Sorry, not sorry, but wfh really is much easier

I would love to work from home. I've actually applied for a new job where I could.
I have to work in office full time atm in the role I'm in, but I sprained my foot two weeks ago and had to two days wfh as it was too painful to walk on during that time and it was honestly glorious. No 5.30 wake up, no commute, no time wasted getting home after, healthy meals made during the day, time spent with DH who wfh and more time with the ddogs.

Im not fully understanding the point of your post. It seems you have an issue with your friends behaviour and are assuming this is the case for everyone who works from home.

Yes wfh is easier in regards to commuting but thats the main benefit. I work in a high up role and my days in the office im in such demand i get zero done because im being pulled from pillar to post. I wfh one day a week, suppose to log off at 5pm usually log off around 10pm as its the only day i get to catch up on my work load.

My partner work from the office three days a week with an hour and a half commute each way, leaving the house at 5.30am and he doesnt get home until 8pm. He wfh two days a week which does help his commute but he often doesnt have lunch as hes high up in his role and doesnt have time to eat, he also logs on an hour and a half early each morning due to his work load. Apart from fridays where he logs on even earlier again as he has to do the school run in the afternoon.

I do realise wfh can be intense but not all day, every day?
wfh jobs are as varied as office jobs, some people will have very intense jobs, some won’t, same as an office. Some people will have jobs wfh that are very regimented and some won’t.

It wasn’t until I was on maternity leave from my teaching job that I really noticed just how easy some people have it. Don’t get me wrong there will be loads of people working from home putting in a really hard shift 9-5 or longer, or even working late into the night etc. My neighbour has a very well-paid job and works from home. Every other day I’d see her around lunch time taking a wander down to meet a friend for lunch, going to the local coffee shop, going for a walk then back home. This could well be within her hour’s lunch break although anytime I’ve spoken to her she does joke that she’s meant to be working so I doubt it.

As a teacher we were asked most days to either give up our lunch break to supervise the playground, wet play in classrooms or I just had so much work to mark or get printed etc that I would barely have 5 minutes to scoff down a sandwich. Colleagues would spend their break crying about what had happened in the previous lesson or writing out paperwork for pastoral notes, violent incident forms etc. I’d then be back in the classroom in the afternoon, often being physically assaulted by kids or just generally dealing with rudeness, loud noises or screaming children. The contrast of getting to work in the peace and tranquility of your own home (especially for an introvert like me) just sounds like absolute bliss!

your whole post literally contradicts itself and can be summed up as "well, yeah, duh."
Of course people who WFH realise it's better in many ways than going into the office 5 days a week - that's exactly why they are unhappy about being made to go back to the office. Obviously.
If WFH was worse and they didn't like it, they wouldn't complain about it, would they?

There are lots of jobs that are better than others in different ways - more stimulating, more fun, better paid, more holidays, better pension, more flexible, lots of travelling, etc... the good news is we live in a free country where you can apply for whatever job you want!

if the fact some people can wfh and you can't bothers you that much be better off spending your time applying for a new job rather than moaning on MN.

Yes, I think WFH is far easier. I think it gives me a far better work/life balance. No commuting time or cost, dinner with the family every night, more time with dc, my laundry gets done during working hours as I'm so much more productive at home I have time to spare.

So yes, I think it's easier. Which is why I do it. No moaning here.

You can make that point about anything. Assuming you live in the UK you have a lot of luxuries that many people in the world don't have. Do you never moan about anything?

I'm glad I don't work from home. My home is small, and there is no private space, so wherever I worked I would have DH or the children wandering through. I enjoy the walk to my office, and ability to do errands on my way home. I like that I can just leave my work at the end of the day and go home, to a separate space where I'm not haunted by my to do list. I like spending time with my colleagues.

I love wfh and will never return to working in an office.

I certainly don't moan about it.

😅

I’m a lecturer and work four days - one WFH day and three on campus. On my WFH day I prep all my classes for the week, do marking, and write up student support notes/check in with students who need help via Teams.

If I was doing that in the office there are people in and out, I’d have to walk to the coffee shop to get a drink, and honestly, I roam around looking for people to chat to. Twas ever thus pre Covid and WFH being a thing for us! In my days on campus I teach pretty much back to back.

Yes, at home I play with the cat, empty the dishwasher, pop out to return a parcel at lunch. Per pp I also always now bring my laptop home and respond to emails/Teams messages out of hours as they come in.

My manager is great and recognises that maybe people are not sat at their laptops every minute of WFH, but the time is more than made up. It’s great being treated like a grown up and valued!

What jobs are your friends doing to be able to have so much free time wfh?

I can only go on my partners and friends experiences where people book meetings in for times when you have a meeting already, or 3 meetings already. Wfh doesn’t help much with that sort of schedule.

My partner often has days where if he didn’t cancel meetings, he’d be in meetings from 8am-7pm with no break for the toilet or to eat. If he doesn’t cancel something, he either has to try to finish a meeting a few minutes early or log on a few minutes late to the next one in order to get a break. That was his life when he worked in the office too. When he does get a gap, he’s working on various documents.

Wgikst I’m sure there are people who don’t work hard, as you get those people in every workplace, you do sound clueless OP. Your perspective based on your partners and friends experience is nothing like mine based on my partners and friends experience.

Yep I LOVE wfh. I can't do it all the time (HR based) but this week I'm 5 days from home 😁😁.

My husband says you are wrong...

🤣🤣

Yes I realise I'm fortunate. I also know that I did 20+ years of shitty commuting, I served my time. I've WFH full time for 11 years now, well before covid came along. And yes, I do a proper day's work.

I wish MNHQ would pin one of those warnings they do above some threads. One that just says: “no one, literally not one person, gives a shit what your fella says”.

Tbh some of your friends sound like immature dicks

As someone wfh I cannot imagine boasting to my friends who don't wfh about I don't need to get up as early as them in the morning

And a hangover is a hangover whether you have to drive or now

Are they very young and immature? Or have you just outgrown them?

OP, you make some pretty sweeping generalisations. And you seem to have friends with very straightforward lives. Or perhaps they are joking and you just missed it.

I wfh four days a week. I get up at 6.30, shower, dress, make breakfast, get ds up at 7am. We leave the house at. 7 30, drive to the school bus then back for 8am. Start work.

Work until 1, take lunch, which usually involves putting supper in the slow cooker or doing washing or hoovering. Then work from 2 until 5.20. Drive to the school bus stop, collect ds and home by 6. No rolling out of bed at 8.45 I'm afraid. No chatting at the coffee machine either.

On my office day I do school run, then catch a train to London. Do emails if the internet is working. Walk from Waterloo to Fleet St, work from 9.30 until 3.30, the walk back, catch the train, drive to school bus, home by 6.

Before Covid, I did 35 years full time in the office, 12 of them as a lone mum. Now I'm 60 and still working full time.

Wfh has mostly allowed women to return to work full time, alongside caring responsibilities. That doesn't mean they're doing con calls from their sun loungers. 🙄

Your experience seems to be your small group of friends who seem irresponsible, rolling out of bed within minutes of work starting and getting pissed the night before.

Who could have imagined that some jobs require a professional attitude and busy schedule? 🤔

I would hate to wfh, and if my job required it I would have been looking for another one. My home is my sanctuary, and I wouldn't want it to also become my workplace, and for me the best part about working was seeing my colleagues every day. I would have been bored silly at home. I'm retired now, but that is totally different as I'm in and out all the time, whenever I want to be, not stuck inside, by myself.