To struggle to see the appeal of full time remote working?

Not sure I was waiting for your permission!

Okay. If that works for that workplace then yes, you're right, look for another job in the office.

I agree and have returned to the office full time.

I am also more productive at home. I do more in my two home days than my three office days.

But I do enjoy having a few days in the city.

I mean they will avoid any video or phone contact, emails for everything.

Different strokes for different folks.

I prefer hybrid to fully remote and fully office based. Others are different.

What do you mean by face to face contact?

Are they happy for face to face contact on teams for example? and just not wanting to meet up in person?

So not wanting in-person contact?

There's a difference where one mIght be difficult for some people and the other, shouldn't be at all difficult or potentially weird.

I’m 15 months into remote working now and looking to return to the workplace. It’s made my life more comfortable but I am bored of my own company. Most of my colleagues seem to go out of their way to avoid face to face contact with others, which I find difficult and weird.

I've WFH for seven years now. If I had to go back to an office full time I would miss the flexibility and the additional cost of commuting would be a problem.

But I really miss office life. I live in a village and walk my dog twice a day so I get fresh air and exercise but I feel really isolated. My colleagues are based all over the world and I rarely meet them in real life. Whenever we have got together it's been fantastic, so productive and a real boost for the team dynamic. I have had bosses in the last 7 years that I never met. That has been a real problem for me professionally and mentally.

Benefits for me include saving vast amounts of money - No travel, no parking, no congestion charge, no lunches to buy or prepare, no after work drinks, not having to spend money on new outfits or winter coats.

Time - No commute. No sitting in traffic or dealing with late or cancelled or over-full public transport. No panic and wasting time trying to find addresses or parking spaces, getting lost or other delays. No trying to fit in personal appts, parcel deliveries, letting someone in to do a quick job or inspection on my flat around a 9-5 when many companies or organisations don't offer times around that.

Weather- no longer lying in bed listening to the piss down rain dreading having to go out in it. On defrosting the car, worrying about icy roads or snow. Or trudging around in a heatwave sweating my arse off and worrying about getting to a meeting looking like a sweaty red-faced turnip. Or fainting.

The main benefit is not having to be around people constantly. That has done wonders for my mental health and quality of life.

It's very much a one-size-doesn't-fit-all thing. Hybrid suits me best and I'm doing a 60:40 split of home/office. In terms of getting my actual work done it's more like 75:25 but what I lose in productivity in the office is made up by maintaining relationships. Not least because I get to hear about new projects early and get to head off problems when it's easy rather than a long way down the track when it's a lot harder.

I work remotely but spend the whole day on teams calls and phone calls, so much so that sometimes my voice goes. I think it's a company culture thing along with the nature of your work

I love the social aspect of work but love it so much that I find it difficult to get work done. I miss the social aspect of work but don't miss having to work within what I saw as a social setting. I work best doing focused tasks. I need to WFH flexibly so I can raise my kids without being half dead.

For many though, the fact that you are already at home the instant you log off, means you have the ability to then use that time to either maintain, or start activities that can widen your social circle.

As has been said previously, whether or not working from home is what suits you, depends on many layers of all sorts of factors.

Of course it works better if you have a great social circle. Perhaps many of us don’t have quite the social circle we would like though. I think we are mostly a bit lonelier for working from home, even if it’s easier and has many advantages.

Of course. I'm fortunate. I've lived in my village for nearly 30 years. Both my children went to the primary school. I have lots of local friends and lots who live very far away. I worked in an office for many, many years and now have friends who used to be colleagues (or people who worked on the same campus).

It's really individual tho whether you can do this.

I have lots of friends but not many who live very nearby to meet up with on a WFH day. Whereas in the office, I have loads of colleagues who are really friends now and I can have coffee or lunch or a walk with.

I’ve just been for a lovely walk with a friend.
I’ve WFH for 12 years.
I have a fine level of social interaction.

WFH frees me up to have social interactions I actually enjoy though. Rather than my battery being depleted at the end of every working day, it means I have the energy to see friends and get out and about in the evenings (or depending on my work schedule, the daytime), rather than doing a zombie commute home and flopping on to the sofa in a darkened room. The quality of my social life has been immeasurably improved by WFH. I'm an introvert but I'm still sociable - with my friends, not with my colleagues.

It does if you speak to clients and can’t risk your conversation being overheard for confidentiality reasons

Fair enough, different things suit different people.

I agree with this

I love WFH in so many ways but it isn't good for me to do it every day.

Low grade social interactions are the whole point though. Face to face social interactions have been proven essential to mental wellbeing, even those of the small talk chit chat variety. I speak as someone who is kind of enjoying the convenience and low stress of working from home. But I sense it’s not really doing me good. I’m an introvert and it feels comfortable- and I think that’s why it’s especially bad for us.

I happened to bump into her in the kitchen at work, had a chat while we were making tea, and mentioned the specs she had promised to look at. We found some time to sit at a desk and look them over. If we had both been at home I would have sent a Teams asking if she had had a chance to look at them. She would have said “ not yet” and I would have had to escalate to get it done. Delays and faffing waste vast amounts of public money.

Some people are crap at prioritising or doing tasks they're not keen on. Not everyone is bad at it. Some people are perfectly capable of slacking off in the office too.

This. I love it! I'm an introvert though.