To think people are over looking the benefits of going to work

[Poptart4]

I keep hearing about how great working from home is. No commute, saving money, more family time etc.

But I think people are over looking the benefit's of actually going to work.

• Getting out of the house, personally I dont think its healthy to spend all (most) of your time within the same 4 walls.
• The social aspect of working. Alot of people make friends or at least acquaintances through work.
• I know alot of people who met their partner through work. And alot who just had fun casual hook ups with co-workers. Either way there will be less chances at romance because you will have less social interaction.
• As a mother I find going out to work gives me a life outside of being mammy. It gives me a little independence for myself. If I was working from home all of the time I would never be away from the children. Never get a break.
• No after work drinks, office xmas parties etc.
• I've also read some threads on here about couples fighting because one or both of them is working from home and there getting on each others nerves. Couples need time apart.

I really think once the novelty of working from home wears off alot of people are going to miss the hustle and bustle of office life. And alot of people are going to end up depressed. Especially for people who live alone. The lack of social interaction will impact them the most.

I’d like a balance, and after experiencing home working for the first time ever over lockdown, a mixture of that and going out to work is what I’m aiming for as soon as I can either negotiate it in my current role or else find amother job that offers that.

I like the social aspect of work, like getting ‘up and out’ at least some mornings and really enjoy face to face contact for some aspects of my work.

However, nothing can persuade me that I NEED to commute every day or endure eating my lunch in front of a screen for the sake of presenteeism EVER again.

Lockdown gave me my time - and therefore my life - back. Instead of a commute, I can meditate and do yoga or go for a walk before work. Instead of rushed lunches in my office, I can cook a healthy meal and have it in my garden or at my kitchen table, listening to music or the radio. When I finish work for the day, my evening starts straight away - no commute, no rushing about. My days feel longer, calmer and much, much healthier.

I’m not going back to the old, stressy ways. No way.

I had a meal.out with a friend who is senior at her company. They like the idea of some staff working from home as they can be more efficient. When this was talked about at a board meeting less than 2 minutes after "more efficient" was said the word "redundancies" was said.

Also I feel that, in general, those at the office have a greater chance of promotion that those at home. WFH will suit more women than men so...

Whenever big companies restructure or reorganize there are winners and losers. The company will always be the winners.

Be careful what you wish for.

and there has been absolutely no negative impact on my clients. So it’s a win-win.

When the kids go back to school I'm going to work from home half the week and the office the other half. I like both.

Previously I WFH always on a Friday, sometimes another day a week if I had an appointment, but it isn't encouraged. I hated full time WFH initially but it has grown on me as I've seen the benefits for me personally.

My relationships with colleagues I have worked with for years, mostly remote, has improved immensely since working from home. I can go onto zoom sessions and speak freely without the open plan office 'audience', I don't need to switch between mute on/off so the person I am talking too doesn't hear the constant background noise of other zoom calls or chatter, I don't need to strain to understand a difficult accent with noise in the background, it is much more natural, relaxed and we can both be the real us.

I can concentrate on work and I am much more productive and much less stressed trying to get through busy times without managing distractions from people I share office space with.

While I like (most of) and miss the people in my office, they are also a hindrance and I never realised before just how much stress they cause me. I dont miss putting earphones in with music high just to try to blot the noise out while working on something complex. I don't miss hearing the same old repetitive daily moans and whinging about how "system users don't know/follow their processes" or "why are they coming to me, it is not my job".....arggghhh well do something about it!!!!!

I like having low background music when not in calls and notice my tinnitus much less.

I can walk the dog at lunchtime and get some fresh air, ready for the afternoon.

I am fortunate I have a full sized office desk (bigger than my actual office desk) at home, in a room where I can shut the door and work, or shut the door when the working day is over.

Overall I would prefer working from home more often.

Extroverts will miss it,

As lots of PPs have pointed out, there are loads of different factors that decide how it works, or doesn't, for each of us.

I really enjoyed eating and drinking at the lovely subsidised restaurants at work, requiring no planning and no washing up but then often found myself having to eat out when at home too, because there was never anything to eat in the house.

Now we have a regular, weekly food delivery, a bit of meal planning provides less waste and delicious meals to share with DH. What used to be a weekly "date night" is our new normal every day.

As an extrovert, I would expect to really miss interaction.

However, I have actually got to know more of my colleagues from other offices because we spend a bit of time chatting before and after scheduled meetings, in a way that we just never did before these new circumstances.

