It’s been more than a year of remote work, Zoom meetings, Teams interactions, adjusting our home spaces for office-like environments, and reminding our kids (and dogs) not to jump over the screen while we discussed proposal preparation. For about nineteen months many of us did not get a chance to walk through the departments’ hallways, greet one another in cubicles and offices, discuss upcoming submissions and challenges in lunchrooms, or walk along the lake or campus gardens. Some of us may have even forgotten the noise during the first weeks of students flooding the buildings, phones ringing, and chats in cafeterias. We all definitely missed the events, shows, lectures, comfortable and uncomfortable seats, and the smell of morning coffee while surrounded by our colleagues.
We are finally returning to campus. Some of us for a day or few in a week, some of us full time. It is an adjustment, filled with both challenges and sentiments. To make this transition easier and smoother, we collected several resources to help you navigate through the hallways of “new normal”:
- Return-to-Campus Workplace Strategies: Workforce, Prioritizing a Human Centered Return
- Returning to Work Soon? Here Are Some Ways to Make the Process Easier Try these helpful techniques from a psychologist
- Do these 5 things your first week back in the office
- How to Prepare Yourself for a Return to the Office
For more resources on return to work, as well as overall well-being, visit and explore various services and programs offered by the YourLife Well-being program at Northwestern University Human Resources.
By: Marysia Galent, Research Administrator, School of Communication