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.

I wfh most of the time. Did so 1 or 2 days a week pre-pandemic too. I like my days in the office as I'm at the point a few years on where I miss the interaction but also I do love the flexibility wfh offers with 2 kids. In fact we'd struggle hugely if things went back to everyone being in the office each day. DH wfh a couple of days a week.
I work for a big bank managing projects so I do exactly the same I'd do in an office. But all meetings are zoom based now whereas before you'd always have some in a room, some dialling in and some on screen which was difficult. So much easier now to assume everyone dials in from the outset.

I do what you do OP but from home. Online accounting systems, paperless. Contact my colleagues via WhatsApp and email and 3 short teams meetings a week. It works really well.

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.

This. And the bonus of not having office politics to contend with.
I changed roles from full time office work to part-time role working from home - along with a considerable loss in salary.
I have a fairly strong work ethic and that doesn’t change.
When I think of the amount of time lost due to needless meetings for the sake of having them, gossip, chats, coffee breaks, water cooler breaks, travel, not to mention having a second wardrobe for work!
There is a peace when WFH. The stress is gone.

I work in a large organisation with multiple offices with meetings with people across the whole county. We’re never all in the same place so I can go to an office and sit on teams or from home. I go in 3 times a week roughly spreading time across 2 main offices. I manage a team who wfh most days with 1-2 in the office. They are editing, proofing, designing in that time. They have a few meetings but not many, I have about 50% of my time in formal meetings about projects and 30% on calls with my team discussing tricky requests etc (it’s a new team so need to have easy access to me for quick decision making.

dh wfh but recently the new director wanted everyone in. Office 10 minutes away is closed so now he has to commute for an hour. Everyone is “on site” different days so essentially he drives an hour to sit on teams calls. His role is advisory and largely in meetings.

We both wfh. I work for a Bank, he works in IT
He is fully remote with no office, I go into local office approx twice a month
I do exactly what I do in the office. Log on, switch my phone on, check my emails. Check my pipeline. Look at what new work I have been allocated. Call people. Take calls. Have the odd meeting
I work in a department where we all take ownership of our own work. No micromanaging. We all know what needs doing and it gets done
It is incredibly easy for management to check what we are doing and likewise to see what hasn't been done
No one takes the piss. Very few have time off sick. Its always easy to contact anyone you need. Messages fly across throughout the day asking for opinions and support and it works incredibly well
Our company profits for the last two years are the highest they have ever been
My husband does have quite a lot of meetings due to the nature of his role and is on the phone a lot
Some days he is flat out, others not so much but his SLAs are completely different to mine and he tends to work on big projects with a longterm deadline that changes a lot

@Blackandwhitemakesgrey I’m currently on lunch wfh as I’d got to 2.30 and hadn’t had a wee all morning. I like being in an office and seeing people but my wfh days are great for writing up reports and preparing presentations without interruptions.

i think, when work is visible and teams working the same mix it can work really well.

I do what I did in the office largely, I can take a break to hang out a wash, walk the dog or pick up the kids, but as I don't have a commute, I can work a bit later or once the kids are sleeping to compensate.

I love wfh so joined a company that is fully flexible. I am miles more productive at home and have no problems settling in or making work friends/a network virtually.

I go in to the office 100 miles away about every month and the whole team gets together for a few days every quarter. I have a small amount of local face to face events every month. I love it and work to my full potential. Sometimes if I have a lot on with the c-suite I am in more but that is variable and more about their diaries and availability.

If companies can't manage people virtually then they can't manage in person. If your job is office based then you can work online. Lots of productivity stats are driven by nonsense about perceived control of employees and income from office rents. My team is high performing and a flexible choice gets better business outcomes. Obviously not every sector is suited to wfh but many are.

I've worked from home since COVID. I'm primarily a web developer. We're a tiny little company, only 5 of us and I'm the only one on the tech side so mostly I'm just left to get on with what I'm doing. Maybe have a call or two a day, bigger meeting once a week.

I'm probably more productive than I ever was in the office, although I do miss the immediacy of being able to pop over to someone's desk when I need an update or more info on something.

I also miss the social side of things, used to quite often pop to the pub after work, but that's gone by the wayside.

I also dislike the fact that my computer has become my work space. I used to play computer games, but it's become a lot less frequent now that I'm sat in the same chair I've been sat in all day for work.

I do work (clerical), house work, walk dogs, ride horses, luckily it’s the family business so my boss is very amenable 😁

we both WFH and we just do our jobs? Not sure what your question is. And yes I do sometimes put a wash on or run hoover at lunchtime, but 9-5 we work

Yes we both WFH every day. We do our jobs but do have a lot of flexibility and a lot of free time.

