Several months into being sent to work from home, Ms. Egziabher got a promotion and an 11 percent raise: “If I had continued going into the office,” she added, “there might have been some excuse around likability.”

The new staples of office life go beyond hand sanitizer and air filters. For some Wall Street banks, they involve natural light, lots of plants and cold brew on tap, too.

Though they might look like the same people, those who left the office at the start of the pandemic have dramatically different priorities, expectations, and needs than those who are returning today, according to Microsoft’s second annual Work Trend Index.

While the pandemic has been harrowing and, at times, terrifying, there have been some upsides to working from home for the past two years.

The desks of yore are dying.

Back to work? This sounds like the obvious end goal we’ve all been waiting for after roughly two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. But wait a minute. Does this make sense?

The brain hosts our intelligence and is responsible for how our senses react and how we behave.

For more than three decades, Clive Wilkinson has been among the most sought-after office designers in the world.