On Oppenheimer, Zooming in Closets, and Why Returning to Office is Now Different

“…Oh Office, please understand! Since this deadly pandemic, it’s not you who has changed, it’s me!”

In 1949, the Soviet Union tested Joe-1, their first atomic bomb. And in a 24-hour period, the US lost their monopoly on nuclear weapons and mutual-US/Soviet destruction was now a real possibility.

J Robert Oppenheimer, then the former director of Los Alamos, was asked by a nervous Senator Arthur Vandenberg hoping for a strategic approach, “Doctor, what should we do now?” His answer: “Stay strong and hold on to our friends.” That’s a lovely sentiment, but when you realize it came from Oppie, one of the 20th century’s most revered futurists and physicists, who galvanized Los Alamos’ army of physicists and military staff to bring the bomb from conception to reality, it means something more powerful, and uniquely relevant to the dialog around the post-pandemic return to office.

“…Dear Office: It’s not that we don’t value the collaboration in your walls. It’s not that Zoom could ever replace you; it can’t, as humans are not that shallow. It’s not that WFH is so much easier; it isn’t (did I tell you that yesterday was in a Zoom meeting in our walk-in closet, and I had dresses swishing across my forehead?). And it’s not that we want to shirk our work by avoiding you…”

Implicit in Oppie words is this: while today’s medicine, technology and health systems have vastly improved the safeguards of our lives, when the wild card of global pandemic came, many realized that the scientific and organizational systems they relied on weren’t able to fully protect them. To many, it’s now clearer that life is fragile and precious, and the time to do something different was Now…. When workers slipped away from the office and returned home, many pressed the Ring button to their soul, and were surprised to find themselves answering the door, saying, “Come in. I was waiting.”

The currencies of working in an office are real and employers should always have rights to determine how and where their employees work. However, as Covid hit, many office workers reevaluated the Life part of the work/life balance and found that on their scale of values, life is made of denser matter than they imagined a year ago.

For many, since Covid, the need for office of the future was accelerated to the present: the office is now a friend’s online craft store, at your grandmother’s house, or (please) reimagining the virtual classroom to teach ADHD kids online. Everyone really knows that there is no truly productive work from home, and real estate pros know that there is to be no death of the office.

But for many employees, the assumption that they must live a work/life “balance” is antiquated and many employees will now expect more of a work/life weave. And creating physical spaces to accommodate the work/life weave will take a retooling of how to maximize space for new value systems, and will require more than collaborative spaces, Ping-Pong and open layouts with manicured plants.

“…So Dear Office, I understand you want me to sign a 10-year lease, but let’s just make it a year-to-year lease. My values have changed and both you and I might do something new every year or two…. When I was born, did the doctor did the doctor turn to my mother and say “Mazal Tov! What a beautiful accountant you have?”