Google employees 'more productive working from home'

[RUNFAST11]

To think we will see most people who can work from home WFH in the next 2 years?

www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/11/19/google-employees-productive-working-home/

Do you prefer WFH or going to your workplace? Or a mixture of both?

I love WFH. I don't have to set an alarm, get all dressed up and made up, pack a lunch, take an expensive and uncomfortable train journey, go into the office and make smalltalk and feel like I'm on display. I can wake up naturally, take the dog for a nice leisurely morning walk, wear comfortable clothes and hang out with the pets all day. And I can cook nice lunches and dinners without being in a massive rush plus I'm saving money on takeaways.

WFH is definitely not more productive in my experience. Things that would have been a quick question over the desk now needs to be a phone call/email/chat message. More often then not there is a delay until the person is available to speak or replies to your message.

Also the ad-hoc conversations that can help you progress your own work don’t happen now.

Obviously it does depend on your work but for mine it is definitely not more productive and personally I am not benefiting. Used to walk to work and took my own lunch in so not saving any money

Sooner the office is open and life begins again the better. This has been the most demotivating year of my career

I love working from home. Its 95% better for me (some face to face contact is nice so I gave it 5%). I haven't had a single cold, virus, migraine, bad back, its cheaper (commute), healthier food, I get to work harder, sleep more/better and control my environment.

I think most people prefer working from home at least some of the time rather than being fully office based.

However the issue is that a lot of people are quite a bit less productive at home, and depending on the type of work, it can be quite difficult to see the slackers, whereas when you're in the office you can see who takes a 90 min lunch break, is always on their personal phone, or wandering about chatting to colleagues. I know some of the standards of work produced in our organisation since March have been lower than previously. I don't think we have anyone whose performance has improved since being at home.

Ideas I don't start work any earlier and have made sure I am not available at all hours. I never was when I was in the office and I'm not doing it when I'm in my own home. Why don't you walk halfway to work then back in the morning so you arrive at home as if it were the office at the time you used to arrive at the office? Make it work better for you.

I prefer working in the office. But then I work there 2 days, and walk to work, so no commute.

There was an article in the Times today claiming the opposite. Although the point was more that people are working longer hours to get their work done so were less productive per hour spent working (but maybe they take time off in the day to go for a run or shop when there's no queue or to do the school run etc).

Sooner the office is open and life begins again the better. This has been the most demotivating year of my career

I think the significant thing there is the word "career".

I think those with jobs like WFH, those with careers want to be in the office to make sure they are noticed for their next step.

My company have sacked off the big office and have a new small one with only a few desks. We can book a desk if we fancy going in from time to time but the expectation is that we will all mostly be WFH forever.

I hate DH working from home.. as does he. It's ok during school hours, but stressful afterwards. Our house hasn't got the best soundproofing. OTOH, having a work laptop means off hours emergencies are quicker to deal with... A couple of weeks ago he managed to deal with such an issue while communicating with a colleague 50miles away, also on a work laptop. Took about 15mins. Before, they would have spent that initial 15minutez getting at least one of them into the office...

Flexible working sounds ideal.

I have friends working from home in light, bright offices in their large homes, enjoying the lack of commute and the extra time spent with their children. But I also have friends working from their sofas in cramped flats missing their colleagues and lunchtime walks through the town.

I like wfh. We’ve been more productive than ever so hope company is happy to carry on. I work in consultancy which has meant people from around the country can work on the same project without the need of being together.
I’m hoping to only go back the minimum when this is over

I think those with jobs like WFH, those with careers want to be in the office to make sure they are noticed for their next step

I think if it’s anything, it’s the opposite. Those with a career are about doing the work. Those with a job are the ones that care about the social time. But in reality, I don’t think there is a pattern there.

My career involves a lot of collaboration and relationship building with clients. I like working from home that I’m not a morning person so lying in until 8.15am to start working at 8.30 ish is heaven. overall, I’d say I’m less productive.
In an ideal world I’d work 2 or 3 days at home, so in the office for meetings and strategising and then home for focused time to work on projects etc. I hope people do go back to work. I need house prices in London to not collapse!

@MiaMarshmallows

Also, as one of my friends said, it will create a divide between the wealthy who can work from home and the ones that have no choice but to work away from home. I sort of get her point.

As the pandemic continues, it’s beneficial to everyone for as many people to be working from home as possible. Well, everyone except people who work in sandwich shops etc. But if you have to go to work on the bus, wouldn’t you rather be on a half empty bus than on a bus full of people being forced into commuting when they don’t need to?

And why the hell should they pay more tax? I don’t understand the logic of this at all.

I'm happy wfh but i am far less productive than i am in the office.

Hopefully we'll end up qith 3 days at home and 2 in the office

Also, as one of my friends said, it will create a divide between the wealthy who can work from home and the ones that have no choice but to work away from home. I sort of get her point

^

This too.

My employers have offices all over the world and are in the process of shuttering some of the small ones and reduce the footprint of others. My local office won’t see any changes yet, but we’ll all be allowed to work from home for at least most of the week post-pandemic. I already worked from home 3 days a week, and I’m hoping to get that to 9 days a fortnight. I’m miles more productive now I’m at home every day.

