My company installed “focus rooms” for our return to office and I have never felt dumber in my life
We got pulled back 2 days a week after being remote since 2020 and leadership kept saying the office was redesigned for “intentional collaboration.” I was annoyed but tried not to be dramatic about it. I packed my laptop, drove 52 minutes, paid for the garage, did the whole little adult cosplay. The funny part is my entire team is in other states. My manager is in Denver, my closest coworker is in Ohio, the dev team I work with is in Toronto. So I get to the office and it’s basically 140 people on different Zoom calls, all trying not to hear each other say “quick question” through the same cheap glass walls. Then I find out the “focus rooms” are literally tiny booths where you sit alone and take remote meetings. Like a phone booth, but sadder and with worse air. I spent 6 hours in one yesterday talking to people who were not in the building, while people outside waited for the booth so they could also talk to people not in the building. At lunch I sat with a guy from finance I had never met and we both ate silently because we were catching up on Slack. The only actual in person interaction I had all day was someone asking if I was done with the charger under the desk. Today leadership sent a survey asking if the office helped me feel more connected. I want to answer honestly but there’s no checkbox for “I drove across town to do remote work in a closet.” I’m not anti social, I just dont understand why pretending geography is culture has become the hill every exec wants to die on.