Do you work better in the office or from home?

[chessica]

It depends on the mood I’m in. I must admit I am more focused in the office but buying a ticket to travel in and usually lunch once there seems to cost me lots more than staying at home. Plus I start earlier when I work from home

100% Home, without a doubt.

My work requires concentration & focus, so trying to do it in a busy, noisy open-plan office is a nightmare. At home, I’m on my own all day so there are no distractions & I can just crack on. I always say that WFH isn’t for everyone, but if you are happy in your own company & prefer peace & quiet, it’s ideal.

I get more done at home but I am very disciplined. I enjoy going in to the office - but I spend a good deal of my time there listening to my permanently work-in-the office colleagues discussing how impossibly busy they are and how they don't have enough time! They do, they just spend a lot of time flapping.

I'd say the same to be honest. I probably get through more in the office because I have a proper desk set up with multiple screens so can go quicker. At home I'm disturbed less but only have 1 screen so everything takes longer. I really dislike working from home but I think I'd like it if I had a proper home office and set up like I have in our office at work. Sitting at the dining room table just isn't the same. A lot of my managers are remote so it doesn't make any difference to communication whether I'm at home or in the office.

Home. With everyone on calls it's too noisy in the office
It's a very individual job and I don't speak to my colleagues anyway as no time between calls

Way more productive at home.

but I enjoy my “day out” to the office once a week, go out for lunch, in person meetings etc. I’d go mad if I wfh FT

In the office.

I really hate home working. I'm naturally extroverted, so I prefer working with a team around me. Being on my own at home all day is depressing, I can't concentrate as well as I can in the office.

I'd happily go to the office every day, but I'm a single parent working full time and I feel like it's important for me to be at home some of the week for DS especially in school holidays. So I do 2 days a week at home.

Home, definitely, and it is measurable in terms of cases cleared.

The office is really noisy. It is a new open plan office with all floors open to the downstairs. Noise from the ground floor restaurants and coffee bar travel up all the way. So annoying. Sometimes it is hard to hear a beneficiary on the end of the phone which is tricky as they are all bereaved.

At home I have an office and am undisturbed.

Home. I can concentrate much better at home than in my open plan work office.

I get loads done when I WFH.

My office days tend to be filled with team meetings/1-2-1s and general chat. I get nothing important done.

In the office. I hate WFH, it's so depressing being in a room by myself all day. I get so much more done by being around to talk face to face with people and it makes me feel much more energized. Little niggly things get sorted so much quicker if you can ask a quick question. And as one of the more experienced people in my group I do worry that we are losing expertise because so many of the more senior staff WFH so much, sometimes I'm the only person of my grade in and have had to step in to stop a bad decision being made by more junior members of staff.

Home. I find the office way too distracting, at home is isolating in many respects but I'm very easily distracted so need to be away from people to really focus. It works great for me juggling 3 young children and working full-time, my commute into the office is about an hour and half door to door, there's no way I could add 3 hours onto my day and juggle everything else. Thankfully it suits me better working at home, I'm more productive too, so win win.

Way more productive at home...

I start earlier and finish later as I don't have a four hour return commute (normal in South East into London).

I don't get sidetracked by conversations in an open plan office or leave my desk for a trip to the coffee shop.

Find it easy to be 100% focused. I don't have DC and plenty of room to work though.

Same here. I've also been full time back in the office since summer 2020 as I detested wfh. On the very rare occasions I need to, I find it almost impossible to get my mind into work mode. I don't have anywhere proper to work so I sit on my sofa. I do attach a monitor and keyboard to my laptop so I have the equipment to allow me to work almost as I do at the office, but sitting in my lounge with my TV in front of me makes me feel like it's not a work day. My managers are aware that I really struggle, and if I am wfh I try to find a single piece of work that I can really get my teeth into as that helps me concentrate. Trying to do lots of varied bits and pieces of work, which is what I often do in the office just doesn't work at home.

