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'm job hunting atm and almost all adverts now feature something very prominent about how "some" homeworking "may" be possible but at least 2/3 days in the office are required, more initially.

I did an interview last week and it was practically the first thing they said "there may be the possibility to work from home later, but initially we'll expect you in full time".

I also worry about the effect on women. I know the argument is that more women will maintain careers, but it will also be women more likely to take the wfh option and thereby miss out on opportunity. The things that come up because you happened to be in the right place at the right time, the opportunities that go to the person who's most visible.

Wfh isn't over but many places are now hybrid. I'm in the office 2 days a week. My step mums works just started making them go in two days a week a month ago. I think hybrids a great mix.

I personally found myself getting pretty lazy when I was fully wfh, not just with my work, just life in general when it came to going out and socialising because I got so use to just being at home all the time.

Hybrids been the best for me.

Not on mine, still expected to go to office 50% of the time but in reality no one checks or monitors. They don’t have enough space for everyone in the office!

I think even within larger organisations it will vary, naturally. I work for a large company and my team will likely never go back into the office, especially me as I am based far away from the base office (applied for new internal role post covid), but a friend in a different team based in my town is expected in 2 days a week.

While some companies or individuals may prefer their staff in the office, I think a balance will likely be struck between this and the fact that a lot of employees who are used to WFH, will factor this in to future job decisions in a way they wouldn't have before.

Lots of interesting thoughts. I think overall it'll be good for H even though it's going to cost us a lot in travel. He was getting a bit...ploddy. Getting up early, getting out, being sociable, will do him the world of good. I work out of home part time and I love going in and seeing people. Hybrid is probably the best way to go, although it buggers up season tickets.

I think companies are going one way or the other.

My three eldest all do call centre type stuff while at Uni. DD1s company is back to people being in the office 75% of the time minimum. DD2 and DS1 both work for companies who’ve closed offices and encourage wfh as don’t have space for everyone in. DS is in one day a fortnight and DD is FT WFH.

it really depends on the people of it suits or not. It really works for DD as she can work so well around her narcolepsy.
I think DS would prefer more office time - he’s a social bunny. But luckily he’s got his Uni stuff, now more of that is in person, to keep him busy.

While some companies or individuals may prefer their staff in the office, I think a balance will likely be struck between this and the fact that a lot of employees who are used to WFH, will factor this in to future job decisions in a way they wouldn't have before

A lot will depend on how in demand the employers and potential employees are too. Some will be able to enforce their own preferred working models, some won't. It's definitely something that's having an impact in recruitment.

I completely agree. I have realised over the pandemic that I am most likely autistic . I struggled with school, and I did well at work but it absolutely drained me, especially as the office got more and more squeezed, dividers were removed, desks made smaller etc. The utter relief I felt when we were told
to wfh during the pandemic was incredible. And now, my life is so much better and more balanced. I exercise well, I have a good routine, and I don’t try and make chit chat with people who don’t give a shit about me personally. I work well and it’s a workplace, not somewhere I socialise.

Office working is something that a lot of people have struggled with for decades. At least now if you want to be in an office you can select jobs that do that - but it is much easier to find wfh jobs or at least hybrid now- so fair for everyone

I pretty much always work from home and get nothing done when I go into the office.

Yep!

My organisation got rid of the building I worked in during the pandemic.

We now have 14 desks in a different location for a department of nearly 60 people. And weirdly, although we all coped with phone calls before the pandemic, now if you have a Teams meeting with headphones on and camera off you’re expected to go into another single-person room to do this.

I’m in the office one day per week (large investment bank in Canary Wharf) and DH was a remote worker in his job (accountant, small firm) a year before the pandemic.
Only my boss and I are London based and the rest of our team are in the US. 99% of stakeholders are in the US and my job is not client facing.
My office day is the most unproductive day of the week!

I think the people that post think that we choose to answer calls or not and have never worked in one
The calls come through, and they keep coming unless you're on the phone or not available
Not available is lunch or toilet. Not hanging washing out, going for a walk etc. every single statistic is tracked from my phone to my screen to my personal time to how many calls I answer

I wish I could have an easier day sometimes! We have queues because 4 staff have left in the same week and it takes time to recruit, employ and then all the training that needs to be done

The company I work for didn't renew the lease on the office building we were in so I have no choice but to wfh!

It's easier to work around the kids and definitely cheaper not having to commute. But I also feel really isolated now, I hardly see anyone at all anymore and live in a really small village. I think I'd prefer hybrid working, at.least I'd have people to talk to 😞

People asking questions is in many situations an integral part of many jobs- particularly where junior staff / trainees are there to work and learn.

I worked in office throughout, key worker, so have little sympathy for those complaining. Dp brought all his staff back full time in April 21, productivity increased dramatically in some members of staff (others worked fine from home but you can't discriminate) - essential industry so they worked office days in shifts throughout anyway. People who moved were a bit shortsighted!

To be honest most people around here stopped wfh a year ago or more

@crisscross101

Maybe better for you but what about the people that now can't ask you questions?

In my case they still ask questions over Teams and that is it. They don't hang around yakking afterwards like they do in person in the office. Also during Teams questions I can carry on working. For politeness I'm expected to stop and listen in the office.

We need to go into a future world without so much inefficiency and waste, including huge office blocks, people commuting every day and wasted energy. If we don’t we will not survive.

So yeah, I do hope WFH will continue, or a hybrid model. There are lots of ‘work hubs’ for younger people which are great for socialising and networking.

@CurryandSnuggle

Unfortunately the people who thought they were "more productive at home " at Dp's company were anything but, they were the ones complaining about going into the office too.

Not for me. My employer has changed policies to remote meetings unless you need to meet in person and work wherever is best for you/the service needs. Along with this, two thirds of the office have now been let to other organisations so there isn’t space for everyone to come to work in the office. Teams/ individuals do what works for them. For me and my team it’s one morning a month in the office, but others opt to come in weekly. I don’t miss the office at all but I’m 50 and happy doing what I’m doing, if I was younger and ambitious it would be a struggle I fear.

Large multinational conglomerate, we're 3/2 (3 in office) now. They recognise the benefit of offering flexibility but also the fairness and benefits of being in a place of work, especially with the manufacturing/production who have to be in full time - they're looking to see how they can introduce flexibility for them as well.

Most people I know are wfh partially or ft after c19. So no I don't think it's going away.

Depends what it’s for. Quite happy to go in for meetings or events, but I wouldn’t go in just to sit in a half empty office doing work I can do just as well from home. That’s pointless. I’m quite lucky in that my job has always been hybrid, self managed, and output/outcome focused so COVID didn’t have the same impact at it did on other organisations in terms of presence ( it had impacts in other ways though).

I see this about 'I don't get asked questions all the time at home' but as one of the longest standing employees at my company I'm asked questions all the time by newer employees; how would they learn (in a very nuanced industry) if I wasn't there to answer?

Sharing my experience helps them, which in turn helps the whole company.

I feel hypocritical writing this as I WFH and love it but trying to contact with companies (particularly public service offices and insurance companies) by phone these days is so difficult. I end up waiting up to half an hour for my call to be answered. It was never this bad and it can't always be due to the 'high volume of calls' as they keep repeating in their auto voice message. I don't know what the answer is - do adults really need a micro manager on their back asking them to answer the phone? I would hope not but there has been a huge decrease in my personal customer satisfaction since the pandemic.