Moms navigate a post-pandemic shift back to offices

When the pandemic hit in 2020 and New Jersey’s government agencies went remote, Monica Valenzuela couldn’t have been happier. “Everything just worked,” recalls the mother of two. “It was easier to be with my family. ... Because I was very happy, I was motivated and efficient.”

But in 2021, her state agency called her back to the office, three and then four days a week. Her home office in Morristown was replaced by a windowless cement cubicle, and flexible hours went back to a strict 9-to-5 schedule. “The fact that the place we were working had no windows – zero – made me really sad and claustrophobic,” she says. Two hours of commuting every day didn’t help either. 

A car accident last year caused her to take stock: “I felt like the universe was telling me something, like, ‘Monica,