To think people who work from home don’t get it?

Your jealous because you can't work from home it's no one else's problem.
No one needs to think about you and feel sorry for you.
Change careers if you're that bothered.

Just too note my brother works from home since covid.
He would prefer to go into the office half the time he doesn't know what day it is, he gets no exercise during the day, it's unsocial.

You aren't thinking of the mental health impact and they aren't thinking of you either.

How are these people working outside? Ever tried working on a laptop in the garden? Even on dull days it's impossible!

I think you're perspective is understandably skewed. I largely WFH due to caring responsibilities. I'm extremely grateful to my employer for facilitating this. However, it's really isolating, I have to try harder to keep up to date with things and I have had to devote some of my personal space to be a work space which frankly isn't great.

I'll be going hybrid soon and I cannot wait to spend some time in the office with real life people! Be able to turn to a colleague and ask a quick question without having to schedule a blooming teams meeting.

The main benefit of remote working is the fact that being in work is so much more accessible for people who have additional requirements such as disability or caring responsibilities (not parenting, I'm one of those and wfh should not replace childcare).

"WFH is abhorrent to me. I have WFH twice, once when setting up my company as I couldn’t afford offices immediately and through COVID and never again if I can help it!!! I hate not being around others, I hate not having the banter of the office, I hate feeling isolated, I hate not having the proper work/life balance of shutting the office door at the end of the day and walking away and my staff are all the same."

This was my feeling about forced wfh during Covid, but the kind of wfh people do long term is quite different. Most places have hybrid working with up to about half the days being done at home. I work at the office 3-4 days a week now and it seems to be the right balance for me. Long-term only wfh would make me depressed and I would never take a job (or self employment) that was 100% from home.

This a horses for courses argument. Not everyone is the same with the same circumstances and that’s why we have different options available to different people.

WFH is abhorrent to me. I have WFH twice, once when setting up my company as I couldn’t afford offices immediately and through COVID and never again if I can help it!!! I hate not being around others, I hate not having the banter of the office, I hate feeling isolated, I hate not having the proper work/life balance of shutting the office door at the end of the day and walking away and my staff are all the same.

Our jobs can be highly stressful at times so being together to blow off steam helps all of us. However, I have the flexibility to be able to offer them work from home on odd days if they need for something specific, which they are all very grateful for, but they wouldn’t choose to do it full time. We are all friends in our office and it’s a really pleasant place to be, we have lots of social interaction in our small team.

But, not everyone is like us, and for some WFH is a far nicer, better prospect as they may focus better without so much going on around them, they may have a disability that mean WFH allows them the ability to still work for their ongoing mental health or there may be a myriad of other reasons (although I do agree they should never be childcare or other things that take their attention away from their employed role during their designated working hours).

There are swings and roundabouts and arguments for and against on all levels of this, but the bottom line is different strokes for different folks!

I to though do wonder if, with government plans to up minimum wages, etc. that some employers won’t think that there is cost saving in outsourcing work wherever possible moving forward (wouldn’t work in my company, but I am sure there are many larger companies that it would work for) and I think the impact AI will have on the workforce/workplace in the longer term should not be underestimated!

Maybe it's time for a change of job then. Surely part of what drew you to biomedical science was the lab work?
Or is it that you took it up before WFH was more common so you didn't even consider the pros and cons?

You are incorrect. It IS naive. Perhaps you misread what i was replying to.

"There should be a workplace premium of more than£££ for those who cannot WFH". The notion that there should be a premium for working in the office is naive. It's also a little narcissistic as it was written from the viewpoint that people who cannot WFH should get paid a premium for doing so. The person who wrote this comment clearly hasn't considered the knock-on effect for doing so. There are financially implications. There are environmental implications. There ARE also downsides to WFH and not everyone who does wants to WFH all the time. That's a myth.

But to give you an example of the economics. "Based on a survey of working arrangements among full-time employees across 34 countries in April–May 2023, Aksoy et al. (2023b) report a number of results on WFH. 8% of them fully WFH, 26% are in a hybrid work mode, and 67% work fully onsite."

So you think its reasonable to pay 67% a premium because they work fully onsite? Maybe read some research like this before assuming it's not naive: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537123001379

I work for the NHS. I’m a trained biomedical scientist so literally no way I could work from home in that job. This year I’m on a secondment in admin and get to work from
home and it’s amazing! Really don’t want to go back to working at the hospital

of course I know people who work from home are working! I’m just saying the perks go far beyond not having to commute.

Working from a part of your home that wasn’t designed to be an office: kitchen, bedroom, living room etc. Dining tables aren’t desks and don’t get me started on dining chairs. Ergonomically, working from home is a challenge. Not everyone has a spare room to house a desk and office chair.

Becoming that house that delivery drivers target to leave neighbours deliveries because they know you are always home.

People thinking that you’re not really working so feel free to interrupt you whenever.

Having to heat/ cool your home in the day, when at work that’s your bosses responsibility and cost.

Domestic Wifi!!!!!!!!

Becoming more of the de facto parent (this rarely applies to men) because you’re already home.

