Am I missing something about working from home?

[Ava2323]

I just don't get it....

So background, I've always worked in central London in a professional office job. Mostly I've WFH one day a week and liked escaping the distractions of an open plan office for a day each week to get my head down to concentrate on a big document/project etc - really productive.

Then a year before lockdown I went freelance so completely home based. It was good. I worked from client offices, co working spaces, cafes and the spare room at home. It was really flexible, each day was different and I could be around more to pick up DD from nursery then do work in evening if needed.

In lockdown my freelance work disappeared and I managed to find a contract role for a big company in April (DH was on furlough so we needed the cash). The job is fine and people nice. But I have loathed it for a number of reasons:

• being cooped up in our spare room day after day with just my laptop and Zoom calls for company. It's lonely, claustrophobic and sedentary.
• lost collaboration - everything seems to take longer and you don't learn anything through little chats in passing anymore and much harder to get a sense of team
• having DD and DH in the same house a lot of the time, even though they're downstairs I just find it really distracting
• no separation between work life and home life
• awkward to run errands (I'd often pop to dry cleaners, pick up something for tea on my way home and now everything feels like a special trip, nothing is incidental anymore)
• lack of networking/socialising - I used to meet up with people a lot for drinks/coffee/dinner etc

I just find the whole thing really one dimensional and souless and I feel like my mental wellbeing is far worse than pre-lockdown. 5 months in my motivation and productivity is poor. Yet I hear everywhere people saying they love it and they never want to go back to the office and their wellbeing is so much better and they love spending more time with family. As someone who was a seasoned home worker before I just don't get why I've struggled so much when everyone else seems to love it.
And don't get me wrong, I love DH and DD v much but I really don't want to see them all the bloody time!

Am I a total weirdo?!

I think a lot of companies want everyone to live working from home so they can downsize their offices and save loads of dosh which will go in bigger dividends and salaries for the top guys.

No consideration for the mere worker - the cost of working from home (appropriately desk & chair, utilities inc heating for over half the year). Not everyone has good internet speeds or enough space for a separate office, especially if their partner also wfh.
Remember too lots of young people do not own their own place. Many are in flat shares so basically working in their bedroom.

I think that many would welcome a day or two a week at home (I would) but not full time wfh.

I hate it too as do most of my colleagues. I did wish I could do it this morning because of the extra hour in bed, but as a permanent way of working it's AWFUL.
It's bad for our mental and physical health and, pandemic aside, the only people really benefiting our employers who can offload the cost of running the building onto their staff.

I love it because it makes my life so less stressful. I used to spend 2.5 hours a day commuting to go into a horrible open plan office for 5 hours (part time worker) where I wasn't even guaranteed a desk.

I would always end up rushing out of work to try and get to school to pick up DC feeling fraught and stressed all the time. I tried to WFH one day a week but inevitably people would put meetings in my diary for that day that demanded me physically going in. I'm glad the culture has changed. It's stopped meetings for the sake of it and loads of wasted time with people just hanging around 'networking' i.e. gossiping about others.

I expect that as time goes on I will go into work occasionally or meet people at different venues. I'm not missing the office

YANBU, I’ve worked from home for 15 years but with the large corporate office just ten m,lies away for social interaction, collaboration, lunch time spent in the city etc.

Now everyone works from home, that office option has gone, even though i rarely used it, and i have to share my home during the day with DH when it used to be me, tidy house and the cats.

I actually long to work in an office full time now to separate that work life from home life, which was never an issue before.

Weird.

I work 3 days a week and my ideal would be to work one day at home. Preferably my middle day. I quite like being in the office but not all week.

"And as for those who live alone , must be a nightmare."

Yep, especially during lockdown when you couldn't go out in the evening either. Just total isolation.

" I used to spend 2.5 hours a day commuting to go into a horrible open plan office for 5 hours (part time worker)"

Why would you take a part time job with a long commute though?

especially during lockdown when you couldn't go out in the evening either. Just total isolation.

I remember moving to a new job aged aboit 25 and living on my own in a new town. Going to the office was the only social interaction I had. The weekends were horribly long and to do that for weeks on end must be awful.

Hi @Gwenhwyfar - didn't chose to do this just combination of circumstances. city congestion has just got steadily worse making my journey slower. then I had to change my hours when DC went to school so I could do pick up as there was no wrap around care available the days I needed (even though I'd had my name on the waiting list for 18 months). Then the final nail in the coffin was an enforced change of workplace which added an extra 15 minutes walk each way.

It's interesting, I'm quite similar OP. I did a job for several years when I worked at home whenever I wasn't teaching (I was an academic) or in for some other specific thing at work, which usually worked at about three days a week. I changed jobs last September to a professional services role at a university, which was office-based. We're all at home now and I've been told my team won't be back in until Jan at the earliest.

I am the only one in my team of nine who isn't loving working from home. I think it's a few different things: I'm the only one with a young child at home (and I do think I'm still recovering from how horrible life was when we were both trying to work full-time around an under two), being relatively new it's been much harder for me to work without established networks and when I have to ask questions much more often than everyone else, I live a 10 minute cycle from work so I'm not saving much time by not commuting (though no one in my team takes longer than 30 mins to get from their house to the office). But I do also think that it not being a novelty for me is a big difference, too. One of the reasons I left academia was that post-DC I couldn't cope any more with the long hours and lack of boundaries between 'work' and 'life' (or, indeed, the expectation that my work was my life). Everyone else in my office has always envied the much greater 'flexibility' that the academics we work with have, and I don't think they see th at they might be at home a lot and able to disappear for a morning without telling anyone, but they don't switch off at 5.15pm either. I think there are a lot of disadvantages to flexibility - which always has to go two ways and not having an office where you leave your work, and I do wonder whether some of my colleagues who currently love WFH will come to agree in the longer-term.

