How To Manage Anxiety About Returning To The Office
If you’re anything like me, you’ve found yourself in a situation like this a few times over the last year. A friend invites you to a gathering. They assure you that everything will be safe, outdoors, social distance, masks, you know the drill.
You feel torn—on the one hand, you would love nothing more than to just cut loose and sip rosé with your near-and-dears. On the other hand, you feel a nagging anxiety. What if everyone has one drink and decides to relax all precautions?
We’ve all had to negotiate these uncomfortable realities for more than a year now. The truth is that even if we know a situation is theoretically within the bounds of Covid safety, it can be hard to silence the anxiety that has seemed to pervade many social situations outside of our “pods.”
I’m getting stressed just writing this! And the truth is that it’s totally normal to feel anxious in this type of situation. After all, anxiety comes from a time when we were all fighting for survival.
A paper examining the biological roots of anxiety describes anxiety as “a psychological, physiological, and behavioral state induced in animals and humans by a threat to well-being or survival, either actual or potential.”
Ahem, like a giant global pandemic that literally travels through the air to infect us? Anxiety-producing much? Of course we’re all feeling heightened stress levels now that we’re confronting the biggest threat to our collective health and safety in our lifetimes.
Thankfully, many of us have gotten good at navigating the reality of socializing during Covid. We should all give ourselves a pat on the back for having the awkward conversations, keeping our masks on and saying “no” when we didn’t feel safe about a situation.
But what about when these same considerations and boundaries apply not just to our personal lives, but also our professional ones? How are we supposed to navigate these difficult conversations if it may feel as if our jobs, our very livelihoods are hanging in the balance?
Well, if you’re feeling a bit of anxiety about what the future might hold when your office reopens, or transitions to a hybrid model, or about any aspect of what reopening might mean for our work lives, I’d like to share a few thoughts and insights about this complicated transition time.
If you have mixed feelings about heading back into the office, you’re not alone
Last year, early in the pandemic, it seemed as if most of us couldn’t wait to get back to our usual places of work. A survey from May of 2020 found that 72% of remote U.S. workers were eager to return to the office.
In these earlier months, we were still hoping that Covid-19 might just be a short blip on our collective radar, and that we would be able to return quickly to a very similar version of “normal.” Perhaps as time has gone on, we’ve realized that a lot of the changes and adjustments we’ve made will likely be at least semi-permanent.
Or maybe we’ve all just gotten a little more used to the pajama bottoms and meetings from our comfy couch lifestyle. Whatever has changed over the past year, it seems many workers have more complicated feelings about returning to the office, especially full time.
A recent study by the Harvard Business School found that 80% of remote workers don’t want to return to the office full time. One in three of the workers surveyed felt that their work performance had improved while working from home, and an additional third stated that they were able to be more focused on their work while working remotely.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that workers don’t ever want to see the inside of their former offices again. Only 27% of workers said that they would prefer to stay remote full time, and 61% stated that they would prefer a mix of remote and in-person work, or a hybrid model.
There are some who feel an even stronger aversion to returning to the office. A recent online survey found that 29% of workers would quit their job if they were forced to return to in-person work.
With so much still in flux, and the landscape of Covid-19 seeming to change every day, it’s hard to get a pulse on the feelings of workers. I’ve honestly seen data that paints many different pictures of how workers feel about reopening.
A recent study by Eden Workplace even found that within another sample of workers, 85% expressed that they do want to return to the office, but only if proper safety precautions were in place.
It can be hard to understand or account for all this seemingly contradictory data, however I think that the real story it tells is that there is a wide spectrum of opinions about how, when or even if it makes sense to return to in-person work.
All this to say, if you have mixed feelings, you’re certainly not alone. In fact, it seems the majority of workers also feel conflicted. While it may feel that you are stuck toeing the corporate line when it comes to in-person work and reopening, remember that businesses will have to follow the lead of their workers.
Safety is most important, don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself
One thing that the Eden Workplace study makes clear is that when it comes to returning to work, Covid-19 safety is at the top of everyone’s mind.
Even if you feel strongly about your boundaries when it comes to Covid safety, that doesn’t mean there won’t come a time where you feel pressure to return to the office, or to engage in work in a way that is less than comfortable for you.
This is why I feel that now is one of the most important times for you to feel empowered to speak your mind and advocate for yourself and for your needs.
I know that this is sometimes easier said than done. Over the past year, we’ve all flexed our “saying no” muscles with our friends. But it’s probably easier to tell your freshman roommate that you won’t be able to make her gender-reveal party than it is to tell your boss you’re not comfortable attending the company’s post-Covid retreat.
