It’s the social element

Last week I went into the office for a couple of days. It's the third time this year I've been in the office but unlike the previous visits this one wasn't for a pre-arranged event or workshop. This time I was going into the office to sit at a desk and work - just like I used to do what seems like a lifetime ago pre pandemic.

It really wasn't what it used to be like though. The main difference this time is that although Westminster has removed restrictions our team hasn't flocked back to the office and it felt like a ghost office. There are a number of contributory factors:

• Holiday season. Even though travel is still challenging it's school holidays, it's been a long year and many of my colleagues are taking time off work 
• I have many Italian colleagues and you just don't work in August .... 
• different rules in different places eg the Scottish government still have 'work from home if you can' in place 

These are all factual reasons but I wonder how much of the lack of presence in the office is due to the social system resisting a change and that what we have built over the last 16 months works and that we are now settled and comfortable in remote working. It certainly does feel unusual and worthy of remark when you meet colleagues in the flesh. Particularly when you've been working with them for a year and only even seen them on a computer screen in that time.

One person who was in the office, and is routinely in the office is a new team member who joined two weeks ago. With us she has never established the routine of remote working but started immediately into a hybrid model. She really enjoys being in the office and doesn't want to work completely remotely but does appreciate the ability to work from home a couple of days a week (mainly as it avoids the need to commute on the tube). In the office she particularly enjoys what she describes as the 'social element' of meeting people in person and chatting, getting to know people and building relationships on a personal level. These are spontaneous interactions - not planned or booked in advance for a specific purpose as happens on video. For her it is a really important element of working in the office and something she would be very reluctant to give up.

Donella Meadows talks about finding the appropriate point / lever to intervene in a system to effect change. I wonder how much our new team member will be a lever?