To relish the prospect of wfh forever?

[yippityboomdeboom]

Pre-pandemic my department all worked from home 2 days a week and from the office for the other 3. It now appears they are going to downsize the office and we will likely work from home permanently, coming in only if we have a large meeting to attend.

AIBU to be thrilled at this prospect?? The thought of never having to deal with going into the office again has me salivating. No commute, no awkward chit chat at the water cooler, no eating lunch from a Tupperware, no getting dressed when you don't feel like it, no worrying who can hear you shitting in the toilets(!!). Always being home for parcel deliveries, to keep the dog company, when the kids are sick and need to stay home. BRING IT ON. Who's with me?

OP my lot won't be at school till 2022 😥

YANBU because each to their own and all offices are different, but I miss mine so much. I miss the easy, inconsequential interactions, I miss going out to buy lunch and eating it with other people. I miss working as a team without having to go, 'Can you see my screen, in cell E11...' I miss the sharing of food and drinks in meetings and hearing people laugh when the presenter made a joke (we're all on mute). I miss the walk to and from the train; the sofa is no distance from the dining table. I miss being in town and meeting friends after work or going shopping. I miss my dining table being a dining table.
Having said all that I could be persuaded to do a day or two a week from home in the long run, but God, I want the office back. I need people.

@user1972548274

It doesn't even make sense to drag people into an office to sit at desks for an arbitrary set of hours, harrumphing about their timekeeping if they arrive at 9.03am.

Humans are bonkers.

I have always thought this.

I’ve sat at my desk feeling like there’s a big invisible finger hovering about me saying “don’t move until lunch” ... so I don’t... it’s the weirdest thing,

I really miss the office. I enjoy the social aspect of work, listening to music and having a bit of peace on the train, drinks on a Friday, nice lunches etc and I really miss the easy access to senior colleagues to help with my work. All those who are keen to WAH forever must have the advantage of being able to work fairly independently. I do a technical job that I'm not yet experienced at so I do miss being able to turn to a colleague at a nearby desk.
I will grant you though that when we do go back I will miss being able to take a dump without having to wait for the loos to empty out and pray nobody comes in halfway through.

I absolutely love it! I do think it's making me more anti-social and lazy (physically not work-wise) but for me, the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

My office is always freeezing, we don't have a kitchen nearby so I end up dehydrated because I put off making a drink and I struggle to concentrate in a large, noisy, open-plan office.

At home I can curl up under a blanket in silence with a cup of tea and my cat and I feel so much less stressed.

I'm desperately holding out for confirmation that this can become permanent but have no idea what to expect.

I’d hate to work from home full time. One or two days a week would be great but not every day. I live alone in a small house so actually enjoy interacting with my colleagues. It does help that I have an easy commute.

A friend of mine has just started a new job and as everyone is working from home he hasn’t even met his co-workers yet. It’s not great for team building.

I actually was all for working from home forever at the beginning of this but now I’m struggling.
DP is self-employed and wasn’t able to work until about a month ago. While he was at home I was loving it but since he’s gone back to working long days 6 days a week I really hate it. I feel so lonely during the day and feel like I’m just sitting there waiting for him to come home even if it isn’t until 9pm.

I used to be super independent, out with friends multiple times a week and I hate this feeling. I really need some social interaction now

I'm a doctor and obviously don't work from home! But my colleagues are amazing and I would miss the fun and camaraderie if I worked from home.

We've been working from home since 2008. We converted our garage into a home office, I can appreciate there's a cost obviously but I don't think I would ever want to work in a shared office again. I am so much more time efficient, because I have the flexibility to do school runs. My company pays a home working allowance to pay for broadband and heating. I detest rush hour traffic, glad not to be a part of it.

I used to WFH 4 days a week anyway but I'm with you
The prospect of not having to go in even for 1 day a week is really good (as it's a 90 min commute each way on bus and tube)
I'm more than happy to never go into the office again (apart from the occasional team meeting/project kickoff meeting)
Although I am a bit worried about whatever I've left in my locker - possibly chocolate

Really sounds like you'll be living the dream! that's great news. I can totally get what you're saying. Although, at the moment I'm a SAHM, and I know that when I start work again I'll be happy to have adult conversation, but I'm also very aware that I would rather work in my pyjamas and be there when Amazon knocks.

Me I would love it. I’m hoping to come to a compromise of at least 2 days working from home if they ever say we have to go back to office.

I think actually it has made me decide I can’t go back to working in an office full time if they say we have to return to how it was. I’ll be looking for a new job that allows working from home.

I’ve been in a few days only so far - a few of my colleagues have been back pretty much full time for weeks - their choice - but after one day I couldn’t stand the constant banter, moaning, gossip - was exhausted by end of day. I swear I’m more productive wfh.

I'm with you on Team WFHForever. To my surprise, I absolutely love it. I don't ever want to go back to the office again.

Sorry, go back to the office full time again, that should say. I'm assuming I'll have to go back for some reason at some point in 2021!

I'm on mat leave atm but a colleague has told me they wont be going back until at the very earliest September - I hope it's not at all this year. I've also requested to work from home 2 days a week permanently when I return. I cant see how or why they would say no now, especially when productivity has apparently improved since people have wfh - no distractions I suppose!

It's not for me. I've WFH for the last 3 months and I've really missed the office social life. We are a small legal firm of about 20 people and I've missed just being in the office and talking to folk.

I only have a commute of about 15 minutes though and so might be different if it were hours!

Plus I work PT and so am home by 3.30 anyway.

I finally went back this week, and although more tiring than WFH, I've loved it. I feel part of things again.

I can see both sides but looking forward to going back to the office. For me the work home delineation is really important and I don’t want all my work paraphernalia at home thanks

I like many things about it. The morning is much more relaxed, when I was in the office it was such a rush to drop DD at nursery and get to work on time. At home (now she's back in nursery) it's much more chilled, and it's the same in the evenings, I'm not sprinting from the office at half 5 to make sure I'm home. For me that lack of stress is worth any downsides of wfh.

I'm worried about how I'm going to mentor graduates effectively. The ability to have a quick 5min chat, point out what they are doing wrong on their screen, sit and show how a sketch of a detail works up, all of those are going to be impossible over Teams. I'm worried that we will lose the skills if we don't train properly. We already have a skills shortage in the industry and this is going to make it worse.

Bloody love it, I've been told it'll be next year before we're back, so will get a better idea for it being long term. I'd be happy with going into the office for 2 days.

I miss being in the office so much! Going out for lunch, drinks after work.

I've always been an advocate, before all this I was only one day in the office anyway. I work in a high pressured job, the less general office bollocks around suits me perfectly.

However for every person like me there another one that enjoys all the office buckshot and banter bollocks. I feel for them.

I didn't mean that to be sarky in case it came across that way!

I love wfh full time. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that even when our offices open up , maybe in the autumn, that I will still be able to wfh full time. I save so much on fuel, and have no wish to talk to anyone in the day. My job is all computer based, and I communicate via emails or phone calls.

I love it, as I won’t need to walk to work I save an hour, I can use that hour to work at home which means my son will need less after school care.

I am a very social person, but I also see work as work rather than somewhere to make friends.