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

I think if you look at the number of threads started by new mums, with a baby/ toddler, asking where they can find a wfh job as they've realised childcare is too expensive to make working worthwhile, demonstrates what people generally think about wfh jobs.

Or maybe new mums underestimate the time required to devote to both.

True but they would soon discover that having a baby/toddler at home means you can't work. A certain level of output would be expected it's not like people are just left to their own devices.

I have a lot of autonomy but that is because I am senior enough to warrant it, I have WFH for years and it would become very quickly obvious if I wasn't doing my job.

I worry about the number of children who used to be in after school care and are now picked up from school by wfh parents and left to their own devices for a couple of hours. I think that's fine with upper primary/secondary school children but in the 4-7 type age range I suspect that either the child or the parent's work is being neglected. We seem to be almost going back 50 years (or whenever it was that children just took themselves home from school and let themselves into an empty house).

@MajorCarolDanvers wfh is only inclusive if you are already privileged enough to have somewhere to wfh in your house.

That means a good enough internet and some spare space.

People who, during lockdowns, ended up working on their bed wouldn’t be able to do that full time. People with young children but no spare bedroom to lock themselves in can’t do that either. (Or they do and it’s the mother who is looking after said toddler that is paying the price).

And of course, you dont want to live in the countryside (many people at DH’s work) etc…. If you want a reliable Internet.

Lets not fool ourselves that wfh is fully inclusive. It helps some category of people but is a nuisance for others.

My DH works from home from our room in his laptop. He still vastly prefers wfh to an office. No spare rooms and our dc are home educated, all under 7. So that’s not true.

Good in the sense that work life balance is much better and life is calmer and less harried. Bad in that at times some things are just easier and better to do face to face and some of the spontaneous discussion and debate doesn't happen. There are also several examples of where people have gone off on a tangent and done something incorrectly where it might have been spotted sooner if we were in the office

You mean sat in the bed with the laptop on his knees for the whole day?

Fine he is happy with that. But please don’t tell me EVERYONE will be happy with working sat on their bed all day long. And that because your DH is happy with that arrangement, EVERYONE should be happy with it too.

Just read threads from a year or two ago and see how much people have struggled with that sort of arrangement

He has some sort of portable desk thing to put it on, something like this but yeah pretty much. He has no issue with it at all. It’s fine if others don’t want to work like that but plenty don’t want to work in an office either. It’s not like everyone will be happy with either arrangement is it.

Sitting in traffic for a hour and half a day to get to the office is not social or productive. WFH is great.

Software development. There aren't a lot of jobs advertised as part-time, but if you fire in a CV and explain the circumstances they may well be interested, as there's a lot of demand at the moment for that kind of work.

Thanks! I think software seems to be the way forwards on all these threads.

I wish my girls were showing an interest in coding. I've taught logic and have some maths but havent got software skills sadly!

Every role is different - some work well at home 100% of the time, others could never be done at home even 5% of the time, others work well in a hybrid way.

One thing's for sure - for many, the days of driving long distances 5 days a week to sit in an office to do the same job you can do from another location, and then adding in travel to meetings during the working day is long gone. Thank god.

@LifeInsideMyhead also look into corporate learning and development roles. As a teacher, you could easily pivot into L&D. Plenty of remote options as well.

Yes. Some people see WFH jobs as a soft option that allows them to dispense with paid childcare. I’ve dismissed two WFH people in the past year for taking the piss. Neither were delivering, because they were spending too much of their time looking after children when they should have been working. I had the IT team track their activity when I became suspicious (before the invention of the ‘mouse jiggler’!).

Both had requested to permanently WFH when the pandemic ended. Both wrote heartfelt requests telling me how much harder they worked from home and how much more productive they were and how they spent lots of time on Teams calls and how they started work at 6 am and were still answering emails late at night etc etc.

All of that was bollocks, so when I hear people justifying their desire to never go into an office again I’m sceptical. More often than not ithe real reason is, “I don’t want to pay to travel to work” and “stuff the younger people who need to learn from colleagues in person, WFH suits me just fine”. The “I’m being green by not travelling” excuse makes me laugh. Everyone I know who works from home uses their car just as much as they ever did, just for different purposes, and the roads near here are as busy as they ever were. Nor do you save carbon by not getting on a train that is running whether you are sitting on it or not.

More often than not ithe real reason is, “I don’t want to pay to travel to work” is that not a valid request? Why should people have to pay to do a job that can be done from anywhere?

Not wanting to pay to travel is a valid reason.

And you're wrong.. I don't drive at all so I don't drive more WFH

My friends DS graduated in 2019 , he is on his second job and it’s incredibly well paid he WFH and misses on the social aspect of work. At his age it was always who fancies the pub, curry etc after work and sometimes it was spur of the moment.

Met my new neighbours, nice people from London working remotely. London market is overheated I get why people are leaving but it’s pushing up house prices where I live.

I think very much it’s an ages and stages thing.

And you're wrong.. I don't drive at all so I don't drive more WFH

what, I am wrong about traffic levels in north west England, that I can see with my own eyes, because you don’t drive at all? That’s quite a leap of logic.

The job ‘can be done from anywhere’ in your opinion. Your opinion might not be factually correct. Why do you think that employers are asking staff to return to the office for X days per week? For fun? No, because in their view - the view of the business paying the salaries - the jobs can’t be ‘done from anywhere’.

As for ‘paying to do a job’ : do you think that your employer should put you in a cost-neutral position? No. You choose the job then how you get there is your business, not your employer’s.

How about people who need to be in a work location: should they charge their employers for wear and tear on their shoes? Do you plan to charge your employer for wear and tear on your carpet at home?

Not many people though.
On each and every one of those threads, poster after poster tells whoever asks the question that it is not possible, or not allowed by overwhelming majority of employers, or just not ethical.

There are always going to be people that take the mick - just indeed as I am sure we have all had colleagues over the years who float around the office actually getting very little done - but for every one of those people who take the mick, there is another person who actually puts more hours in, is more flexible / available, and far more productive.
The challenge is for Managers / employers to manage those people that take the mick and not have them spoil it for others. Obviously everyone's work is different, but I would have though most companies would be able to measure output in some way / check that employees are pulling their weight.

Just saying not all. In fact it must just be where you are because the roads a shit load quieter here.

But it is factual that many jobs can be done from anywhere. Obviously you can’t be a police officer on the beat at home or whatever, but no one was suggesting that,

But it depends whether it’s actually necessary or not. Many jobs do not require you to physically be there.