I know these conversations can be tough, but I believe in you. To help you navigate these difficult convos, here are strategies that can be helpful in feeling empowered to articulate your needs:
- Connect with co-workers. Start talking with close colleagues about their feelings and expectations with regards to reopening or returning to the office. If you find you share any concerns, you’ll have a strong case to bring with your shared perspectives.
- Don’t be afraid to speak with HR and ask for information about what safety practices will be in place.
- If you’re offered a hybrid model, consider carefully how much you want to be and are comfortable being in the office.
- If you work with a smaller company that is hoping to reopen offices, but seems to lack leadership or a plan with regards to Covid-19 protocols, volunteer to head up the process. You might be able to steer policy in a direction that is rooted in your own research and your comfort levels.
In addition to these strategies here are some helpful resources on reopening offices.
- The Centers for Disease Control has published guidelines on office buildings reopening.
- Back to Work Safely provides industry-specific and comprehensive guidance on how to return to work with Covid-19 safety at the forefront.
- The World Health Organization also provides comprehensive and helpful guidelines.
Don’t be afraid to speak up if you are uncomfortable, or feel that your place of work or co-workers are not moving forward with best practices as they relate to Covid-19.
Much is still yet unknown, learn to live with the unknown
We may be beginning to see the end of Covid-19, but it’s really important to remember that it’s just the beginning of the end. There is much that is yet unknown about how things will look for certain industries and in certain office spaces.
I truly believe that it will take a long time to see the real lasting impacts of Covid-19 on the world of work, and a long time until we may feel completely safe outside of our own homes, and our own pods.
This is why I think that the next phase of things will require some very careful and mindful practices.
Whenever I’m confronted with trying to hold many unknowns and possibly contrary ideas in mind, I return to a mantra borrowed from a therapist friend. It’s very simple:
“It’s uncertain.”
And in truth, “it” can be anything. As it applies to this situation, the questions that come up in your mind might be:
- “Will it be safe?”
- “Will I be putting myself at risk?”
- “Will my co-workers take things seriously?”
- “What if I get exposed at work?”
As we’ve learned to navigate living and working through the pandemic, so much of our behavior and thinking has been about calculating and reducing risk. In truth, if we are returning to work—and realistically, as has been the case every time we left our houses over the past year—it is not possible to completely eliminate all risk.
We can reduce risk by safe practices, but, as with many challenges in life, we may have to become comfortable with stepping into certain degrees of unknown.
When I start to think and worry about these types of things, I often return to “it’s uncertain.”
I want to mention that before you give yourself over to this type of thinking, it’s important that you have established your boundaries and made sure that you have advocated for your needs.
If you have all the facts, and you have done everything possible to ensure that you are keeping yourself as safe and comfortable as possible, but you still feel that nagging “what if?” then it might be worthwhile to spend a bit of time with this mantra.
“It’s uncertain” isn’t about dismissing your real feelings or concerns. Rather, it’s about accepting when you have done everything you can, and that there comes a time when we have to be comfortable with the unknown.
This has understandably been a very anxious year, and the anxiety continues as we all try to understand and process the changes of the past year and what’s to come. But try to remember that it is also an exciting time. I truly believe we are going to move forward toward a time better and brighter than ever before.
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Mar 15, 2019Things Happen!
Here's How To Recover From A Career Setback Whether you’ve botched an interview question, cancelled an important meeting last-minute or missed a typo in an..
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Feb 22, 2019How to Assess Transferable…
How do you make sure you don’t lose out on those candidates who bring additional talents, interests, and unusual experiences that can be a real..
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Feb 15, 2019Workplace Diversity
In an 8-Minute Animated Film, Pixar Just Captured Why Companies Still Struggle With Workplace Diversity Yes, it's a movie about a pink ball of yarn--but..
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Jan 25, 2019Effective Job Interview
How to conduct an effective job interview As the employment market improves and candidates have more options, hiring the right person for the job has..
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Jan 18, 2019Things You Should Never…
14 Things You Should Never, Ever Say In A Job Interview It’s always intimidating to interview for a new job, whether you’re fresh out of..
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Dec 14, 2018Stay Focused Through the…
14 Ways to Stay Focused at Work Through the Holidays We’re in the midst of the holiday season, and as you try to juggle parties,..
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Dec 7, 2018Great Employees Leave Great…
Why Great Employees Leave “Great Cultures” “We have a great culture.” We have all heard it. We have all said it. But what does that..
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Nov 30, 2018On-the-Job Training
Young Workers No Longer Get the On-the-Job Training They Need -- So They're Finding It Elsewhere With companies training people less, the most valuable path..
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Nov 23, 2018Help Your New Hires…
3 Ways You Can Help Your New Hires to Succeed Filling a vacant position is expensive, and unless you do these three things, it's liable..
