Those who WFH or partners do

[Horseskeepmesane]

Many people seem to still work from home, I’m intrigued by this.

if you do what is your field of work, and what do you actually do most of the day working from home productivity wise?

there seems to be so many ‘meetings, calls’ scheduled from home and what else?!

I work in Accounts for a small business, office based.

Maybe I worded it wrong, I was just asking how peoples days are structured. It is such a leap going from’having to be in an office to perform a job’ to suddenly being perfectly capable of doing the same job remotely. If so, why did so many offices physically have to exist before!!!!

Yes it's really important when you're just starting out on your career @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius . When I first started we had a big team full of people from all over Europe and the social aspect was huge and made the job enjoyable. I'd have hated to be WFH then. Horses for courses!

I work in sales and account management. Recently changed job, both wfh, previous job had loads of meetings, this one hardly any. There is no need for me to be physically with my colleagues, handy as most are in Australia.

Offices existed as we didn't have the tech to enable WFH. I do the same tasks as I would in the office. I log on around 8 (kids are older so no school run now), check my emails and my calendar for the day. I then work on whatever tasks are needed and have Teams calls where I would have had meetings before. We do this with our clients as well as internally. So much more efficient and saves on travel costs. I message people in Teams with questions or call them rather than popping to someone's desk. Does that help?

Because the offices were there long before the digital age and so that's what we were all used to. Covid showed people a different way. That said, WFH doesn't suit everyone.
And for young people, working in an office is probably a better way to learn. I suppose hybrid models are best.

I have the choice whether to wfh or go in. I usually go in to the office unless I fancy a day off when I "wfh". I will be honest, I am very slack when I work from home and do the bare minimum, both because I can and because I struggle to motivate myself. However all my work gets done, I suppose I just choose when and how I do it.

If so, why did so many offices physically have to exist before!!!!

Because the technology wasn't quite there yet, or as good before. Covid was also a huge WFH experiment on how that technology could be used in earnest and many (employees and employers) found it worked for them and had lots of benefits (and some found it didn't).

I am an IT Business Analyst. I spend around 50-70% of my day on calls analysing requirements and gaps, investigating solutions with the techy guys, coordinating testing, dealing with issues, project updates etc. It would have been the same whether I was in the office or WFH as most of my contacts, including my other team members, are remote in different countries anyway.

The rest of my time is spent documenting requirements, investigating solutions, writing proposals, writing up functional designs etc. All which can be done much better without interruptions and distractions in the office.

The single one thing, but an important one, that is harder is onboarding new BAs and building those relationships, but we are all conscious of it and working on how to best do that while balancing the WFH benefits.

DHs WFH days seem to consist of phone calls where he tells people what he is doing and they tell him what they are doing and drinking gallons of tea.

His office days seem to consist of playing pranks on his mates and going to tell Important People what they are doing.

Somehow they fit the actual Project around all this, which is being very successful and winning awards...

I do accounts. 40 hours a week at my desk at home. One main Teams meeting a week, for our team, and one 1.2.1 a week (casual) with line manager. Other than that I sit and work through the accounts.

I WFH. Pharmaceutical company

First picture that came into my head there was you sitting at your dinning table in a lab coat with your kids chemistry set 🤣

(I know there are many other roles in Pharmaceutical that don't involve lab coats and test tubes!)

I don't have anyone in my team based in the same city as me, so going to the office is fairly pointless. So far this week I've had virtual meetings with people in Turkey, Israel and USA to try and bolster the salesman's case for the sale. The rest of the time is prepping for calls, writing presentations, writing demonstrations and answering emails.

I work Hybrid. It’s differs week to week. Last week it was 4 days. This week 1.5.

I have several departments that report to me. One is offices based the rest are hybrid. So I try and work around them and meetings. Some need to be in person, some can be on teams. I travel to other offices as well.

I have been in the office first thing this morning but had to review and sign off transformation documents. The nature of them is highly sensitive and people kept chatting to me, asking questions or trying to look I’ve my shoulder. So I came home at about 10.30am It took 2.5 hours to review 2 documents. The one I have just done took 45 mins. So far more productive.

Now off to make my lunch before I crack on.

I'm a graphic designer for a global market research company and I WFH full time. My company has just downsized our London head office to a smaller (but much fancier) building. Some members of my team choose to go in to the office twice a week but it's not mandatory.

WFH works so well for me. I'm autistic and not having to talk to anyone and having my own space to be comfortable and focussed is so valuable.

Could you let me know which sort of jobs allow this? I’d love a job where I could wfh and go to the spa! My performance/utilization monitored and they’re both much higher than working in the office

We both work from home.
In my previous job it would have been harder.
DH has worked from home for years. Lots of meetings all day every day.
I work part-time. We have a daily call to give us any updates and then communicate via email for the remainder of my work day.

People who work from home do exactly the same as they would if they were in the office only meetings etc are by video or zoom. I know several people who have no choice but to work from home as their companies no longer have physical offices.
When I worked I did go into a physical office most days but everyone else in my team was in an office in another location so it made no difference at all whether I was in the office at home or somewhere else.
For many jobs now all that is needed is a computer and a phone

I’m a Head of Service in a local government role. My days are full of meetings and 1-2-1s.

When I’m not in meetings, I’m writing reports, monitoring performance, responding to emails. I work from home most days, but if I fancy it and there’s a hybrid meeting, I might go into one of 2 offices. I don’t like working from home every day although I get so much more done. Not half as productive if I go into the office.

My husband WFH with a bit of foreign travel. I don’t think he even has an office to work from anymore.

I don't believe that is true for many people . I was always much more productive at home. In the office I was constantly being interrupted by people coming to chat or by face to face meetings that took forever and were about very little.
At home I could just get on with the job. I also worked longer hours at home as there was no travelling.

There seems to be a fair bit of research coming out that people are actually less productive at home.

I think there is an element of this research coming out the back of Covid - which triggered lots of people to have to WFH, both those that are suited to it and those that are not. This means the results reflect the rise in numbers of people who either don't like wfh or don't work best that way.

But for lots of us, WFH is not new. It's been building over the last 1-2 decades. If I was less productive wfh than in an office, I might assume my career would have floundered. Or - perhaps more importantly, so what? If I am less productive wfh but can still earn my wage doing so and hold down a job with good feedback at appraisals, why would I drag myself into an office to work harder?

My office is hybrid. I think it works well for everyone. Being in the office is probably less productive as people are a lot more chatty when they get together as it's rarer! I used to dislike WFH but that's was when I was with my ex H and we were both in the house more. Now I love it as much more relaxing on my own. Wish I'd been able to do this when kids were younger as the whole school/nursery drop off would have been easier if I didn't also have to get myself looking presentable and travel to work!

The only differences for me are only DH and me using the microwave, the cat keeps me company and I can do local things like go to the hairdresser on my lunch break.
We’re mainly hybrid at my firm now as employer likes people to show their faces.

🤣

What kind of a question is this

If you can work in an office all day on a computer, you can WFH on a computer all day too

There seems to be a fair bit of research coming out that people are actually less productive at home.

^^
There seems to be a fair bit of research coming out that people are actually more productive at home.

Also

I work in sales, completely home based.

I have targets to achieve, so there's no way for me to slack 😂