The Gospel On How  To Survive The Back-to-Office Transition

For a brief, surreal stretch of time, the office was gone. Overnight, our desks were replaced by dining tables, our colleagues reduced to boxes on a screen, and the rituals of work—commutes, lunch breaks, the evening pack-up—suspended. For months that blurred into years, home became the container for everything: work, rest, meals, arguments, life.

We adapted. We built new rhythms: late nights scrolling, late mornings rolling into Zoom calls, exercise squeezed between emails, groceries doubling as lunch. It wasn’t perfect, but it was coherent in its own strange way. We forgot, or maybe unlearned, what it felt like to move through the world every day in order to work.

Now, the pendulum has swung back. The summons to return to the office—partly resisted, partly inevitable—has forced a reckoning. It’s not just about commutes and desks. It’s about energy, time, and how to once again divide the spheres of life. The return is jarring precisely because it requires us to remember what we once did without thinking.

So how do you survive this shift without slipping into quiet resentment—or exhaustion?

Well, here's a guide.

Step 1: Thou Shalt Rethink Sleep

WFH meant waking up at 8:58 for a 9 a.m. Zoom, half-dressed and entirely unashamed. Office life, however, requires the kind of time management you last practised in your school uniform days. Translation: go to bed earlier.

Seriously. The difference between showing up slightly refreshed and looking like you’ve been on a three-day bender is about 45 minutes of extra sleep.

Step 2: Rebuild The Routine

Morning routines aren’t self-help fluff—they’re your only line of defence against chaos. Pre-pack your lunch, lay out your clothes, maybe even keep your workout gear ready for the evening so you don’t “accidentally” land on the couch instead. Hybrid workers swear by this system.

Also, budget extra time for the commute. Set your alarm earlier, or accept that your new breakfast will be cold brew and lots of regret.

Step 3: Headphones Are Your New Religion

Open-plan offices were sold as hubs of collaboration. In reality, they’re noise festivals where people narrate their entire weekend in real time. Enter the holy relic of modern work: noise-cancelling headphones.

Step 4: Build Your Altar (a.k.a. Your Desk)

Personalising your desk is just survival, unless you're fond of punishing yourself in an empty cubicle. A small plant, a photo, a notebook that isn’t company-issued—anything that tricks your brain into thinking you’re not just another cog in this hell-hole of a system.

Step 5: Breaks Are Sacred, Take Them Without Shame

The office martyr—the one glued to their desk all day—impresses nobody. Get up, walk, stretch, gossip at the water cooler. Even better, claim the free snacks or perks HR keeps dangling to distract you from your salary. So, eat the free doughnut. It’s literally what it’s there for.

Step 6: Keep Work at Work (As Much as Possible)

The real danger of returning to the office isn’t the commute—it’s the creep. That sly email at 8 p.m., that “quick call” at dinner. Draw a line. Shut the laptop. Log off Outlook. The great advantage of being physically back is the symbolism of leaving—coat on, bag packed, door shut. Stick to it.

And Finally: Just Reframe the Whole Thing

Back-to-office is annoying, yes. But it’s also—dare I say it?—an opportunity. I’ve learned more sitting at my desk and hearing people talk than any Slack thread. If you’re in your 20’s, how else will you get that promotion faster?

So take the gospel with you: sleep earlier, prep smarter, defend your headphones, eat the free food, and log off with dignity. Office life may never feel like home again—but that might just be the point.