@cologne4711

Sooner the office is open and life begins again the better. This has been the most demotivating year of my career

I think the significant thing there is the word "career".

I think those with jobs like WFH, those with careers want to be in the office to make sure they are noticed for their next step.

May be for some but as you have quoted my post I will say you have me completely wrong.

I couldn’t care less about the annual office visibility competition but I do think WFH is very isolating, not good for collaboration and productivity.

I do feel for those just starting out in their careers (definitely not me) who will miss out on the opportunities to observe people and the office environment which massively helps with their development

I like a mix but i work a less than 15 min drive from home - I find myself a lot less stressed despite achieving more at home but I think there are benefits of being with other people both socially & in terms of networking & relationship building as long as other people are also there. At the moment there's no point going in because there's no-one else there....
A mix would suit me in the future, I can't imagine working full time in the office again.

I think this question massively depends on the work you do, your commute, your home set-up and your team/colleagues.

I like the flexibility of being able to work from home if needed but am really missing out on the collaborative nature of office working. I’m an in-house comms lead in a relatively small organisation and used to pick up a huge amount of info through casual chats in the office, proper face to face meetings and general ‘osmosis’. Quick fact-checking or questions that would take 30secs can now take half an hour of circular emails or instant messages.

Everyone is doing their best via teams/zoom etc but a lot of my colleagues aren’t very tech savvy so it’s like pulling teeth some days to get the information I need to write an article for our website or have a quick chat with two people about an ongoing project.

Im working in a rickety desk in the spare room (DH worked from home already and has an office in the garage) and we’re getting under each other’s feet.

I’ve actually been back in the office a couple of days a week since nurseries went back but there’s only been one other person in so it’s not made a huge amount of difference!

The idea of taxing those who work from home is most likely because they are saving costs on wraparound childcare, transport costs and what have you. Where as those with jobs which can't be done from home are still having to pay all those costs.
It's not my suggestion by the way, it was in the media earlier this week.

I think wfh can get a bad rep as so many people say things like 'Well, now I don't need to spend on childcare as I can have them at work with me and look after them while I work.' and 'Now, I get to wake up late and have more downtime.' DP works very hard from home but is lucky to earn a very high wage, have flexible hours which fit around childcare and not have any concerns about losing his job. He loves wfh and I have loved the time with him but I know from speaking with other friends wfh, they have not enjoyed it so much and are looking forward to being back in the office.

I prefer working in the office. I never thought I'd say that, but I really struggle to compartmentalise at home. The structure of work and the social aspect are very important to me, I've come to realise.

I was doing well at the beginning by setting up an office in the box room... then I started to feel claustrophobic. So I moved around: to the sofa, dining table, boyfriend's desk, garden... Then I became distracted. Now I'll be on a conference call not really paying attention because I'm doing the laundry or re-organising my cupboards. I take ages doing simple things because I lack the infrastructure to do them efficiently, e.g. I can't print stuff out to read over and edit. For some reason I am blind to grammatical errors on a screen.

I eat far too much and move far too little at home, so I have grown fat. I am lonely and isolated and feel anxious about stepping outside, so I go shopping for food as often as possible so that I have a reason to get out. My sleep schedule is fucked; I just don't want to get up in the morning, and I don't want to go to sleep at night because then I'll have to wake up ... it's an endless cycle.

I even miss my commute: a 20 minute walk to the train station, 45 mins to read a book, pick up a croissant on my way to the office on Fridays...

I WFH three days per week before COVID and put up with a couple of old fashioned 9-5 bums on seats eye rolls about my flexible working arrangements. They were the biggest time wasters, talking shit and holding court making meetings unnecessarily long.

My team and I are most definitely more productive. We have put in place an Initiative to NOT work commute and instead go for a walk in daylight. I'm glad my organisation allows all people of all grades to WFH.

I started work the minute I arrived in the office and are angled my day around meetings. If I didn't work from home too, I'd never get most of my work done. Lots of time wasting goes on in the office. There's something to be said for getting to know people on a personal level.

In our old office space we had 80% capacity and everyone was expected to WFH one day per week. We have already been told we will not go back to that but not what that means.

I have made a lot of close friends from work so I will definitely go back into the office at lease some of the time.

@Sadhoot

I prefer working in the office. I never thought I'd say that, but I really struggle to compartmentalise at home. The structure of work and the social aspect are very important to me, I've come to realise.

I was doing well at the beginning by setting up an office in the box room... then I started to feel claustrophobic. So I moved around: to the sofa, dining table, boyfriend's desk, garden... Then I became distracted. Now I'll be on a conference call not really paying attention because I'm doing the laundry or re-organising my cupboards. I take ages doing simple things because I lack the infrastructure to do them efficiently, e.g. I can't print stuff out to read over and edit. For some reason I am blind to grammatical errors on a screen.

I eat far too much and move far too little at home, so I have grown fat. I am lonely and isolated and feel anxious about stepping outside, so I go shopping for food as often as possible so that I have a reason to get out. My sleep schedule is fucked; I just don't want to get up in the morning, and I don't want to go to sleep at night because then I'll have to wake up ... it's an endless cycle.

I even miss my commute: a 20 minute walk to the train station, 45 mins to read a book, pick up a croissant on my way to the office on Fridays...

I think we are the same person! Down to even croissant Fridays!