So, what is the best way to restart our formal workplace lives and get used to talking to strangers again? And should we take this time of re-entry as an opportunity to rethink everything about the practice of networking?
Dorie Clark, author of The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World, says that the idea of networking as transactional “would make anyone feel dirty” and is in need of reframing, so that potential networkers see the possibilities for finding workplace companionship or collaboration.
Professionals might need to ease themselves back in gently. “Like any muscle, it’s a bad idea to overexert ourselves early in the game,” says Clark.
“You need to build your capacity back up; for many of us, it can feel awkward and overstimulating. So pace yourself and choose to go to fewer events as you work your way back into practice.”
One literary agent says that in preparation for the London Book Fair, she had to strategise. “I really enjoy seeing people in person again, after all, it’s very much a relationships business, but I do find, especially after the last two years of the pandemic, that I get quite wired and overexcited when I go to events so that it can be hard to unwind.” So she avoided packing too much in the diary and created moments of peace and calm.
Julia Hobsbawm, the author of The Nowhere Office, says re-immersion is difficult. “People are out of practice, their latent shyness is getting more pronounced.”
The pandemic has given people an opportunity to reappraise their work patterns and for some, like Clark, it has emboldened them to eschew big social gatherings.
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