Why are (some) people so against WFH?

[thistimenextyearwellbemillionaires]

I see so many threads on here about why people shouldn't be able to WFH and I don't really understand why people would be against it

For most people it seems make sense with their home life & financially as saving on commuting costs. When my children were young I was 5 days in the office and had to rush back from town to collect them and it was so stressful, it must be great for people not to have to do that now.

I know some people might take the piss a bit, but this happened when people were in the office full time too, there would always be someone always in late, leaving early etc.

I am lucky that my company is hybrid and no plans to change that. I've been offered another role recently which was a big pay rise but 5 days in the office and have decided to stay where I am. Where I work, whether you're in the office or at home you're expected to produce the same work and results and if you don't you'd be out so they're no slouch in terms of expectations of their employees.

Interested to know people's honest opinions.

It's making it much more challenging to recruit for jobs which can't be done from
Home. Genuinely worry there won't be any teachers or nurses left in a few years time.

@WorkShmork I'd be happy enough to go into work one day per week if my workplace was nearby, but it's 145 miles away. why would you apply for a job 145 miles away from you????

I must say I find it interesting that a vast number of people have come on here and given considered responses, drawing on their own personal and corporate experiences, but there's still a vast cohort who can only see it in black and white, so therefore those of us that have said it's not the best for XYZ reasons are just talked down as being some sort of corporate shill. It's exhausting.

This is a difficult one and in all honesty its not a "one solution, fits all" scenario.

I had a role where I had to go into work solely because other staff members wanted to be in and apparently their needs trumped mine. Basically they were single and lived on their own and living and working in a small place without seeing anyone, was affecting their mental health so they wanted to attend the office. It was the first job for some after leaving uni and they had moved areas for the role so had no friends here. I on the other hand was near the end rather than beginning of my career and lived in my home town with my husband. I was annoyed at my right to choose being taken from me and wanted to be at least hybrid.

I then got a hybrid job, but on the days I was "in office" I wasn't actually in my office, I was on site visits. I felt my ability to learn form others was vastly diminished and I was surprised at how much I missed the background information that I subliminally picked up when simply sitting with my team in an office. I also found it impacted the social aspects of work, i.e. the unplanned lunch outings or drinks after work. The reduced desk capacity meant the entire team couldn't be in on the same day and I realised it was taking me longer to form the personal relationships I normally achieved with ease when office based.

And now I have a new contract and I am totally home based and my team are spread around the UK. The times I can work are very flexible and it really alleviates my caring responsibilities as I can work from anywhere and at the times best for me. Its everything I wanted....but.. there are definite down sides.

The social elements of work, which I have thrived on for years are none existent but I am saving money hand over fist, no travelling expenses, no impromptu lunch time outings with colleagues for a drink, shopping or meal. Its fantastic, but boring as hell. But it has also stunted my learning ability and awareness of what is going on in the organisation outside my role that may actually impact me at some stage.

I also find that when you are not front and facing certain people, they dodge their responsibilities and its hard to pin them down. Also the different hours people work from home, tends to be a problem if you need to connect urgently.

I have also had a colleague who (without telling work) took himself off on holiday with his mates without requesting leave (you can work from anywhere), taking with him his work laptop and caused us major issues as he just wasn't responding and his excuse was the wi-fi was problematic...he could only use it in the hotel reception! So it is open to abuse.

For me, hybrid is the best solution but I have some colleagues who are simply not trustworthy on their own and its people like them that spoil it for others.

I expect it’s for various reasons. I’ve never wfh in the sense if office work.

ive always worked out of the home for actual working pay. Never had a problem with colleagues in different roles wfh. I don’t understand what the issue is?

I’ve lived with someone who wfh and he would be up at 7am in the kitchen working, and still working at 8am in the evening. He was productive and would put in 10 hour days. It was increasingly obvious he was doing far more work than one other chap in the team and possibly another - who both predominantly worked in the office and clicked off when they went home.

I’ve worked with a woman colleague who would arrive at work at 8.30, but not actually work until after 11am

people are people wherever they work

@thistimenextyearwellbemillionaires so many people think they are entitled to work from home whether or not the employer wants it. many employees also take the piss by doing childcare, putting a wash on etc! no wonder employers dont like it!! people always left the house to work and it is only since covid that it started, supposedly, temporarily!!

Maybe you could go back and read some of the other posts to get an inkling of other opinions @MikeRafone ? I mean there's 3 pages and you still have "don't understand" why there might be issues?

