to be tired of the jealousy towards people who WFH?

I'm in two minds about WFH. On an individual level, it's great; the work/life balance is greatly improved, people have more time to upskill, etc., but from an economic POV, it's not great.

Cafes and other businesses that rely on foot traffic are suffering, and yeah, you can say boo hoo, bad business plan etc but those business bring in taxes and create jobs which we are in desperate need of atm.

It's been great for the perimenopause. I think WFH supports women's, helps them maintain their careers.

I think some people don’t realise that not everybody has actual work to do every second of the day from 9am to 5pm. There’s a difference between work and availability.
I NEED to be logged on to my laptop and available to work during those hours. But I could have absolutely fuck all to do for 3 hours straight (so in the office I’d be sat there bored out of my mind, feeling awkward) and then the following 3 hours are manically busy because some important tasks come in all in one go.
Once I’ve done all my usual weekly admin/paperwork type stuff, it’s not my fault if no new tasks come up all day Thursday, for example, and then on Friday 20 people ask me to do 20 different things all at once. It doesn’t always come in steadily every hour of every day. But I HAVE to be available when it does.
Life is so much less stressful when I can take care of my own life during that down time. Whether that be household chores, jumping in the shower, or just having a rest.

I'm a mental health nurse by profession. When covid happened I was in a referral and assessment team. Our team initially cancelled the service for routine referrals-urgent referrals were still happening via a&e and our crisis line. I was temporarily redeployed to our depot service. Depots are slow release injections given as an alternative to oral meds to those with schizophrenia, and are prescribed mostly for those whose compliance with medicines is patchy. Clients usually came to our base for them but the building was shut to the public so we visited at home. I bloody loved that time, proper nursing, not just the administration of meds but engaging with clients, making sure they were OK. As time went on we started phone assessments wfh so I did that from home. I really hated that. I couldn't get the same rapport over the phone as I did face to face and there were also a lot of technical issues, long story short I had no phone coverage with my work mobile and my WiFi was only really available in my living room meaning my retired husband had to spend tye day in the kitchen because of confidentiality. I hated it, I like to compartmentalise work and home, and I missed my colleagues and being able to discuss patient care with colleagues.

I would hate to wfh, even hybrid. I'm a nurse, and don't ever want to spend my working day behind a computer. I was delighted during lockdown I had a valid reason to be out and about and never want to go back to those times I did hybrid. I know there are jobs I could do wfh such as assessments for benefits but no thanks, not for me! I am not in the slightest jealous of those who wfh.

I don’t understand the angerness and bitterness. Other people having the ability to work from home does not impact these people. I can work from home 2 days per week. I have colleagues whose arrangement is 4 days per week. I don’t get jealous though.

I think WFH increases work performance and mental health for a lot of people. You're less distracted by noise and people around you. You don't get sucked into office politics which is so draining. With no commuting into work there is more time for family and home life. More people with disabilities can join the workforce this way too. If people are jealous why don't they get a WFH job

Haha I thought this, kinda just proving the point that plenty of people like it because they can do less work.

Personally I think life's too short to worry about what other people do, sounds like a miserable existence to be stuck at home behind a computer, appreciate for others they love it.

Yes. I dug through it all when I successfully made the case for dropping hours (and increasing pay) at a previous workplace.

We worked hard on the three classic strands - people, processes, technology - and with those nailed we had a brilliant uptick in productivity.

We'd shifted to wfh in the pandemic, but I'd been encouraging people to do it and hoc for a year beforehand. When offices reopened, we had fortnightly full team days where we got everything discussed and actions listed. People could meet and hoc in the office, and just agreed a schedule that worked for them.

Fortnightly was MUCH better than weekly - it gave time for work to happen without pissy little updates that could be covered in the alternating fortnightly stand up on Teams.

I personally work really well with Pomodoro. But I also choose to blast through work during 2x 2h periods of the day. I do work/am present for the other 4.75h of my (compressed) work contract, but I find I do the most in those focus slots.

Definitely not to make you feel bad. It was intended to do the opposite. People are really resentful and frothing alot ATM and WFH is something many probably wish they had so will froth in your direction.

I've not had any issues yet dealing with services who I can tell are WFH. Usually utility or housing related.

