to think WFH can completely change one's work life balance?

My oldest DD had to WFH partly, the rest in an office with a long commute. She hated it. Ended up sitting on her bed,in her PJs with her laptop, smoking, not opening the bedroom window. Ended up with mold and depression. She's a people person like me, I was nursing over 40 years, plus some customer facing positions. She left to go and work in a busy restaurant.

I love my hybrid working - two days in the office three at home. I don’t miss the pre Covid days when the DCs were at nursery which opened at 8am, then I had to fit in a 15 min walk in 8 mins to get the 8.08 train to be in the office for 9am. I used to get my mum to meet me in the car at 8 sharp to drive me to the station so I could make the train! She’d collect me from the station too at 5.45 to get me to nursery for 6pm. 5 days a week! I didn’t have some high power city job, just a local government job! DP was worked longer hours further away that were fixed 8.30 to 5.30 so couldn’t pick up the DCs. He once asked if he could shift his hours by 30mins one day a week so he could pick the DCs up and his manager said no.

Nowadays we both work hybrid. The eldest is able to walk himself home from school so just comes in & watches TV while the youngest is at after school club, but only until 5, so at least he gets tea at home & we can take them to cubs/swimming lesson etc - if they were both in after school club until 6pm neither would get as much chance. Just easing the requirement to be in the office full time makes family life so much easier. Beware those that want to punish home workers (I’m looking at you, 30p Lee - although that’s not their worst policy by any stretch)

I WFH full time (with odd office days put in) and I absolutely love it.

Great for those with houses, workspaces and established careers, not so great for those in houseshares who haven't got a clue what they're supposed to be doing and need to be around experienced co-workers who can always have things run past them and be listening in to work telephone conversations!

I've wfh full time since 2018 and at 57 this year am hoping I'll never have to work in an office again! It came at just the right time for me personally as I suffered a fair bit during peri. It was so much easier to just log on and get stuff done without the stress of the commute, having to talk to people, etc. I have my cats to keep me company 😹 and tbh they're better company than many of my colleagues were!

I can see how its not for everyone. But I love it. I've consistently been the highest performer in my team from the start. I often help out another department alongside my regular work so I know management are more than happy, they tell me often! At the same time I'm not that busy, its quite chilled. I have the added bonus that I can pick my own hours so if I want to go somewhere during the week I can. Sometimes I take a nap! So when I am working it doesn't feel like such a chore.

I know 100% I would have burned out if I'd stayed FT in the office. I was already well on the way to it. I'm so thankful for my job now, hence why I am still motivated to do it well.

I cherish the days I WFH (2/5) I'm much less stressed, I have a nightmare commute, and I generally get more done at home. In the office it's noisy and busy and there's lots of chat, very little of it is work related . I'm looking to change jobs, don't think I can get anything fully remote but going to try for something with less office days. I wish it had been a thing when my kids were small. When I think of the stress of getting them to school, getting me to work day after day it just makes me sigh. I would probably take a pay cut for more WFH days which makes me realise how much better it is for me. It's not everyones cup of tea, I have colleagues who go in every day but for me it's massively beneficial.

Hybrid is the best of both worlds for me. I’m currently 2 days in the office and 3 WFH. My work life balance is massively improved but I wouldn’t want to WFH full time. I really appreciate my office days and spending time face to face with my team. Some things are just easier and better face to face.

Oh yes! and finally, my company is reducing the amount of office space that it needs, which is a huge saving.

And the other thing I should add, is it my managers find working from home much easier because we can have confidential discussions with them just by calling each other on a teams call face-to-face.

In the office, they have to get up from their desk and book a room: it’s much more disruptive.

I suppose every industry is different. Thinking about the meetings I can in for during my last week before Christmas. Three were with clients who had travelled from oversees. It would have been incredibly unprofessional to do these remotely. We went on a site visit and then had a lunch. It absolutely had to be in person- and the chat on in the margins of the meeting was actually where most of the business was done.

one was a stakeholder event - I was presenting. It would have been awful online and again a big part of it was the human connections.

I of course do teams meetings as well. And they are really useful. But in my job I need to also be in person at some meetings. I also travel - less than I did before Covid but in person is still required on occasion.

people get strangely aggressive about this - stating every meeting can and should be online. While some absolutely can, some people seem to be heavily influence by their desire not to leave their house.

i also had a new team member starting. I came into the office to meet him and chat through requirements. He then shadowed me at some meetings and accompanied me to some in person board meetings. In my industry board meetings are all in person. Sub-committees can sometimes be in line but never board meetings.

It transformed my life. And I have to say it was largely due to Covid because the company realised that what it said couldn’t be done could, in fact, be done.

Instead of spending around four hours travelling each day, I was able to go to a yoga classes, walk or do other activities in the evening. I was able to have a little more sleep in the morning.

More important I was able to sit down and concentrate on my work without interruption, without people hanging around me in a noisy office and without disturbing people by making phone calls in an open plan office: phone calls a part of my job, but it makes for a noisy office.

I have became so much more productive.

Finally enough, I have more contact with my fellow workers because of messaging on teams and making calls to them in their home where we could discuss cases without disturbing other people.

I'm Hybrid, 1-2 days in the office a week.

I will never go full time in the office again. Went fully remote in covid and then got a new job 2 years ago doing hybrid.

So glad it happened when my kids were young ish so I could spend more time with them!

