Disclaimer: This could well be a piece in the excitement of having attended office consistently in the last three weeks - a "phenomenon" in my life after nearly three long years!
The enthusiasm of a new job, the tipping point where work from home starts sounding like confinement and most importantly, public transport connectivity to office have enthused me to consider "work from office" as a viable option - till I get bored of office or vice versa!
And it has been a wave of nostalgia! Right from getting up in the morning and getting ready with that sense of purpose. Needlessly to say, that feeling of "dressing up" is so integral to a sales role. Shirts and trousers shelved like artifacts in a museum are beginning to see the light of day all over again. The best part is that they still fit! Not sure if being the same size after three years is considered good or bad - but it has definitely saved some cost here! Even the shoes smile with that coat of polish that eluded them for years. It's another matter that my feet and the shoes need to find romance all over again. For now, there is still the occasional tiff on uneven surfaces that is all too obvious.
Ofcourse, the familiar feeling of being a run of the mill corporate answering to a boss, a super boss, a grand boss and ultimately the whims of an organisation returns with full force as I become aware of the ID card around my neck. But being in office reminds me that there are hundreds of millions in the world who are doing the exact same thing in one capacity or the other. We still have a stomach to feed and bills to pay.
Having people called around called "colleagues" is what I missed since the pandemic years. No, I still don't know more than a handful of my colleagues yet. I never may. On most days, I exchange smiles with a few of them and then there is the occasional lunch in the cafeteria. No proverbial "water cooler" conversations that lead to insightful grapevine or transformational ideas. Yet, the presence of this species called "colleagues" around, atleast for now, lends a sense of calm and purpose. And Mondays have a special ring to them, as my entire team is in office!
"Deep work" is the behavior
where you work for reasonable periods of time without distractions. The definite upside of being in office has been that the probability of me engaging in deep work has increased. This, I believe, can help me be more productive (hope my Boss is not reading this ;) ). And productivity or not, the sense of being in a "flow" without distractions lends a lot of meaning to my day.
All this aside, going back to office has brought about changes on the home front as well. I wake up atleast an hour early and constantly want to improve on that. I'm motivated to groom myself. There is a tendency to organise priorities - work, workout, writing, reading and the likes. Work from home meant that work stretched endlessly from one day to the other. It's something I want to get rid of - though only time will tell! The afternoon siesta, so much an integral part of my life in the last three years, inevitably stands cancelled. And ofcourse, my parents can hopefully enjoy some peace, respite and space from the innumerable calls, cribbing and cacophony that's part of a typical day at work. Though Amma presently tells me that she misses my running into the kitchen every hour for snacks and short-eats!
On a more practical note, I'm conscious of the premise with which I'm writing this piece. I'm "experiencing" office all over again after three years and there's definitely a spring in my stride. But I'm cognizant that I could be singing a completely different tune in a couple of months down the line!
For now though, I'm enjoying this little dose of pride every time our househelp asks "Anna, how is it that you're going to office everyday?" Three weeks on, I've still not stopped smiling at that question!
- 08th March 2023
The opinions expressed are completely my own and have no bearing on my employer.
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