AIBU To Think Remote Work Isn't Sustainable?

I worked at home because it suited my personal needs and the type of work I did

and I generally spoke to people most days on line or on phone - tech is amazing

if it doesn’t work for you - change things

don’t bring others with you who don’t need to go - don’t generalise your problems to the population

Ah, this is one of those kind of posts. ‘The majority disagree with me so you must all be missing my incredible deep nuance’

O I'm not slating wfh. Im just saying I need more social interaction than that.

Unfortunately I cant use a couple working space as the information i deal witb is confidential (think healthcare type stuff).

I also really think that hybrid working (and by this when i first started we did a meeting a month in the office, the rest from home) makes it hard to learn your role. I think when you work in health/ social care that's not good enough.

My team is incredibly divided- there are half of us that like being in the office and some who make it clear they hate it, then others who sit somewhere in the middle. I just know if my job was ft wfh I would not still be there because like poster I find sitting in my home all day isolating. People can say you can book catch ups in etc but there simply isn't time.

You aren't a remote worker, you work in the office 3 days a week. Just increase to 5! I work remotely 100% of the time, if I didn't like it I would change employers!

I think that this on you, put calls into your colleagues calendars? Just a 15 minute catch up, suggest a lunch if you have local ish colleagues? You might be coming across as aloof as you don’t speak to people.

my colleague suggested a virtual exercise class on Zoom, that’s not for me but she got decent take up.

my sector has been remote/hybrid since 2002. It’s very sustainable, having just been out for the last four days I am delighted to be wfh for the next two weeks.

Sometimes when I'm working I hit a button to refresh data and my laptop can't do anything else for around 15 minutes. Or I'll send something off and I have ten minutes before a meeting and starting something isn't necessarily advised because I'll have to stop and then remember what happened for ten minutes.

So I scroll or post or unload the washing machine. In the office I'd go make a cuppa or chat to someone else (likely actually distracting them to be honest).

Although to be clear I'm off today.

I had a job working from home for over 20 years. I got to know my colleagues just as well as in previous jobs where I was in the office 12 hours a day 5 days a week, but worked much more efficiently because I had peace and quiet to comcentrate when I needed it and wasn't exhausted from commuting.

I quote:

'I started work at 8am this morning having waved off the kids. I will now work until 4pm when they come home...'

Can you see why that's confusing?

Don't.

Some people like it much more than the office and it suits them in the way that being in the office suits you.

Don't feel sorry for people for being able to work when in office would not have worked for them, or for being different to you.

I know what you mean in a way, but the commute coupled with work life balance is very difficult. On a good run, my commute is 1 hour each way, including a 30 min walk. It's exhausting and we have stuff on 3 evenings a week and I want to see friends occasionally and excercise. I couldn't sustain 5 days in an office doing that around various chronic illness issues (which are not uncommon 35+)

But as it is, I find very few friends are made in the current hybrid situation. As an observation, women less so than men. I have never been for lunch with anyone in 6 years and I never see other women going together (or just going to sit in break areas together) either. I know people are juggling, but I genuinely think many aren't that interested. It is lonlier in the office sometimes than at home.

The other big thing is the tendancy to recruit all over the place. You can't say that in person contact is essential and never pay for the travel for people to meet each other, even once a year. It is either important or it isn't. There are people who work 40-50 miles away who I'm resigned to being quite good work friends via teams but will probably never meet in person which is a shame.

I’m a remote worker and love it! I do get that for some people you feel detached but im almost 5 years in now so totally used to it. Our head office, and indeed only office is around a 4 hour drive away from me. I am in a small team of remote workers and we are all quite close to be honest - regularly call each other for chats in general and support each other closely work wise. I know they have my back!

