Anyone else fed up with WFH/Hybrid

I hate working from home. I get lonely and bored, and end up eating too many biscuits. Fortunately my job isn't one that can really be done from home, apart from the very odd report writing day. I am far more productive in the office and to be honest, it's what they're paying me for.

Personally I love hybrid, definitely don't want more office time. But I live quite far away so it's 3 hour round trip and £25 a day; if I lived closer I would be fine to go in more often
Some people go in lots more because it works for them so definitely think you should do this if you want (appreciate it's not the same if the whole team is not in though)

Why can't you do 5 days a week in the office?

Maybe others like working from home to avoid certain people and only have to put up with them sparingly?

I love wfh as it suits my current lifestyle situation. I would imagine if I wfh 10 years ago I would miss the office…but also 10 years ago I had less serious/stressful jobs so it was fun larking around chatting to people, going for lunch etc… at the moment it’s tough at work and tough juggling life so I do better without distractions.
The horror of rush ‘hour’ is something I will never miss!

I have a small 2 bed bungalow, a small child and a dog. I work in my bedroom or on the sofa/at the fold out dining table in the living room depending on what I'm doing.

Love it. Works so much better for me and our life.

Not everything is about space.

People saying “I’m saving the planet by not commuting everyday” lol you do realise China is pumping out billions of tons of Co2 every year and the worlds millionaires are still flying round all over on private jets 😂

Everyone is different.

This is very true. However, when an individual does not sell their soul and conform to the workplace norm (where everyone is your 'friend') they may well be branded weird, odd, difficult, emotionally void.....

Perhaps difference is not respected or welcome hence the divide in responses.

I WFH three days a week and commute to the office twice a week and I find that is a good balance. It keeps the commuting cost down, allows me to get out of bed half an hour later when not commuting, and the working environment is excellent, it feels like a team where we are all pulling in the same direction as opposed to the classic hierachal structure of the office. Last Thursday we agreed to work from home instead of travelling to the office because the air conditioning was broken (the company rents office space) and the temperature was forecast to be pushing 30C in London, which was very welcome.

The short answer here is there’s not a one size fits all answer. If you had a long commute, when you got to your office it was all hot desks and you didn’t sit near your team, etc you’d be happy WFH / hybrid. You’re obviously in a different situation

I just walked to the office so my commute wasn't far, I guess if it is then that would make wfh better. I found it truly awful even though I had a spare room to work in.

Ditto. I’m grateful for the day or 2 when kids were under 18 but last 5 years wfh full time as destroyed my zest for life

I love WFH for a multitude of reasons. IBS, constant menopausal bloat, a range of varying intolerances which I’m still trying to navigate, suspected AuDHD. Also have a dog who struggles with being away from me. I am in the office one day a week and honestly if they tried to force us all back full time I would look for another job. I could never go back full time. Horses for courses I suppose

My work has gone almost completely WFH and I love it. Loads of interactions on Teams, time to walk the dog, see the kids before and after school and I save about £300 a month on commuting and dog walker costs. I can understand some people not liking it but hopefully there is a job out there for the right mix for everyone?

I think it's a personal thing and some people love working together physically in the same room.

I love working from home and since many of my colleagues and customers are abroad, going to an office to sit on calls makes no sense. I don't waste time commuting, I'm not polluting the environment with my commute and my hours can be flexible to fit with what needs doing that day.

Everyone is different.

Oh god the dreaded timesheet I feel your pain. I still function better in an office though a 3,min chat at coffee machine gets me remotivated. And it’s so much easier to explain or have explained work queries in real life with easier access to files and documents. A balance is perfect. I also think that people learn by osmosis by hearing seniors talk on phone and discuss complex issues amongst themselves. This just doesn’t happen in my job role it’s very hard over teams and telephone and you feel stupid riniging through so I waste 20 mins thinking it through before even picking up phone.

I literally can’t wait to do a good 2.5 hr commute again and be with people.

what I genuinely cannot understand, is what stopped you from taking these 2.5 hours to do something you enjoyed instead? What stopped you from joining a sports club, a class learning something, a craft club, or some volunteering to have a chat and a banter with others. The list of possibilities is endless.

You don't have to have a life through your job? What's stopping you from socialising out of the office?

A day I mean 1.5 hour day some days I’m trapped In car with a sore back I traffic London areas so not great I want to cry would do anything for an easier life

Also I want to add as an already exhausted single mum I work 37.5 hours a week plus a 1.5 hour commute be grateful you don’t have that plus all the money spent on travel

I work from home part time, I'm three days a week with one day per month office based. I would delete that one day tbh and do total work from home, I'm reminded every month without fail why I'm happier and more productive outside the office!

I hate wfh I don’t really even have telephone calls and teams meetings. I moved a role where 50% of my work is outside my expertise but promised training etc wheh I joined but it hasn’t happened. It a high pressured role & previously having other people understanding the role removed a lot of stress and anxiety just by a quick swear eye role rant but it’s just me. I worked hybrid from 2005 1 or 2 days in school holiday which worked well round childcare it’s helps to be able to do that in school holidays even once kids are teenagers. To be honest more so I wouldn’t trust teens totally for days on end it can bring trouble. I’m grateful that a bit wfh meant I could do play dates and dance classes runs though. I would hold onto some days wfh until 18.
the last 5 years have wrecked my mental health I’ve gained 2.5 stone and retire to my bedroom at end of working as I hate being anywhere near my files and laptop.
i start a new role that will be hybrid but can go in when I want plus travel overnight few times a month. I literally can’t wait to do a good 2.5 hr commute again and be with people. My kids are adults so I don’t have to be at home.
other than financial and childcare I can’t understand why people want wfh full time it’s made me feel like I’m a very needy person.

I work from home, and it suits my own work ethic, wellbeing and most importantly the type of work and people in need to work with everyday. I think if a blanket decision for most of the week WFH is based on saving money on office space alone, or without due care to what needs to be done then this can have a real detrimental effect on the work that needs to be done and how people feel. I really welcome my works approach to leaving it to the managers to decide what’s best for balancing all these things.

I do know that I’ve done more, with definitive deliverable outputs, since this arrangement - it saves time on travel to different locations personally and for all the people I need to work with and so I get better engagement as IT infrastructure enables faster sharing of information with people outside of my organisation, sometimes many miles away. A blanket policy to insist that all back in the office FT would have a pretty catastrophic impact on the work I do, and they would have to accept I’d get less done, they’d need to pay more in travel expenses and my motivation would be severely impacted because of not being able to work as quickly as I do now.

And absolutely this as well. We live in a 2.5 bed with 2 small children. Both of us wfh, one works at a desk in the bedroom and the other at the dining table. So every mealtime it all needs to be cleared away, and set up again the next morning. I have having the desk in the bedroom as it takes up space we don’t have. I’m sick of people with older children and massive houses not understanding how mentally stressful it is to work in your smallish regular living space. If I want to work late, and the kids are around, I have fuck all chance of getting anything done - they just bang on the door and scream for me.

My whole lifestyle is so claustrophobic thanks to WFH and has had a negative impact on my mental health

Fed up *

I'm feeling up with hybrid and wish I was WFH full time

I just changed jobs so I could be fully WFH. As a parent of a toddler whose dad has to work away from home for weeks at a time it makes my life SOOOO much easier! And I get so much more done.