Those are just a few of the perks that I’m guessing Instagram isn’t highlighting, funny that.

but it does feel unfair because most jobs were 100% office based until covid. Then things changed. I would be pissed off if the world c changed around me and a massive amount of people received a benefit that I didn’t get. Of course it’s easy to say “retain” “it’s one choice” but realistically it’s much harder to change your entire career than you think. Especially if you’re older. I do think certain careers will be less attractive now. Who on earth will still want to be a nurse of teacher?

I know! Damn all us WFH people! How dare we not foresee that a pandemic would kill off a chunk of the humans on this planet! You would think the NHS would get this! Do the NHS not get it...?

Oh wait....

Seriously. This is a really ignorant post and you should be embarrassed.

Grow up.

I work from home but I get it

I work from home 80-90% of the time. There are a few negatives but in my opinion they pale in comparison to the positives.

Actually a lot of good points above. I do have a garden although its rained most of summer so far but I also have neighbours so could not be on a work call out in the garden anyway due to gdpr and sounding like a dick while out there. Glare on the laptop would be bad and the connection possibly drop too so no I have never worked in the garden. The odd time I would have the door open but thats not much fun just to look out at the grass and hear neighbouring dogs/cars/humans making noise outside too.I might need to rethink my half week wfh actually as I think now I have had hybrid for so long that going to the office is better for me all round.

I think there are quite a few NHS jobs that can be done via Teams etc that are now at least partly remote. If you wanted to do this instead, am sure it's possible?. My org got rid of the large office we had pre Covid, as it was obvious we could be remote. After 4 years at home tho, as a single person with no family nearby, I can assure you, I have to get out each evening to do something with people otherwise my mental health would be much worse. Personally, it's always been hard to stay motivated in my role, but like you, that's what am trained to do, so it is much harder to move to an alternative without experience. I'm pretty sure if you wanted to move to the wfh direction, there's gonna be opportunities. Try doing it the other way! I look forward to retiring, then I can volunteer weekdays in something rewarding. This is no life tho. I've no office now, just some hot desks on an industrial estate that are always booked out. I envy your need to go somewhere and feel needed. I really do.

It's really hard to work in the garden I find, I tried it once and haven't since unless I'm reading something hardcopy (not very often!) can't see due to the glare, haven't got my dual monitor set up, keyboard etc, it would be a twat move to take a call in the garden when I have close neighbours. Really not sure it's quite so prolific as people make out.

What is it we don't get? I worked full time in an office for 30 years 8-5, five days a week. I got divorced and met Simone knew who lived 2 hours away from work. When I was resigning due to not wanting to commute four hours or able to if I'm honest in my late 40s at the time and I was already knackered with Perimenopause..my boss said he didn't want to lose me so I started WFH and cut to four days. Some days it's bloody hard going being on your own all day. I still work all day just the same as in the office. I still clock watch on slow days as I can't wait to log off and go out. I completely get that it's hard being out of the house all day I did it for 30 solid years! But, there's pros and cons to both. If you are really of the mindset it's better and can't contain your jealousy then change jobs.

🙄

"The idea they’re all out in the garden is ridiculous. "

I would think that most wfh people who have a garden could take their laptops out into the garden. I don't see why not if the weather is good as long as there's no glare from the sun.
As I've already mentioned, there are also offices who have gardens so some office workers can do it too.

It's not naive at all, quite the opposite, it's one of the few things that would get the Country back on track. Economic policies are 30 years out of date and haven't caught up with automation.

Most people do work out their pay before taking a career direction which is why we're now in a situation where public services are on their knees because the automated services brigade get paid more than people who are key to the functioning of the Country.

An aside, but it’s certainly having an impact on recruitment for those jobs. My kids are at the time where they are leaving university and job hunting-not one of them or their friends want to go into a job where the scope to WFH at least some of the week isn’t an option.

That doesn't make it unfair that those people can't work from home. They chose to go into a profession where WFH was never going to be possible. That would be like me saying it's unfair that I don't get to work with animals all day, when I chose a profession that doesn't, and never could, involve animals

The idea they’re all out in the garden is ridiculous. People need to stop comparing. I’ve worked remotely mostly since 2009 and I used to get the petty comments.some people working remote are working long days with a global workforce. Some just work long hours. Some travel a lot. Some are able to better manage children…

The premium idea is naive.Did people not work out their pay before taking a career direction. I work in my field to have a life and afford what I want. I made a pivot at 40. If you feel squeezed take responsibility .

That's not really WFH. That's just being self employed.

I am a florist home based so I basically live and breath work 24/7 7 days a week and it's draining the early get ups 4:30am to the late nights that I have to finish orders for early the next day, and god forbid I have a sick day the amount of abuse I get if I'm running behind e.g sickness bug I had one lady tell me how I am being inconsiderate, also trying to clean the house in between orders, food shopping, looking after my 3 children.

It's also strange that since the WFH productivity boom it seems to take twice as long for many services I have to get anything done.

I WFH have done for years same as my husband and I hate it. In the house all day every day, no social life through work and I see my partner 24/7 pretty much which is not healthy, we don't have as much to talk about like couples who come together in thd evening.. How was your day? Well same as yours!. . I get that yes I dont have to pay for travel but as for less sick days I'm not sure that's accurate? My mental health has definitely deteriorated since WFH. The grass is not always greener.