For real, have you tried turning a hard copy into a PDF using your iPhone camera and an app? It`s not easy and the results can suck. The scanner/copier alone is enough to make us desperate to go back — more so if they let us use color as much as we want.

Like, not the IKEA low table you`re working from. Not your cell phone wired up to your big screen TV rather than the 2 massive twin monitors on your office desk. Certainly not the sketchy wi-fi throttling your critical bizdev calls. No matter how bad your desk and chair combo is at the office, you know you`re missing it. So when you get back, give your boss some proper thanks for it. And if you`re already back, walk over right now and give him (or her!) a big hug.

It`s clear a lot of you live in areas with nothing but family restaurants and are missing your favorite office lunch spots (the ones that haven`t been forced to close permanently). For some, this might be good enough reason to move closer to the center of things in the Spring.

Apparently some company events have been skipped over the last 8 months or so and it hasn`t escaped the notice of our survey respondents. Whether it`s an annual end of year bash, a regular summer trip, a quarterly (or daily!) drink up, a lot of people want these to come back.

Just kidding, you didn`t actually like the commute. There is a tiny subset of you who like the commute because it gives you time to mentally shift from work to private mode or because you live close enough to ride your bike or walk. But the other 99% obviously can`t stand this part of Tokyo work life. And that was pre-Rona. Post-Rona some describe the trains as “deadly” and “plague-ridden”. The other reasons given were the obvious ones: packed trains loaded with groupers and manspreaders, occasional psychopaths, body odor. One described commuting as “one of the ills of the modern world” and contributing to her “lost youth”. We agree with all of this. 

It was a shocker to hear people aren`t loving the internal meetings but it`s really clear you`re not enjoying the ones that are seen to run on too long. Managers, if you`re reading this, edit your meeting agendas down by half! 

This is another one people don`t actually miss about the office. One or two of you said that WFH allowed you to work all day long and through the night — and even though you gave us permission to publish your names, it`s obvious you`re trying to get in good with the boss so we`re not going to. The rest of you were honest and said you enjoy the flex schedule, the additional sleep you`ve been getting, and the ability to start work without leaving your bed.  

 About 90% of you miss the daily interaction with colleagues that can`t be replaced by your Zoom calls; but you, the 90%, love this interaction in very different ways. The more Structured types want the interaction but you want to control when it happens – usually you plan for it by inviting someone to lunch or setting a smoke break for a certain time. Or if it`s urgent, you might text to ask when the other party has a moment to discuss something. The Less Structured types enjoy more spontaneous connections: whether it`s to avoid thrombosis, clear brain fog, or just chat, you get up at random intervals to roam the rows of desks and the halls and talk to passersby or pretty much anyone who doesn`t look fully engrossed in their work. Some of you know the ones who don`t mind distraction and you target them, leaving the Structured ones alone. But apparently some of you have no idea who the Structured ones are and end up driving them to distraction. This occasional micro-chaos may annoy some but we reckon it says something about the human condition. We`re not sure what it says or even if it`s good or bad, but it definitely says something. (To be fair, the consensus is that most office interaction is constructive and leads to all kinds of clever new techniques, new ideas for candidates or clients, better client relationships, etc.)