to be tired of the jealousy towards people who WFH?

I also WFH and do the school pick ups and drops. I definitely prefer WFH to office days, though to be honest office days are much less productive! The team usually does a team lunch on the days we go into office, plus ppl keep approaching asking about things and it is hard to concentrate. I always feel I haven’t got as much done, and I am more tired from the commute! My DH is front line NHS and cannot WFH but he does spend some half days at home at times when he has admin time.

And this means lots of the big companies are forcing everyone back? Because a few MNetters have posted moaning they are being asked to go back in?

Well enough people on MN are whinging about having to go back into the office so obviously quite a few employers are insisting

Which office should my company make me go back to? We don't have offices. International company that employs people from all around the world. Everyone who is UK based WFH. So unless you're planning on funding my relocation to New York (and DH and the kids too) I suggest you get a grip on your envy.

Me too, I hated being there and that's not motivating. And I was always ill from the air con and the fluorescent lights and the commute and how tired it made me. I'm hardly ever off sick now because I can WFH and have flexible hours, so if I need to sleep in later in the morning or finish a bit early I can. And my day starts when I start work and ends when I finish work, not an hour before when I get on the bus and an hour after when I get home, I just switch off my laptop.

For an employer with an employee with a chronic illness, WFH is a gift.

Which big companies? I work for a big financial services company and they aren't. None of our suppliers or contacts are. Our competitors don't seem to be.

If it is so great for productivity, why are so many big companies bringing people back into the office?

People take the piss in the office just as much if not more.

Year on year, worker productivity grows. This study shows since 1979 it has grown 3.5 times
more than pay https://www.epi.org/blog/growing-inequalities-reflecting-growing-employer-power-have-generated-a-productivity-pay-gap-since-1979-productivity-has-grown-3-5-times-as-much-as-pay-for-the-typical-worker/

There are various articles online theorising it has grown as much as 7 times in the past 100 or so years.

Yet people don’t work 1/7th of the hours we did 100 years ago. Or any less hours really than in the 80s. If anything a lot of people have to work more hours than our parents did to pay the mortgage.

Ask yourself why that is next time you’re begrudging someone an hour on the school run, or 1/2 an hour having someone round to quote (usually taken off “lunch break” time anyway). Or don’t, and keep playing into your employers pockets :)

Exactly this.

if you’re “surrounded by people who take the piss when they wfh”…then take a long hard look at who you are surrounded by and why you picked them!

People take the mick in every line of work and every working location. It's not specific to WFH so it doesn't deserve the hate some people give it.

That's the issue isn't it? Skivers are Skivers wherever they are and good workers will work regardless of their surroundings.

I do think WFH and flexitime work well for family life and I can see how WFH would be lonely if you lived on your own (or for those whose partners were away a lot or did really long hours).

My sister's DH works nights, so if she did a WFH role (she can't in her line of work but that's not the point) she might never see people. No fun for her.

But for some of us, the reduced contact with people means we can handle the contact better when we have it. I find being around people (other than my chosen few) all day every day really draining and when I was office based that meant a lot of my down time was used for recharging. Once or twice a week in the office is plenty for my social needs and leaves me with enough social energy to go out with my friends, go on days out to busier places etc without the need to recharge as much.

It's just different strokes for different folks. Works for some people not for others. Some organisations need to manage better if they want to continue with WFH. It won't work for other organisations or sectors as well as some.

People take the mick in every line of work and every working location. It's not specific to WFH so it doesn't deserve the hate some people give it.

Not sure why you think retired people would be bitter. I'm retired from retail so wfh wasn't possible, never bothered me in the slightest.
My dd wfh during and after covid. One good thing was it enabled her to save enough for a flat deposit quicker the negative was she eventually ended up feeling very lonely and isolated. She has now changed to an office job and is happier but tired because her days are quite a bit longer. Swings and roundabouts.

Judging by the reaction of @Reliablesource to my last post, I've hit the nail on the head.

Makes me laugh that their name is "reliable" source when their only evidence of anything to do with this is that "people they know" are lazy skivers.

Says a lot about who they surround themselves with I suppose. Or maybe that's the only people who will give them the time of day...

Let me guess - you dislike anyone having anything that benefits them in anyway unless you also have the same benefit, because otherwise they're lucky or smug or lazy?

Get a grip.

Let me guess - you’re so much more productive wfh? You love the solitude of working your solid 8 hour day with no interruptions? 🥱

Not even a reason on my list of why I like working from home.

But obviously you understand that, given you know everything about everyone and their reasons.

I do understand how it works. I know many people who wfh. They ALL take the piss to some extent or another. Absolutely no one is sitting at their desk from 9-5 with a 1 hour lunch break, that’s for sure. The only reason people want to wfh is to be able to do all the private life stuff they can’t do in the workplace.

I think in the long term, the “market” salaries will adjust so that wfh becomes paid less than office attendance. If organisations want people at an inconvenient workplace they’ll have to pay more to recruit them. But it will take time. It’ll end up a kind of London premium but for workplace attendance. As you say to compensate for travelling time and costs. Maybe 10 years or so. Or organisations could just get better managing their wfh workers where wfh is possible.

You realise flexi time and WFH have been things for YEARS, well before COVID? Especially in the civil service, I knew people whose partners were doing it when I first started working way back.

And there's laws in place that say if something has been the norm for you for 2 years, it's actually now part of your contract even if it's not written in?

And that just because you don't understand how someone makes things work doesn't make them lazy?

Open your mind.

Yeah I have hybrid working and flexi time. I have set my life up in such a way that I can take my kids to school every day. They go to after school club twice a week and I can work around them the other three days. And I’m still working full time hours.

Let me tell you, my work gets plenty out of me. I work my arse off doing hours at night etc because I’m so grateful to have a job that enables this and I want to do well at it.

Sorry to disappoint you but doing the school run etc is actually allowed in my job. It's called flexi working. Not everyone is sneaking around behind their employers backs, it is often something they are OK with. Employee starts work an hour earlier to make up for school runs or appointments. It's a system that works quite well imo.