This week I return to my office full-time, after nearly 16 months of working from home.

I have mixed feelings.

When we closed The Gazette/Pikes Peak Newspapers offices, home to my newsroom and my very own cubicle, on March 13, 2020, due to the pandemic, I was in disbelief. I’ve been in the news business for 22 years and working in a newsroom is like nothing else. There’s a constant buzz and energy, and opportunities for collaboration abound.

Working from home for the long-term, at the time, seemed improbable, if not impossible. How would we find news stories and interview subjects without actually interacting in-person with others? How could we design, layout and proof newspaper sections and magazines without the needed in-person tweaks and constant updating we were used to?

It was an adjustment, and one the small Pikes Peak Newspapers team did with grace and trepidation, and, well, success. Over those first few days and weeks we nervously chatted over the phone, messaging apps and Zoom. We interviewed subjects by phone and continued to write stories and edit them. We carved out home-offices from our kitchens and living rooms. We made the technology work for us, making newspapers come together from several separate households.

We found that this business, normally done in our sacred newsrooms, can be done from our kitchen tables, if need be.

And there was a need. It was paramount, from the initial shutdown of the work world, to protect ourselves and our employees from a potentially deadly virus.

We were the lucky ones who could adapt and work from home, while so many others were furloughed for weeks and months or lost their jobs altogether.

And now, the readily available vaccines have allowed us to be called back to the fold, like workers in many other industries, this summer.

Roughly two-thirds of workers say they’re worried about the transition back to office-working, according to a survey of 1,000 full- and part-time workers conducted by Envoy in mid-February.

“As many as 29% value the flexibility and safety of remote work so much that they say they’ll quit their jobs if their employers insist they come back to the office,” states an April 29 article “The Stress-Free Way to Go Back to the Office After COVID” on verywellmind.com.

Feelings surrounding a return to the office aren’t all so negative, however.

“Many workers are looking forward to reconnecting with colleagues and a sense of normalcy in the workplace, says Renee A. Exelbert, licensed psychologist and founding director of The Metamorphosis Center for Psychological and Physical Change.

“Some are very eager to return to normal, especially if they have been caring for young children at home during work hours, and are craving adult stimulation and routine,” she said in the aforementioned article. “By and large, I have seen the majority of individuals express a desire for some sort of hybrid work model going forward, such as three days in the office, two days at home.”

Some Pikes Peak region employers have already welcomed workers back to their offices, and others are getting ready to reopen offices, a recent Gazette survey of some major employers shows.

“The Downtown Partnership estimated that remote work reduced the downtown workforce by more than half to about 4,000-6,000 during the worst of the pandemic last spring and again in the winter. While more workers have returned to the office in recent weeks, only about half of downtown’s typical workforce has returned and many employees are in the office for only a day or two a week,” stated a June 27 Gazette article, “Some Colorado Springs employers returning to office, others are waiting.”

In our new “post-COVID” or “as COVID wanes” world, more employers are being flexible, allowing employees to choose whether and when to return, allowing a continuation of remote work, or some hybrid model of partial office and partial remote work.

For those of us who have grown used to the the “10-step commute” to our home office, and now appreciate the flexibility a home-work environment entails, a return to full-time office work sounds a bit daunting, just as the abrupt change to remote work 16 months ago did.

But, not all jobs can be done remotely, or be done remotely forever, and not all employers want to keep that as an option.

Susan Edmondson, the Downtown Partnership CEO, told The Gazette, “I don’t think anything will go back to the way it was pre-pandemic because everything is being reexamined right now. Employers have added a lot more flexibility for where employees work and it would be wrong to expect it to return to exactly the way it was.”

Flexibility is going to be the key, I think.

However, there are the benefits of in-person collaboration to consider.

Edmonson also said, “Employees need to interact with others to be successful. Much of business is done by relationships and downtown is where business relationships are made.”

I want to give a shoutout to those, like me, who are a bit conflicted after all this time about the end of remote work.

We made the impossible happen. And we survived (and continue to survive) a pandemic.

I do look forward to a return to a more regular workday and work atmosphere. For sure, the office culture has its moments. I miss the people and the interaction of my newsroom. I miss the flow of ideas, the commiserations and the celebrations.

It was hard to leave my co-workers 16 months ago. Now, I’m going to miss my dog, who as I write this is snoozing happily next to me.

That’s a home-office perk that’s, well, priceless.

Editor of this publication and the other three Pikes Peak Newspapers weeklies, Michelle Karas has called the Pikes Peak region home for six years. Contact her at michelle.karas@pikespeaknewspapers.com.