Office buildings are opening up. Not all employees want to come back.

In the morning Alexia Layne-Lomon returned to her office for the first time since the start of the pandemic, she woke up anxious. His stomach ached. Getting to work, once an insane daily routine, now felt alien and risky.

Layne-Lomon, 38, of Roslindale, Mass., Is one of millions of employees across the country who hurriedly made the transition to remote work last spring. A few weeks ago, she returned to her apartment building to train a new employee at the Anti-Poverty Agency where she is Director of Development and Grants.

The day has been filled with reminders of everything that has changed since her last arrival in her office.

Layne-Lomon is not yet eligible for a Covid-19 vaccination, so instead of taking public transport like she did before, she chose to drive to work. Inside his building, everyone wore masks, elevators had capacity limits to allow for social distancing, and traffic signs had been installed to reduce congestion in the hallways.

But when she got to her floor, Layne-Lomon saw a familiar sight. Two colleagues with whom she had only communicated virtually since the start of the pandemic were there.

“It was nice to see them and to have this social moment and breath of relief,” she said, adding that she had to refrain from greeting her colleagues with hugs. “It was like, ‘Hey look at us, we’re all still people! We are not just these little machines! “”

As office spaces closed by the pandemic begin to reopen, not all employees are eager to return. With concerns ranging from health to rusty social skills to preserving the new work-life balance some discovered when their commute went missing, many are reluctant to give up their remote working facilities.

“We focused a lot on what was lost in the last year,” said Vaile Wright, clinical psychologist and senior director of healthcare innovation at the American Psychological Association. “Now we’re at this point where it’s like, ‘I’ve lost a lot this year, but what have I gained?’ I think, especially when it comes to work, there have been a lot of gains. “

Not everyone has had the luxury of working from home. But for those who did, the ability to throw in a load of laundry while they work, spend more time with family, or cook more meals at home has been a silver lining in an otherwise tough year.

“I feel like I can take better care of myself and have the capacity to do it,” said Brittney Dales, 27, a legal secretary who lives in San Bernardino, Calif. Not driving to work saved him mileage on his car and money on gas, and it made it easier for him to schedule doctor and dentist appointments afterwards. work, as well as taking your dog for a walk during his lunch break.

Like Layne-Lomon, Dales has recently made several trips to return to her office, but she’s not sure when – or if – she should be back regularly. His visits to work were too stimulating compared to the loneliness of working in his bedroom.

“The other day I was in the office, and one of the lawyers was talking to me, and the printer was working, and there was all this background noise going on,” she said. “I couldn’t get my attention to focus, because I’m so used to a quiet place now that a little noise – even if it wasn’t that loud – took me out.”

Why vaccines won’t allay all anxiety

Many companies have already welcomed workers again. According to data released on March 29, 24.2% of employees in 10 major cities in the United States visited their offices, according to Kastle Systems, a provider of managed security services for 3,600 buildings across the country.

This number is expected to increase as more and more people get vaccinated. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced a May 3 deadline for approximately 80,000 municipal office workers to return to their offices. Across the country, Microsoft has started bringing some employees to a “soft open” at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, Target Corp., planning a permanent combination of hybrid work and office work, has reduced its office space by a third.

Whatever companies decide, experts say, they should recognize that Covid-19 vaccines may not take away employee anxiety.

A survey released last month by the American Psychological Association found that 49% of adults feel uncomfortable resuming in-person interactions after the pandemic is over. Vaccination status does not affect this: 48 percent of those who have been vaccinated in the past also say they feel uncomfortable with face-to-face interactions.

This could be in part because of the remaining uncertainty about vaccines, Wright said, even as encouraging evidence emerges that they offer protection for at least six months.

“We know we have effective vaccines, but we still don’t know for how long. We still don’t know how effective they are against the variants. We still don’t have vaccines for children,” he said. she declared. “There is still a lot to discover.”

Safety in the workplace is of particular concern. In a February survey of 1,000 adults by workplace technology company Envoy, 66% of employees said they were worried about their health when they returned to work.

Scheduling is also on the minds of employees: 48% said they wanted to work a hybrid schedule in person and remotely, and 41% said they were even willing to accept a small pay cut for it. reach.

Unknowns about what office returns will look like, from schedules to safety precautions, have rattled employees, said Brad Klontz, founder of the Financial Psychology Institute and associate professor of financial psychology at the Heider College of Business in the Creighton University in Omaha. , Nebraska.

Employers need to be prepared for the anxiety of their workers, he said. Those who were already prone to anxiety may have struggled more during the pandemic, and those who were not may have experienced anxiety for the first time in the past year.

“Try to find someone who hasn’t had a sleepless night,” he says. “There are going to be lasting effects.”

How employers and employees can make it easier

There is no doubt that the pandemic has posed mental health challenges. From August to February, the proportion of adults showing symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder in the previous seven days rose from 36.4% to 41.5%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A return to the office should not make these feelings worse, experts say. Employers and employees can take steps to alleviate the concerns.

“Accept that there will be some anxiety,” Klontz said. “Acceptance is really important compared to trying to fight it.”

He recommended that employers be flexible at the outset in terms of expectations.

“Understand that it is going to be easier for some people and more difficult for others, especially the people who may have been the most affected by it,” he said, meaning those who have lost sentient beings. loved ones due to Covid-19, have it themselves or still are. deal with the persistent health problems of the coronavirus. “Normalize the fact that it can be difficult. Say, ‘Please come talk to me if there’s anything we can do to make it easier for you.'”

And after such a long time of not seeing each other, everyone should be prepared for interactions to feel a little stilted at first, Wright said.

“Some of our social skills have probably atrophied a bit, so there’s going to be a bit of a tricky transition where we’re trying to figure out both how to start a conversation, but also how to find the right words in the right sentences and ask for it. good… questions in a way that we haven’t been, ”she said.

“At first, working from home was exhausting. Then we got into our routines and figured that out, ”she added. “I would anticipate that would happen here.”

She urged employers not to take a “one-size-fits-all” approach to bringing employees back, recognizing that some may need scheduling accommodations to suit their mental and emotional needs. She also suggested that employers be as transparent and communicative as possible about reopening plans to reduce employee uncertainty levels before return.

The bottom line, Wright said, is that both employees and employers need to be open-minded.

“We have to get out of this framework to get things back to where they were before, because I don’t think they have to,” she said.