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

Who knew! I just thought dp went for very long walks everyday

Home workers instead though. The supply chain would be fucked if not for people playing on spreadsheets all day 😉

This is perfectly true. And it's possible that factory jobs may simply be lost to AI production, sadly. Or relocated to a lower-wage country. Factory workers get the worst of all worlds, relatively low wages, no working from home and reducing job security.

Yeah that's right. I had absolutely no idea everyone couldn't work from home 🙄

My DD and my DiL both work for companies where many of the senior people work abroad, permanently or short term. They're used to working where both parties are remote. I do agree that it's possible that employers may eventually cotton onto the fact that they could get good workers in lower-wage countries.

Two of my DC are parents and working from home is simply a way of life for them now. They're all pretty conscientious and work hard, though sadly I do know others who take the p*ss.

All they need now is a way to deal with the school breaks, the holiday clubs locally are very expensive and I don't think that there are any that are open for the equivalent of a whole school day.
I would have loved to work from home when my four DC were at school but there was only very low paid work available then, envelope stuffing and the like.

Indeed, threads about coffee shops being full of workers on laptops are usually full of hostile comments!

Most of the posts about offshoring in this thread have come from posters mooting the idea that the jobs currently being done remotely in the UK now will be offshored at some unspecified point in the future. It's a popular one on these threads, although people never manage to explain why they think that.

I think some people would love for that kind of work to be offshored, just like our car industry, shipbuilding, manufacturing of cheap stuff, etc. Let "someone else" do the dirty work whilst we just sit in our PJs playing on spreadsheets. Then they wonder why the Western economy is going to hell in a handcart whilst the emerging countries are getting richer by the day!

Re your last paragraph, humans existed before offices were invented, so following you logic, we need neither offices nor office workers!!

Of course they're not. When it comes to different types of work, we shouldn't generalise. There's very little that's true for absolutely everyone.

These sorts of posts astound me they really do! Do some people really think that everyone does a computer based office job? I work in a factory so me and the majority of my colleagues could not work from home even if we really wanted to.

And yet there are so many threads on Mumsnet about 'how long is it acceptable to make my one cup of coffee last whilst I work from a cafe because I miss the interaction with other people when I work from home'.

So not everyone is happy with working from home all the time.

Some jobs/careers don’t allow you to be anywhere but the “office”- eg, doctors, nurses, teachers, care workers, social workers, lab workers, vets, farmers, fishermen/women etc, etc.
Before I’m jumped on, no, I haven’t RTWT - there’s 19 pages of it and I haven’t got time, but really, it’s time some realised that many jobs/careers out there just don’t lend themselves to WFH. If this has already been said, then apologies for being repetitive, but then again, if it has been said, then I rest my case.

😂

My comment was in response to the OP saying she literally couldn’t go into the office - I was just pointing out people have managed it for years! I actually love going into the office a few days a week - I don’t see it as race to the bottom at all, but a chance for social interaction and bonding

I have ADHD. Work absolutely calms me like nothing else. I even struggle on holiday and I'm seriously considering sharing maternity leave with DH to keep the professional side of me alive. I'd love to be someone who is content wfh and can focus, cosy at home with their baby but it would seriously and has previously damaged my MH so badly. I have never been as happy in my career as I am now with my hybrid pattern going on and my mh is fantastic.

I‘m not saying no one should work from home. I’m saying it’s not for everyone and going into the office isn’t the disaster the OP is making it out to be, especially if it’s hybrid. My mother managed it for the best parts of 40+ years and loved the social aspect of it.

I for one would go mad WFH full time, and I have friends who feel the same way. I have friends who couldn’t wait to go back to the office after Covid or mat leave because they felt so isolated WFH. I get not everyone feels that way, but those who love WFH full time dont seem to understand not everyone feels that way. And for younger people especially, I think it’s hard for them to learn if working remotely full time. That’s also not taking into account many of them don’t have suitable WFH environments. Also for women who have abusive partners, getting out to work can be a life saver for them.

I much prefer working at work and keeping the division between work and home. I really love the team of people I work with and I would miss the laughter so much if I didn’t go in. I like us all leaving for work/school and doing our different things and then discussing it at dinner. I completely get why others love working from home but it really isn’t for me.

Totally agree. I'm in a situation now (caring for elderly parents) where I couldn't work in the office, so I'm incredibly lucky that things have gone this way. But even if I didn't have this caring role, the idea of having to go into the office every day seems unbearable now, and a colossal inconvenience for no good reason. Having said that, I used to be fine with going into the office twice a week.

I think a lot of people think WFH means never going into the office, whereas the majority of us who do WFH, also spend a few days in the office too.

Another misconception is that calls go unanswered due to WFH - well no matter where I’m working, my calls either come through via teams or via my work mobile. It’s not like my desk phone (if I still had one) rings unanswered due to WFH

why the need for a race to the bottom?

People have managed through a lot of very unpleasant conditions. It doesn't mean we shouldn't work to improve work and life conditions.

If everyone had that attitude, young kids would still be working. After all, they "managed" for centuries.

As an aside, the number of Sunday threads about people desperate at the idea of their work week in the office has reduced A LOT since Covid...

cant imagine anything worse than 5 days in an office all day