The Year the Company Came Back to the Office

January was when the memo first arrived. The results weren’t good enough so the CEO, after a thorough review of the remote work data, concluded that the problem was that everyone was at home.

People hesitated. The return to office push became stronger so HR pushed harder. A committee was assembled. They installed a photo booth, upgraded the canteen menu, and ordered standing desks that were immediately adjusted to sitting height and never moved again. Back to work is appealing now.

People started returning. Then the servers crashed.

By June, sixty percent of employees were back in the office. A company-wide celebration email was sent to mark the milestone — including to the forty percent still working from home, which was an interesting editorial choice.

The push continued. What followed was a hot desking crisis, a meeting room shortage, and the realisation that the office had not been designed for the number of people now attempting to use it. A seat booking app was commissioned to manage the chaos. The app is still being built but the prototype was made ready a long time ago.

The meeting rooms remained perpetually booked and perpetually empty. Employees began taking video calls at their desks instead, muting strategically when a colleague nearby unmuted. A non-verbal language developed around hybrid collaboration that nobody documented. People called it office culture.

In October, the solution was announced: a second office. More rooms. Everyone in. This time, for real. The task force got to work again.

By December, they were settled. The only issue was that teams were now split across two locations. Engineering in one building, product in the other, finance somewhere in the middle, both geographically and emotionally. Cross-team collaboration required a calendar invite, a video link, and occasionally a bus. If you got lucky, the meeting came with a meeting room also.

All meetings are still online.

The CEO called the return to office initiative a success. The employee engagement data showed strong in-office attendance.

An HR manager, when asked the same question, took a long sip of her coffee.

The photo booth is still there.