To think nowadays, working from home should be allowed as much as possible

[welliesandleaves]

I do a job that could just as easily be done at home most days as in the office. My senior colleague feels exactly the same as I do. Our job involves working on our own most of the time, has absolute deadlines, has a very definite outcome that can't be fudged in any way, and can be done best in peace and quiet.
Yet our boss, who actually has very little to do with our work but is just someone we officially report to, is very unwilling to allow working from home.
I know other people who are in a similar boat.

Surely, nowadays, with remote access, smartphones, email etc. working from home should be the norm in a lot of jobs, not an exception or a favour. It would cut down on rush hour traffic, allow for a better work/life balance and also bring a bit of life back into a lot of communities which are like ghost towns during the day.

AIBU to feel like this?

I agree. On the days I'm working from home I actually feel more rather than less obligation to remain focussed and productive.

I used to work for an organisation that allowed tele working for staff doing a particular job involving mainly data inputting. The staff working from home were given higher daily targets, because it was possible to do more from home.

I would love this, either on an adhoc basis around appointments or as a regular contacted arrangement such as working one day a week from home.

I have asked for both in the past from my current employer and inspite of the fact that we are set up with remote log-ins this is never ever approved.

As an example, I had a hospital appointment recently at 11.00am. I asked to work from home as the hospital is near my house, but far from work (a commute by train). My manager said they wanted me to come in to the office afterwards. Allowing time for the appointment and travel, I wouldn't have got into the office until 2.00pm and I finish at 5.00pm. What is the point in that? In the end I booked the afternoon off as holiday so I was out for the whole day instead of just the appointment time.

It seems to me, that my company are more concerned with making sure that employees don't get 'something for nothing' than that the work actually gets done. I am leaving them next week to stay at home for the next couple of years, one of the major reasons being, that it's so difficult to make home/life work with a commute on top with a company who are not flexible. I am easily the most experienced on the team so I think their attitude is quite shortsighted!

I work for a big PLC that employs 29000 people in flexible working, where you are at home or out and about. It works well, I am on a train currently going to a meeting and will work from an office but not doing a commute means that I was at "my desk" at 0730.

I WFH two days a week, I remotely access my employees network and my usage is monitored so if I'm idle a lot I could get asked about it. We have an instant messenger (Lync) so nothing is lost in regards to communications and yes I work harder at home because there's no distractions.

I do appreciate that not all jobs are suitable for WFH.

I work for a very large organisation that has insufficient space and desks for all its staff. On my last team we were told we had to WFH at least one day a week.

I don't have a commute so it saves me no time or money, I get in DH 's way as he works nights, I have to have the heating on, and I find it too distracting. There is always something to do at home.

While I agree people should be allowed to I violently disagree it should be so normal that it is expected by the employer.

runlulu, that's when it frustrates me too. Especially when it is a job that can be easily done from home in that situation. It's almost like cutting off their nose to spite their face.

I agree...
I have a pan-European role, and regularly work out of one of our other offices, and it isn't a problem.
But when I work from home, which is exactly the same in terms of connectivity and availability, I definitely feel a) I have to justify the reason first, and b) I get a lot more calls from team members checking up in, presumably to make sure I'm not in the pub..!

One of my biggest gripes about my workplace is that they don't allow working from home other than under very specific circumstances (eg, you need to stay in for a gas engineer coming). I'm a lecturer, and while I obviously need to be in work for actual classes/appointments with students, I could happily mark/prepare classes at home - given that most staff do a lot of work at home as standard on top of the 9 - 5 we're contracted to work it seems really short-sighted of management not to have a bit of goodwill.

I work for a huge international company and I've worked from home for 10 years now.

I enjoy the freedom but my office is downstairs (3 storey house) and I only ever leave my office to make tea and go to the loo. I also take 30 minutes out to do the school run.

I am down here from 6.30am until 5.00pm 4 days a week so am a full-time worker. I don't take a lunchtime, I go upstairs, make it and bring it down.

