After a year and a half, I had an in-person workday. Here are my impressions
I ended the day exhausted and with a headache, but there were some positive aspects
After over a year and a half, I recently had an in-person workday. Whenever I am in São Paulo, I will work in person with my colleagues on Wednesdays. Below, I summarize this experience, with its positive and negative points.
Integration is positive. Since the team has mainly worked remotely, we got to know each other better, interact, and have some laughs. At the end of the day, there was even cake and sparkling wine for a birthday celebration.
Direct communication without the need for a messaging app is a plus. If you need something from your colleague, you can just turn to them and make your request.
Our coworking space is a community shared with other journalistic entities, allowing for increased networking.
The coworking space is in one of the most charming neighborhoods in São Paulo, Bom Retiro. It has good restaurants and cafes, mostly owned by Koreans and their descendants, a significant immigrant community in the area. I enjoyed getting to know the surroundings a bit more.
The day becomes much longer and more tiring in person. While I woke up at 9:30 AM to start working remotely at 10:00 AM, I had to wake up at 8:30 AM in person. This hour less of sleep was missed by my body. The in-person setup also takes an hour from the day on the other end. Remotely, at 6:00 PM, I stop and can do whatever I want. In-person, I need another hour for commuting. I ended the day exhausted.
Remotely, we get used to the silence of our home (for those without children or a mother nearby, of course). In person, it was pretty challenging to maintain concentration with several simultaneous and parallel conversations happening around me. The result was a headache by the end of the day. My productivity was not the best that day. This is something to consider: some people are more productive in person, while others are more productive at home. In my case, the gains from faster communication are marginal due to my lack of productivity.
The metro commute was a positive point because of the off-peak morning hour. I could sit and read my book. The return trip was a carpool with four people who live nearby. The environment thanks us.
I felt very superheated during the day. The newsroom's room is warm, and being in the middle of a heatwave did not help at all. I asked fans from the administrative manager for the next in-person day.
At a certain point, the sun shone directly on my computer for two hours, making it very difficult to read. I suffered from this a lot at my last in-person job. The sun will always be a nuisance at some point. At home, it is easier to avoid it.
Another dilemma is meetings. Although we are in person, most contact with the rest of the world is done virtually, often via Meet and Zoom. Some people held these meetings at the newsroom table, disturbing their colleagues. The ideal solution is meeting rooms for these occasions.
I like to eat lunch alone, which is always a drama in the in-person setup. Since I had to do my regular medical check-up, I used my lunch hour for that. I won't always be able to escape; some days, I will have to force my social gastronomic interactions.
Remotely, you manage your time more according to your demands and deliverables. In-person, everyone is there all the time, and you feel more compelled to be there too. You take fewer five-minute breaks per hour (which is even recommended by various specialists).
These are my positive and negative points from my one-day in-person experience. I tried to be as honest as possible. As I always say in this newsletter, I am not radically against in-person work in some contexts. I am radically in favor of the greatest flexibility possible.
And you, did you have to go back to working in person? What were your impressions?
Read more: What should I do if my company starts returning to in-person work?
