Is the #WFH era ending?

Companies want workers back in the office

Photo by Mikey Harris on Unsplash

It’s taken just 14 months for that mood to pass. You know which one I mean. The mood that suggested we would live in a kinder, gentler world, those of us who have made it until this point.

It’s been 14 months since the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic. Planes were grounded. Office staff were sent home. Zoom became the chief mode of faux in-person communication. For all intents and purposes, the world stopped, or at least stopped rushing so madly. Commuting became a distant memory. Journalists like me wrote pieces about the changing world of work. We larded our articles with expert opinion that it was unlikely office routines would ever fully return to what they once were. # WFH (working from home) became # WFA (working from anywhere); their hashtags making the concepts seem solid and here to stay.

But a mere 14 months on, and things have started to change. JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said he was “done” with all his Zoom