With ongoing vaccination the end of the pandemic and the return to the office seems a realistic scenario. Having experienced the limitations of remote work people are already preparing themselves for post COVID_19 work at the office. Yes, you heard right: working together with colleagues in a common space at - the same time. This will however be anything than a 'back to normal', so here are my personal tips for post COVID working:
1. Try not to pour coffee in anybody's face in case anybody should tell you about his or her exotic vacation in some sunny piece of paradise. I have not been away from home for over a year and my only business travel worth mentioning has been between home office and the actual office. But I will do my very best to restrain myself.
2. Don't mention to anyone how you passed all those endless hours at home. In my case, I will eschew any confession about how many hundreds of hours I have spent in my newly created hobby room in the basement, let alone how I passed the time. There's one rule to activities in the basement: Nobody talks about any activities in the basement. What happens in the basement stays in the basement #virtualcycling
3. Stay away from the office with a cold. I assume my loyal colleagues will do likewise and not distribute any pet virus, but instead work from home should any of them catch anything contagious. Working remotely has worked pretty fine for over a year, so that shouldn't be an issue.
4. Be more hygienic by washing and sanitizing your hands frequently. You don't have to go into full panic mode by not touching any door handles, light switches or elevator buttons. Just keep a good balance between being ignorant and going DEFCON 1.
5. Leave nothing behind. This is an extended version of the 'clean desk' policy, which states that on finishing your daily work you should clear your desk. I suggest extending this in a reasonable fashion to any venue at all times to make office life even more convenient or even less hazardous among colleagues. E.g. Tidy the conference room of food and beverages during breaks.
6. Keep your distance to fellow employees. Social distancing is not going to go away anytime soon, so it seems a fair call to get accustomed to the 'new normal'. Maybe circumstances are not going to require the current 1.5m default minimum distance. However everybody should get accustomed to keep a fair distance from each other. For instance: If the elevator seems packed already, just wait for the next one.
7. Mind the dress code and don't dress too casually. Showing up at the office in a Hawaii shirt, bermuda shorts and flip flops is just not going to cut it unless you work in a surf shop. The age of the tie seems long gone in most parts of the business world. Chances are post pandemic dress codes might ease up slightly. Just remember that there will always be a bar how to dress up in professional life and you should avoid being the one to fail that standard.
8. Never blame anyone for any post covid fads. You have no idea what people went through and what experience they made during COVID_19. Be tolerant and assume people have a good reason to behave in the way they do. Be mindful even (or especially) when you cannot comprehend their behaviour.
All will be fine in the end. And as long as it is not fine, we have not reached the end yet :-)
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