What we do know is we will be back to the physical office. But what we don't know is when and how we will be back. And with this uncertainty comes still-to-be-defined adjustments and challenges. People are stressed, tired, confused. And with all of this comes emotion. As we prepare for the eventual return to “normal” life, we are working hard to make an easy, customizable and stress-free transition. One small part of the first step is depicted within these fun and engaging instructional posters.

Our “Working From Work” guide for 2020 takes the guesswork out of proper COVID-19 etiquette in shared office spaces on such matters as whether pants are optional (they most certainly are not!), how loud can you go with your jam, and how actual meetings differ from virtual ones (hint: less fakery).

While many agencies have created visual tools to help workers deal with the transition from office to home or practical safety issues (both physical and mental) to thrive during the of the pandemic, our posters take a slightly different approach. After spending at least three months working out of their abodes, we figured that workers need a bit of guidance to readjust to toiling away among polite society.office environments and co-workers. Weeks of working with no filter has left us a bit, shall we say, feral. The posters are designed to bring employees up to speed quickly (and humorously) on basic office etiquette.

We used a basic civic/instructional poster style of graphic design to illustrate concepts on each of four posters and paired numbered illustrations with text blocks to explain the particulars.

“We’ve missed you dearly, but your affinity for Swedish dance music? Not so much,” reads a poster dedicated to maintaining proper office music volumes. The illustration shows a worker wearing headphones and a dial with a meter that contains numbers that are explained in a key. For instance, a moderate Level 3 means: “You want to listen to your playlist. AND hear about what Pete told Lisa about Chris.”

In another, employees are reminded that they are now sharing a kitchen with coworkers and told not to stack dishes into towers unless they possess a building permit. A third is on the topic of pants— we are strongly in favor of wearing them - and illustrates models that are acceptable and those that are not, such as a plastic pool swan.

The final image comes with the heading “There is no mute button on life” and it explains how crafty workers can’t fake their way out of attending meetings IRL the way they can in video conferences by using some of the video software’s features.