I don't think you have to justify anything. Just be mindful there are alot of resentful people feeling frustrated by COL issues and societal stories and really want a target. Enjoy your work and don't feel any guilt 💐

Taken years

No problem with people wfh if they’re actually doing the job. But when you’ve had experience of people supposedly wfh who then strangely don’t seem to be available when you phone them and they don’t respond to emails (and have been seen out for a couple of hours doing their weekly supermarket shop) it understandably pisses people off. Not jealousy, just annoyance that some people think wfh means be far less productive

I agree. Same with dealing daily with HMRC in my work. So many times they can't access the system due to "bad internet today", or background noises, dogs barking, children, doorbell ringing. Then if it's not something they can deal with, they can't just ask someone on the next desk - it has to be formally passed over to someone else, but they can't transfer the call, so they say they'll "ping" a message, but 9 times out of 10, that's the end of it as no one calls back, so I have to go through the whole fiasco again.

I have no doubt that WFH works for those with longer tasks, but for places like call centres, call handling, customer service staff, it's not fit for purpose, when it's a constant stream of calls.

@WFHFan you've started a thread bleating that nasty people think those who WFH don’t work hard enough, then proceeded to boast about how little work you actually do for your salary (and all those shiny awards). What was the point? Perhaps it’s nap time for you 😂

I don't understand the logic of this at all. I should refuse to work at home so that other people still want to be nurses and teachers? Should I also turn down any pay rise I get in case it makes people not want to be nurses and teachers?

I am not jealous as I love going into work and would hate working from home. I think wfh works really well for some jobs but is awful for others. When I arrange meetings, I always offer people in-person, phone call or teams meetings. About 80% choose in-person. That kind of thing has to be taken into account when competing for clients.

I spend most my days crying on my sofa in severe pain. I can't eat properly and have lived on liquid nutrition for a few years. I can hardly sit up. I can't care for my child any longer and they live with other parent now because I'm so sick. I've spent months in hospital. Nothing is controlling my multiple torturous diseases and I often wish it would just end.

I have friends who have witnessed all this happening to me for years. I feel strongly, resentment from one quarter because I don't work. I questioned this as how on earth could anyone feel that way about me having seen what my life is like ( it's like a horror). But I started to realise I wasn't imagining it and my senses were telling me for a reason. And I imagine if someone saw me just stand in my garden one day they'd think I was a grifter and would hate me for it.

So why am I telling you this - because it tells you that people can be total cunts. Usually because they need another focus for their own upset. And they'll always find one.

It's not jealousy, it's the crap service that seems to have become exponentially worse since WFH became so common place.

On Easter Monday, I had reason to call the non emergency police phone line. Eventually answered by someone with a dog barking and screaming child(ren) in the background, meaning she couldn't hear what I was saying and I had to keep repeating myself. Then it was lots of sighs and groans as she said her laptop was running slow!

When the non emergency police call handlers are working from home, you know it's gone too far!

@WFHFan I’m not jealous of you WFH, but I’m very jealous that you are paid to simply live, and sleep. Can you tell me what your job is? I might retrain, because it sounds like the easiest job in the world. I’m pretty clever so I’m sure I can do it, and I’d really love someone to pay me to nap.

I'm kind of on the fence as I've had a WFH job and I didn't find it very enjoyable, as in sociable. I don't think it's really jealousy that people have against WFH, it's more the fact that staff are often / sometimes unaccountable for periods of time. I've seen people freely admit they do their housework ect in work time.

But it comes down to trust. Do you have trustworthy employees or flakey whatnots ? People can take the Mickey in the workplace as well as at home. So I don't agree that jealousy is the issue here.

Nice way to squeeze an ageism post in. Why would retired people give a monkey's?

Your post is just silly really, but I am not going to get drawn on to an argument about the time taken to boil a kettle for your one cup of tea v the time taken to take in a parcel. You are assuming that everyone who wfh does every thing on your long list every day, which they clearly don't. The same as some days uou might have a second cup of tea, adding an extra 5 minitues to your somewhat puritanical office day.
I have a fitbit watch that nags me to move every hour, so I do. I get up on the hour, get my 250 steps done by either loading the washer, hoovering etc and am always back at my desk before my screen times out at 6 minutes. So 8 hours x 5 minutes = 40 minutes, washing done, clean house etc.
It's not that hard to understand really.

Possibly depends on the sector.

I'm my Local Authority/council role my job is hybrid.

That can't change as under the Conservative government cuts to budgets were so harsh that the council have had to sell off buildings to meet the budget demands of essential services.

We no longer have a desk. We can book one but just about impossible as there are just not enough for the workforce.