Are the days of WFH over?

[MerryMarigold]

Dh been working from home since Covid. Been 1 FtF meeting a week/ fortnight for past year.

Work have said everyone needs to be in work in central London for 3 days per week after Easter.

Not too bad for us, we live in the same place we lived before. Still a 1.5hr commute each way (plus associated costs). Not so good for others who live in the middle of nowhere.

Is this a trend or just his global company?

I recently left my hybrid role (2 days a week in the office) for a fully remote job.

It is now in my contract that my place of work is home.

Absolutely no desire to suffer commuting three hours per day again!

We have to do 2 days a week generally but no one really counting. Local government. Profession. Most of us do go in at least twice a week, and the newer starters more often (I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to learn a job, get settled, gather knowledge from home). I missed the collaboration and the office environment. But two days is enough and I am very productive at home. Home are days for long reports and work is for discussing cases and meetings.

There’s been a big decrease in the number of jobs advertised as wfh.

^

Different story at interview

Hybrid 1 or 2 days a week now, and that seems to suit most people. I like WFH but it's nice to see workmates etc for a catch up.

It's not just the WFH that changed for us, the work life balance is far better nowadays- even on the days I go into the office, I no longer sit in rush hour traffic; I'll get up, shower and log on at home to check emails etc. Get any early meetings done via Teams, and then when school run traffic is done, I head into the office. Leave at 3:30-4pm ish before traffic gets bad again.

Which is extremely annoying. I run a team with two staff who are diligent and hard-working and could do it from a beach in the Bahamas. One one who... couldn't. Which means realistically no one can. Because only 2/3 of the work would get done.

where i work they got rid of slackers, and kept the ones who work. Wherever they work. But we were moving to hybrid before Covid and have about 20% of our staff (from partner to interns) who only have a WFH contract. these aren't being offered any more, afaik, in favour of hybrid with no fixed number of days to be in an office, we all hot-desk anyway and have to book a desk.

There is no compunction to be in an office or at your home - you can work in a coffee shop, from a beach, or in your mother's basement. As long as you keep up your billable hours, nobody really cares if you're working day or night, or day and night. As long as you show up to your meetings, keep the clients happy and at least return calls all is good.

I get the benefits to the employee of remote working. I work from home myself a few hours a week but I do so for the following reasons:

• be at home for the puppy if dog Walker cancels
• childcare if DD2 is unwell
• getting a piece of work done without interruption
• waiting in for delivery
• getting my housework done if I have visitors coming

None of these reasons really benefit my employer so I see WFH as a perk not a business efficiency.

I can also see the downside:

• fewer opportunities to learn from peers
• women now being disproportionately expected to wfh and look after kids at the same time
• loss of team spirit
• exacerbation of mental health concerns through lack of social interaction
• risk to health and safety with people working silly hours and not switching off
• loss of office space = more empty buildings = less needs for cleaners/security/coffee shop staff etc which long term will damage economy.

Prior to the covid, were you office based full time ?

Not where we work, we have a "Smarter Working" Policy - come to the office for a reason, either a team meeting, a 1x1 with manager, a Big Important Meeting. Other times like tomorrow, I've got no reason to be in the office so I choose to work from home and can connect on Teams for the 3 meetings in my calendar.

they treat us like adults. All this "you must drag yourself in 3 times a week just because I say so" is just bollox - a great way to trash your relationship with your staff, lose trust and they end up leaving. Serves them right. I work just as hard at home, no way could I slack off, it would be noticed in a day.

I'm interested in these companies who can't identify the productive and good workers from the slackers. IME companies/managers do know who these people are, WFH or sloping off to the canteen 20 times a day when in the office.

Appraisals, teem meetings, feedback etc can all be done remotely, and good companies know who is good and who isn't.

Haven't read the thread. But apart from a Production Meeting at the beginning of a job and the filming days at the end of a job I have always worked from home. For 20 odd years.

I am super productive from home. Less distractions. Covid just meant Production Meetings were on zoom.

My role has changed slightly and I head into a Production Office to work. It's so distracting!! It's slow to get stuff done. Though more collaborative.

And all the time wasted commuting.

My company has made 2 days a week mandatory. Our team to different work to all others and our performance has never been better so our manager is fighting against this.

I don’t think they are! I’m just returning to work from maternity leave and we have core hours where we’re out and about and after that it’s pretty much work from anywhere anytime to get admin done. We’re loosing staff at a rapid rate and it’s very hard to recruit so they know this is the only thing stopping staff jumping elsewhere.