I also didn't actually always work at home when WFH in my old job. I went to the library quite often even when I didn't need library resources, and I would often break up my day by going to work in a coffee shop for an hour or two. Being stuck in the spare room all day every day is quite different and much worse.

YANBU. I know I’m not saying anything new here but I think the problem at the moment isn’t working from home but the circumstances in which you’re working from home. WFH a few days a week on your terms can be great if you have the correct equipment and space. Enforced WFH full time when your activities outside the home are limited and all your family is at home too is a totally different ball game!

@Monkeynuts18

YANBU. I know I’m not saying anything new here but I think the problem at the moment isn’t working from home but the circumstances in which you’re working from home. WFH a few days a week on your terms can be great if you have the correct equipment and space. Enforced WFH full time when your activities outside the home are limited and all your family is at home too is a totally different ball game!

Yeah, I reckon you've got the nail on the head, the situation sucks

Yep agree. My “desk” is basically in the open plan “through room“ with the whole family going past all the time. I would kill for a spare room to have an office. Add in this ridiculous assumption that full time wfh means you can also fit in homeschooling and get to grips with KS2 syllabuses at the same time as interacting on your team zoom meeting - it’s a mess. A bodge. I don’t actually know how we’ve survived.

But I can’t face hauling all the furniture and IT equipment back to the office, only to be told to isolate at short notice and having to haul it all back. On balance that is worse. But schools going back will help massively.

I think extroverts struggle more with it than introverts, obviously because extroverts thrive on being around people. I'm an introvert and love having space to myself. Never worked better and nor have my colleagues, but we're basically all the same really.

Some people won't like it, others will love it and thrive on it. Neither is bad, it's just not right for you. It doesn't work for me being in an office.

Some people won't like it, others will love it and thrive on it. Neither is bad, it's just not right for you. It doesn't work for me being in an office

Ultimately it's what's good for your organisation

It's no good enjoying being at home if another company is more productive, more creative, more responsive etc because of the way they work.

I really enjoy it and it works for the business. No doubt I'll end up back at some point.

I think I would like it better if I had an office at home. Trying to work at a small kitchen table on a kitchen chair with a laptop and other people wandering in and out is not a barrel of laughs. That's before you get to the lack of social interaction, lunches on your own etc. Admittedly we can't have lunches together at work any more (well no more than two together) either but I really miss that sitting around and chatting over lunch.

[quote Ava2323]@TheGlitterFairy Friday afternoons are the worst part of it - I have got jack shit all done this afternoon! Keep getting distracted by the laundry basket, fridge, putting the kettle on etc - major procrastination going on![/quote]
So this is more about your inability to focus on your work than anything else! I LOVE WFH, I have got 2 hours of my life back, and I am far more productive as there are no distractions, I do put the odd load of washing on but when I am boiling the kettle - not leaving work to do housework. However DH is starting to hate it. At the end of the day it's horses for courses, it will suit some and not others.

Ultimately it's what's good for your organisation

It's no good enjoying being at home if another company is more productive, more creative, more responsive etc because of the way they work.

I work for the government so got no chance of being outshone by anyone else. I get what you mean though.

I never liked wfh, only did it when I needed to be home for a delivery or something. I've got used to it, it's better since I turned the spare bedroom into an office (needs more work but I'm waiting to see how permanent this is) at least I can shut the door on it. Workload is the same as before, but I have the same flexibility with my hours. I didn't have a long commute so I haven't gained time that way but I can pop a load in the washer when I go to make a drink and start dinner prep at lunchtime. I'm looking forward to DD being back at school and getting onto a proper routine with the house to myself.

I have a few colleagues with younger children who have definitely been cut a lot of slack, they're going to be in for a shock when schools go back and they have no reason not to be back to full productivity.

Could be a mix of the contract nature of job, team, lack of proper home office, wfh discipline (separate home life) and extroverted personality.

Many people really appreciate the increased work life balance and find that what can be done in front of a PC and phone in an office / meeting room can be done at home / videoconference or less pointless meetings. Some people socialise with non work friends.

I've loved working from home, because of the freedom and privacy and the lack of hassle, but I know couples with young kids who're really struggling. I work with a father whose little boy is constantly yelling in the background while he's on conference calls.

I can understand what you feel that way.

But I love it. My anxiety has all but disappeared (along with having to deal with IBS!). So for me it’s the best thing that I’ve ever done.

I took on a new role and my previous role was very stressful. I never had time to talk to colleagues anyway and I found the environment toxic. If anything my wfh job is more social as I am always chatting away on teams.

There’s no way I ever want to go back to an office after this. I feel like I have reclaimed my life completely. I can work flexibility, there’s no more rushing to nursery and then work whilst always having a cold.

I do find routine helps. I try to exercise, make smoothies and make use of my lunch breaks. My social life is better as I am not constantly emotionally exhausted from being at work.

I’m only about a month in so who knows, maybe my opinion will change but I know I will struggle if I ever have to go back.

As lockdown started at the end of UK winter (March), the days were getting longer and it somehow felt more pleasant being at home all the time when the weather was nice and long light evenings. I've really enjoyed the lack of commute, the absence of exhaustion thru battling back home from the city centre after a busy day, I'd been noticing the deterioration in volume of traffic, it seemed to get worse. It certainly resolved traffic congestion issues!

Wfh gives me the immediacy of getting up and doing a bit of exercise, showering and still being logged on by 8.45. All this without the burden of travel (and saving £300/month and all the mileage on my car).

No way could I get away with down-time during the day, it is really easy to pick up on anyone 'slacking off'. It just isn't the culture in our place. In fact absenteeism has reduced to an all time low. 96% attendance across our govt dept (13,000 staff total).