Set up a couple of regular social video calls with friends I would not otherwise see because they live far away.

We are always changing and adapting to circumstances. It's not always easy, it can indeed be painful and there will always be winners and losers.

The basic requirement for long term WFH is really good quality IT equipment and support. Once that is in place, it's possible to turn attention to how best to develop the soft skills and development generally.

Relying on 'being around' to disseminate information had winners and losers, depending who was in with the in crowd. Making sure that information is available to everyone is always a challenge that people are stepping up to.

Making the most of the opportunities that come along works best for me.

I work as a freelance on contracts. The past 5 years I have been able to work 1 or 2 days per week (or more, if necessary) which was great, although I often went into the office on a Friday as it was quieter then ;-) depending on how the project was progressing.
This year I changed roles (multi-million € project completed successfully) and it was a disaster. Not really able to work at home at all (boss a presenteeism freak), did it a couple of times, but the nature of the work made it challenging. Goals and tasks changed at least weekly, sometimes daily, much lower level of system access, not given access to the correct software etc. etc.
We were sent home on 11th March and I continued as best I could until after Easter, when I had an epiphany and resigned. Immediate relief! I will be looking for a new project towards the end of the year, but have already spoken severely to myself about finding something where the atmosphere is pleasant and collegial. I used to enjoy going into the office, latterly I hated it.

Getting out of the house, personally I dont think its healthy to spend all (most) of your time within the same 4 walls.

We’ll be the judge of that thank you. I do think it’s healthy. Healthier than being stuck on public transport every day. Healthier than sitting in a sterile, unstimulating office.

The social aspect of working. Alot of people make friends or at least acquaintances through work.

Yes agree. I have all the friends I need at this stage but I can see younger people (or lonely people) might benefit more from office culture. Horses for courses!

I know alot of people who met their partner through work. And alot who just had fun casual hook ups with co-workers. Either way there will be less chances at romance because you will have less social interaction.

Yes. As above.

If I was working from home all of the time I would never be away from the children.

Heaven for some; hell for others. Again horses for courses.

No after work drinks, office xmas parties etc.

Thank fuck.

I've also read some threads on here about couples fighting because one or both of them is working from home and there getting on each others nerves. Couples need time apart.

Yes. I’m not in a ‘couple’ and don’t particularly want to be. But that will be true for some.

I really think once the novelty of working from home wears off alot of people are going to miss the hustle and bustle of office life.

No. Anyway, happy to go in once a week if we get coronavirus more under control.

And alot of people are going to end up depressed. Especially for people who live alone.

Nope. Just come off my antidepressant (slowly) after 5 years.

The lack of social interaction will impact them the most.

I still see my friends and go for walks etc. Also doing occasional social zoom sessions with colleagues.

I don’t feel I’m lacking any social interaction. If you add in all the zoom sessions with family some of whom I’ve never even met before because they are scattered round the world, I’m having more meaningful interactions, not less.

I think it depends where you are in your life and career. My children are older so I dont need me time away from them. I'm pretty much done with the need for social interaction as I've been in offices for 20 years or so, and I've already met my life partner. As for sitting in 4 walls, that's what I've done in offices for hours on end, not able to go out. At home, I go for 3 walks a day and can potter about in the garden for the odd 10 mins when I fancy.

I agree with you OP- there's a lot you can get from at least a few days in the office per month.

Also for young people starting out, moving to new jobs and building their live and finding relationships, working from home is the kiss of death. Of course working from home suits middle-aged people with existing families and a circle of established friends, but it can't be all about us- we are already advantaged in this situation.

I do love working from home but I'd like a middle-way of some WFH, some office time, and yes, some socializing. I don't think it's sad to like your colleagues enough to go for a drink with them- in fact, my working from home lately consists of going around to their houses and sitting outside chatting about work- it would be a shame for young people to miss out on all this because some people who've done that part of life now don't want to continue.

@IrmaFayLear

It depends on one’s stage of life. Some people - older, secure, in a relationship, children, big house, garden - are laughing. Other people - in a flat share, studio flat, not much social contact - are miserable.

Ds’s friend is training with a large company. He is now fully wfh. Training by zoom, work online. He is 22. He says he would rather do anything for half the pay rather than be stuck forever in his bedroom all day. At least he has a job. Nearly all ds’s friends have had their graduate training schemes axed.

