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First, a few companies asked (very nicely) for their employees to come in one day a week. Work from home folks, like me, thought to themselves: Well, okay. One day a week is cool. I can get out of my pajamas and see my work-folk. <\/em><\/p>\n The next thing you know, there was a two-day a week policy. You know, just for a few meetings. Take a break from the Zooms. Get a coffee in the morning. Take a meeting after work. <\/p>\n Then, things got weird. We couldn\u2019t just be on the Zooms, we had to make sure our cameras were turned on. <\/u><\/a><\/p>\n For me, much later than most companies, I saw the official RTO email: Return to Office. Starting next week, I\u2019m in the office. In person.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the thing, I didn\u2019t get an official RTO. I gave\u00a0myself<\/em>\u00a0the ultimatum. Time to go in the office every day.\u00a0And we knew it was coming<\/u><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n As a consultant, I can come and go as I please. I can take every meeting via Zoom and I\u2019m in Slack channels and various threads that keep me up to date. <\/p>\n But I\u2019ve noticed in the past two years, not being in the office is fine, technically. But our culture is now back to an office-culture. We\u2019re back to Monday morning gossiping at the water cooler. We\u2019re back to lunch orders and trading gossip on who\u2019s being hired and who\u2019s being fired. <\/p>\n