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

It's absolutely not the case that emails requesting information must take longer than going and asking the person. That presupposes the person will be available to speak to you at precisely the time you want, which cannot be assumed.

There are also times when emails are more use, since then you’ve got the information written down for future reference & people then don’t come back to you wanting a repeat of what you told them last Thursday.

There's a bit of not knowing what you don't know and things not having been considered in this post.

It's absolutely not the case that emails requesting information must take longer than going and asking the person. That presupposes the person will be available to speak to you at precisely the time you want, which cannot be assumed. I often had to make multiple attempts before a more senior member of staff was available when I was training, not least because they had so much work themselves that they often weren't very interested in training me. Which I get, actually. Much more efficient to be able to send one email instead of having to scurry back and forth until I happened to get them in a free moment, and them reply to that email when convenient.

And she's right, the organisations you're dealing with quite likely have reduced their staffing. That's been very common since covid. You do need to think about other things that have changed in the last 6 years as well.

To address those who have said they have heard background household noise when being connected to a customer service advisor who is WFH - I have had customer’s complain about background noise in my office also.

We in the call centre share an office with departments who are not telephone-based, and they often completely forget that we are trying to listen to our customer’s. Just the other day I had two Team Leader’s stood directly behind my chair talking about how they’ve booked Majorca for Spring half-term, and it made it incredibly difficult for me to communicate with this poor customer who was already struggling as English wasn’t their first language.

When WFH my partner will sometimes bring me up a cup of tea, but he’s very quiet and discreet and doesn’t say a word. Calls get listened to and audited at random by a dedicated quality assurance team - if they were to hear a toddler or sometimes partner watching the footy in the background, the person would absolutely get pulled up on it

You're really reaching with the GDPR crap and not at all addressing the point of whether or not that persons customer service experience was reduced because the operative was WFH.

And it wasn't. It was just a reason for the person to complain.

But as a new starter how do you know what you don’t know?
There may be all sorts of things going on that you might not have considered. What about the conversations you overhear between other colleagues which may be useful in the future.
Emails/phone calls take more time than asking a workmate and there will often be a delay in getting a reply, so in the meantime you may carry out a job slightly wrong.

I’m almost certain that I was hung up on deliberately.

I work fully remotely as do all of my department and most of the company. Does it make life easier? Yes , and also saves money on travel and wraparound childcare, but I do miss being in the office for the connection. That’s just a personal preference though and I know for many the benefits outweigh any negatives.

The biggest plus in my opinion is the bank of talent that it opens up to for recruitment. We can pick from the crème de la crème all across the UK without being restricted by commutable distance. It was the trick my last employer was missing (insisted on hybrid 2 days in 1 office location). People still applied on the off chance they could change our minds I suppose but we wouldn’t even interview them even if they were excellent candidates.

WFH is not for everyone. Some people feel isolated and demotivated and miss the cut and thrust of office poitics. There is also the possibility of being overlooked for promotion and training opportunities because you are not as visible as in office staff. It takes a certain personality to enjoy just being able to sit down and get on with the job without the need of constant supervision. This is putting aside all the arguments in favour of allowing the disabled or those with special needs to avoid a long and time wasing commute just to be present.

I'm surprised so many people feel they are more productive when they're WFH - I find the opposite. I find it hard to motivate myself at home and end up procrastinating more, and I always feel much more tired. Yes, in the office I'll have chats with people, but that's part of what makes me feel more alert and spurs me on to actually do my job and focus on it when I need to.

Since Covid my company has adopted a hybrid model of two days in the office and the rest from home, which I do like on the whole - certainly there are some days when I have too much to do to be able to spare the commuting time, or days when I feel lazy and don't want to travel. However, at the moment we're "between offices" so have been WFH full-time for a bit, and I can't wait to actually have a base again. I get on really well with my colleagues and several are friends I see outside work too. I don't want to just chat to them over a screen, and there are many tasks in my work which I just find a lot easier being able to do in person.

Again brilliantly said, but you will sadly be shouted down @40YearOldDad by those who feel everything should take place from home.

