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Many of us will have joked that we’ve forgotten how to socialise as a result of the pandemic, but now offices are reopening and hybrid models of working are becoming increasingly normal, social skills many once had may have become, well, rusty. According to new research by LinkedIn, 82% of all UK professionals report feeling ‘out of practice’ when it comes to office life; 57% of professionals asked to return to the office said their ability to engage in office small talk has suffered as a result of working from home, rising to 71% for 16-34 year olds who have ostensibly “forgotten how to conduct themselves in an office environment”. Meanwhile, additional C-Suite level research from LinkedIn also reveals the overwhelming majority (87%) of UK bosses agree young people have been hit by a workplace “development dip” during COVID-19 as a result of the prolonged period of working from home. Nearly a third (30%) of business leaders believe it’s been challenging for young people to onboard when starting their first day from home, and 42% recognise that building meaningful relationships with colleagues remotely has been difficult. Something like small talk, and social ‘soft skills’, may seem trivial, but cohesive