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Nov 15, 2018A Successful Meeting
Three Ways To Prevent Someone From Stealing Your Spotlight In A Meeting We've all been there at one point or another. You're in a meeting,..
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Nov 9, 2018‘Bad’ Interviewee
That 'Bad' Interviewee You Just Talked to May Be the Perfect Match for Your Job Opening The 'pattern matching' that companies have long used to..
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Nov 2, 2018When should managers overlook…
Why managers should overlook results in these situations By focusing on culture and people first, you can set your team up for success in the..
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Oct 26, 2018Recruitment in Cyprus
Recruitment in Cyprus - Thoughts and Ideas from Advance Career Team Read the detailed interview published on TopJobsCyprus website and share your comments and ideas!..
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Oct 19, 2018Find Career Clarity!
How To Find Career Clarity Using Three Top Career Theories Feeling like you need to make a career pivot because your job isn’t a good..
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Oct 12, 2018Integrators VS Segmentors
Are your employees integrators or segmentors? An organization has both integrators and segmentors. Being a segmentor is a tough ask. If you choose to be..
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Oct 5, 2018Help Your Team Members…
Help Your Team Members Succeed (Especially When They're Tempted to Leave) Help that valued employee being lured by another opportunity think through what they are..
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Sep 28, 2018Avoid Toxic Team Members
Are You Hiring a 'Team' Player -- or Someone Just Looking out for No. 1? How can leaders make sure they're not unwittingly inviting a..
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Sep 21, 2018What Motivates You to…
What Motivates You to Work? That paycheck will never be big enough if it's the only reason you're going to work. Each of us respond..
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Sep 7, 2018Tap Into Your Motivation!
Putting Yourself In Drive: How To Tap Into Your Motivation The one common component in every great success story is motivation: an ever-elusive elixir that..
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Aug 17, 2018Social media can cost…
When 'What Happens In Vegas' Ends Up In Your Job Search What happens in Vegas really doesn’t stay there. That “funny” picture about that..
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Aug 10, 2018Avoid Summer Slump
How To Improve Productivity For Yourself And Your Team This Summer July and August are historically bad months for productivity. It might be the warm..
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Aug 3, 2018Emotional Intelligence at Workplace
How To Develop More Emotionally Intelligent Employees In the quest to develop leaders who will foster a culture of equity and inclusion in the workplace,..
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Jul 20, 2018Rewarding Employees Wisely
5 Ways to Reward Employees When Raises Aren't an Option Many workers are doing double duty these days because employers either can’t afford to hire..
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Jul 6, 2018Hiring the right people?
5 Steps to Hiring the Right People for Your Business "Hire slow, fire fast" is great advice, but it's not always easy to follow. The..
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Jun 22, 2018Simple Work-Life Balance
Work-Life Balance Is Simple. To Succeed at Work, Get a Life. With the right balance of health and business, entrepreneurs can maximize productivity. The Organization..
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Jun 15, 2018Experience or Talent?
When to Hire Raw Talent vs. Job Experience Experience is a must for some jobs, but people with raw talent offer unique benefits. You have..
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Jun 8, 2018Back On Track
How to get back on track when you’re having an unproductive day A rocky start shouldn’t dictate your entire workday. Do these things to reverse..
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Jun 1, 2018Value of Office Communication
Why Office Communication is Highly Valued and Often Ignored A huge number of employees don't trust their bosses, and it's not hard to figure out..
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May 25, 2018Impacts of High Turnover
The Negative Impacts of a High Turnover Rate High turnover rates can negatively affect a company and its employees in many ways. With the constant..
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May 18, 2018General Data Protection Regulation
Five Final Checks To Ensure GDPR Compliance It is just one week until the EU update to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance deadline of..
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May 11, 2018Employee Onboarding Strategies
Seven New Onboarding Strategies You'll See This Year According to a study from Equifax, more than half of all employees who left their job in..
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Apr 27, 2018AI empowers HR
AI will make HR more Human, Strategic and Innovated Artificial intelligence (AI) is a source of both huge excitement and fear across the HR function...
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Apr 13, 2018Negative performance feedback
Is giving negative performance feedback really negative? Negative performance feedback is a difficult topic to talk about. Does it help the performance? This feature throws..
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Apr 5, 2018Inclusion in the Workplace
Inclusion Doesn’t Mean Including Everything and Everyone Inclusiveness is not about thought policing. It’s also not about turning everyone into a liberal. It’s a normal..
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Mar 30, 2018Inspire Change In Your…
4 Ways To Inspire Change In Your Employees Have you ever listened to a speech that inspired you so much, you were ready to make..
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Mar 23, 2018Employees Feel and Act…
7 Ways to Incent Employees to Feel and Act as Owners Building accountability into your business culture is a leadership process. It can't be driven..
