For at least a decade, introvert activists have been calling for a revolution: remake the extrovert-dominated workplace. Stop penalising the third of us who don’t fit the loud, highly sociable ideal fostered by open-plan offices; create a more inclusive culture equally suited to those who work better alone, with less outside stimulation.

Then came the pandemic and many of us had to work from home. The 2020 “office” suddenly looked like the answer to an introvert-employee manifesto. It would be “a chance to play to our strengths”. Five months on, how is the year of the introvert working out? 

At first it felt unsettling. “Introverts recharge their batteries by being alone,” writes Susan Cain in her best-selling Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking. Home is where we do it. So turning a place of escape into an office, and sharing a refuge via video calls, was weird.