to think some people would be weirdly excited if WFH came to an end?

Whilst I don't think it is the main cause of resentment, I think there will be some men who feel this way. I think another view though never expressed is I guess some who enjoyed seeing younger women in the office who they find attractive and now see them less often or never.

The main resentment I think comes from those who do not have the option, or think it enables lazy people to get away with more.

Working from home is so much quieter

somet its quite difficult to hear the client when i am on the phone to them in the office. I have also had a few customers saying they can’t here me because the office noise is loud

Agree. In Australia the opposition party was strongly predicted to win the last election before they decided to come out with 'we will end working from home' and even though they backtracked before the election they lost because nobody believed them. Even though a government can't stop businesses from working from home - the government is a very large employer (at least in Australia) and them shifting to full time office work would have had flown on effects to private businesses. Also it raised question marks about their integrity - why would a right wing party be bringing in a change like that if it wasn't bowing to donor interests. Stupid move that cost them.

Yes I did. Because I was being paid to do a job.

No we should definitely put our colleagues before our own work-life balance 😅

I like my colleagues fine and where I care about them is maybe covering a day in the office if they were supposed to be in but want to wfh that day for some reasons. Or staying til the office closes for departmental cover if someone wants to shoot off. The idea of adults in a workplace managing to get along fine without being in each others pockets five days a week seems to be something that hasn't occurred to some people.

As for the people I deal with on a daily basis, it really makes no odds to them where I am physically located. If I need to speak to a colleague or a manager for something to get back to them on, I can still do that from home. There isn't a forcefield that prevents that.

My first job was in retail where I started at 7am and carried palettes of lager around all day, I don't remember that too fondly 😅

I'm fond of this job's flexibility, where I work from home most of the week and quite like the other two days in the office but still spend most of them wishing people would take their calls elsewhere and turn their Teams notifications off. If I leave this job, I would be looking for the same flexibility.

You're damn right I want to do what's easier for me, i.e. wfh. I like my colleagues well enough but I don't care enough about them to put them before my own needs/wants. And as for service users (customers in my industry), I couldn't give two hoots about them. I'm good at my job and provide a good service to customers but I don't actually care about them. Does anyone actually care about the customers of your employer? Enough to turn down the opportunity to make your life much easier by working from home?

I've worked hybrid since 2007. Would never take a job that was full time office based. I get so much more done at home than I do in the office and the time spent commuting.

Speaking as a person with school aged children in the plural, yes really.

There'll be some people whose circumstances are such that they can't use the time saved on commuting for a hobby outside the home, such as single parents with no support whose school aged children are too young to be left. But they aren't the majority of that cohort.

People with school-age children, not really, even with WFH. Can’t fit social hobbies into a 1h lunch break, and cant go after.

There are obviously some social benefits from working alongside other people in the week. Does that outweigh all of the benefits of WFH? No, imo.

From the article: Almost a fifth of people who choose to work from home said a lack of socialising was the main reason for their job dissatisfaction.

And yet they still choose to work from home, so clearly other benefits outweigh job satisfaction.

It’s important to apply critical thinking to anything if you want to understand it. If you just want your opinion to be heard, no need to bother of course.

It's particularly obnoxious when espoused by people who simply refuse to acknowledge that they are not the default. That a workplace model where in person attendance was assumed fucked over many people, and those who did well out of it may have done so at their expense.

It's one thing if you just hadn't thought of it until it was pointed out. People often don't notice what's not there. But that poster is more than aware now.

We have the option to be FT office or hybrid where I am. It has saved the public sector millions. People are healthier as we have more time to exercise and cook. Also sick people WFH if they can, so less germs go around and less sick time is taken. Teenagers who are largely self sufficient can have a parent on hand, working from home. Women aren’t run ragged. The only people who don’t like it have jobs where it’s not possible for them.

If you don't waste 3 hours a day commuting you have time for hobbies.

Well said.

Well they have a point because if you’re going to be working 5 days a week / up to 10 hours per day, then yes, it plays an important part of social relationships.