Those commuting hours are just lost hours really.

I think you can tell if a job doesn't get done or gets done badly.

It's not about face time in the office. People can be in the office all the hours and still be rubbish.

We are permanently hybrid. DH was permanently WFH pre-Covid so no change there, they don’t have any offices.

I think hybrid is the norm for many and still allows great flexibility on where you live. I have colleagues that commute in a long way for 2 days.

MrsTerryPrachett "Which is extremely annoying. I run a team with two staff who are diligent and hard-working and could do it from a beach in the Bahamas. One one who... couldn't. Which means realistically no one can. Because only 2/3 of the work would get done. "

this drives me nuts, why don't they replace the person who is crap working at home? Why do two people suffer instead? I honestly don't get it - it's partly why I went freelance.

I'm still WFH but it's impossible to slack off as heavily monitored

It’s a trend. WFH is a mixed bag, it doesn’t work well in my industry because of the need for collaboration, and it hasn’t work well in other areas for all sorts of reasons.

usually hybrid is fine. 3 days in and 2 out is reasonable

Presumably the colleagues in the middle of nowhere either lived with the commute previously, or moved there in lockdown. If it was the latter that was daft.

Public Sector here. I set the rules for my department. I think wfh has massive benefits.

Some weeks I am in the office every day, occasionally I spend an entire week at home.

Guidance is two days in the office per week but with flexibility, so if you have to be in for something you need to get yourself in. Equally if staff have something they really need to be at home for that's generally ok too as long as it isn't disruptive to the work that needs to be done.

Offering flexibility definitely helps with recruitment in the current employment market.

Absolutely. I work in data and have been interviewing recently. As soon as I say I have a disability that makes commuting difficult they suddenly start admitting the data team all work remotely anyway and only come in for big meetings 😂

I've just landed a new job that is fully WFH. I will be invited to parties once/twice a year in London. Other than that - completely WFH. All employees WFH with main office in London - I'm in Scotland so no chance of me popping in!

I LOVE WFH - no distractions. I get a LOT more done. When around colleagues I'm constantly interrupted and therefore don't get to deeply immerse my self in tasks for prolonged periods which really annoys me! I am a very focused person.

I noticed on LinkedIn a few (big) companies have been monitoring when rivals insist on moving their staff to hybrid/fully in office and are then swooping in and poaching staff with the promise of continued WFH.

I have a new contract - my place of work is my home. I am peripatetic though so travel to different sites a lot.

For everyone who is dossing off at home, there are people browsing the internet all day in the office or having endless coffees or cigarette breaks. Dossers gonna doss! I don't see how it's any different if you WFH or not. Has anyone ever really worked in an office where no one spends their fucking about?

My friend works in HR in her company. She told me when they went WFH the productivity of established staff was fine. They all did their work, often quicker due to less distractions, no problems.
But new staff floundered. Struggled to progress as they couldn't seek peer support in a timely manner (emails took days to be answered etc). So they struggled and left. Staff retention fell off a cliff for new starters, which had never been a problem before.

Seems that way. We got told would always be wfh unless we needed to be in for a f2f event/lecture. Now told we should be in 3 days a week even if just doing online stuff 🤷‍♀️

There’s been no real push back to the office from my employer, although I have heard whispers that support staff will be asked to come in 2-3 days per week (up from 1 day, currently). There’s no suggestion that this will apply to fee earners though, and I would push back on that. My work took the opportunity during COVID to vastly overhaul reporting lines and my line manager and his manager are in London whilst I’m in Belfast. My only direct colleague is PT and refuses to come in (cusp of retirement, they need her more than she needs them). So why would I go in to sit on my own when I can do that at home undisturbed and get more done? I can’t see them pushing me as I’m sensible enough to go in and show my face one a fortnight without being nagged and my billable hours are still head and shoulders above where they were pre-COVID.

We are getting a new hire though and I’ve said I’ll come in at least one day a week to help train /support them before my employers start suggesting any “plans” to me.

BIL works in central London for a US IT firm. Some of his colleagues thought COVID meant WFH was here to stay for everyone and ended up selling up and moving out to, like, Norfolk and similar locations. Cue lots of shocked pikachu faces when massive American company decided they didn’t give a shit about what their staff preferred and demanded everyone back in at least four days a week as soon as they feasibly could.

My company keeps trying to encourage office work again, but even before covid a lot of people had flexi or full WFH contracts. Plus there’s not enough seats in my office if everyone decided to come in on the same day. They rely on people WFH but they keep forgetting that when they try to get us to go back in office.