The key to a happy RTO? Romanticizing your commute.

• Amid the return-to-office push in corporate America, young workers are romanticizing their commutes.
• Commuters who participated in the TikTok trend said it helps boost their morale.
• Licensed therapist Brianna Paruolo said romanticizing can be a positive way to reframe a routine.

When Danielle Pogue hits the pavement each morning for the cross-borough trek to her office in Brooklyn, she relies on two essentials to propel her forward: a perfectly curated Spotify playlist and the mental power to romanticize each step.

"I have perfected the New York City strut," Pogue told me.

Pogue, 27, graduated from college in 2020 and entered the labor force at the height of the pandemic, when working remotely was more necessary than trendy. After moving to New York the following year, she jumped at the chance to work in the office at both postgrad jobs she's held in digital marketing. Part of the reason was the commute.

"It definitely is something that I look forward to now," Pogue said of her 25-minute journey to the office. "I think of the alternative, which would be living really close to my office, maybe having it just be around the corner — and for some reason, that doesn't feel as appealing to me anymore. A lot of that has to do with the routine that I've made for myself."

That routine is a kind of portable daydream: As she navigates her way through foot traffic and train platforms, Pogue might imagine herself as a high-powered executive or a trendy young professional in a movie montage, having her main character moment.

In October, Pogue posted a video of her daily strut on TikTok set to KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See," the song that memorably plays during the opening credits of 2006 movie "The Devil Wears Prada." Pogue captioned the post, "hot tip: romanticize your commute to work by listening to this song & acting like you're in a '90s romcom." It's amassed over 70,000 views and counting.

"Clearly, it's something that people resonate with, and also want to replicate in their own morning routine," Pogue said of why she thinks her post gained traction. After all, romanticizing an existing routine is easy, accessible, and free of charge — perfect for inspiring the online masses.

RTO with an aesthetic twist

Pogue isn't the only woman with a go-getter protagonist like Anne Hathaway's Andy Sachs on her digital mood board. Videos similar to Pogue's are littered across my For You Page on TikTok, with captions like "being employed means getting to act mysterious and romanticize my morning commute," or "romanticizing the commute I dreamed of when I was younger." They're often paired with nostalgic tunes or cinematic pop songs, including "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong, "Young and Beautiful" by Lana Del Rey, and, of course, "Everything Is Romantic" by Charli XCX.

While the call to "romanticize your life" on TikTok can sometimes lean aspirational, as much of the internet does, devotees reject the implication that romanticizing your life requires buying new things. Rather, the goal is to appreciate what's already in reach.

Brianna Paruolo, a licensed mental health therapist and founder of On Par Therapy, said that while showing off for strangers online can be a "slippery slope" if it leads to a craving for more validation, romanticizing can be a positive way to reframe mundanity.

"When we romanticize, we take notice in the small moments of beauty," Paruolo said. "When you film your morning coffee routine or walk to the subway, you are using your digital lens to train your mental lens to scan for positive experiences rather than functioning on autopilot."

For Pogue, that holds true. "It kind of just sets my day up for success," she said of why she romanticizes her commute, online and otherwise. "If you're dreading your morning commute, you're dreading getting to the office, and then everything that happens after that is more likely to feel a little bit negative."

Although TikTok has been awash in videos about romanticizing everyday life since the early pandemic, videos about romanticizing your commute are part of a newer subgenre whose rise coincides with the recent return-to-office push in corporate America.

Data from Placer.ai, a leading foot-traffic analytics firm, found that office visits nationwide were up about 10% in 2024 compared with 2023. Other stats paint an even starker picture: A McKinsey survey of over 8,000 people across 15 industries found the number of employees working mostly in person, as opposed to mostly remote or hybrid, doubled in 2024 compared to the previous year.

Early indicators suggest these figures continued to grow in 2025. As Business Insider previously reported, July set a post-pandemic record high for office attendance, up 10.7% from July 2024. In September, the so-called "hybrid creep" continued to ramp up, with more and more companies enacting strict RTO policies, including Intel, NBCUniversal, and Starbucks. Earlier this month, Instagram's chief, Adam Mosseri, announced that most US staff would be expected to return to the office five days a week starting in February.

'You might as well find the positive'

Andrea Yamhure Sepúlveda, 25, started her corporate consulting job in January 2023. About two years later, her company began asking employees to spend 60% of their workweek in the office; lately, managers have been sending quarterly reports to recap their employees' in-person stats.

New York-based Sepúlveda, who's also a content creator in her spare time, has taken this sea change in stride. She enjoys filming the morning minutiae — her first cup of tea, the sunrise glow over the Manhattan skyline — and sharing the clips on TikTok like a public gratitude journal.

"It's like, you're going to have to do this anyway, so you might as well find the positive," she said. "If I dread the fact that I have to wake up at 5 a.m. and travel, then it's gonna suck. And then I'm going to have to do it next Monday, and the next Monday."

Maria Lysy, a 25-year-old marketing professional in the Washington, DC, metro area, agreed that casting her commute in a positive light helps boost her morale for the workday ahead.

Lysy said her commuting routine lately has involved listening to pop singer Audrey Hobert, especially her songs "Phoebe" and "Sex and the City," and reminding herself that her younger self would be proud of where she is today. She described this process as "finding the extraordinary in the ordinary."

"It sounds so simple, but I've always dreamed of going to my 'big girl job,'" Lysy said. "I feel like it's so easy to take a negative approach on a lot of things, but it's just as easy just romanticize the littlest things you do. It totally changes your perspective."