Dreading or dreaming of a return to the office in 2021 Sydney Trent Before the pandemic, Jessica Hullman did not like to work from home. A computer science professor at Northwestern University, just outside Chicago, Hullman drew energy from her students, she said. But away from campus, it dawned on her that the same students who fueled her also drained her focus with their frequent interruptions. In her mostly male department, she was often too aware of what she was wearing and how she appeared. Now she views Zoom faculty meetings as a kind of gender equalizer. “It’s almost like everybody takes up the same amount of space,” she said. “...What I realize is that I feel much happier working from home.”