By Morf Morford, Tacoma Daily Index

Like everything else it seems, once we got the basics down in terms of WFH (work from home), everything changed. Good-bye Zoom and welcome back to the office. Or something like the office. Or not.

In many workplaces around the world, or even out our window, the settings, the pace, the expectations and even what we wear, has changed.

A slow (or in some cases, not so slow) reverse migration is under way, from Zoom to the cubicle or conference room.

In the past few months, companies and employers large and small, including many of the biggest—Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft — and even Zoom itself, among many others, are insisting that staff show up at the office at least a couple days a week.

Much to the surprise of no one/some/many, WFH is not as effective as many of us thought it might/should/would be.

Working in your jammies

Many years ago I worked in a sales office where almost everything was done over the phone. We rarely, if ever, saw our customers or vendors.

We had no dress code, but one young man wore a suit and tie almost every day. He literally dressed for work – serious, productive work. And he was one of the most successful people there.

Somehow people on the other end of the line can sense, perhaps not what we are wearing, but how prepared and focused we are.

Some of us might consider ourselves as efficient in our jammies or sweat pants as in our business attire, but my experience tells me otherwise.

One recent study showed that those who worked from home were 18% less productive than their peers in the office. Another study found a 19% drop for the remote employees of a large Asian IT firm.

A drop of efficiency of approaching 20% would impact any company’s bottom line.

A semi-related study found that even chess professionals play less well in online matches than in face-to-face games.

And yet another research team used a laboratory experiment to show that video conferences inhibit creative thinking. Ya think?

Other studies (and a lot of personal experience) have shown that many of us end up working longer (and largely uncompensated) hours.

Not commuting (for most us as workers) is great. But the bottom line is that, if we don’t go to work, work comes to us.

Any distinction between personal life and work has become erased – we seem to all be, at some level, semi-on-call all the time.

And that move toward life/work balance has become even more ephemeral and elusive.

From home, or the screen, career advancement – or even visibility, and certainly professional networking – is even less likely.

In short, if WFH is the future, even the future isn’t what it used to be.

Back in the office – but what to wear?

In what might not be a pressing, but certainly a salient concern about heading back to the office is the question of what to wear.

If you thought worker resistance to the return to the cubicle was intense, wait until you listen to what many workers are refusing to wear. Dark suits are out. And ties. And, for most women, heels are history.

Knowing your clients – and the situation – means, among other things, dressing for the occasion. And few of those occasions are as formal as they once were.

Besides refusing, or at least balking, at wearing traditional business attire, look at what many are insisting on wearing; sneakers and jeans, or khakis, have become the new norm. Lululemon is the brand name of choice for many.

But keep those office clothes handy. You never know when you might need them again. You can see more on this shift in business fashion sensibility here.