Do you think that now a lot of jobs are working from home, it’s a good thing or bad ?

[LovelyYellowLabrador]

I know it’s like most thjngs has it’s pros and cons
but Us humans are fundamentally social animals
so can’t help wondering what the long term impact of this will be ….

just wondering about your thoughts on the subject

Downside, they can recruit from an area with much lower wages like the NE and expect everyone to be on that wage, even if you are living in London.

It's fine when you are older and established in your career. If you are young and single it can be very lonely. DS23 has WFH since he started a grad scheme in 2020. It's all he's ever known. I can see that he misses out on so much.

On the other side, these jobs are far in between. More likely that you will be hot-desking in an open plan office these days….

I think just now it will feel ok for most people because they have their network of friends etc…already established.

For young people, people who are moving into a new area, getting divorced and loosing many friends because they were ‘couple friends’ etc… it’s going to be much harder I suspect and these downsides will be felt later on rather than just now.

Id also say it’s much harder to start a new job, especially as a new graduate, when wfh. How do you know what’s the culture of the company Wo the ability to have a chat around the coffee machine, before or after a meeting etc…. How will you know who to ask if you need support when all you have is a lost of names? Etc…

Yes I agree it’s very hard on younger people

Yeah wfh suits me absolutely and is not something I would compromise on now having done it.

And yes as @LifeInsideMyhead said, it’s all good if you have space at home for an office, no very you. Children around and a good Internet connexion.

At DH work, in his department, out of 40 people 5 of them couldn’t wait to be able to go back to the office for that sort of reason.
It has also become clear that the managers are struggling to manage people when they don’t see them…..

I love working from home - no commute, I can get a few home jobs done during the day instead of the evening, and it’s my time of relative quiet outside my otherwise busy life.

But actually, overall and generally speaking, I don’t think it’s a good thing.

As a 20-something, I worked in an incredibly social office, and wouldn’t have missed that experience for the world. It’s how DH and I got together.

I look around at young people now and think they miss out on so much compared with my generation.

I also think it’s indicative of how, since we’ve gone online, almost everything is becoming more insular and anti-social.

We can opt out of being around people almost entirely now - and while a significant subset of MN probably loves that, I do not - and I definitely don’t think it’s healthy.

Friends, family, and a supportive social network is good for mental health, and while you can get that online, it’s no substitute for human interaction, laughter, etc.

we don’t have an office space. DH works on his laptop in our room. He’d still rather WFH 🤷🏻‍♀️

Personally I was delighted to get back to the office but I appreciate some people prefer to wfh.

From a "customer service" point of view though, it is almost universally shit.

I'm in my mid 50s and have never been so lonely as when I worked from home.

Still think it's a great thing. We're allowed to wfh 2 days a week and I love it.

Are you single or live alone ?

I’m not single but felt very isolated and lonely WFH, DH does a job that cannot be WFH and I have older teens at college / soon to be uni. Luckily my job isn’t really amenable to long term WFH either so I’m not under any pressure to do it.

Even if DH WFH too we aren’t the sort of couple that wants to be in each others pockets, we met at work but when we were made redundant we agreed we didn’t want to work together longterm, he set up a business which I could work in but choose not to.

I was with a Big 4 management consultancy surrounded by highly motivated and energised people, supported by excellent technology, so I always saw WFH as an entirely positive thing.
I've now moved to a provincial firm and WFH is a real mixed bag. Some people in my team just don't have the motivation to do a flat-out 8 hour day in the comfort of their own homes. I think it's working fine for manager level and above, but not for more junior members of staff. And you can't really have a 2-tier workforce, so I don't know how that's going to play out.

My company gets more out of me wfh as I don't mind 'staying' late as I don't have the commute home.

I have a young member of staff who is travelling around the UK staying in different places while they find out where they want to live, while WFH.

