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

No one is going to go into the office in the city instead of wfh to enable new starters and young people not reporting to them to discuss their issues:)

The bosses in my city job had their own lift and longe area to avoid employees like that, back when everyone worked in the office. If one did come out of the hallowed floor, it was only because he/ she needed some menial task doing and their assistant was hiding.

I think it's more depressing to think that all your socialising happens at work. Do you not have any friends that aren't only spending time with you because they are being paid?

I was also talking about my real life experience. The partners and seniors wouldn't be interested in having chats with your child even if they were in, unless they had a boring admin task they didn't want to do. If it's not worth the bother of them booking a Teams call, then it's not worth the bother of them being interrupted.

WFH means I get to excel at my work and be present for my DC, taking them to school and picking up. I work longer hours when WFH because I dont take breaks and start/finish a little earlier/later. Then, I can home cook a meal for DC before I pick them up from after school club. I love my job so I dont take the piss, and neither does anyone I work for. Everyone is a high performer. WfH treats employees like adults. If someone isn't hitting objectives thats a problem wherever they are located and should be dealt with as such.

Edit to add: any party that cares about the family should be pro- WFH

This is exactly why Reform want to ban it as they would prefer women in the home baking bread and making babies…

My kids have entered the work force. Very recently. They are working from home 1/2 days a week and love it. Their friends seem to be in a very similar position. They think it’s great.

Well no, because any required in person attendance excludes some people. If hybrid is your preference, fine, but don't try and tie that to a point about how remote working means some young workers have opportunities they never would've done. And those people are as much part of the workforce as anyone else, when they're allowed to be. They're just as much young workers as people who have similar characteristics to you at that age.

It can be difficult to clock this if you were someone who benefitted from the old culture, but there were always people who weren't there in the office with you because the requirement to be in that physical location excluded them.

Which is what the majority of organisations are doing. Fully remote working is not the majority of the workforce.

Which is why a hybrid mix is fine. With some consideration for the needs of all the workforce.

It’s handy as I can work more on the days I wfh as I don’t need to factor in the commute. But I don’t get to do any laundry, housework, pick up the kids from school etc. because I’m working! Generally longer than days I’m in the office. I don’t really get the obsessive nature of people trying to avoid going to the office or why some employers allow people to wfh with children. But it does mean I can do more work so I guess it’s good for the business overall.

Even as a Londoner, WFH broadened my access - it enabled me to network internationally, not just in London. I work for an international company which didn't employ anyone in the UK until I pitched for the creation of a specific role here, which could obviously only be done WFH as they didn't (and still don't) have office space in the UK.

WFH was a blessing for my social life as well. Because I actually had energy for it rather than being knackered from having to be "on" in an open-plan office and an hour's commute each way, and having no energy after that to do anything but slump on the sofa in a darkened room.

With WFH, I had the energy to go out and socialise with my actual friends after work, rather than my social life being based around awful post-work drinks with colleagues who were never going to be real friends.

Oh god no, it's so much easier to drop someone a message on Teams or even an email. You're not worried about interrupting them and I find it easier to put any query I have in words.

It's also much easier being asked a quick question on Teams because if you are in the middle of something, you don't have to break your train of thought to answer. You do it at your convenience.

Was it depressing when the world was biased solely in favor of social extroverts? Now there is a mix of employment available. People who don’t thrive in a certain type of environment can look for other options.

wfh has not hurt my career. I have been promoted and survived harsh rounds of layoffs. I am a better worker remotely than I ever was in the office.

I’m hybrid and I very much agree. Whilst I quite like my office days once I’m there, the commute takes up huge amounts of time and is busy and horrible on the train, and I get less done in the office (and spend more money). Wfh is a game changer and has enabled me to work full time

I was a "have not" when I started WFH in 2009. Cramped, slightly dilapidated London houseshare with 4 other people. WFH = working from bedroom 99% of the time.

