Best and worst things about WFH for you?

[TakeAByte]

Probably been done before!
I WFH 4 days a week. Soon dropping the fifth day too.

Best for me is, being able to have a bath on my lunch break-that could never happen in the office!

Having everything I could possibly need-food and drink wise.
Working in comfy clothes ad being able to have the temperature I want!

Worst? I honestly don't really have one. I guess seeing colleagues is nice sometimes, but I cannot say I miss it.

I absolutely loathe wfh. No advantages for me. Yes the drive to work can be annoying but I like the differentiation. I chose 5 days in the office and an occasional day at home. Today is one.

Best

Cost - No commuting costs, cheaper lunch, cheaper clothes etc.
Convenience - No needing to find meeting rooms/quiet spaces for zooms calls
Quiet - no distractions, easy to focus
Flexibility - can easily flex time/finish for dinner/then take later calls with US. Can flex my lunch easily so I can have calls with India over my lunch and before they sign off.

Cons

Work later - Don't just switch off at 4pm (my leave office commute time)
Face to face - Miss out on impromptu chats in office -but because so many people are on zoom calls now it is difficult to even do this
Hot desking - I was in work last week and me and my team mate barely saw each other because it was a busy day and there were no desks together or even on the same floor!

Pros:

• No tiring, expensive commute
• Keeping on top of the laundry
• Going to the gym
• Cat
• Seeing more of the kids
• I have a fairly solitary job which is good to do in a quiet setting on your own
• Can have a bit of a lie-in

Cons:

• Not seeing/getting to know people, as I'm very bad with faces and names
• Can sometimes get a bit distracted and lose track of stuff

Lack of commute is best especially in bad weather. Easy access to lunch and snacks without having to drag food into office with you or spend money on stuff. I also like morning TV on in the background.

Worst is the responsibility I feel for getting things done around the house before 5. I always feel someone’s going to say ‘why didn’t you put away this laundry’ ‘why didn’t you tidy this’ when sometimes on my lunch I just want to sit on my phone! I also had a bad habit over winter of waking at 7.55, logging on at 8 and staying in bed until my lunch break which really wasn’t good..

I WFH 100%

Best

• no commute. Saving hours of time and money. And increasing employment opportunities. I live 2.5 hours away from my office in London. Even my old commute of 1 hour each way would leave me knackered.

• quietness to focus and my own office. In my corporate office it's working plan

• equal visibility and collaboration with my international team: I have stakeholders all over Europe. My immediate team and manager are in America. In the past I would feel left out as 90% of people are in person in the America HQ: the remote attendees would be shown on a large screen and forgot about. Wheras now everyone works from home so everyone is on Teams. I'm equally visible to my manager as my American team mates are

• ability to attend out-of-hours meetings easily. The people I work with the most don't start till 5pm my time. I can easily work till 7pm my time and meet with them. I just come downstairs when I finish work

• easy to speak in large meetings due to chat and hand-raise function. In person i struggle to get a word in, and was criticised for this in the past

• spend less money on clothes, hair, make up, coffee, lunch

Worst: No real downsides, except tiny ones. I work slightly more hours due to getting engrossed with work. I don't have the social side with UK colleagues. I don't have an excuse for buying coffee, lunch, hair, makeup, clothes. I move less.

It also allowed me and partner to live further out from our town centre. This was good because we got a slightly larger house for our money. However, now it's a pain to get into town, we have to drive. I don't walk anywhere these days unless I force myself for exercise. If we were going into an office everyday, I think we would have bought a house closer to the train station and town centre. We always had this tension where I prefer a small house in the centre, and he prefers a larger place in the sticks. I feel like he won with this house because we both work from home.

Love:

No commute, saving 10 hours a week and around £50 parking / petrol.

Being able to eat what I want, unhealthy office snacks.

Being able to dress without worrying about what to wear / fitting in.

Not having to listen to inane gossip about love island etc.

Having my own music on.

Actually taking a lunch break and doing a few things, not feeling pressured to eat rubbish / go out for lunch.

Being able to concentrate and focus, no grey walls, no fluorescent lights.

Finishing on time, no competitive late staying.

Hate:

Nothing, it's perfect.

I love it now because I am where I need to be in my career. I don’t think I could have learned my job as easily without being surrounded by people, overhearing conversations, knowing people from different disciplines, etc. I also made some wonderful friends, and had a lot of fun in my office years. Being in the office allowed me to find a job I loved, and the visibility of my work was a factor in getting sponsorship to do an MSc.

I have wfh for most of the last 15 years. As well as giving me more time, it has meant I can work on projects worldwide without needing to travel much.

The use of teams makes it much easier to get people into my meetings, as they can dial in for two hours instead of allocating a day for travel. Meetings are also easier to control, as you can choose who gets to speak.

I no longer need to iron work clothes, or polish work shoes. I can eat more cheaply and healthily, and don’t need to worry about missing trains. I love being able to arrange the day to my own schedule. I have invested in a lot of thermal clothes so that I don’t get cold in the house, and don’t need to put on the heating.