It is so smug when people say they are just fine at home. Presumably they at some point socialised, met a partner, went out . And, of course, they were actually able to apply for and start jobs, unlike current young people who are watching all the Smuggery Smugs hauling up the ladder and waving from their home offices.

Agree with you completely. For middle aged folks with houses, space, families who have no interest in career development, it works. (I fall into this category). However for younger people it's really not great, living in a shared flat with everyone working in their bedrooms, no way of developing their careers. The point is that it's great to have the flexibility but I'm concerned companies will decide to cut the cost of the office and leave everyone to it

Also, dont forget that thousands of people are carers and benefit from not rushing from pillar to post after or before work. They can now be more flexible and not have to be in an office waiting for a phone call to say something has gone wrong at home.

I agree with most of your points.
There are only two things I don’t miss:
The commute
Working in an arctic air0conditioned office with low light levels

I also miss wearing nice clothes and make up, the delicious meals and baking our staff canteen provided, brainstorming ideas with my team, the banter. It is never the same on Teams. I am fortunate that I have a great boss and work with some lovely people. and I realise that not everyone is as lucky.

We tend not to have after works drinks as most people have a long commute by car.

Nothing you have mentioned appeals to me at all, I have friends and family to socialise with

Well, good for you. But for some people their friends are work based friends, and not everyone lives near their families. Are people not allowed to become friends with their workmates?

FinnyStory raises some valid points, especially re progression. Also, not everyone has ideal office space at home. We have Teams meetings most days and one of our team is at the kitchen table, another in a bedroom and another in her living room. I had enough space in a spare bedroom to have a proper office set up with desk and chair, plus my CPU and two widescreen monitors with webcam and headset. I can leave everything out and not have to pack it away every evening.

Also, some people have a less than ideal home life, and going to work is their escape.

You can still talk to them by phone/office communicator etc. If you're good friends, you could still meet outside of working hours

It isn’t the same at all

DD is away at university, so looking after family isn’t an issue here. Some things take longer because a two-way conversation is often typed rather than spoken. Yes, we ring each other on Teams, but not as often as I would speak to someone who was sitting next to me just for a quick question that requires a quick answer.

You’ve overlooked that most of MN hate their work colleagues and don’t consider them anything like friends. Whereas in RL most of us have smashing work colleagues that become very close pals, come to our weddings, know our partners/children, we even go out and socialise.

That’s certainly the impression I get as well @maddiemookins16mum. Mumsnet has a disproportionate number of introverts/socially anxious/unsociable people who post on threads like this, and this is clearly reflected in the responses on this thread.

Oh, and I don’t find wearing a bra uncomfortable

Going forward all of my team will be splitting WFH with going to the office once a week.

IrmaFayLear I see you said what I was thinking- only more stylishly!

Some of this thinking strikes me as being really short sighted if you have any ambition whatsoever. I appreciate many of us may be in positions where wfh suits us due to current family commitments but we presumably also have dcs whose chances this way of working will impact in years to come. It is naive to think it won't.

I am SMT at my organisation, I joined in a very junior role and worked my way up over several years via contributions on projects, secondments into other teams and learning as much as I could. None of that could have happened remotely, or not nearly so easily. I genuinely like being in the office and around my colleagues. It's stimulating and sparks fresh ideas.

I guess it all really depends on your role, your sector and your career expectations. I think it's a real risk not to at least appear fully engaged in this climate. If that means going into an office occasionally to show your face in real life, I would do that.

I worked from home anyway so covid made no difference to me (until I got made redundant).

I really liked WFH. Most of my team were global so I only saw a handful of people when I went into an office several times a month anyway.

I much preferred the stress-free start to the day. What a waste of time commuting is! Nothing worse than traffic jams, train or bus delays that mean you've been up for 3 hours before you even get to work.

I always had to get back for nursery or school pick up, so never went to after work drinks. I can't stand office romances or flings they just make everyone else uncomfortable, so glad not to have to witness that anymore.

I enjoyed not having to dress up everyday. If I had a cold or was feeling a bit under the weather I could work quietly. I had my own clean toilet to use when I wanted. My lunch was always something yummy and it was free! I didn't have to make tea for anyone else. I was always here when DD came home from school. I could put the dinner in and carry on working so we got to eat at a reasonable time. I could get all the washing done.

