If you are working from home, do you want to go back to work?

[homemadecommunistrussia]

I really really do, but no-one I know seems to, they are quite happy sitting at home. Or are worried about it being safe when nothing is safe.

I certainly didn't mean to imply everyone one wfh is sitting around. Sadly i am. my job can't really be done from home, i am doing something but it's not my real job.

As soon as it is safe to do so, I'd like to go back 2 days a week and WFH the rest of the week. I'm enjoying not having to commute etc but I'm really missing my team and I know most of them feel the same.

I would like to go back eventually, yes, but not soon. There’s no need to. I can’t physically do my work face to face in the office for the foreseeable future (everything moved online). My office isn’t even planning to open until July.

I do want to eventually be back to normal but I don’t see actually going in to work before August/September.

I’d like to go back to the office a couple of days a week and wfh the rest. I miss the chat and interaction and even the commute. Also miss the impromptu drinks after work. Saving a fortune being at home though despite the increased food bill.

I'm enjoying WFH. I usually do at least one day a week at home anyway so it was something I was already doing. I like going into the office though and look forward to going back, but I'd like to wfh a bit more in future. It's saving me lots of money in travel costs and incidental shopping, I suspect I may have lost weight without the lure of bacon sandwiches and cakes from local shops too
Plus my pets are enjoying me being at home more.

I usually do 3 in the office and 1 from home. I think that I would like to do 2 in and 2 at home. I do miss the face to face and the banter and there are some things which are lost from not being able to be spontaneous

Im working from Home.
I love it.

We have meetings via zoom at set times obvs. And training via zoom at set times. I did a course last week that took me three hours to do just sat at the dining table focused. At work i would never have found that block of time so would have taken a week at best. We have regular facetime With people we need to speak to, rather than whole team meetings which are unnecessary for most.

Sometimes i’m finished for the day at 3, sometimes 5, sometimes later. Yesterday we went out after lunch to do a visit and walk and when i got back and continued To work Until 7.30pm.

Im loving the flexibility.

Im also loving not having the 45 minutes of driving each way. The diesel costs. Breakfast club costs. After school club costs. Dinner money costs. A different reasons my kids school comes up with to send money in every few weeks. Or cakes. Or plants.

Yes!!! I hate working from home continually- the odd day is helpful but I miss my colleagues, I miss my big screen, my pret run!
I feel very sad for younger working people who will likely lose out on the social aspect of working that was so valuable to me in my 20s / pre family.

All my dh’s jobs for the last 10 years have been ones he can do from home but no employer has allowed it. I think thats down to them not being sure how much people are doing wfh, which is poor management. His current boss, who has always had a degree of flexibility with people being able to start any time between 8 and 9.30 and finish accordingly, is now all for changing their work place for the long term, with a mix of working from home and working from the office, depending on client meetings etc.

Yes!! I work in an office 2.5 days a week normally and at home the rest of the time in another role. I really miss talking to people and working from home all the time has exposed to my how rubbish both my jobs are, how I could be doing more with my life and generally making me feel depressed and like a failure. Working in an office masked some of that as I enjoyed the social side of it and could ignore the rest! I also hate Zoom meetings and feel really awkward doing them, I find it much easier face to face. Plus my family are driving me crazy as they all have less than me to do!!!

Yes - mostly. I wfh a couple of days a week anyway and I can do about 99% of my job remotely.

I do miss the office though - we recently moved to lovely new offices, close to the town centre and a Waitrose. I miss catching up with people who are not in my team. We have daily team calls so I am well connected with my immediate colleagues but I've got friends in other teams and I miss them.

I am in a fortunate position with older DCs so happy to go back when I can but I don't think they'll be asking us to go back to the office for a long while yet - there are teams that need to be there so will accommodate them with social distancing as a priority.

Yes, longing to go back to the office. I miss the interaction and I had finally found a good job five minutes' walk from home. I am distracted really easily at home, plus feel a compulsion to be at my dining room table from before 8am until after 6pm and check my emails all the time. I find it much harder to switch off and, being new to the role, want to answer everything as quickly as I can so it doesn't look as if I'm slacking.

