Recently I went back to the office for the first time in two years and was exhausted afterwards. Like a bus had run over me.
And that while I had only had a few conversations with colleagues, taken a walk with a friend and had dinner in a packed diner. Just like I used to do two, three, four times a week. And now I was already exhausted after one time? What had happened?
When I searched and asked about it on Twitter, it turned out that more home workers recognized this after the first few days back at the office. “Like I’ve been knocked out,” wrote one. “Now want to spend the next 48 hours wrapped in a down blanket in a dark room,” a second. “Totally overstimulated and in a panic” a third. How is this possible? How did we do this before? I’m not sure, but I’m thinking like this:
1 Before corona we were tacklers, logistics professionals, super people. We braved rain and wind. Went to refuel, put on our tire, got up when the alarm went off (!), cycled, took a laptop, carried beamers, drained polders, built bridges, shot appointments, primed reports, fresh meals in the freezer, bread lubricate, arrange a babysitter, with the VOC to the East – just bang your head against a wall and on again.
Now, after two years with a blanket on the couch, we are like top athletes who have been in a cast for months: the slightest breath of wind blows us over – we have become wimps. It will take a while before we get back to the old level.
2 We used to believe in the office. That euphoric feeling of productivity after a few bilas, mietings, deep diveslunch, a chat, coffee and that slow commute there and back – we seemed crazy, but we thought we were doing really well.
During the corona crisis, we discovered that we could do at home in one morning what it would take us three days to do at the office – with time to spare and often even better. That’s why we are tired of a day in the office. Because we know now: we didn’t give a shit.
3 We used to be able to do it: speaking to all those people with a friendly face. The whole day long. The porter’s lodge (“I tore my knee ligaments playing football”), the IT people (“no, we never worked from home, haha.”), the catering (“the filled biscuits are on sale” ), the secretariat (“there is an error in your payslip”): people you did not see, spoke to or needed for two years.
Our brain is no longer used to all those voices, smells, stimuli and sounds. We can’t take them anymore mutepush, hang up or tell them “I’m driving into a tunnel”.
A nice colleague said last week: „I think all day long: ‘Keep your fakkin kutbek’. I never had that before.” One reader wrote that the sound of people eating an apple already rips her through the marrow. Another: “Now you know what autistics feel all day.” We’ve forgotten the nonsense, got shorter fuses. And people with short fuses tire faster.
Also read: How do you make sure you don’t think about the war all the time?
4 We used to think we were indispensable! That if we didn’t come to the office, the whole world would collapse – that gave us energy. Now we know that no one misses us when we stay at home. In fact: that it often goes a lot better without us. That we might as well stay home in our pajamas.
We ask ourselves: are we still good here? What’s my job worth if it’s stripped of all frills? We have become worriers. A colleague recently said: “During the corona crisis, I did not become two, but ten years older.”
5 Just like our teenagers say ‘why read the book if I can also download the summary?’ we also started to wonder why we would drive all the way to Oldenzaal for a conference (emissions!, traffic jams! travel time!) or even take the highway or take the train to go to the office. We have become critical. whiners. And whiners get tired faster.
6 We have forgotten, but we used to be tired too, from the office. Then we also slept on the train, waking up with dried drool at the corner of your mouth and then dizzy into the bicycle cellar. Then we also succumbed to the Friday afternoon snack. Then we were already on the edge.
The question remains: how? How are we ever going to do this again? Office, our social life, life at all. Are we dying now? Not at all. Don’t be so dramatic. Just grit your teeth again.
So consistently twice a week a Friday afternoon snack (also one on Monday), and then go home quite tipsy. Permanently, wherever you go and also on the weekend, take your folding bike, your laptop, access pass and an overhead projector so you get used to it again.
Consciously plan ten meetings in one day. Teach yourself to blunt again. And then just the old-fashioned way back to the office five days a week.
Do not worry. All confidence.
This is going to be all right.
How was your week? Tips for Japke-d. Bouma via @Japked on Twitter.
These were the Pearls on Twitter this week
https://twitter.com/EllendeBrown/status/1499288215596982275
Spent all day at the office today, talking to people, having meetings and brainstorming. Now want to lie wrapped in a down blanket in a dark room for the next 48 hours.
— Rianne Meijer (@globalistaa) February 28, 2022
@Japked I had missed the memo that after corona we no longer go to the office in formal work clothes. (almost) everyone was in jeans and I, in a suit, was asked if I was going to give a presentation. And I had just bought new dress shoes for the office. blisters for nothing…
— Annemarie Montulet (@AMontulet) March 11, 2022
Last week I was invited for a “Dressing Room Conversation”. I had to look it up, indeed it seems to be used more often. Do you know this one already, @Japked†
— Gina (@GinekeD) March 12, 2022
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of March 16, 2022
#Totally #overstimulated #day #office