and pretending the internet was lagging when we just wanted to avoid a question. Now everyone is dragging themselves back into the building more often since the pandemic ended (we’re actually almost back to pre pandemic office working levels) and the whole culture shock did hit hard. For years, a lot of us completely forgot how to exist around coworkers for eight hours straight. But the forced proximity is back, and we actually have to deal with other humans in real life with no option of muting them like on a video call! 

Dealing with small talk

You can’t just log off when a conversation gets boring anymore; you actually have to navigate the small talk now. The trick is to have a polite exit strategy ready before you even walk into the communal areas. Give yourself a strict time limit for chatting and then politely excuse yourself by saying you have a deadline to meet. It’s important to be friendly and work as a team at work, but you don’t have to become best friends with everyone. You don’t have to attend every social event and get involved with every element of your colleagues. You just need to show up and engage enough to keep things pleasant. Ask one simple question about their weekend and then wrap it up quickly before you get trapped in a massive discussion. It builds enough goodwill to make the office tolerable without draining all your energy before lunch even starts.

Accidental bonding

Companies are desperate to make the office feel like a fun destination, so they keep buying expensive bean bags that nobody ever sits on. Real office culture is entirely accidental and usually based on mutual annoyance. It is the shared eye roll across the room when a meeting goes twenty minutes over time because someone asked a pointless question at the very end. You end up having the most honest conversations standing around the water coolers and pretending to hydrate yourself just to get away from your desk.

Setting a new routine

Returning to the building takes a lot of physical energy. You have to commute and wear stiff clothes and pretend to be fascinated by spreadsheet updates. Make the transition easier by preparing your bag and lunch the night before so you are not rushing around at seven in the morning. Leave the office right on time and don’t let work bleed into your evening just because you replied to an email on the train ride back. You’ve done your hours and dealt with the small talk, so you get to go home and enjoy the peace.