Yesterday I did something I never thought I’d have to do: Prompted by a now year-and-a-half-long global pandemic, I packed up my office desk, said goodbye to the physical work space I once (briefly) knew, and attempted to ready myself for the ambiguously cryptic reality that is the future of work.
Like many other companies across the world, Target has recently decided to adopt a hybrid model for its headquarters-based team members that will extend now through the foreseeable future[1]. While we still don’t have specific answers to “the 5 W’s[2]”, what we do know is that the future of work will look vastly different from anything we previously knew in the past. There will be an outsized focus on virtual collaboration, remote work will continue to instill itself as a critical component of everyday life, and the saying “flex for your day” will become not only a mantra but a lifestyle choice. Life as we know it will never be the same, and that might actually be okay. In fact, it might actually be good. We currently stand on a precipice amidst a moment that is so unprecedented it has shaken us to our very core and, in many ways, challenged the very nature of our humanity. But we also sit at a critical crossroads, a stark moment of profound opportunity, where we possess the ability to revert or grow, to plunge to our demise or learn to fly.
With this in mind, it’s quite understandable that I experienced a vast range of emotions when going into the office yesterday. While the details are still pretty obscure, whenever we do return downtown and begin the new hybrid model my team will be in a completely new building, so we were tasked with the exercise of revisiting our old stomping grounds and boxing up whatever we wanted moved to our new (eventual) location.
We decided to make an afternoon out of the endeavor, and my coworkers Sarah, Meghan, and I grabbed lunch at a favorite downtown patio before trekking into the office to do what had once been unthinkable. This exercise was equal parts sad, strange, and exciting, and even though I was only there for a few short hours I left downtown feeling physically and emotionally exhausted.
Seeing my old desk for the first time in 18 months was surreal. There were all my belongings, right where I had left them before the world fundamentally changed forever, not a hair out of place. There were the pens, highlighters, and file folders, the quirky cube decorations and once helpful post-it note reminders prompting me to follow up on tasks now long overdue. Nothing had changed and yet somehow everything was different: There I was sorting through my nearly forgotten belongings, picking up the pieces of the past so I could slowly build a new future.
Maybe it was the tropical file folders, maybe it was the change in scenery from the now all too familiar four walls of my apartment, or maybe it was the palpable sense of camaraderie that rummaging through old memories with friends called to mind, but for some reason as I packed Jimmy Buffett’s song “Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude” popped into my brain and simply refused to go away.
As the song coursed through my subconscious, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between the activity I was currently engaged in and the larger message in Buffett’s song. Specifically, he sings:
“Reading departure signs in some big airport
Reminds me of the places I’ve been
Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure
Makes me want to go back again
If it suddenly ended tomorrow
I could somehow adjust to the fall
Good times and riches and son of a bitches
I’ve seen more than I can recall.
It’s these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
Through all of the islands and all of the highlands
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.”
In that moment Buffett’s words hit home. Throughout this past year and a half we’ve all “seen more than [we] can recall,” the world has “suddenly ended tomorrow” at least a couple dozen times, and yet we’ve all learned to “somehow adjust to the fall.” And, while “nothing remains quite the same,” despite everything we’ve been through, we’ve been able to laugh together, cry together, and lean on one another to keep our wits about ourselves. Through it all we haven’t simply endured so that we could survive, but we’ve learned to pivot, laugh, and love in order to ultimately thrive.
While no one knows exactly what the future will look like, we can very much predict it will require us to try not one, not two, but many new things that scare us each and every day. We can always prepare for the unexpected, and we should always plan to be surprised. And, as the latitudes and physical spaces we inhabit will inevitably continue to change, what I do know is this: We may not always be able to control our external environments, but we can control our attitudes, perspectives, and the ways in which we show up to meet any challenge that dares come our way. For while nothing in life ever “remains quite the same,” it’s important to recognize what we do have and acknowledge the fact that whatever we go through in this life, we ultimately go through together.
So, let’s embrace the crazy rollercoaster we’re all on, buckle in, and learn to make each other laugh. For not only will it make the ride more enjoyable, but it is truly our only way to survive.
[1] And quite possibly forever. Strange to think about, I know.
[2]Aka who, what, where, when, and why. Scratch that: It should be “the 4 W’s.” We all most certainly know why. Dang covid.
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