We have great collaboration tools, always chatting in our team on various channels, have meet ups around the country. A great training budget for remote or on site training. The young people I know really enjoy the freedom they have. Remeber, the younger generations have grown up in a different world to us. They are more technology driven, and know how to socialise using it. I know not all will though.

Married but DH worked out of the home. No Dc. I felt isolated and out of the loop. Wasn't so bad during the first lockdown as I saw neighbours (who are also friends) in the garden but the winter lockdown was miserable.

But yes, I felt very sorry for the youngsters (especially teenagers who were stuck indoors with their parents).

It's a pretty complicated question. No one would disagree that spending hours commuting to an office to do work you could just as easily do at home is pointless and many peoples work/life balance is much better. It's a shame it took a global pandemic to drive this.

I don't think we'll understand the full impact of what's happened for another few years, there's too much change and human behaviour to research. Plus the impact of Brexit and the large number of job vacancies which is all leading to a fascinating job market. There are winners and losers as this thread shows clearly. And some really good practice and some really bad practice which will all settle in the end.

We must all reevaluate our relationship with work (which was previously a really massive part of people's lives, where you could make friends for life, access informal mentors and even a life partner) - and whether our 'deal' suits or otherwise.

I think it's a question where answers vary hugely depending on your personal circumstances

If you have a family home and plenty of space and kids then I can see why you would feel it has tons of benefits both mental and financial . If you are single and a bit of an introvert and have the space I can see it probably works.

If you both are wFH but have a strong marriage and keep yourselves to yourselves a lot in the day and actively like seeing a lot of your partner/DH I can see that works too - personally I found it a bit much and felt like a pensioner (although I am 60- but young in spirit)

For a lot of younger people though who aren't that senior I think a lot is lost. My son when he was 22 had consistently 20 laptops in his bedroom in his shared house to do hardware upgrades on , no space and a varied lot of housemates who were not respectful when he was trying to work. He changed jobs post lockdown and refused anything in IT that was solely working from home , he now has a mix of office, client site and 1 day at home in his new flat he shares just with 1 other.

There are also the newly single/divorced who traditionally often used work to meet new friends, get a bit of a new social life etc

The upsides are very much dependent on where you are in life at that time and I agree with others about customer service which has been fairly non existent at some organisations , certainly since covid.

I like getting to work from home part of the week. I hated it when it was all WFH all the time. I didn’t find it massively improved my work-life balance - no commute, but I quite like my commute, and then no space between my life and my work and having to give up part of my house to my employer.

When it’s just part of the time and through choice though it’s fine - gives me more flexibility for school pick-ups, it’s nice to have quieter days for working on focused things, and we still get the benefits of being together in person with colleagues some of the time.

(I do wish some of my colleagues would stop moaning on about having to come back into the office ever at all, but that’s another issue!)

Speaking for myself, WFH is definitely a good thing. I’m now permanently home based. My work requires focus, and at home I’m able to get on with it with far fewer distractions than I could in an open-plan office. I’m perfectly happy on my own, but that obviously wouldn’t apply to everyone.

I’m also much better off from not commuting, both financially and in terms of time. I’m saving at least £200 and 20 hours a month. That’s a lot, and my work life balance has never been better. Long may WFH continue.

Well clearly some do given the appalling service given by lots of companies now. Ok we all expected some confusion when Covid struck, but almost 2.5 years later things are still not back to pre Covid levels of service.

I learned so much from just being in the office environment and over hearing other conversations ( very quite office.) I do think sometimes there's a lot of time wasted parenting to work in an office, but then I waste time on my phone now I work from home.

There is an 'us and them' mentality developing with those who can and cannot wfh. FIL is a teacher and thinks no one should be able to wfh as he can't, he didn't care a jot when I was wfh pre pandemic but since then it is literally all he goes on about. We have had to cut down seeing him it is so bad.

So yeah there might be bitterness from people who can't do it and certain careers may become less popular if wfh isn't viable but I think in a year or so it will be less of a 'thing' iykwim.

It makes it really hard for employers to recruit for some admin jobs where you have to be in the office.