Bloomberg Industry EIC Antonelli: Getting back to office helped me

Bloomberg Industry Group editor in chief Cesca Antonelli sent out the following to the editorial staff:

Hi everyone.

I am sure that we all have different feelings about returning the office a couple days a week after seeing the memo today, but I am also betting that everyone has some feelings that are the same.

A lot of people have questions about schedules and flexibility and other things. As a parent and a human, I think that is completely understandable. Take some time to think through your questions and then talk with your manager.  I’ll also have office hours every day this week to answer questions as well. You’ll see three voluntary calendar invites from me, so you’ll have the link if you want to join and you can decline them if you don’t. And you can always reach out to me to chat.

Personally, the loneliness of work-from-home life for 14 months definitely took a toll on me.

Doing source meetings on Zoom was better than nothing. And, getting to see the inside of people’s houses and meeting their kids and their pets was fun. But all this video time is wearing thin for a lot of people. For me, editing a story when I can’t just walk over and talk something through sucks; Teams makes everything feel like a meeting instead of two people talking excitedly about a scoop—or anything, really.  And when I can’t stand behind someone and recommend silly New York Post style headlines until we come up with something real … my day just doesn’t have the same energy.

Going back to the office for a few days is helping me regain some equilibrium.

I wanted to share some things other journalists said about what they liked most about coming back, and I found the everyone’s No. 1 is the same.

As Paige Smith from the labor team said: “As someone who lives alone, I’ve really enjoyed going back in to the office to see colleagues in person and to exchange ideas in real-time.”

“I’ve really enjoyed catching up with people in person that I hadn’t seen in so long, including people on other teams that I don’t see during online work meetings. I look forward to seeing more of my colleagues as they return. It’s also nice to be able to walk around Crystal City again!” Patrick Gregory from Legal Intelligence said. (And yes, the exclamation mark is his.)

Sara Hansard from the health-care team has been coming in five days a week and has a long list of “likes” from the food service to company-paid parking to getting out of the messy computer room in her house. She says, “I will especially enjoy having an in-person Happy Hour rather than using Zoom. I will also enjoy being able to go out and cover things again; hopefully Capitol Hill will cease being an armed camp at some point.”

We’ll share some tips and stories in coming days from some of the managers who have been back.

You guys are the best part of working here. In the days to come, I am looking forward to really meeting the people who have joined the newsroom since Covid began and to reconnecting with everyone else.