As I've said before, I'm very lucky , I'm 100% remote if I want to be. I'm not sour grapes.

I am however robustly against people contravening all the training and guidelines they were given by a company.

Interestingly I had this too with DWP a while back last year.

It was so frustrating because it felt like I'd been "deliberately hung up on" , rather than it being a genuine accident.

Or worse, it was a WIFI call connection being dropped, which isn't ideal eithe!

Another 45 minute wait to get back through to the next person, who thankfully didn't discard me.

Probably totally against company policy, the fact that the person on the other end could have many personal details about someone on her screen, and this is now just there for her partner to see. This is not just unprofessional but, more than likely, falls foul of WFH policy, GDPR, cybersecurity, etc. Christ, we have a policy for using free wifi, but it's okay because the issue has been resolved.

I can do my job from the beach, but that doesn't mean I should.

Even if that happened, it what way was your customer service experience really effected by her WFH?

Did she not deal with your complaint?

I phoned HMRC and it really sounded like the call handler was working from home from the noises in the background. Wouldn’t be that bothered but it meant that she ended up cutting me off and I had literally been waiting for hours to speak to someone. Totally unprofessional.

I was on the phone to a MH support worker who was WFH. It sounded like her toddler was crawling over her when she was on the phone to me. Totally unprofessional.

That's a really, really poor response @Designless and very snipy.

You sound as if you're willing to defend WFH no matter what evidence anyone presents to you.

Why is it that at my daughter's cancer hospital (Yes, outing), the receptionist for one of the specialist units has a voicemail which says

"sorry, sometimes I am working from home. I will occasionally check messages and get back to you"

Which is essentially a licence to say "when I'm at home, this number doesn't forward, which means you don't have a receptionist, you have an inbox".

Is that also ok for me to point out, or would your snippy reply be

"well go private then, or maybe you should bring the cancer treatment in-house" etc 😃

Not everything about WFH can be defended, you'd do well to accept that there are people out there who are taking the mick, and that's just factual.

Nice way for early retirement.

WFH has its place and can be great, but it's people who have this god-like complex over it that kill me. Regardless of any legitimate reasons you can give why it's not okay in some instances, you just get drivel back.

I once rang a company’s call centre and the agent was wfh as her OH kissed her goodbye whilst I was on the phone as he was going to work himself. I didn’t find that professional

I think it's very likely that the companies you use have reduced their staffing due to the world going increasingly on-line which reduces the need for in-person customer service.

And new starters can learn their job through asking people they work with about it. By email, phonecalls or on teams. Which is what any WFH new job will provide.

In theory I agree with you, in practice it seems to be terrible for customers of these organisations. Service for 99% of companies I use has gone downhill since wfh.
How do new starters learn their job, think of all the bits of information you absorb through working in an office and overhearing facts which you can then use in the future.
So I feel that it’s useful for individuals but not for society.

This is important. It's not uncommon for people either temporarily or permanently to be unable to travel into a workplace, but fine doing the actual job part. It's to general societal advantage if we have systems in place allowing as many of them as possible to work.

Everyone my age, 60, loves it. Several were asked about returning full-time and promptly said they would resign.
It was quickly rescinded.
They go in for meetings 1 or 2 days a month only.

I'm having minor surgery next week (no lifting or driving for a week or 2) but the doctor is quite happy for me to WFH while I recuperate (I usually go into the office twice per week) so I'll only need a day or two off sick, which is better for me and my employer.

The NHS has had years to sort this problem out. I work for a large organisation which requires very high level security and I can access everything I need for my work from home. People working with extremely secure systems that can only be accessed in the office have to go into the office.

Last year I wasn't able to walk properly for 6 months due to arthritis and my total commute is 3hrs. I haven't needed to take one sick day as I went into the office when I was feeling slightly better. It's ideal for me to have the hybrid option but I feel increasing pressure from management to go into the office for "team bonding".

There are new sandwich shops and cafes opening in our tiny local town. The city centre is overrun with tourists so I think it's greed if businesses do complain about people WFH.