Home

I can get more done in 90 minutes at home than I can in a full day at work, as I'm not being constantly interrupted and disturbed by people constantly, sometimes actually wanting me for something, but just as often because they're charging into my office for other things that are nothing to do with me that have been dumped in there because the place has issues with planning storage and hoarding utter shite for decades.

However, I hate working on my laptop, compared to a desktop with two huge screens, DP has rendered the spare room intolerable as he also has no concept of effective storage and hoards shite so the room screams at me if I walk in - and I can't physically fit my laptop on the desk full of his shite, so I'm also trying to get into a decent position by balancing my laptop on a hairdryer box on the dressing table and using a wireless keyboard.

Both are shit, really, but working at work just edges it for the slightly lesser levels of pain in my back from having a desk, a shit chair that was at least designed to fit under a desk and screens. It would be nice to have a real office with windows and a door to keep everybody out, though.

Home.

Have laptop connected to two screens and my sitting elliptical machine under my desk. Can do the school run then have time for a nice cooked breakfast before I start.

Sit in my garden or go for a walk and nip into Tesco to get a few bits for dinner at lunchtime. Can nip out to pick up DS from school if it's raining and be at home when he comes in if he's walking.

No commute and rushing to get to the office on time or rushing out. Very little office politics and gossiping. Can ignore Teams calls from annoying people and ask them to message me instead but also have lots of contact with colleagues when I want.

What's not to like!

Home especially on the one day a week I'm the only one in my team working - no calls to ask questions or check I'm ok.

In the office there's too many distractions, people chatting right outside my door, people popping in for a quick chat, people asking advice on things that aren't really my job but is my area of expertise.

At home I make coffee (maybe shove a load of laundry in while kettle boils) then head straight back to my desk, in the office there's always someone in the tea room wanting to chat so instead of 5mins I can be 20.

At home I also take my full lunch hour & get out for a walk or do some housework, on office days I tend to work through to catch up on work due to the distractions as my office days are our busiest days.

Home. No noise or distractions, and no horrible commute.

Home. But I've spent years working in offices. I think young people miss out if they wfm. I worked in central London and had great fun. Also, the Christmas parties were like something out of a jilly cooper novel.

I need to concentrate and don't miss listening to sniffing, eating and sitting at my desk all day:) or commuting. I find meetings more productive, and have a good work life balance.

I'm far more productive in a (quiet) office or a cafe, my productivity nosedives at home. I've been a remote, WFH worker for 2.5 years and over the last few months it's become really hard and started to impact my mental health, so have switched to going out to a co-working space, and it's so much better.

I like the routine of getting up to go "out" to work (admittedly, it's only a 9 minute walk for me, so super easy commute), and am far more likely to focus when outside of my flat.

In the office definitely. Plus I thrive on the social aspect. WFH during Covid left me on antidepressants. I can WFH 2 days a week but usually only do 1. It drives me mad when people say they can’t do x, y, z because it needs to be done in the office. Yesterday o was on duty all day and the other person what was supposed to be on duty with me took themselves off the duty rota because “it’s their WFH day” and left me to do it alone. WTF get to work!

Home, definitely. Good set up, no commute and no distractions.

My office is over 2 hours away and there are always loud calls and meetings going on.

It's good to go in every now and then to catch up face to face with people but my job requires concentration more than collaboration.

I go to the office one day a week, but have got so used to WFH by now. I also have a dedicated office space with the correct lighting and temperature so, apart from the social aspect I much prefer to WFH.

The long term roadworks on the M1 and A1 in West Yorkshire have impacted everyone's commute to work so we all have to get up stupidly early to get to work on time.

Home.

Office only if I can close the door and get on with work without having to chat, lunch together , catch up, answer queries people could answer themselves (or ask google!) , or talk about weekend plans with people half my age. I gave up on office politics too. Too old to be bothered (and perimenopausal 😁)

Home. A million per cent. I am an introvert with something amounting to a phobia about noise.