To be so glad WFH became a thing (and to absolutely hate anyone who tries to curtail its availability)

I have worked from home nearly 6 years. Been offered a job with 2 days a week at the office. Not sure how i feel.

I think it completely depends on your circumstances and personality. I wfh the majority of the time and I love it. But I have a completely separate office which has been decorated to be a really lovely space, I live with my DH and my work colleagues and I chat a lot on Teams/ the phone/what’s app. However, some people I work with go in the office every day because either they live alone and feel lonely at home or they don’t have a separate office and don’t like work encroaching into their living space. So I do think it depends a lot on circumstances.

It’s not, but the fact remains that a lot of friendships are formed in workplaces.

Businesses do have to suit the young as well, not just the middle aged and close to retirement. They need the young to be their leaders in future so need to engage with them.

It's the best thing ever.
But if I was young and single, no.

whilst I appreciate that and sympathise it’s not the job of the employer to provide playmates for young adults.

they need to organise their social lives more actively themselves

I absolutely love it. Especially now my husband has lost a lot of his mobility due to a genetic condition we didn't know he had. He falls down the stairs a lot and collapses several times a day. I don't have to panic about him being home alone. I'm on my 2nd promotion since working from home, taken on more work, more voluntary roles, more productive, barely any sick days etc. If I have a stinking cold, I can just carry on working because I'm at home already.

Anybody who doesn't like it - It's a -them- problem. They won't have the statistics and experience to support their criticisms, so they don't really matter. Mind over matter and all that jazz.

That’s just poor management of a poor employee.

there are people who take the piss in offices or on sites too.

We have email and Teams so can chat/video individually or in my team and department.

My DF originally WFH from 1993. We had a 2nd phoneline fitted and communication was fax and phone. Though he did visit clients 2-3 times a week.

I'm another one that hated it, fortunately I was able to retire so only had to do it for about six weeks. I lived near work anyway so not much of a commute so no savings or good points

if I had been WFH as an 18 year old I would have HATED it. Most of my socialising and generally messing about and being young was done with work mates

the young people I know hate working from home. I can see my own child missing out on what I had in the 90s.

We’re in chat groups the whole time as we work on things together. You know if someone has gone to the toilet. There is no opportunity to do anything but work really. My manager wouldn’t allow dc or gc being at home while we work. Nor do we do housework in work hours. But without the travel at each end of the day I can exercise more and make healthier food. It’s a lot less time wasting in many ways. We aren’t roped into unnecessary meetings and don’t spend ages chatting to people. They’ve saved millions closing one of the buildings we used to occupy.

But most of all it enables women to work full time because they aren’t running themselves ragged. So they can leave abusive men if they want to and end up with a decent pension.

I only do 1 WFH day and I really love it. Just the thought of the WFH day on a Thursday gets me through the hideous commute Monday-Wednesday. I am so much more productive working from home and being able to finish and immediately walk the dog improves my wellbeing 100%.

They're on the phone so I see them and their output. If they wish to do their washing, watch Netflix or dance around dressed as a squirrel in their breaks then I couldn't give a shit. They're adults.

Been at my job at the civil service for 3 months now and going to WFH 3 times a week. This saves me £20 in parking - as there are 100 more staff members than car parking spaces. Then , a fifth of the bays are given to staff who have disabilities - understand that. Plus around £10 for fuel a week as it’s a 34 mile round journey each day. It’s around an hour each way to drive - 42 mins last week when schools were off.

It’s easier to WFH with a second monitor. We have been given a laptop which we plug into the two monitors, keyboard and mouse setup in the office.

People thought that after working in a supermarket I would struggle with WFH. I don’t.

I am saving £30 from being hybrid a week. Though increase use in leccy - heating (for heat source pump), laptop use, lighting, kettle etc won’t be £30 extra.

I can have a lie in. Doesn’t matter if I wake up 30 mins before work.

Mm..I can't drink the night before I work though whether I'm in office or WFH. Like a clear head! Maybe my age......

Hybrid is good but full time WFH is hell and really bad for a role like mine.

Mine don't, they can't as we have to be on the phone to answer customer queries. I can see who is online at any time.

If someone needs a break to do something, they announce it in the team chat and we cover accordingly. No one would do that to put a load of washing on.

I always tell them that the way to continue wfh is not to take the piss, be present and get their work done.

This! WFH has been good for women, disabled people, people coping with various responsibilities and conditions.. oh, but people who own city centre property don't like it, ie rich white men. No wonder Farage is moaning about it, with peak irony given that his employers (the residents of Clacton) can hardly count on him being sat at a desk there, or in the House of Commons, through the working week.

This thread shows that flexibility and hybrid options are the way forward. Not all jobs or workers are suited to WFH and we should be able to offer on site working, hybrid and full WFH so that we get a maximum number of people able to work and in a setting where they can thrive. Surely that's best all round.

In a previous role I worked that was a type of office but also customers coming and going.

One of the seniors would drive at work and when she was working int he back office, would not do any actual work for the first 2 hours of her being there. This also disturbed others a lot and they didn't get work done.

During covid when the office was working from home - a lot more work got done

No more having to leave the pub early because you have work in the morning.

Ah ok 😅 my wfh space is cheerful and peaceful, I designed it lol so maybe I'm lucky- but also am hybrid so is not an everyday thing

YANBU. It's improved my life immensely and also made me much more productive (on my WFH days, anyway, my office day is another story.)

Some people want to take it away, either because they're control freaks or envious of those who get to WFH. Probably the same type of people who bemoan the 'politics of envy' in other circumstances.

I don't work in a work from home job, it's just not possible.

I don't get the hate fro wfh jobs though, it made my life a lot easier in covid as traffic was non existent in 2021 whilst people were still working from home.

I think some of it is micromanaging, some is jealousy and some is not wanting change, not liking change

I love it but I appreciate that I benefited from learning face to face from colleagues and we are going to have a skills and experience gap.

I never went back to the office after Covid. It’s made my life so much easier. People like Farage need to shut up about wanting everyone back in the office 5 days per week. There are some great stats around the benefits for businesses who enable staff to work from home. Productivity up, sickness down and less people leaving. What’s not to like? If the government wants women back in the workplace they have to make it more family friendly. WFH is a big part of that.