Return-To-The-Office Etiquette: Can’t Do These Things Any More

Some of the rules of office etiquette might have been relaxed while we were all working remotely. Now that we’re returning to the office, we’re discovering that we can no longer do some things in the workplace the way we had done in virtual meetings:

1. Nosy, overbearing, judge-y colleagues can no longer be banished with a click of the Leave Meeting button.
2. There is no pleasant background screen to cover up the IRL piles of outdated directories, empty candy wrappers, and collection of used coffee cups in someone’s workspace.
3. There is no Mute button to silence the co-worker who breaks into your workflow with a monologue about his breakfast cereal.
4. Pajama bottoms do not meet the “business casual” standard at most workplaces.

There are upsides, however. Hundreds of subtle face-to-face social cues were missing from virtual meetings, things like the duration of gaze or the quiet sigh that told us how people really felt. It was hard to tell if your superior was giving you an encouraging smile or laughing at your idea. Now that we’re starting to spend in-person time with colleagues, all that missing information is coming into play to help us communicate and collaborate better.

However, very few people want to return to full-time in-office work. Sorting out the rules of the hybrid workplace requires a good deal of creativity, patience, and empathy – a new kind of etiquette. Melissa Afton of Potential Project recommends that leaders talk AND listen to employees, often and at length, about the return-to-work plan – a kind of managerial etiquette. Two-way communication and flexibility allow everyone to arrive at clarity, so everyone feels good about returning to the office.

Just as important is ensuring that everyone has the tools needed to function politely (and productively) in the hybrid office:

• An organization-wide scheduling tool isn’t just for productivity; it supports good etiquette by informing people, in a timely manner, about events at which their presence is requested.
• Document digitization gives information access to all team members whether they’re in-office or at home. A digital document database avoids the problem of one team member taking paper documents home, when the entire team needs to work on them – a huge breach of hybrid-office etiquette. No one wants to come in to the office for a meeting, only to find that essential paperwork isn’t available.

It is said that etiquette exists to make others comfortable. Working with other people, whether they are nosy, messy, or questionably dressed, requires a willingness to do our best to create enough comfort for work to happen. Good communication and the right tools will go a long way to establishing the new hybrid-workplace etiquette.

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