I'm not sure either of us would be more productive if working in the office, which we did for many years. The amount of time wasted in the office - never mind commuting to and from - is extraordinary.

I'm a secretary, we do the same as we would at our desks and can transfer the phone to our mobiles through an online phone system. Patients don't know I'm at home unless they can hear the washing machine in the background or something. We desk share so wfh is permanent for us with some in the office and others at home then vice versa.

I work from home. My job is 95% solo work that I just crack on with. Meetings are infrequent and I could go weeks without speaking to a colleague if I wanted to!

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 desk-based, large employer in the public sector. I was always sceptical about WFH, until COVID. We had just started to use Teams, probably about six months before COVID, and obviously when lockdown started we had to get to grips with it properly, literally overnight. And we all managed it. Luckily our IT is pretty good, and my work laptop replicated my 'office screen' perfectly, and it was simple to divert my work calls to my work mobile. So my job didn't change, just the location.

We now do hybrid - 2 days in the office, 3 at home, and it seems to suit most people. My two office days are enough to make me feel connected, its nice to see people, nice to be out of the house etc. My WFH days are great for really getting my head down and concentrating without interruptions. I structure my working day the same whether I'm home or office. I'm always showered and looking presentable at home, I have a proper lunch break at home, then at the end of my working day I log off, tidy up and close the door on our smallest bedroom (which we converted to be my office). The routine is good for me.

Do people shirk at home? I don't know, my job is the type where I'd be rumbled very quickly if I wasn't getting on with my work (if I'm set a task it needs to be completed, or at least started, within a few hours). Our ethos is "work is something you do, not somewhere you go". Suits me, and no one enjoys commuting.

I'm a PA, I've worked from home occasionally for about a decade and permanently since covid. I do exactly the same at home as I do in the office, sorting out emails, diary, meetings, travel, hotels, conferences, finances.

I went into the office last week for a day and got very little done. So many people stopping to talk, and wandering around with a coffee. I was a bit lonely at the start (DH out at work and one DD at uni, one at work). But I got into a routine with it all, make sure I take a break at lunch time and get out for a walk/coffee either with a friend or alone. Also joined a gym with a friend which forces me to shut the laptop and leave the house at 5.30 pm twice a week.

I couldn't do the long commute to the office every day now, would drive me mad.

We also eat a lot better as I have time to prepare a decent meal instead of dashing into M&S at the station for a ready meal/bottle of wine.

When covid hit I was stunned at the amount of huge organisations who struggled to set up wfh. I had just assumed that most people already did the odd day at home. We had done it when needed (appts etc) for years so it was seamless, everyone had laptops etc.

Allow what? Working from home?

There's quite a few examples in the thread already but I think they mean working not going to the spa. 😂

I WFH and do exactly what I'd do in the office (except use the franking machine).

Mainly answering the phone, providing advice and information and typing up referrals. Plus a lot of administration for the project.

I am MUCH more productive at home as no distractions, chatting with colleagues, etc.

I'm a Solicitor and work for in a hybrid set-up, but before that I was entirely working remotely. There is no difference in what I do in the office or at home. All I need is a laptop and a mobile phone 🤷‍♀️

Full time wfh, account management for an energy supplier. We have one team meeting, and one wider area meeting a week. The rest of the time is account work, where we work independently but our stats are monitored. Previously all worked from the office but now have an official home working contract. Also now have fully flexible hours, choosing to work anytime between 6am - 10pm. It's been life changing and 99% now work harder than we ever did, as we feel appreciated and love the flexibility.

I do exactly the same job as I did in the office. I don’t have many meetings at all but I’d say they are shorter via Teams as people don’t have a catch up with each other after.

Well, the research does seem to paint a different picture from the anecdotes we hear on here, but who knows.

I suspect there may be a difference between age groups. There are lots of middle aged posters on here who are probably at management level and more accountable.

However, picture the protagonists of all the 'lazy son/daughter' threads and imagine them a few years down the line in a junior office job. Would they completely resist the temptation to do the minimum allowable when wfh and away from the spotlight? I'm not so sure.

I could have written this! :)

To be quite honest, I would be scared to put out less when wfh in case they say I no longer can. I suppose that would only work with a hybrid office, as managers can see what i do in both environments. In fact now I think about it I'm going to start slacking in the office so they think I'm even better at home 🤣 (joking, of course)