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

I have been permanently WFH since COVID (used to do maybe 1 day a month before). I don't drive due to a medical condition, so it's saved me so much travelling/ waiting time. DH is WFH maybe 2/3 days pw but we have an office each so work stuff doesn't encroach on our living areas.
But most importantly it's enabled us to have our dog. She's been with us 5 years this year and has brought so much to our lives. We never would have got her had I not been at home (no judgement to people who use doggy daycare/walkers btw just not for us)

Back in the early 90s I spent four years working at an out of town office complex just 15 minutes from my home. I had a lot of the benefits of working from home - short commute meaning more time in bed in the morning/at home at the end of the day,able to come home for lunch or have picnics in local parks. I really loved it. Was sad when we were relocated into the city centre.

It was life-changing for me in 2009 when I started WFH. I was a young person living in a houseshare starting my career in earnest - the demographic there's a lot of faux-concern about - and it was only beneficial for me. Career-wise it didn't stop me networking (there was this thing called the internet, and you could still organise IRL meetings and attend events despite WFH). The benefits to my mental and physical health were, I can't emphasise this enough, life-changing.

I was in a depressed, exhausted rut commuting into an office every day. Career going nowhere, unfit, too knackered to do anything outside the commuter hamster wheel, hated all my colleagues. It's literally thanks to WFH that I'm physically fit, mentally content, a success in my career and working with people I basically like.

I have an 8 yr old with additional needs and a 4 yr old about to start school. I also have a niche job I love in a niche career and hour commute away. My husband is able to wfh 3 days a week which allowed me to return to my job with commute those 3 days a week after May leave. We couldn't physically do pick ups and drop offs and both commute. When eldest was 1-2 the race to work from nursery and nursery from work was so intensely stressful every day.

I thank the stars daily for wfh, for my son's school and their amazing on site after care, for my mil and her willingness to help out in an emergency etc etc but the main decider is the wfh capability as pre COVID I was at the point of considering giving up my career because it just wasn't possible to do it all with my son's emerging additional needs.

I am exactly the same as you.

My work and home life need to be completely separate and I really struggled when I’ve had to WFH in the past.

Going out to work is almost a sense of belonging and purpose to me.
But I would also struggle to be a SAHM for the same reasons.

I love waking up and getting dressed up and doing my hair and make up.
I love singing my heart out on the commute.
I love going into work and everyone being happy to see me.
I love laughing with my colleagues and venting about how crap the training was or how difficult a piece of work was.
I love having the heating on full blast without the cost concern haha.
And then I love leaving all that behind to come home and enjoy my home and family.

My MH really struggles when I WFH.

But I am all for it for other people if they enjoy it and are productive.

The more people who choose to WFH, the easier it is for me as it means less traffic on the roads, greater availability of appointments after work, less busy shops and gyms etc.

I think it would be a massive shame to get rid of it when it works well for so many people.

I have loved WFH and it was life-changing having small kids. Having said that I have just got a job in a school because I fancy a change and got a bit tired of it. I’d never judge anyone for WFH, it worked very well for me for six years. Office days were much less productive.

That's a problem with the individual and should be treated as such, just like any other.

My employer had no wfh capability until the beast from the east (remember that!). After that they put a policy in place that meant when Covid happened, they weren't starting completely from scratch and in practical terms there was barely a blip for office based staff. They then spent the entirely of Covid talking about this and how hard people were clearly working since from our perspective very little changed apart from our location. It was more difficult to get new staff up to speed but again we worked round that while adhering to social distancing. No employer should be coming in cold to it any more. If they are, they're not a responsible employer, and that isn't the fault or the responsibility of people quite happily working from home either part of the time or full time.

There's absolutely nothing to suggest productivity in dropping as far as my employer goes. If anything, and I have been wondering about this for a while, workloads are increasing and the higher-ups don't really seem to have a grasp of that. There are multiple reasons for it, including sector-wide issues, but I have been wondering if there's more of an ability to gloss over overload.

It's great overall, though the experience depends how good/big your house is.

Absolutely! I was out of work for 2 decades after being a SAHM and carer for dd1. When I did get back into the workplace, the first job I got was WFH FT. I'd hate to have to commute, turn up to an office in person and try to work with the background noise of an office. I don't think I could do it.

@Shinyandnew1
“I presume Farage is so upset about it because people are spending less on coffees, lunches and office rents!?!”

Allegedly one of his backers owns substantial amounts of property in London, Manchester and Liverpool. Always follow the money.

Its the people who purposefully dont work from home that spoil it.

