Returning to the office can disrupt life. Here are some tips to navigate the changes

recent YORK — Jason LaCroix felt privileged to work from home, especially as a father to two youthful children. He needed flexibility when his son, then 6, suffered a brain injury and spent 35 days in intensive worry.

LaCroix, a elder systems engineer based in Atlanta, took period off and then worked from home while managing his son’s worry and appointments. But LaCroix was laid off last February from that job, where he’d been working remotely for five years. His recent role requires him to spend four days a week in a corporation office and commute for three hours a day.

“I desire to be around for my kids,” LaCroix, 44, said. “It’s very significant for me to be around for my son, because we almost lost him.”

Heading into 2025, thousands of workers face an unsettling reality: after years of working from the comfort of home, they must profitability to the office packed-period for the first period since the coronavirus pandemic or look for recent work.

Employees at Amazon, AT&T and other companies have been called back to the office five days per week. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to fire federal workers who don’t display up to do their jobs in-person.

“People always desire to have flexibility,” said Mark Ma, a University of Pittsburgh associate professor of business administration. “I have never heard anyone telling me that I thank my job because it’s so rigid in its schedule.”

Ma researched what happened when technology and finance companies in the S&P 500 stopped allowing employees to work remotely in recent years. He found the companies experienced high turnover rates after implementing profitability-to-office mandates, especially among female employees — who often have childcare responsibilities — and elder-level executives.

“Over the years, people have adjusted their lives. They’ve figured out, ‘Oh wow, I can pick my kids up for school. Wow. I can caretake for my aging parents while I am still working,'” said Shavon Terrell-Camper, a therapist and mental wellness coach. “Once you have tasted work-from-home … it’s challenging to view your life going back to something that could’ve been unsustainable from the beginning.”

Workers and experts have advice to distribute about how to navigate the changes when an employer calls you back to the office.

Employers can compromise if their objective is to boost how much period staff members spend together. Ma suggests an “employee-selection” way which gives teams the authority to decide how many days they will work in the office as a throng.

If that’s not an alternative, employees also can inquire to adjust their hours. LaCroix leaves home at 5 a.m. and works in the office until 2 p.m. to reduce period in traffic and allow him to be home when his kids get off the bus after school. His employer requires eight hours in the workplace but is flexible on which hours.

“A lot of people are pushing back, and they are trying to work out scenarios to view what type of flexibility does exist within the mandate,” Terrell-Camper said.

Some are coming up with work-arounds that aren’t endorsed by upper management. “Coffee badging” is a technique that involves heading to the office, swiping a corporation ID, having a coffee and leaving to work from home. Desperate to hold onto valuable employees, supervisors have tried a “hushed hybrid” way, where they receive their subordinates’ ID badges and swipe them “in” and “out” to make it appear they’ve been in the office, Ma said.

It’s best to have an truthful exchange with a manager about any personal needs and to “inquire for forgiveness ahead of period, because your household is the most significant thing,” said Amy Dufrane, CEO of the Human Resource Certification Institute. Many companies have employee assistance programs that do more than most people realize, such as directing employees to resources that can assist them worry for parents or children, she said.

Medical conditions can make it especially challenging to work on-site. Kyle Anckney, a community relations strategist based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has cerebral palsy and needs a nurse to assist him transformation a catheter three times a day. His health insurance will only send a nurse to one location, so working in an office isn’t an alternative.

“If that weren’t an issue, I could discover my way into the office,” he said.

Anckney, who ran his own PR firm for years, was seeking director-level roles, but a recruiter told him he should consider less-elder roles because of his require to work remotely. Instead, he applied to director-level jobs that were advertised as on-site or hybrid, and then reached out to explain his circumstances and inquire if the hiring companies were open to him working from home.

“While I would never normally, especially in a career setting, navigator with, ‘I have cerebral palsy and I’m in a wheelchair,’ I’m finding that I’m almost having to make myself vulnerable in that way just to view if the chance is even there for me,” Anckney said.

Landing a fully remote job can be competitive. “There are going to be many people that don’t have the luxury just to leave” their current jobs if they’re required to profitability to the office, “especially in a volatile trade such as we’re in correct now,” Terrell-Camper said.

Attorney Holly Keerikatte was recently working on-site five days a week at a hospital, commuting about three hours a day and looking for a role that allowed more period with her household. She received two job offers. One was fully remote. The other paid 50% more but required a long commute. She recalled reading the phrase, “The only people who recall you worked late are your children.” She chose the remote job.

“My primary driver is what’s best for my household,” Keerikatte said. “My advice is to be up-front and transparent about what you desire, what you’re looking for and why.”

When faced with the inevitability of returning to an office, look for the positives. Friendships can blossom as colleagues receive coffee breaks together or sample recent lunch spots. In-person conversations can spark ideas that wouldn’t surface at home.

Employers can ease the shift by organizing activities that make camaraderie. For example, managers can put together a series of talks about the shift and have groups distribute what works for them, Dufrane said.

Face-to-face contact allows people to better comprehend what colleagues are thinking and doing, which helps prevent resentment and can provide helpful feedback.

Video director Deborah Ann DeSnoo, who owns Plug-In Inc., a video production corporation in Chofu, Japan, says she has worked in many countries where the film industry was male-dominated and female directors like her were uncommon. She makes a point to connect with colleagues in person, giving her a chance to debt safety.

“You can read the air in a different way, and you discover a answer,” DeSnoo said. “When you’re on a Zoom and they ignore you, there’s nothing you can do.”

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