RTO for Cohesion. WFH for Deep Work.
So, as I focus on rejoining the workforce now that I've gotten gym ownership (mostly) out of my system, I'm considering a bunch of different avenues (and offers...YAY!) for what I've determined to be my last go around as an employee. The irony is that I'm seeking roles in AI...the same AI that will likely obsolete me in about two years. And therein is something we all need to consider thoughtfully. Will you be relevant in your position in 18 months, simply doing the same thing you're currently doing? Chew on that for a bit.
Moving on.
One of the roles I'm considering is based in Workplace Experience and Internal Events. Some may see it as "beneath me" in level of experience and execution. But that'd be an incorrect assessment. Here's a deeper dive into my thinking about the importance of workplace experience, especially right now.
The Unspoken Loneliness Epidemic
I'll just say it. We never really recovered from the damage COVID did to us. Before COVID sent us running to our kitchen tables and quickly crafting this new reality of conducting business, we were already dealing with a bunch of inequities, open-plan office dramas, and companies offering 5-star accommodations literally designed to keep you in your seat and productive, longer. Can I get a fistbump from anyone else out there who constantly got reprimanded by your doctor for having Vitamin D deficiency (aka "Startup Disease")?
Despite the numerous issues within the workplace, there was one thing that was undeniable...there was congregation. Employees and managers had a place to meet eye-to-eye, hammer out the small details, and return to their desks to execute. Lunchtime was on opportunity to hang with your work besties or find a corner to isolate and catch up on social media. Walk-and-talks to the nearby coffee spot, a quick after-work drink or dinner, even grabbing a quick workout with a fellow, fit co-worker were opportunities afforded by simply coming into the office. When COVID ripped that away, we had to quickly craft a new normal that excluded all of those opportunities.
While many were able to adjust pretty well, I'd say that the majority didn't adjust as well as they may have thought. The isolation, in my opinion, caused our current mental health epidemic. We got fat. A lot of us got separated and divorced. Those who suffered most were young professionals who weren't in relationships, were more introverted, and relied on office life to find connection.
Even though we're a few years clear of the pandemic, the effects are clearer than ever. One of my biggest observations since the pandemic is that we've not returned fully to the super social creatures we were before. Social skills are woefully rusty. Etiquette, which was already waning before lockdowns, has become a previous-gen nicety. People are more suspicious of others and their motives, likely trained/burned by social media's predatory prevalence. And those who found solace in working from home, likely because they didn't really "fit in" at work, have since become the strongest advocates for NEVER returning to the office. (I said what I said.)
Bluntly, I think people are lonely. We isolate in our headphones in places filled with opportunities to have impromptu conversations. We've allowed our ability to make friends to atrophy and, as such, have more "friends" on social than we do in our real lives. I even witnessed this phenomenon when I opened my gym and recovery center. I have a healthy number of friends on Facebook, for instance, who live only a few miles away from my facility. After a year of being in business, only five (of about 50) have visited my facility. The excuses ranged from already having a gym "down the street" to "being super busy" or "meaning to drop by next time I'm on that side of the city." My point isn't to blow anyone up. It's to point out the fact that physical connection between friends has been deprioritized, and the dopamine hit from giving a "like" is intended to represent the same amount of support as a visit and a hug. This is where we are now, kids.
The Purpose of RTO is Cohesion
Honestly, we NEED a return to office...for now. I agree with the majority of CEOs and business analysts who conclude that a business cannot thrive wildly without employees having some form of face time to build cohesion, exchange ideas and information, create/explore boundaries, and develop a relationship and rules of engagement with each person with whom they come into contact. Most mistake RTO as a C-suite power play. I'm not wholly bought into that theory. Sure, I believe it's just easier to manage people you can physically see. And after years of mediocre-at-best results managing remote employees and teams, managers are grasping wildly at any chance to get the ducklings back in a nice, neat little pack waddling along in line and within view.
We're pack animals, folks. Really intelligent, insolent, needy, unpredictable pack animals. And as much as we think that isolating is the holy grail, it's not. It's counterintuitive to how we're wired. It's also counterintuitive to how business is conducted. Back in the olden days, business was conducted face-to-face and with a handshake. Your word was law. As business has evolved, it's been diluted by automation, changing degrees of morality and social etiquette, and unnecessarily complicated by (in my most honest opinion) too much individualism and self-identity BS that has nothing to do with actually conducting BUSINESS. As such, business has been vilified as a wholly inequitable, emotionally unsafe place we're all forced to go in order to survive. Sure, office cultures vary company-to-company. Some cultures are amazing, cohesive, and almost familial while others are cold, hierarchical, and deemed "toxic." Yet, even in those environments, people can thrive simply be recognizing and mastering "the game" and playing it to their advantage.
The most successful companies have mastered cohesion. They've invested the time and talent to figure out how to create a work environment that's inviting and safe enough to attract and retain their top talent. They don't do too much. In fact, it's just enough to allow the culture to define and create itself organically. It's a difficult balancing act and one that requires experience knowing what works and what doesn't, understanding human psychology, constantly monitoring feedback, habits, body language, watercooler conversations, and those more frequent, longer-than-normal phone calls in the furthest end of the parking lot in front of the building. This is something that's been a low-key part of my job for decades allowing me to provide unique feedback and perspectives to the CEOs I've supported about the real health of their companies and teams, not simply what HR packaged up in their typical, under-informed-thus-biased way.
Hybrid Will Still Prevail
I'm offering up a couple of theories here. Stay with me.