I worked from home around two hours a day before this, I’m enjoying working from home, I’m productive, I’m also not wasting forty minutes a day walking to/from work.

Our offices are very expensive, our company has been toying with more WFH and hot desking, so I imagine this situation will give them that final push they need.

Yes, but I don’t think it will be in any way normal. We will have distancing- pretty sure they will close the kitchen area. We will be in just to see clients so maybe just an hour and then back home.

No I don't want to go back. I was a massive germ phobe before covid and found it exhausting cleaning my desk, door handles etc every time I moved to a new room or hot desked.

Plus the driving/parking/petrol costs were about 1/3 of my wages

My DS hates his childminder and is desperate to be at home after school

So many reasons I could wfh forever

I’m surprised that I love it. I’ve done stints before and felt isolated but this time it’s Ok. Perhaps it’s because we’re all at home and perhaps because DH is wfh too so there’s always someone to chat to.

Our employer has historically not been keen on people working from home but how we’ve proved how well it can work I hope that will change.

I usually WFH 3 days a week and in the office 2. Most of my work is not with teams in that office so there really is no need for me to be in the office and I'd very happily not go back!

We have officially been told that anyone who wants to WFH FT until January will be able to.

No. I've loved the working from home bit of lockdown. I haven't loved trying to remote educate by reception age DD at the same time, but wfh has been fab. I used to do it once a week every week, but I'd happily do it permanently, or reverse the ratio to be once a week in the office. I am so much more productive!

I'd like to go back to the office, but be magically transported there as I do not miss the commute!

Yes. I can do my job from home, but I really want to be somewhere that isn’t my house, and I miss my colleagues. I’m also struggling to work with my daughter at home, even though DH is furloughed and doing all the childcare/ home schooling - I don’t have a separate office so I’m working in the dining room and can’t escape the noise/ interruptions.

I’m lucky that I can walk to work so no issues with my commute.

Not sure when we’ll be asked to go back. I work in local government, and wfh has been supported for a while -(everyone is expected to wfh one day a week), so I expect management will be happy for this to continue for a while.

Hell yes. DH is currently standing 6ft from me doing noisy open mouth eating and I want to kill him.

Yes but not all the time. I have worked from home before for the odd day, when I have someone doing work on the house, when I’ve been ill (full of a cold and not wanting to spread germs but not sick enough to stop working) or around meetings off-site. The general consensus at our place was always that working from is a skive, even though I was often more productive at home than in the office.

I like catching up with people in the office and I don’t think it’s the same over teams. I’m also missing my desk setup - proper office chair, two monitors, being able to print to proof read things. But my commute is 60-80 minutes each way and for most of it, I sit in traffic. So working from home frees up a lot of time and stress from driving. I like the idea that we will have to work on a rota, in the office some of the time and at home some of the time. That feels like the right balance for me.

I can do about 70% of my work from home. I am really enjoying WFH instead of commuting, fighting to park, getting rained on and having squabbly colleagues. I do miss my practical stuff though. I'm hoping we can arrange a half and half arrangement when life heads back to some normality. The amount of money I've saved in diesel alone over 2 months would get me a week in a caravan by the sea!

Yes. I love my office and miss my colleagues - I manage a team and it's so much harder when I can't just put my head round someone's door and see how they are. I'm spending so much time on the phone to them at the moment.

I think like others on this thread, I would ideally like to do a mixture. I currently work 4 days in the office but in an ideal world, I'd like to do 2 days office, 2 days home. I have enjoyed wfh but definitely not with simultaneously trying to home school a reluctant 8 year old!

I'll definitely be floating the idea of wfh one day a week when we go back. I actually can't see my firm doing it as I have some colleagues who are really stuck in the dark ages but hoping in this current situation they may have not have a choice. As a lone parent, would make my life soooo much easier!