The Social Office

Remember WFH?*  I have no intention of trying to solve this problem - mostly because it is still a problem, in that no one seems able to predict what percentage of workers who can will be working from home once we have become comfortably ensconced in the world of endemic COVID, which, it seems, will be how we know the pandemic is over.

This seems like a pretty simple issue, but it has become about as complex as possible.  Kevin Drum has weighed in again (be sure to read the comments), as has Ed Zitron (ditto).  The New York Times has something to say, as well, but that article is almost universally an object of scorn, especially among those who feel that managers who insist that WFHers return to the office are playing out a capitalist agenda which has nothing to do with their employees' efficiency or, heaven forbid, satisfaction.  Lots is being written, but I'll let you find it yourself.

What I have to add to the debate involves social skills.  Like so many "statistics" and "studies," approaches to studying the effects of WFH treat all remote workers the same, as if there were no differences among them as regards characteristics which are essential to understanding what is happening.

And a "characteristic which is essential to understanding" is the individual's social skills, and therefor their comfort with socialization.  Working in an office requires that the employee exhibit countless different social skills in the hundreds of personal interactions that occur each day, from passing someone in the hall to the hour and a half of "networking time" before a conference starts.  Some are naturally good at this; some are not.**  Those of us in the second group find those interactions stressful, because we're not sure we're going to be able to behave successfully in enough of them to stay out of trouble.

So the second group - those who are not good at these interactions - have been ecstatic about WFH, and would like to keep at it until the end of the universe.  This, of course, will come as a surprise to noone.

However, I wonder:  are those who are socially adept more likely to become managers because of those skills?  "It's not what you know, but who you know" refers, I think, to schmoozing and networking.  Those who can do it best get noticed, and promoted.

So are the managers who are advocating the return to the office really just lonely?  Their preferred environment was disassembled a year and a half ago, and they have spent the time planning to rebuild it.  

Add to this the possibility that these managers, who have found such success by being like they be, don't understand that it's a skill they've been blessed with, and that others in the office - good workers, productive, reliable - have not been blessed with those skills and really, really don't want to help them rebuild their social environment.

What do you think?  Where do you fall on the social distribution, and how do you feel about WFH?  

 * - Work From Home.  I know.  It's been a long time.

 ** - Those of you who are saying, "What skills?  You just go to work and interact with people normally!  What are you talking about?" are in the first group.