Hybrid is still the move. I know I keep waffling on this. But it only makes sense the more I think about it. AI is quickly creating our new normal in the office. Teams are shrinking by the day, which means less humans will be in the office. If AI is (adeptly) handling many of the more menial tasks that don't require a gazillion wasteful meetings, the only humans in the building will be the ones wrangling bots and AI agents. Ummm...newsflash...that's not gonna require a bunch of people in an office, essentially watching code being written right before their eyes. And since a majority of offices are poorly designed, too-loud-to-focus, soul-and energy-sucking desk warehouses, it makes more sense to allow employees to work from home where they've already become accustomed to doing deep work and executing far faster and more consistently than in offices with constant interruptions and less opportunities to do deep work.
Additionally, employees will feel more empowered to self-govern, which is what I think everyone is actually asking for vs. being forced to be somewhere they can't do their best work. Yes, we run the risk of factions forming in a hybrid environment: those who are easily accessible because they're always in the office vs. the ones who split time between work and home. I'm "old" so I'll always bias on being in the office because you'll never convince me that split environs will produce the same amount of success as a fully in-office, cohesive team. However, I'm open to being proven wrong on this because I do see the benefits, mostly personal, of hybrid work.
We need to talk about the retention of personal power that the lockdowns provided. For the first time in the history of business, employees could start calling the shots on their personal lives. This is something many are death-gripping as RTO mandates increase. Losing this power will feel like a life defeat and acquiescing all personal power to the man and returning to how things were prior to lockdowns. Trust me, I get it. But I don't believe it will be that extreme. We learned a lot about ourselves and how business still thrived even when relegated to our homes. I believe now, more than ever, employees have a say about how they will be treated and what type of environment they prefer.
But #realtalk we're in a precarious time, now that AI has entered the picture. As I'd mentioned, we won't really need a bunch of people staring at laptops watching code being built. In fact, we'll need (and have) far less people in the building in general. Instead, I believe offices should really be built around congregating and socializing. Bringing teams together to build familiarity, have impromptu conversations, clarify what needs clarifying, and offer a comfortable, fun, and inviting place to scrum, bang out some solutions, have a meeting or two, then either head home or pop on your soundproof headphones and execute your ass off. That's where office life is headed IMHO. Not, once again, trying to create these perfectly utopian, 5-days per week office environments that will quickly be obsoleted by the AI-majority workforces we're sprinting toward. Yes, RTO is valuable right now to help craft and test what the offices of the future will look like. But, ultimately, a fully hybrid work experience will prevail. It makes the most sense and will be what allows today's workforce to thrive.
...But You Gotta Dial The Experience
You gotta give employees a little FOMO. I've designed a number of great offices throughout my career. For Flipagram I scored a couple of features, one in the Los Angeles Times and one for Built in LA, for an office I designed in the former, historic Tower Records building on Sunset Boulevard; another as a "Top 5 Coolest Tech Company Offices to Work" where I converted an entire floor to an indoor park complete with fake grass, Adirondack chairs, and a stage where I invited musical artists on our platform to come and perform acoustic sets for our employees.
Working at those offices felt special. I was very intentional in creating an environment that had a significant amount of FOMO. They had just enough creature comforts to not want for anything. They were always located near great coffee options (instead of me trying to perfect coffee making at the office...PLEASE STOP THIS TREND!) They were always near parklets or some place to walk-and-talk or go and have a phone call or social media scroll-a-thon to decompress. And there was always some element of cooperative fun that involved everyone, didn't make people feel "othered," and made people feel proud to be part of the team, even with a healthy amount of diversity of opinion, experience, and unavoidable hierarchy.
I believe People teams rely too heavily on what's hot and what everyone else is doing without paying closer attention to what their employees need and are silently asking for (or bemoaning). I've rarely seen this done well throughout my career, which is why I often stepped in to help create the guardrails anytime I joined a startup. There's an art to creating work environments that aren't pretentious or "do too much" but create just enough FOMO to make people actually excited to head to the office. That's why I'm exploring roles like this or ensuring they are part of larger roles I'm exploring because, truthfully, AI can't touch me. The beauty of being human is that I'll always be able to out-nuance a bot when it comes to what humans want and need in order to thrive. Until we devolve into full-on groupthink and droid-like thinking and behavior, people like me will always have a job. *wink
In Conclusion
As I look toward my next chapter, I'm reminded that the "last go-around" for me—and likely for many of us—isn't about chasing prestige but rather genuine impact. Workplace experience, cohesion, and all-important human connection remain core to a company's success, even as AI edges closer to rendering certain functions obsolete. Sure, AI is reshaping the landscape, but it will never replace the insight that comes from understanding what people truly need to feel valued, motivated, and connected.
Roles focused on cultivating this connection may seem less glamorous in title, but they’re essential, especially in a world where loneliness and disconnection have become epidemics of their own. If COVID taught us anything, it’s that isolation, while sometimes convenient, does little for our collective well-being. A strategically designed, human-centered workplace, whether in-office, hybrid, or occasional, can provide the balance, spontaneity, and cohesion we crave. It's not about "forcing" people back into cubicles; it's about creating a space that employees actually want to show up to.
As I navigate this pivot, my goal is simple: to help redefine the workplace as a dynamic, adaptable space that genuinely serves those who occupy it. And while AI may drive certain efficiencies, it’s up to people like me, who live and breathe the art of creating human connection, to design environments where people can thrive, feel seen, and yes, maybe even enjoy a bit of that FOMO. Because, at the end of the day, that’s something no algorithm can deliver.