Photo credit: Vintage Everyday

Within a few months, the coronavirus and the subsequent efforts to contain it sent everyone home, emptying offices everywhere. Working from home was no longer a luxury but the way of doing business in a pandemic world. But when the virus became more endemic than pandemic, people didn't return to their cubicles, conference rooms, and call centers. Like a derivative viral strain of its own, the workforce infected locations that used to be corporate-free. 

The places I went to read, write, and relax, like coffee shops, restaurants, libraries, and parks, are all now workspaces. Nowhere is free from the plague of remote workers. While waiting for an oil change in a customer lounge, I unwillingly sat in on a quarterly results call. Standing in a grocery store checkout line, I listened to a performance review in front of me and a job interview behind me. One afternoon, eating lunch in a shop that used to attract local college students with its free Wi-Fi and soda refills, I found myself surrounded by people wearing headsets talking of synergies and holistic approaches between bites of their sandwiches. 

Having spent thirty-five years behind a desk, I understand and appreciate the dynamics of employer/employee relationships and the challenges of keeping and maintaining a motivated and engaged workforce. I realize the months spent managing the impacts of a global pandemic shattered the misconceptions of remote work and liberated people who, for too long, felt chained to the corporate mothership. They don't want to surrender a more flexible and accommodating work environment. 

But selfishly, I would like to leave my house without walking into everyone else's workplace. I never imagined spending the second chapter of my life forced to wrap myself in a noise-canceling headphone cocoon. 

On a recent overnight stay, I was enjoying the hotel’s complimentary breakfast and morning paper when my concentration was broken by a plea for someone to unmute. At a nearby table someone sat in front of an open laptop participating in a video conference. Also forced to attend the meeting along with me were a couple on their honeymoon, a family of four, a long-haul truck driver, and a man trying desperately to understand how to operate the waffle maker. 

Walking to my car after breakfast, I looked across the street and saw a corporate office building - windows dark, its parking lot empty. The sight sparked a left-over remnant of my corporate creativity. Maybe the companies burdened with maintaining unused and unwanted office space could offset their costs by leasing space to those of us looking to escape the employees they set free. 

I never imagined I would ever find solace in a cubicle or a conference room. But I also never thought my afternoon retirement latte and crossword puzzle would come with a side of PowerPoint. If no one is going back to the office, maybe I should.