David Tennent was really looking forward to starting his new job as a digital director for Rep. Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania. Besides the chief of staff, Tennent hadn’t met anyone in the office yet, and after a year of setting up awkward coffee meetings over LinkedIn as an entry-level staffer for another Republican, Tennent was hoping to make a few new work friends. For young professionals like him in a company town like D.C. — where the newcomers who barely know a soul when they first arrive tend to outnumber the natives who never left — you build your social circle beer by beer and happy hour by happy hour. March 18, 2020, couldn’t come soon enough.
Tennent did go into the office that day, to pick up a laptop, but he didn’t return until months later — and even then, only sporadically.
“I didn’t meet any of my co-workers,” he said. “That was a weird environment to be in, and it was hard.”
