Holiday party season is around the corner, but the concept of an office gathering carries some uneasy weight in hard economic times. | Getty Images

Due to the coronavirus, American work culture is changing. Office holiday parties should too.

I’ve become nostalgic about last year’s office holiday party, as one does in 2020. It was lightly snowing that night, and I was on the deck of some Manhattan rooftop, surrounded by clear plastic igloos that have become hot commodities in pandemic times. Donald Trump was being impeached by the House of Representatives, and my colleagues from Vox Media’s New York office were singing off-key karaoke downstairs — and sometimes wish I had joined them.

For better or worse, the coronavirus has changed the nature of office work, and for many white-collar employees like me, it has been months since they’ve last shared