My colleague agreed to have her granddaughter who is 2 stay over during one half term week last year. She didn’t awnser the phone once to the team shes working with during this week and refused to give her number to customers (and refuses a work mobile or to have her laptop hooked up to take voice calls). As such - the team in the office had to take an extra 20 enquiries or so because she did not pick up.

She came in and laughed about how she just jiggled her mouse and spent SO much LOVELY time with her granddaughter. It was a complete piss take.

Shit like this is why nobody trusts home working! Who could blame a boss for putting restrictions in place when things like this happen.

I think the issue is when people are looking after young kids when they are working from home. If you had a kid who was on school holiday or sick, you (or the kids other parent) would either have to take the time off or make arrangements for someone else to have them. But some people now just choose to work from home that day, or if they are already working from home just carry on doing so while looking after a child. Some jobs you can get the same amount of work done, but some you can’t. But on the other hand, I suppose as long as the boss is ok with it, it is fine

I can see that if you’re the SAH partner of someone who WFH that’s tough if they don’t have a defined space in which to work.

I also think it’s tough for new starters who really need training.

when I was junior I leant a lot from the side bar conversations/the quick asides outside of the meeting room before things got started. The fact that people miss out on that makes navigating the work place a bit harder

I don’t like wfh but I’m 100% in favour of it

Totally agree.

I am suspicious of the people who claim working from home is a dosser’s charter. The vast majority of this rhetoric is just male backlash against the idea that women have found a way to make work more family friendly and still productive.

There are some reasons to call for some social contact at work but anyone who says people who work from home are skiving is being a dick. There’s so much evidence to the contrary that no one can really believe this now.

Of course evrone does their washing when wfh

it takes a couple of minutes. It wont impact productivity

my team spent loads of time messing around, chatting, joking . I miss that but i dont have to do laundry at 7pm anymore

It’s changed my life! We never ever were allowed to wfh. Had strict office hours. Now, i can live in the country with no stressful commute

Without being hybrid (2 days in, 3 days wfh) I wouldn’t have been able to foster cats, which would have meant I never met My Cat. I wouldn’t be able to go to the gym & the supermarket before work, go to the local yoga class straight after or eat lunch with my neighbour. Plus I save a hell of a lot on commuting costs.

At the same time, I live in a quiet block of flats that are well enough insulated that I don’t need to put the heating on very often & I don’t have to share my space or the WiFi connection with anyone else. WFH back when I was lodging & would have had to sit on the bed except for getting up to switch the WiFi off & on again every half hour would have been impossible.

I bet they do do the washing whilst working 🤣

The key to this is having very firm boundaries about the home been a home and having a dedicated office space for work. I have young children and a DH who works from home. I have always been incredibly strict that our home is our home and I won't have the children in silence, not able to play, not having friends round or having to go out and about for hours a day so he can have silence and work in peace. If he doesn't want interruption then he needs to shut his office door, if he cannot work with the children home then he needs to go to the office or alternatively get an outside in the garden office. It was and is our home first.

Partners who choose to WFH but take over the entire house or an entire communal family space and effectively turn the whole house into an office annoy me. That is not been fair to their family.

My DH works 99.99% from home. It is great for our family and works well. We can have lunchtimes together and there is so much more time for exercise and family time before and after work hours. But it does require boundaries with working spaces.

It has been massively empowering for women in particular. It is allowing women to retain their careers during those early childhood years and those caring for elderly parent years. I've worked and volunteered with children and parents for years. Pre COVID a huge number of women reduced their hours to 3 or 4 days a week after having children and many never returned to the workforce full time even when their children entered the teenage years. Now the mums of young children I'm encountering are all returning back to work full time or 4 compressed days if they can work from home, with only those who are office or workplace based reducing hours. It's allowing women to retain their professional jobs at full time hours but still been able to do pick up/ drop off or only be a phonecall and short drive away from their children/ dependents if they need them. Which is probably why it's unpopular.

I certainly couldn't do the role I do without the hybrid factor, and care for DH effectively too. I earn good money, have my own identity and job satisfaction and still able to look after him.

So many people would be unable to work at all if not wfh and end up on benefits.

Mm I don't think you're happy, overall, with your employer by the sound of it

I think it’s up to us (society) to think of a way to reinvigorate city centres without meaning a return to the office. This is an exciting opportunity. What about turning office blocks into homes? This could be done. Many of the office blocks in my nearby town used to be fancy townhouses.

People could live in the towns in the now empty buildings. Many towns have fabulous amenities. Museums, gyms, even beautiful green spaces. Let’s live in them! We used to.