To wonder how we ever did 5 days a week in an office?

if the people “working” from home are picking up the kids, putting the laundry out etc their house hone won’t be answered even if it’s connected to a laptop

*UNinterrupted

I'm an administrator and I do one day a week at home. Would love to do more. I get so much done interrupted and am also starting to present with health problems which are so much easier to cope with at home. My little old dog passed away last year amd once I can move into a full time WFH job again I can get myself a new friend. I know I'd be so much happier and healthier as do my final 10 years appriaching retirement.

This. Living in a decent house with an established family/group of friends? Fine. But not when trying to network, socialise, make connections etc.

I'm not that dramatically less productive in the office, but it's far more distracting there.

I often end up wearing noise cancelling headphones to block out colleagues chatter, which nullifies the whole "learning by osmosis " thing.

I'm not great at multitasking and need to concentrate on my work. I never can understand how some people can yap away and still produce good work. I presume they do, but it's not something I can do.

I'm sure there are people who benefit from being there, and not everyone has the right home environment to be productive WFH, but for me hybrid is perfect.

In what way? Do you envisage desk phones ringing out in empty offices? I work for a similar organisation. We havn't had desk phones for about 15 years. I have a number that reaches me via MS Teams on my laptop and my mobile.

i am not sure i would be entirely happy with my offspring wfh, the lack of social life, the posture concerns

100% wfh for lawyers - in my view - is not ideal for learning and development. No more overhearing conversations and learning by osmosis. Maybe that's a valid trade-off, though,

OP, the reason I feel irritated whenever someone tells me how fabulous it is to work from home is because I am fed up of poor customer service that seems to be a direct result of people wfh.

Yesterday I was on the phone to our local council. It was a work call about SEND support. I reached someone who said she couldn't help me but would 'send out a message to see if anyone is available to speak to you.' A few minutes later she said 'sorry no one has picked up my message. It does go a bit quiet at school pick up time.'

It's not a one off because this sort of thing happens a lot.

And people all over sm laughing about how they wfh but can get away with watching Netflix or going back to bed - no idea if true but certainly out there, particularly on TikTok.

Carried on working.

Mad how it's so different for everyone isn't it, pre pandemic I worked 9-5 in an office, then went WFH, and did this until September last year. It completely decimated my mental health. I put on weight, I dreaded every day and the weekends weren't much better because I would work from a desk in my bedroom so being in my room which was always a sanctuary just felt like work. It was also so much easier to start earlier if I wanted things done, and then finish later if someone asked me to do something. I left and have entered the education world and am retraining to be a teacher. It's completely changed my life for the better. The positive routine, seeing people and having my own identity outside of being a mum at home etc. Getting ready for the day etc. I just really enjoy all of it now and love the job , would never return to WFH. Whereas my dad has been self employed since before I was born, is a writer and has never worked in an office in his life, don't know how he does it. OH is the same, since pandemic never returned and doesn't need to, although it does bother him slightly and he has added a few days into his week where he works out of coffee shops etc to just feel like he's getting out. I think it's positive we are all different though and that we can all find a way of working that suits us all!

Not an option in my field but I can never understand people saying things like they're 'three times as productive' what? What on earth were you doing before?

If you were that unproductive in the office I'd not expect you to have the kind of work ethic that would result in major productivity outside of it.

It makes no sense.

I used to be a nurse but retrained prior to the pandemic and now work from home in a completely different sector. My quality of life is incomparably better now. I agree though jobs that don’t have the capacity for WFH like nurses, teaching etc will become less attractive career choices and we will continue to see shortages in these industries.

The government will need to pull its head out of the sand and improve the pay and conditions for these essential roles. I have lots of nursing friends who are realising the benefits of having the opportunity to work from home especially if you have caring responsibilities and actively looking for career changes.

I mostly agree, but I have my price.

If an employer really wants me in the office and as a result is willing to pay a lot more than those who don't, then I'll go in the office.

I'm a teacher so not a chance. My daily "office" is with 30 loud children!!!

Employers are pushing hard to have people do what I do back in their offices again. I see the same jobs being recruited for for months. The funny thing is - I am looking around for a new job right now (done all I can in current role really) and I wouldn't touch an office based role with a bargepole and presumably that's a common feeling. There's no need for me or anyone who does what we do to be in an office. Yet I have 25 years niche experience and could offer a lot to many of the roles I see - but I'm not even applying as I won't go into an office. Employers can keep trying to shove this back in the bottle but it isn't going.

If people like WFH (and most people do - if nothing else it means the only hours you spend on work are the hours you're working, not a significant amount of extra time travelling there and back) then in the long term jobs which offer WFH will be easier to recruit for and careers where WFH is less common will attract fewer people in to them. This will affect how much employers have to pay people to get enough people to do different jobs.

None.

It's now over 4 years since covid - if those organisations haven't managed to sort things so that employees can take calls and answer emails from home, then the WFH isn't what's wrong here!

Or, more likely, the lack of response is nothing at all to do with WFH (but if people are willing to believe it is, it will be trotted out as an excuse)

Coming up to 50, I'm finding working full time and commuting to be increasingly exhausting. WFH 2 days a week is all that is keeping me in a full time role (aside from money obv). They want us to work till 67 - we will need more flexibility, not less.

I’m autistic and have ADHD. When I had to work five days a week in an office, I was eventually either fired from every job I had, or had a mental breakdown and had to leave. For me, WFH is the difference between a life on benefits and a life earning 60k a year working from my living room. Some of us genuinely cannot cope in an office, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love our jobs or don’t want to work hard! Isn’t it great that there’s now options for those who enjoy working in solitude AND for those who like company and the office environment?

Of course it’s allowed. It’s also allowed to tell people that you’d loathe to have their life. Doesn’t mean it’s not a dick move to do so.

My job requires me to go into work every day. I do have to deal with some staff who WFH though. I'd much rather they were on site instead of having to wait for a reply to a query by email or on teams while they were hanging their washing out or picking the kids up from school.

I prefer a mix, which is also what I did pre Covid. I often find the days I go in now are easier, I put more pressure on myself to be productive WFH, plus no distractions, at work the stresses are different and there’s more of an opportunity to connect with colleagues.

I am lucky tho to work with some decent people - don’t get me wrong there are some insufferable arses too, but our paths don’t have to cross too often thankfully.

It might get easier if you went in once a week or anyway on a more regular basis? I can see it would be a shock to the system after being used to WFH.

There's no examination in this post of young people who aren't like you. The sort of setup you praise here disproportionately benefited young people who were outgoing and lived in or near London. It would've disadvantaged and even excluded lots of others.