Like I said before: so much better than the office! No soul-crushing commute, no forced chat when you were trying to do your job, no higher-ups lording it over you.

Every bedroom I've ever had has been a more comfortable place to work than an open-plan office where some to all of the noise level, brightness, temperature and company were intolerable.

I can work 5 days a week from home if I want; I choose to go in for one or two of those, to meet internal stakeholders for whom I provide our solutions etc

I state that as a disclaimer for what I’m about to say:

I can’t stand the colleagues I occasionally come across who, having cashed in on their Zone 6 property and moved to Stroud or Chippenham or Cambridgeshire or wherever during lockdown, assuming that everything will be remote forever…

are now bitterly complaining about £90 a day rail fares, 5 hour round trips etc.

SUCK IT UP. You bet the house (literally) on things “never going back”, and I’m tired of hearing them moan about bosses making decisions to have in office days. I live in a lovely part of the world near London and I’m happy here.

Could I have more space further out? Absolutely! But would I then accept my life choices instead of browbeating my bosses to let me work from home 5 days a week? Of course I would accept that my life choices are my own.

Secondly, our hospital near us which supports my sick DC just shows me how working from home isn’t necessarily working for all services..

In the nine months in which I’ve had to call the co-ordinator for information or to speak to the team, I get the same answer phone message : they never ever pick up.

“some days I am working from home. I will be occasionally checking my messages and will call you back when I can”.

They never answer the phone in real time, they never call back, and they even have a mitigation message to explain that “working from home” means a reduced service.

just wild to me , I have of course complained gently to the dept, but it’s a public service so they just ignore and close ranks.

Obviously hasn't occurred to you that some of our kids do/will benefit from the greater availability of remote working.

I accept that you'd have disliked it and your DC does now, but do you honestly not get that others will differ?

It’s so refreshing to see the overwhelming positive attitudes to WFH here. From the media and my retired relatives I assumed differently!

I am a teacher so can’t WFH (except every bloody evening 😅) but my husband has been WFH since Covid. I have mixed feelings about it. He doesn’t clean up after himself (desk a mess, lunch crumbs, loo etc). It’s REALLY annoying in the school holidays because I am essentially trying to wind down in someone’s work place. I also think it has encouraged a more sedentary lifestyle in him. He has gained weight and has to be prodded to go outside daily.

On maternity leave it has its pros and cons. Pro, always a pair of hands to go to the loo or whatever, but con, raising a baby in an office? I miss him when he goes into the office, but also feel like there’s some breathing space and baby is actually much calmer.

More broadly, his workplace has become more diverse. They have had more women join, more physically disabled people and a people from a broader geographic range (which is relevant to what he does). I think a win overall. I definitely wouldn’t chance the ability to WFH, but I might like my own husband to go in a couple of days per week!

My parents cannot comprehend WFH and don’t understand that my husband is happy. “Doesn’t he want to see people?” “How will he ever get promoted?” (He has been twice since Covid) “Is the office not nicely furnished?”

I only got my first open plan office job in my 30s (different kind of sector prior to that) and I HATED having to walk up to someone at their desk when they were locked into work (often in headphones as so many seem to keep in), I much preferred when they were not visible and I could justify a Teams message instead that they’d pick up at their own convenience. I think today’s generation are even more accustom to the Teams style of working than we were back then.

A young new graduate, might find it easier to ask a colleague a quick question face-to-face, rather than having to approach them on teams. I can understand that. I think there should be a certain number of senior staff in the office each day on a rota. I definitely think that would help new workers. But I can see I am a lone voice on here so I’ll bow out.

I’m talking about my child’s real life experience working in the City now. They go to work hoping to talk to partners and seniors about issues and then find that they are the only one in. They are not the only young person experiencing this. And they are independent, hardworking and keen to learn.

It is interesting how people can’t see the impact on the younger generation, whilst acknowledging the advantages to themselves.