Last March, we closed our 11 offices and sent 800 people across the country to work from home. While we couldn’t have imagined that we’d still be working from home over a year later, we have learned to embrace our virtual world with its Zoom meetings and tiny windows we get into each other’s lives. And although we love taking breaks with our pets, having lunch with our kids, or doing laundry mid-day, we do miss the office. So, in honor of this moment, we asked a few of our workplace designers to co-pen… a letter to the office.
Dear Office,
It’s been one year since we parted ways and… well… we miss you.
We miss your comfortable task chairs, fragrant Xerox copies, and the soft chatter of coworkers sharing weekend plans.
We miss our freshly brewed coffee in the morning (but not the hundreds of dollars spent on it)!
We miss the tea options in your kitchen that would give us a quiet afternoon break and being able to bump into coworkers on different project teams that we don’t get to catch up with anymore.
We miss seeing people in person, random group lunches and leftover cookies from events, the group puzzle, and of course… kombucha on tap.
We miss the quiet of 8:45 on Monday mornings sitting at the desk with the sun coming in and a fresh latte in hand.
We miss our champagne celebrations over personal and professional milestones and when everyone comes running when they hear the “pop!”
We miss the constant buzz from the interior design team while they’re coming up with innovative solutions, and catching up after the weekend.
We miss the collective energy and excitement over a new and cool material or furniture item and our eagerness to find a project where it would fit just perfectly.
We miss the awesome lighting in your restroom. We need to go back for a confidence boost.
We miss the precious face-to-face time that we need to spark connection and fuel the creative process.
We miss that feeling when you’re hyper focused at your desk, someone comes up behind you to ask a question and you jump a mile high. You know… the one where you squawk loudly in surprise and then we all start laughing? We miss the interruptions, the distractions, and the day to day human interactions. The random reasons to laugh together, learning each other’s quirks, and feeling a genuine connection rather than a designated time in a formal Zoom meeting.
We miss hanging out at your counter and catching up about the weekend.