It’s been utterly life changing for me. It has enabled me to remain career focussed without sacrificing so much of myself for it, as you say I am physically more present for my kids but more importantly more energised. I’m taking better care of myself than I ever have done, we’re eating better. I couldn’t ever go back to office working 5 days a week.

I’m supposed to go in once a fortnight but I avoid it like the plague. I get so much more done at home anyway. I genuinely don’t see the point when most of my colleagues are in the US so are on Teams and when I’m not on Teams, my other colleagues are on calls. I didn’t get a job to work in a call centre (no offence to call centre workers) so there’s barely any opportunity for ‘networking’ which is what office working is supposed to be all about. Over the last year, I’ve attended the office about 4 times.

I work for NHSE and we are about to merge with the DHSC where the policy is 60% in office working. I’ve been WFH for 3 years and go into the office once every other week. This one day is usually pointless. It’s a 2 hour commute each way so I’m always late arriving (usually about 10:30). I don’t do any meetings in the car. I don’t like arriving late but it’s unavoidable due to the school run and I make the point that I would have never taken a job where our office base was Leeds as it’s a nightmare to park by the time I’m arriving. Now due to the shift, I’m expected to be in 3 days a week and it’s filling me with dread. I will have to be there for 9am, which means my child now having to walk 4 miles to school. Leaving at 5, 2 hour commute. I’ll get my expenses paid for 2 years.

Whilst I worked in an office full time previously, I only ever applied for local jobs with parking, so to suit my family life. I can’t change jobs as the nhs has a job freeze on and there’s nothing available at my grade. But the biggest gripe is productivity. I go into the office to sit on meetings, often all day. So I won’t be improving my life by talking to people in person, as my role is national and therefore all meetings will still be via teams. Like previous posters, I also get so much more done at home.

Whilst I’ll have to suck up the changes, I don’t understand this push for more in person working. Why fix something that isn’t broken? Everyone I’ve spoken to feels the same, but it seems the NHS wants everyone back in, regardless of productivity and work life balance.

I totally agree, it made a massive difference to my life and I'd never go back now. I work part time and do two days in the office and two days at home.

My work is all captured by time recording so it would be clear if I wasn't doing as much work. I absolutely am! But being at home for those two days saves me four hours of commuting time a week, and also means that during my lunch hour and other mini breaks I can keep on top of chores and errands, or go to the gym. I can pick up my children instead of hiring someone to do it. I can have a home cooked meal on the table at the same time as I'm walking through the door in my in-office days.

I'm sociable and I like seeing people to catch up on my office days, but 50/50 is the perfect balance for me.

Definitely, I moved jobs after lock down when my trust wouldn’t allow me to continue with one day a week wfh despite all the managers doing it.
now I’m hybrid and do two days a week at home and the balance is great. I love my office days and being in London and I am a bit strange and enjoy my commute but then I cherish the slower starts of wfh days and longer evenings. It’s improved my life no end like exercising and eating better

Completely agree.
I just finished 23 years of being a teacher and got a new job in September that is hybrid/office/home. I was very worried I wasn’t going to like it.

I actually can’t believe it - it’s like I have been let in to some giant secret that other people knew and I didn’t- that it’s possible to work and have energy at the end of it. My house is always tidy, my washing is done in small batches, I eat regularly because I don’t have to be so organised with batch cooking and I earn money!!

You say they are having to come in for meetings though- whereas I would counter why are those meetings not done on Teams or Zoom. I occasionally go into the office for in-person meetings and there is no reason they couldn't be done remotely. So for me the argument that you are coming in for a meeting rather than just to sit at as desk is pretty moot.

I like a blend, WFH full time would not work for me, I'd feel very isolated, I need contact with people daily. Having a short commute can have the same impact, my usual base office is now ten minutes from home. I used to have a commute that on a good day was 45-60 minutes each way, on a bad day it could be 2 hours each way depending on traffic. I love leaving the office and being home ten minutes later.

I work from home full time now and the thinking time during my commute I miss a lot and I’m determined to make a change regarding this in 2026.

I’ve decided I’m going to recreate a commute by walking the dog at 8am and 5pm every day for half an hour.

I love WFH every day but it can be quite isolating even though I’m on Teams calls a lot of the day. I also find that my days just roll into each other.

I’m going to make a concerted effort this year to get out of the house to exercise in the middle of the day every day on top of my “commute” dog walks.

I absolutely agree a few people will ruin it. These things work in cycles.

I have heard a number of big companies and public sector employers are increasing the in office time - in response to people not being contactable during working hours. Some people are taking the view it is their right to never come into the office or attend work events or in person training or conferences.

line managers are often not willing or able to manage this, so compliant falls to such an extent that there is a big response that punishes everyone.

In my view the obsession with work life balance has, in some cases, tipped to far. If everyone was reasonable and responsible then hybrid working would be amazing.

I could get paid £30k a year more easily if I worked in an office, but there's no way I would consider it.

It’s even better when you work for yourself. I wfh and am completely in charge of my own time. Some days I don’t work at all, other days I do lots. I never worry about dentist appointments, school assemblies or kids being ill. I have complete and utter freedom. I’ve even been abroad and worked from there.

I also earn twice what I earned when I was employed.

I can categorically say that I will never, ever work for anyone again in my life.

This is why people taking the piss with childcare etc when they are supposed to be working is so annoying. WFH/hybrid can be a game changer for parents juggling tight timetables.