I can guarantee that I work a lot more hours than I would do if I was in an office because I am terrible for chatting. I'm also very strict on myself, even more so than usual, because I feel that are always under a microscope when you work from home. I never take time off sick even when I feel really rubbish and I NEVER have anything alcoholic to drink until 7pm in an evening, I don't know why, it's almost like I'm expecting my boss to knock on the door. I do partake in the occasional MN post though .

However, I am miserable. I have no-one to talk to day in day out and I really miss the social aspect of working life. But I am now stuck in a rut and can't change it without huge (financial) sacrifice. I live in the SW but earn a London salary. I don't have any commuting costs and I am here for the dogs.

So all of that means that if I was to change my job (which I am desperate to do), I would be losing at least 50% of my salary which would mean massively downsizing.

The benefits of working from home are huge, but it's definitely changed me as a person. I'm not 'happy'.

murdock
That's exactly it. I have worked from home for the past 2 years.

It works really well for me. I am very disciplined and need to be seen to be available during core working hours.

I love that I have easily saved 1 1/2hrs a day on commuting and farting around.

The way I see it, people that slack off can do it at home or in the office.

I think working from home takes a certain type of person and alot of discipline on their part. But it also takes good management, setting clear expectations and objectives, tracking and following, regular one to ones phone or otherwise and monitoring of progress. I don't think it is for everyone and i don't think every manager can handle it either

oh yeah and it works for self employed people - wonder why

I work from Home. Just started it, and am finding it hard to get into a routine. I've done a 'to do list today, and am going to do a timetable which may make it better. I do think its the best way. Most of my job is emails and meetings/ training out of the office. I do go in sometimes, but because I do 3 days over 4, I don't have childcare. It means I drop the kids off at 9, spend over an hour travelling into London, get into the office at about 10.30, work and have meetings until 2 and then go home again for pickup. When Im at home, I am at my desk at 9.30, work until 3 then head out for pickup. its much more efficient.

I really don't think I would be suitable for working from home, if I popped down for a cup of coffee, I would be tempted to take a load of clothes to the washer, clean the kitchen, and end up doing a session of pilates/walk the dog before I remember that I'm actually at work.

I had 2 bosses that worked from home a lot (different companies), the main denominators for both of them was that it was impossible to reach them for urgent decisions and they never were up to date with whatever was happening in the office.

Having said that, my ex worked from home quite a lot and was a very very productive person. He was plugged to the computer at 6 am and will not stop working until 9pm. I understand that if you do that away from home you are called a workaholic.

(Mind you, I still believe that WFH can work for some people).

Some people work very productively from home.

Some people don't work from home, they 'work' from home.

I am one of the second group. I can force myself to be productive when I have to, but I work miles more effectively in an office environment. So although I own my two businesses and can therefore work from home whenever I like, I still rent an office and 'go to work' most days. (I am at home at the moment, MNing....! )

It's difficult for employers to (a) distinguish between those who work productively at home and those who don't, and (b) to say yes to some and no to others for that reason without being accused of unfairness etc

So while I agree there are tons of benefits on both sides, I can also understand the reluctance of some employers to embrace home working as wholeheartedly as they perhaps could.

I think more working from home options should be available.

I think the people I know who are happiest are the ones that spend some of their time in the office and some at home.
I think if I worked at home all the time I would end up lonely and bizarrely dressed.

I know that in Spain for example, people HAVE to work from home some of the time. Follwoing the recession there, comppanies have had to reduce cost and one way to do it is to have smaller offices.

It is clearly working but people also need to learn to be very self disciplined.

I personally think it's great as it allows for a lot of flexibility (ie you can work early in the am to be finished for the school run in the pm, you can stop for 1.5 hour to go and collect x parcel etc etc)
It is NOT going to work if you are in a company still checking how ,many hurs you actually doing suring the day, you have fixed hopopurs 'because that's what we do' etc...

