Ordered Back To The Office? 5 Reasons To Feel Better About It

If you’re like many people, you’ve been asked to come back to the office. Some organizations have taken a hard line and some have been more open-ended, but the majority of companies want you back more days of the week. And you may be struggling to adjust to the commute, the routine or the grind of the office everyday.

But there are ways to feel better about your time in the office—things about being in the office that can benefit you, not just your employer.

Shifting Tides

Hybrid work is here to stay, but organizations still want you in the office more frequently. Companies asking people to come back are typically requiring three to four days in the office. Of course, there are some requiring more or allowing less, but the majority are expecting three or four days. Starbucks and Disney are cases in point, requiring three days and four days a week in the office respectively.

In addition, there’s a range of approaches. Some companies are ordering or requiring people back under threat of punishment or implications for job security, while others are encouraging or inviting people to return. In some cases, companies are offering free coffee, free lunch or paid parking. But the outcomes are the same: more time in the office for more people in more places.

Research suggests you’ll probably resist returning. A study published in the Journal of Research in Personality found when people had to do something, they perceived greater obstacles and had less motivation than when they wanted to do something. You probably didn’t need a scientific study to tell you this. People prefer not to be told what to do. People want to make their own decisions. In addition, higher levels of choice and control are correlated with greater engagement and performance.

So your motivation about coming to the office may hinge on finding your own reasons to go in. Feeling good about your time at work will depend on all the ways it serves you.

Great Reasons to Be In the Office

Being back in the office will be a shift from your routine of working from home. You’ve gotten used to spending less time commuting, prioritizing moments with family and taking walks around your neighborhood each day. But there are some legitimately positive reasons to feel good about being back in the office as well.

Reconnecting with Colleagues

You can stay connected with friends and coworkers via virtual connections, but you’ll develop deeper relationships in person. When you’re face-to-face you can read the nuance of nonverbals, and you can run into people even if you don’t have a scheduled meeting with them. You can exchange pleasantries with the person in the serving line at your cafeteria or in the elevator lobby. These interactions are all correlated with happiness, and they make a difference in feeling less stressed, lonely, isolated or distant from others.

Reinforcing Boundaries

Another benefit of being in the office is having a clearer boundary between work and home. Many people have reported their boundaries have been challenged because work went home. It’s hard to resist the siren song of your laptop when it’s sitting in your kitchen. But when you go back to the office a few days a week, you can make a greater separation of the time you spend working and the time you spend on your personal life. The trip into work creates a meaningful way to delineate your time and be intentional about where you’re focusing.

Validating Your Contribution

Being in the office also provides for the bandwagon effect. Sociologically speaking, when you’re with other people, you tend to pick up on their energy and you’re more likely to feel a sense of shared purpose. You’ve shown up together with mutual goals in mind.

In addition, the office can boost your esteem. Being at home, you lack the reinforcement you get from others about your work. You don’t see them leaning forward when you speak up in a meeting. You miss the elbow bump in the meeting reinforcing the great job you did on the report. You don’t get the chance for quick check in with your boss when you both grab a refill of coffee on a break form the meeting. While these may seem inconsequential, they are anything but. These are the kinds of daily reinforcements which can help you build esteem about your work, your contribution and your role in the organization.

Boosting Your Performance

If you’re in the office, you can also get a boost in your performance. Collaborating face-to-face is easier, and you may have a better time focusing when you’re away from the distractions of doorbells, dogs or laundry at home. In addition, research demonstrates when people around you are engaged and performing well, there is a spillover effect, and you’ll feel some of the positive energy from their efforts as well.

Growing Your Career

Another great benefit of being in the office is learning from others and building your networks with colleagues. When you’re side-by-side with teammates, you can work on problems together and develop your skills by watching, listening and experiencing how others handle things. In addition, you can strengthen your social capital by grabbing coffee with a mentor or getting to know the person in another department during the problem-solving you do together on the project. Of course you can do these from a distance as well, but they’ll be more powerful in person.

You can also build your credibility more easily. Even when companies strive to promote people regardless of where they work and seek to create equitable opportunities for remote workers, you’re still likely to benefit from being in person. It’s human nature that people build relationships more significantly based on proximity—who they see more frequently, who they get to know and whose work they are most familiar with. Again, you can develop credibility from a distance—of course—but you’ll likely develop more of it more quickly when you’re in person with leaders and coworkers.

Feeling Good

Being ordered back to the office probably won’t feel good. But you can reduce your frustration and increase your motivation if you’re able to find positive reasons to be in the office which benefit you. You’ll be a good corporate or organizational citizen and show up and do great work—but you’ll enjoy it more if you can find all the ways your presence is good for you as well.

There are legitimate benefits of being together with colleagues—you’ll just need to remind yourself of what they are as you develop new routines and habits for being in the office.