The best bit was that I could work for a company that was miles away. I met people from other cultures. I could talk to people via video link whenever I liked so didn't feel like I was missing out socially. I could do online career development and courses whenever I liked or just talk to a colleague if I had a question. I didn't have to listen to music I don't want to listen to, or overhear bitchy gossip I didn't want to know about.

I can't think of any positives for me to working in an office 🤷‍♀️

I'd quite happily never step foot in an office again.

much nicer lunches,

Oh yes that too

I do work an extra hour or so than before but it’s still worth it for me.

Also, if the stats are to be believed, mental health problems have doubled in lockdown. That's diagnosable disorders, I'm fairly sure that people just feeling down/lacking direction/discombobulated is even higher. I think some staying at home can work positively for mental health, but perhaps in the short term for those whose lives were overloaded, but longer term I am not convinced. I have ended up working nearly all the time- so most days, as my work has leeched into my social time. I've had to go back to the beginning and set boundaries around my work time.

I hear from managers I know that whilst older family people (both men and women) are liking working from home as their lives were overbusy with commuting/childcare issues, many younger colleagues are struggling with their mental health, quite profoundly.

I think that people with children/partners forget that that actually is their social life- that they have social contact every day with other people, even if those people aren't friends. Families are sociable! Younger colleagues living alone often don't have that social contact and it's really bad for people's mental health to live alone without any.

I'm a health care professional so cannot work from home easily. We have moved to training days and courses online. I'm finding the switch to virtual meetings hard enough. You lose the vibe of the room and the ability to read others reactions. It completely changes the dynamic and it's even harder to get the quieter members of teams to contribute as the loud ones dominate.

I also agree re outsourcing and also automation. I think a lot of jobs will be lost to overseas.

Personally getting out the house onto a different environment is good for me. Id hope a part time wfh part time office would work well for companies

@carlywurky

You can do all the learning, networking and knowledge sharing you talk about remotely. I have done it for a number of years - it's just a different way of doing things to what most people are used to.

I do actually think the generations coming behind us will be able to develop their careers remotely more easily as they are way more tech savvy and open to an online way of working that many of our generation are.

Communicating well online takes a certain skill set. Our children do it now as a matter of course - I think WFH will open up bigger opportunities to work in careers in other countries that were previously not possible. I think there are endless exciting opportunities for those that want them.

Its brill that you miss some of the nasty vibes from colleagues, for example if you have said something that upsets them and they pull faces and ignore you for hours. At home you dont even see that.

Yanbu, however I think being able to continue to wfh one or two days per week will be good for wellbeing, help reduce commuter congestion and benefit the environment.

My work are letting me do 1/2 days wfh and 3/4 in the office each week.

I am in the fortunate position of having dedicated office space at home. So while I am stuck looking at 4 walls at least I get to decide what colour those walls are! So much better than the bilious green in the corporate office!

WFH has worked so much better for me. Far easier to get hold of people when they are on the end of a phone. Better than office based when people were forever 'getting a coffee' an disappearing for hours on end.

I am more than happy for the people who are missing the social aspects of work to go back into the office. What I dont want is to be dragged back into the office to provide another face for them to be sociat at.

It definitely depends on circumstances.

I’m in my 40s, married, have teenagers, live in a house that’s large enough to give me comfortable space to work. I have great friends and other social networks, and am established in my career. Working from home largely works well for me.

In my 20s, single, flat sharing, just starting out in my career and being a social butterfly, I would have found wfh isolating, frustrating and depressing. I was out every night for work drinks on those days, met my DH through work, loved the buzz of my big open plan office and progressed in my career through lots of socialising and networking, I feel sad for the younger folks.

I also needed to work outside of the home when my kids were small. It was my sanity and gave me an identity away from domesticity and motherhood. I clearly remember skipping along on my commute in my nice work clothes with a coffee in hand and small handbag (not cumbersome nappy bag!) and thinking ‘thank god I can escape to work for a few hours!’

I don't think learning and developing remotely works as well. Of course you can do a lot of it, but not all. I work on a profession where we have new intakes of trainees every year for a two year traineeship. I feel so sorry for them; we've all tried our best but the first few weeks training being run entirely online has left them very bored and demotivated, even though they are trying hard not to be. The point of their traineeship is to watch and learn from the qualified professionals - but if all the qualified professionals are staying wfh, how does that work for the younger generation?

Agree very strongly that wfh suits certain people a lot, but again (yet again in this pandemic!) it's the younger generation losing out