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Mar 16, 2018Don’t Shuffle People Into…
Don't Shuffle People Into the Wrong Job Just Because They're Already on the Payroll You grow your company by putting proven performers where you need..
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Mar 9, 2018The Best Internal Candidate…
Why the Best Internal Candidate Might Be from an Unlikely Part of the Company Nearly a decade since Gallup released its bible, Strengths-Based Leadership, which..
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Feb 26, 2018Minimise Workplace Negativity
Tips for Minimizing Workplace Negativity To Deal with Negativity in the Workplace, Use These 9 Tips Nothing affects employee morale more insidiously than persistent workplace..
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Feb 9, 2018The future Workspace
Why a Coffee Shop Will Probably Be Your Workspace Within 10 Years As the gig economy grows, there are both social and scientific reasons why..
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Jan 26, 2018Prepare new employees for…
The Best Way to Set New Employees Up for Success Create an onboarding program that's both meaningful and memorable Congratulations; you've just hired a terrific..
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Jan 19, 2018First Hour, Day, Week,…
Do This In Your First Hour, Day, Week, And Month Of Your New Job Getting settled into your new job is the ultimate act of..
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Jan 12, 2018Make 2018 a Productive…
11 Expert Tips To Make 2018 Your Most Productive Year Ever Could eating cake for breakfast and never listening to your voicemail help you get..
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Jan 5, 20187 Ways Modest Leadership…
7 Ways Modest Leadership Increases Team Success When we imagine the traits of successful leaders, whether they are managers, high level executives, CEO's or owners..
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Dec 29, 2017Grateful Workplaces and Engaged…
Grateful Workplaces and Engaged Employees All leaders need to ask themselves why happy and engaged employees are worth their weight in gold. If you’re a..
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Dec 15, 2017Employee stress during Christmas
Managing employee stress during the festive period More than half of employees feel stressed in the weeks leading up to Christmas, with most calling for..
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Dec 8, 2017HR in 2022
What's HR going to be in 2022? A Study sheds some light... A recent study shows us a glimpse of what HR might look like..
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Dec 1, 2017Appreciating your employees
How to Avoid the No. 1 Reason People Leave Their Jobs William James, the father of psychology, stated that the most fundamental psychological need is..
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Nov 24, 2017HR Function in 2024
Will You Be Leading an HR Function in 2024? Here are five things to look at to examine and determine if you’ve got what it..
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Nov 17, 2017Employee Appraisals
Importance of Effective Employee Appraisals The performance appraisal may be one of the few times during the year where an employee and the reviewer, typically..
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Nov 10, 2017Your Impact at Work!
What Is Your Impact? We keep throwing this word around called "impact." Do you know what your impact is and how would you define, discover,..
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Nov 2, 2017The workplace is changing
From Cubicle To Coffee Shop - How The Workplace As We Know It Is Changing In the past few years we have seen a major..
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Oct 20, 2017Employees don’t see link…
Employees don't see link between pay and performance Employers gave themselves only mediocre ratings on pay programme effectiveness. Employees are struggling to see the link..
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Oct 13, 2017Working for small companies
Why You Should Consider Working For A Small Company Eighty-four percent of small-business employees are happy in their current job, according to the 2017 Aflac..
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Oct 6, 2017HR’s key role in…
HR's key role in enlightened office design HR magazine and Landid's roundtable on the workspace of tomorrow explored how HR can positively influence facilities management..
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Sep 22, 2017Workplaces still hamper productivity
Workplaces still hamper productivity Noise, lack of privacy and space are some of the factors causing the greatest dissatisfaction among office workers Nearly half of..
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Sep 15, 2017Lost your Job?
Nine Things You Should and Shouldn't Do If You Lose Your Job Most of us wouldn’t think to associate the words "joblessness" and "fun," but..
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Aug 25, 2017Top 10 Benefits Of…
Top 10 Benefits Of A Workplace Wellness Program When Google opened up in the 90s it took a unique approach to employee satisfaction. In an..
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Aug 10, 2017Friends and Career
Being Too Busy for Friends Won’t Help Your Career Friendship matters. Everything we do to succeed in our careers is improved when we’re supported by..
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Aug 4, 2017Is it time to…
The Best Ways to Reward Employees. Having an effective reward program in place can help solve many of your HR issues. Every company needs a..
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Jul 21, 2017People don’t take HR…
People Don’t Take HR Seriously; Here’s Why That’s Dangerous Legacy beliefs like being the bad guy and a lack of strategic vision isolates HR, and..
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May 2, 2017Employee Burnout
What causes burnout and how it can affect both the employees and the organisation How HR Can Help Prevent Employee Burnout An engaged workforce. It's..