(Find that hard to believe btw when in your next paragraph you basically detail a housemate who was clearly working unpaid overtime to pick up the slack of others in his team. If he was in office this would be a lot easier to pick up and deal with)

people always left the house to work and it is only since covid that it started, supposedly, temporarily!!

it’s not only since Covid, I was wfh long before that and some were remote only companies, there’s lots of companies that have had that long before Covid wfh situation made it more popular with companies

But it depends on the company and the role. Not all jobs require you sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day, nor do all employers feel the same way. My employer will do all those things if needed, and expect us to do the same. Employee satisfaction is through the roof and we're making lots of money, so there's not an issue. And it's the same for lots of companies.

It wasn’t unpaid, ironic you suggest I read the previous posts, when you can’t read the details in one post 😂

I find the argument that people are simply jealous of those who work from home to be overly simplistic and lazy.

Some of my friends work from home, and some don’t—it’s not something I think or care about.

As I mentioned earlier, what some may find frustrating is the gloating from some about how little work they do.

In addition to this is the arrogance displayed by certain remote workers. The attitude that they’ll never return to the office and that forcing them to do so would cause companies to lose their best talent comes across as patronising. It implies that those willing to work in the office are somehow less valuable.

While I recognise that some individuals have unique, high-demand skills that allow them to dictate their terms, I doubt there are as many of them as some would like us to believe.

What I liked about Covid was people wfh, it made my commute so much more pleasant and I sure for motorists they also found it faster and easier to commute.

Fridays on the commute are similar, far less traffic that Tuesday Wednesday and thursdays

@ErrolTheDragon

What sorts of company/services are still letting people wfh without adequate childcare?

HMRC certainly doesn't seem to have any control or management of the working environment of their wfh staff. Barking dogs, children, doorbells are pretty typical of calls to them. I'm making daily phone calls to HMRC, sometimes several times per day, so am sadly quite experienced in the unprofessional HMRC wfh crowd. And that's before we get to incompetence and inability to actually do what they're asked to do, which often is pretty simple stuff!

A lot of mn skews quite old I think - people who joined with babies in the site's heyday will be parents of teens now. And fairly socially conservative. Not generally people who are up to their eyeballs in Slack, Asana, hotdesking and output-based management styles.

Thanks for this lazy, ageist stereotyping.

Hmmm, I started the thread, started on MN when my 17 year old was a baby and I'm not exactly at work using a word processor and taking shorthand, 🙄

That’s interesting because I live on a B road that used to only have traffic early morning and 5-6 pm. Now, since Covid I have noticed that the traffic is busy all day everyday but Friday is the worst. It’s one of the reasons I’m moving.
In fact I wfh on a Friday and I will get in my car soon to drive to the shops. When I was on site I wouldn’t have been in my car at all as I commuted by train!
I think that’s replicated all over the country tbh- in the cities most people would have commuted via public transport. Now they are at home and running errands in their cars. ( Like me)
Theres no quiet time on the roads anymore. Not where I live anyway.

I think hybrid is a great middle ground. We went from being fully in the office to fully WFH during the pandemic. We are now hybrid. We are expected to be in 2 days a week minimum. This is a good because it means we still have the social side and it’s less lonely, it’s good for sporadic collaboration, and it’s good for grads to have experienced team members there to talk to.

As I've mentioned on other similar wfh threads, its great for me who find people a distraction to work anyway, and I got a reasonable adjustment to work from home full time. I still interact through teams, and it works well. I've done new training packages on teams and even in the office, we still use teams, so there's no difference. I am not your typical social butterfly, but I get out to do hobbies at the weekend.

Yes it is interesting

I live in the West Midlands area, and I’m not the only one that’s noticed Fridays are much quieter due to wfh in the area. The local authority shut there office and haven’t reopened them - this has had I guess a big impact

I'm very surprised to hear that. I work in the Home Office and we can access pretty much everything remotely.

Why? Not having a remote or hybrid systems means paying for office space which means raising your taxes unnecessarily to pay for it.

Well consider me told - you didn't actually mention whether it was paid and I assumed.

Are you joking? What does "socially conservative" even mean? And what's it got to do with using work-based contact systems?

I've come from a job where I was bullied, and the lack of people in made it possible. The few people who were in most of the time saw the situation for what it was. The people who were rarely in they'd either change their attitude in front of them, or they'd assume that they "said it wrong" etc.
It meant they were able to constantly undermine me by telling me one thing with no/few witnesses then denying it or making sure the consequences wasn't seen by them, or claiming they'd said something else at a different time.

And WFH was no protection against that. Just as we say phones have taken bullying into the victim's home for school children. The same is true for adults

Wfh allowed bullying, not stopped it.