Personally for me office life just doesn’t do my mental health any good. I’ve never had a good ‘office team’ experience. Always a lot of bitchy women and cliques and I’ve never quite fit into them. I left my last job because when they tried to get us to go back into the office post Covid I sat on a teams meeting, looked at everyone I worked with and realised I didn’t actually like a single one of them - in fact some had made my work life very difficult

I’m self motivated but do not react well to being micro managed, monitored or having a manager time how long I spend having lunch! In fact, I regularly have a midday gym session, and can pick kids up from school or do other errands during the day since I can choose to flexi work and do my work or admin in the evening - and my work know about all of this and it’s fully supported by them. They know they have happy staff and all targets are met - winner winner for them - zero staff turnover. So for me, remote working is the way forward. My mental health has literally never been as good as it is now.

@Jijithecat (I'm not working from home today, it's my day off) but its not unusual to have short periods of time where you are just waiting for things to load (updates/reports/zip files) and its best just stare at the laptop for 5/10 minutes without touching anything...

I'm hybrid at the moment which is the best of both worlds, but I find I am less tired at the end of the day on wfh days (I don't like the lights in the office and it's often a bit chilly, plus at home I stretch my legs regularly and I feel a bit going to make a million teas in the office)

Who are you to tell people what is and isn't good for their mental health?

I changed jobs since the pandemic and it is extremely hard to build new relationships with colleagues when you barely ever see them. I schlep to the office but due to hot desking am rarely sat with anyone in my team - we’re scattered all over - and often talk to absolutely no one all day. It’s very lonely.

Nah. Full time wfh here. Happiest I’ve ever been in my
life.

I don’t think it’s great for the workforce generally to all be sat at home in isolation. But there’s no going back now - many companies have given up office space and they’ve been turned into flats.

It took me a long time to get used to WFH full time but now I’m much more inclined to call someone if I need something that’s more than just a quick query. I actually feel really connected.

But why aren’t you forging relationships online? I have had some kind of working from home for twenty years and in that time I formed relationships with people. So I could ring them up and have a chat about non work related things, we’d have a laugh in meetings and have one another’s back when needed. Could it be a you problem rather than a remote working problem?

I agree. It is very handy but I think you have to make a deliberate effort to get out and about and meet people to balance it. I'm in a remote job and have to be very proactive about arranging to meet friends and go out to hobbies or else it all starts to feel like Covid all over again. It is very easy but I think it's not good for my mental health to not have more in person interactions.

I’m happier working from home but have to drag my arse into the office a few times a week just to sit there in silence all by myself.

My team is scattered around the world, I find it pointless to go in and sit alone but it is what it is.

Op is in the office 3 days a week. This isn’t ‘remote’ working unless she is the only soul in the building. Her complaint is not WFH, it’s ’not Speaking all day’. If she is in the office 3 days per week and doesn’t speak to a single person on those days, it’s not a location issue.

I now WFH after almost 3 decades in offices where my time was constantly wasted by idiots thinking I should be able to fix the printer and clean every carpet stain because I'm a PA. People constantly asking me for gossip "because" I'm the PA.

I now do 7am to 5pm, and am very strict about my lunch break and rest breaks during the day. I don't do anything I wouldn't do if I were being watched on an office. Instead of spending lunch in Covent Garden, I now spend lunch working out and walking the dogs.

It works for most people who do it. If you don't like it, go back into the office full time.

@HighlandsExpat I suppose the question is sustainable for whom?

After lockdown hit I was chatting with a colleague and she said how she had seen a complete reversal in her over & under performers in her team compared to pre-WFH. It wasnt to do with how sociable the individuals were but something else.

She had felt that she needed to have her team physically present to keep them on target. What she found was that while that worked for some, others were working far better when fully remote.

I think it depends on your team. I wfh as the NHS sold most of our offices off a few years ago. The team I was with until xmas were great, we were close, chatted most days and one person I would log into Teams with for 2+ hours and we would work together on reports etc. I have been moved in a restructure and I am with a team who actively avoid human contact, everything is done over messaging and its quite depressing. I won't be staying long.

Indeed. And this is the experience of a great many if not the majority.

This is where you play into people's hands about stopping WFH. You say started working from home at 8am this morning and yet 19 minutes later you've read a thread and posted on Mumsnet...