BOUGHT a pricey mask, got a Pret subscription, risked your life on public transport – only to be sent home from the office? Here’s how to cope with working in the kitchen again.
Take everything from the office home with you
Pick up all the files you might conceivably need for the next year. You might also like to take all the pens, handy things like scissors, the petty cash and the coffee machine if you can fit it in your bag.
Immediately do less work
Now the novelty of working from home has worn off your motivation should dip accordingly. Ignore emails and stay in bed until half 10 if you like. You’re facing six months of isolation and awkward Zoom meetings so you can’t be expected to be enthusiastic.
Get out of tasks due to the ‘uncertainty’
Inform clients and colleagues that you won’t be able to commit to anything until track-and-trace is working, which could be never. It’s only fair to be straight with them, and coincidentally it means you can spend more time watching Homes Under the Hammer.
Tell everyone else in your household to f**k off
As people rush back to home working there’ll be a fight for kitchen table space, and you’ll need to be assertive. Don’t bother with passive-aggressive pleasantries about ‘hot desking’ this time.
Get a really nice chair
Use all the money you saved not buying flat whites to purchase a throne-like armchair. Imagining you’re a king in a medieval fantasy novel will lift your spirits as 3.30pm sunsets begin. Just don’t get carried away and threaten to have annoying colleagues tortured to death.
Get a proper wanking schedule agreed
If working from home had one real upside, it was being able to rub one out whenever you liked. With everything going to shit again, you’ll need that serotonin boost more regularly – get it written into your contract before your boss kicks the bucket in the second wave.