So I’m glad I wfh now, but I’m glad I didn’t when I was younger. I am trying to engage with younger team members to pay back the time and experience that were so generously shared with me when I was starting out.

Best - get way more work done as I'm not interrupted, I can concentrate better, I'm in my warm house that I can set the temperature of, I don't have the commute, I don't have petrol costs, my cat!

Cons - I don't get to do it often enough!! It's as business needs dictates so if there's no need one week, I am in the office. I like seeing colleagues, if I could pick I'd do 3 days WFH, 2 office

Best: getting commuting time back so can do exercise before work

Worst: proximity to good snacks means I need the exercise even more!

Best - starting work approx 5 minutes after waking up. Lying on the sofa with a cuppa approx 5 seconds after clocking off.

I only go in the office once or twice a year to show my face and get treated to a swanky lunch with the big boss.

And I save a fortune not paying for travel / lunches / work clothes etc. I love wfh!

Best:
a longer lie in
getting the laundry done
not having to make packed lunches
casual clothes

worst:
no home office space so it takes over the dining table
less exercise because no commute
socially isolating
miss out of work development opportunities through not being around the “office chat”

i’m typically 3 days in the office and 2 at home which gives me the right amount of balance

This was me (even down to the commute time).😲
No downsides whatsoever, just positives.
Always set a routine though, just as if I was in the office (shower, dress properly, no TV in the background etc) but WFH meant I got extra time in bed.😁

When they called us back into the office I decided there was no place in my life for such unnecessary hassle so I checked my finances and retired (57).
Life is just sooooo much better without going into the office (or work) and WFH gave me the opportunity to see it first hand.👍

Only benefit is I save petrol money and a bit of time on my WFH days.

Apart from that I don't like it.

Good - No long commute, when I'm finished I'm finished, although I do check my emails on my phone I don't often respond. Can throw a wash in

Bad - no communication with real people, I don't take a lunch break, I eat too much rubbish, it's just too easy. Lose track of what's going on in the office.

Ideally if I worked nearer the office I would not WFH.

This

I WFH and have for about ten years, I absolutely love it for all the reasons above and more.

However, the pandemic meant that my DH started to work from home and remained as a home worker when things got back to normal.

Problem with that is I just have a laptop, where as he requires two screens so I gave up my office for his set up and now work in my living room.

I do get a big sick of the situation of spending all day and every evening in the same room, sometimes I even just sit in the same chair. I miss my office 😅

Some very good points here!

That's a major perk of retirement too! When at home..

I do 2 days at home, 2 in the office. I like both of them equally.

My commute is a 20 minute walk which I do anyway as I go to the gym at work first thing in the morning, even when working from home.

I definitely am less productive at home. I skive off a lot and do the supermarket shop or watch Location Location Location or sit outside in the summer.

I work much harder in the office and have more discipline. I like seeing my team and having chats with them that just don't happen in the same way at home. I think things are progressed more quickly with everyone being in the office.

I wouldn't like to be in the office full time any more as I like having the flexibility to work from home. But I think my job would be the poorer for me wfh full time.

I definitely am less productive at home. I skive off a lot and do the supermarket shop or watch Location Location Location or sit outside in the summer.

That is unusually honest as most people swear they are more productive at home. I know if I wfh (I retired last year) I'd be the same! Before then I was semi retired in a job you couldn't do at home.

There has been mention of partners wfh too and that's been a big social change. I always wonder how that affects things, is it a con or a pro? For those posting, not the partner

I echo what @Abracadabra12345 says. That is remarkably honest. You are actually not alone. Per my earlier post, I have seen my team's productivity drop massively since people work from home. It doesn't suit everyone.

Having the choice to do either when suits is the best I think.

I love working from home. I've been doing it for the best part of 10 years.
I probably work harder than I would if I was in the office as I often work late or at weekends but I'd still have that than be in the office.
On the occasion that I have to go in (once every blue moon) it takes 2 and a half hours each way.
DH works from home too since the pandemic so we always make sure we have a lunch break together and a brew here and there.

I love WFH! For all the reasons stated already and no real downsides for me.

I think one of the things that saves it for me is having the school run at the start/end of day (I am part time, and do short days - 9-4). It forces me to get up and dressed (I wouldn't like rolling out of bed and logging on whilst in pyjamas, although I'd struggle not to do this if it was an option). I get a brisk walk out which really makes a difference. And it bookends the day nicely, so work time doesn't bleed out into home time (I've logged back in on rare occasions in real emergencies, but generally once I've gone to collect kids I'm done). I'm lucky enough to have a spare room that is now my office, which is also a bonus. Not having any those things might add a downside - but I'd still prefer it to schlepping to the office and dealing with people!

Best

No commute.
Work in comfy clothes.
No whinging work colleagues.
I can listen to music as I work.
Can do bits of housework in between work tasks eg. Put a wash load on and I'm here to bring it in if it rains.

Worst

Um...
It's unsociable, don't get office banter, although my colleagues are mostly a bunch of miserable mood hoovers (see above).

I'm also more productive at home as it's peaceful and no distractions.