You also need to remember that not everyone can work from home, even some of the time.

yanbu. I am currently on a one year wfh contract. I work just as hard as when I am in the office, probably more so because I will login outside of my core hours, but I don't waste hours travelling and can take the kids to school etc. I work in IT where it is completely acceptable and normal nowadays to at least work a day or two from home.

I would absolutely love to work from home. Finding those types of job is a nightmare in my field though so I would have to start from scratch again or - god forbit - sell aloe shite.

I've worked from home for 8 years, having spent 6 before that working in an office, largely doing the same role - or a more junior version of the same role.

For many years I worked exponentially harder at home than in the office - no time spent dealing with work politics crap, crap computers, moving cars to avoid parking wardens, dealing with ohter people's problems etc.

I invested in good tech so I rarely lose time to computer or software issues touches every bit of wood in the house and took on a LOT of work so I had to work hard to meet deadlines. I now have children and invested heavily in childcare to make sure I have free, undisturbed time.

Nowadays a lot of my work requires me to use Twitter, Facebook etc. I am finding it very easy to get distracted and procrastinate. Given it is a genuine work issue though, the same might apply in an office.

I think that RB68 has nailed it.

For about 5 years I worked in a very international department where people could be anywhere in Europe at any given time. In that department it was perfectly normal to phone people and ask where they were and what the weather was like. Of course in that environment there was no problem with working from home.

After that I worked in a different department but was largely home based. Unfortunately I was the only one and it was no surprise when a couple of years later I was made redundant. Out of sight was out of mind.

That's it. I am phoning the ward on Wed and telling them I am working from home they can send me the babies and I'll do what I need to from here .

I have never understood why working from home isn't more encouraged in industries that are able to support it, it makes perfect sense to my mind.

It really depends on the company culture, your own work ethic and how controlling your boss is.

I WFH and I get stuff done in half the time without the distractions of other people, boredom etc. It saves at least an hour's commute, time getting ready, no rush hour rage and the time I would have spent wasting time in the office, I put on a wash/prep dinner or whatever and still get more work done and I have more time in the evening with my family as a result.

But 95% of my work is independent tasks, most communication is done by IM and a few con calls.

However this is the culture of where I work and my manager as they value work/life balance etc. I have worked in other places where WFH was allowed in theory, but a culture of presenteeism and an overbearing boss made it a nightmare as if I showed as 'away' at any point of get a barrage of calls, emails etc asking what I was doing...

Definitely think it should be embraced more as it really does make a difference to my attitude to work.

I negotiated one day at home when taking on my new job (well, I didn't have to negotiate particularly hard, the company mentioned it first). It's fantastic, I only have to do a long commute and worry about parking twice a week (I work 3 days), I can log in early if I need to take a bit of time in the day for something else (I try my best to book stuff in on days off, but some of my regular appointments inevitably fall on work days, so I tend to try and have them on WFH days so I can juggle a bit more).

Yes, I might put some washing on, but 90% of my time, I'm working (I also have a system that monitors your use, so if my computer was frequently idle, I could be questioned about it). Because I'm at home, I barely feel as though I'm working (I also love my job, which helps), so I feel really balanced. In terms of presenter ism, I have two calls scheduled in every WFH day for which I need to have fully prepared what we're discussing, so just that alone is "proof" that I'm getting stuff done.

I also like having access to the system on my days off, as I can scan through emails and address anything potentially urgent or which it would be helpful to have my input sooner rather than later. I think having the company "giving" something to me by way of WFH, I'm more than happy to give up some of my time too.

I work from home, but then I am a freelancer and I don't work I don't get paid. Having said that I feel achieve a hell of a lot more than I did when i did work out of the home as I now have to do my work, client communication, business development and all my finance stuff.

It may be that when you have a salary coming in it's easier to slack off. It does take a lot of discipline to focus on things when you can see that a bit of washing needs to be done or there is no one watching if you do facebook.

I am taking a much needed lunchbreak at the mo though and I often work into the evenings!