Work 2024: Missing the Communal Eye Roll

There are many discussions of what’s been lost and what’s been gained from our post-covid ability to work from home, even with a sprinkling of days at the office. We’ve all made adjustments that some people like and others don’t.

As a life coach, I see that my clients are missing the benefit of a ritual that was present in offices across the globe: the after-meeting hang and debrief. Call it the after-meeting after-party. This spontaneous and predictable gathering connected staff, confirmed intuition, and served as a communal eyeroll. It may have included What was he thinking? Is she for real? Or Good for you for speaking up. Or WTF, I don’t understand ______ (insert boss/supervisor/colleague.)

Missing this after-meeting after party and working in isolation can impede good brainstorming and generative thinking.  Because there’s limited ability to pop in an office, it’s harder to stretch an idea or even vent. We’re in a more formal and lonelier sweatpants world. Conversations may be increasingly charged because we’re denied the cathartic act of addressing something in passing, or in real time. The hang, the release, the exhausted laugh at the end of a productive and satisfying day are missed.

New paradigms are being created and it can be exciting. Increasing numbers of coaches like me provide opportunities to troubleshoot, vent, and strategize in a low stress way. In other words, we share the eye roll, the WTFs, and the successes – especially the successes. But times are different and I’m down to figuring out how to make work relational and, dare I say, fun again? Ha! Don’t give me that look, I got you.