That doesn’t mean being bezzy mates with colleagues, it means not being isolated in your home office working alone. Just proximity to other humans. Especially as not everyone has time for clubs, volunteering and friends every weekend, so yes, it can be important for mental health.

But then, this is an argument for hybrid working, not full office. Or even just going to a library of cafe to work, anything other than being holed up at home.

Work is not a “social activity” for a huge number of people, it’s a means to an end and a way to earn a living. Nothing more than that.

Plenty of people get their social interaction from friends, family, communities, hobbies, sport, volunteering. Not from compulsory proximity to colleagues they didn’t choose.

The idea that happiness or “human connection” only happens in an office is very narrow and usually comes from people whose own circumstances make the office work for them.

For many others the commutes, caring responsibilities, disability, neurodivergence, cost of living or doing work better alone. WFH isn’t a luxury, it’s a massive quality-of-life improvement.

Offices should be an option where possible, not a moral virtue. Forcing people back under the banner of culture or “socialising” says more about management preferences than human wellbeing.

Vintage!

Ah working from home without Teams must have been bliss 😂

I managed staff who wfh in 2001.

With dial-up internet 🤣

I think the argument for having some colocated working in order to improve communication and to mentor junior staff is absolutely legitimate. Meeting and spending time with people does massively improve relationships.

But one of the key arguments against working from home is that it damages productivity. Anyone who has ever worked in any white collar job can tell you how phenomenally wasteful and unproductive office work can be in the average workplace. A lot of offices are more or less designed to prevent people from getting on with their jobs, with endless pointless meetings, time sucking chit-chat and performative management bigfootery.

I know from personal experience that my productivity has doubled when I am at home. It would be physically impossible to fit the work I have to do into my schedule if I had to be fully office based.

So I really resent this narrative that remote workers are all workshy skivers.

@AmusedShark ,

‘This thread and every other thread on the subject is about working in the ofifice being forced on everyone.’

That is a gross simplification of what my posts said.

‘And your empathy bypass or willful ignorance about how WFH may just work wonderfully for many people because you think it doesn't really, or won't work for everyone is pointless no matter how many studies you link.’

Given that my studies are mostly about the adverse effect of WFH on young people, I think it is you who has had an empathy bypass. As long as you are nice and warm in your comfy home office, never mind the young person in their childhood bedroom with no effective mentoring or role models.

It’s a discussion. I think that, on a population level, it would be better for everyone to spend more time in an office/joint work space. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be exceptions, nor that employers should have a degree of flexibility. I am entitled to my opinion without being insulted.

People act like WFH didn't exist pre-covid. I've WFH since 2013! It's really not a new thing.

I could have worked from home but chose not to. It would have made my life much easier if I had. A few of team did because that’s what they liked to do. But our department worked much more efficiently when we were all together and we could hear each other talking to clients and deal with problems really quickly. We provided a much better service. I think some people want to do what’s easier for them and don’t take other colleagues or service users into consideration.

And a lot of people don't remember their first jobs fondly.

People who WFH and advocate for it really don't care what other people do. And are not claiming that it works for everyone or that everyone should be force do do it.

But people against it, like yourself who also often don't have a huge amount of experience of living it are constantly saying no, it's bad because of X or Y or only works for some imagined demographic or whatever.

This thread and every other thread on the subject is about working in the ofifice being forced on everyone.

And your empathy bypass or willful ignorance about how WFH may just work wonderfully for many people because you think it doesn't really, or won't work for everyone is pointless no matter how many studies you link.

If you think people should be forced into working conditions that adversely effect their lives, happiness and mental and financial health then that's just weird, abusive and controlling of you.

People should have choices. If you want to remove those choices then maybe you should look at yourself and ask why.

Especially since as you say, they don't personally effect you in the slightest as a worker or employer so why are you so intent on wanting to impose it on others.

I work for a government department and we are moving to another office where there won’t be enough desks for everyone. We don’t have any dealing with the public and we coped perfectly well during COVID and can still WFH with no issues so not sure what Reform would do about that if they get in