Working from home forever

[Ehupflower]

AIBU to be honest about how hard it is to be motivated working from home! I've had to work from home since the middle of March last year, (like lots of other people) and we got told today that this is probably going to be permanent! I love my job but I'm so fed up of working from home full time I'm finding it harder and harder to keep motivated and not be distracted......

I enjoy my job and I like my colleagues, I just don't like an office environment and never have.

Since my comment was in response to the below

I genuinely don't understand people who want to spend their days in office buildings and who get excited about seeing their colleagues. It seems quite sad to me!

I assume because you like your colleagues though you would understand that seeing them in person for some people isn't sad?

I don't personally think there is a problem with preferring one over the other, neither choice is "sad" however if you feel trapped in a work environment that you don't like that is sad.

Yes I agree it was. Let's hope this changes now to accommodate individual preferences.

It's possible to enjoy working the office whilst still supporting other people's choice to not.

What if you chose to work in the office while all your other colleagues chose to work from home?

This is my point. If you get a very extrovert manager who themselves needs to be in the office (fair enough!), they are going to be hacked off if they have team members who don't feel the same way. It is already happening!

@Chollok see that was what I meant by sad but I'm glad you are now happy. My sister is similar & going freelance changed her life in some ways.

@Chollok

It's possible to enjoy working the office whilst still supporting other people's choice to not.

What if you chose to work in the office while all your other colleagues chose to work from home?

This is my point. If you get a very extrovert manager who themselves needs to be in the office (fair enough!), they are going to be hacked off if they have team members who don't feel the same way. It is already happening!

What would your solution be to this?

however if you feel trapped in a work environment that you don't like that is sad.

You have to understand that for me it wasn't the fact one particular office or set of colleagues was making me unhappy, it was that the whole set up of office work and its associated "things" (commuting, work social events and so on) that was making me unhappy. But I enjoyed the work I did and always have.

What if you chose to work in the office while all your other colleagues chose to work from home?

I also think this is unlikely to happen seeing as there are roughly 50:50 introverts and extroverts.

What would your solution be to this?

The world is set up for extroverts. Office culture is set up for extroverts. I think it is time there was more respect for introverts in the workplace and they didn't have to default to the extrovert position, because that is what usually happens.

For the last 10 yrs & I'm in my 30s I've always had the option to wfh 1 day a wk if wanted. That culture is very normal in lots of places & if I or DH couldn't do that (as it's great with dc) we would work somewhere else.

One day a week would be nowhere near enough for me.

@Chollok

It's possible to enjoy working the office whilst still supporting other people's choice to not.

What if you chose to work in the office while all your other colleagues chose to work from home?

This is my point. If you get a very extrovert manager who themselves needs to be in the office (fair enough!), they are going to be hacked off if they have team members who don't feel the same way. It is already happening!

It seems that you have a very specific experience that you are relating all of this back to- as PP said above I think this is very unlikely and there will be an even enough split of people who want to remain WFH and who don't (as this thread alone demonstrates!)

Also to play devil’s advocate- if all the offices in the London (for example, I know there are offices everywhere) close and everyone is able to WFH and potentially relocate out of the city, over time the companies will stop paying London weighting and that could in turn impact everyone in the company, even those who would have been happy in the office.

A black and white yes or no approach is not what’s needed here, in my opinion. Companies should be flexible and allow those who want to be in to do so and those who want to be at home to do so, and those who want to be in sometimes to do that too! Personally I’d like the option for a day or so a week at home incase I had a dentist appointment or needed to wait in for a delivery.

Our organisation is making similar noises about WFH permanently. It’s now just become a way for them save on property costs.

I’m absolutely gutted and seriously considering whether the role is for me anymore. I’m a real people person and the role requires energy and creativity...both of which are in short supply.

Also re home schooling / childcare, this may be an unpopular viewpoint given the site but it is worth airing. My workplace has bent over backwards to support those who are home schooling but all it has meant is that the work is shifted to those who have no children at home.

I can’t have my own children which is painful enough but for my work life to become even more of a misery because of others is another slap across the face.

My workplace has bent over backwards to support those who are home schooling but all it has meant is that the work is shifted to those who have no children at home.

That's the fault of your workplace. Part of my job has involved coaching employers through handling this scenario and it is absolutely clear that most of them have no idea how to prioritise. If some staff members suddenly can't do their full workload the solution is not to force that onto other staff members. The solution is to drop or postpone the non essential parts of the work.

This is usually the point where someone says that it is all essential, and I assure you it isn't.

It seems that you have a very specific experience that you are relating all of this back to

This is my area of work. I'm an HR consultant specialising in flexible working. It relates to all my experience across a wide variety of sectors.

Office culture is set up for extroverts

In same ways yes but can be different depending on the office. I'm in a very old building, no glass, I chose to work in a office with 3 people, 2 colleagues prefer their own office. DH has his own office, can go days without seeing someone if he wanted.

Office culture is set up for extroverts

I'd disagree with this too- some offices definitely are but I have worked at plenty that aren't. I don't think it's fair to tar all offices with the same brush, and presumably if you worked in an office environment that wasn't the right fit for you you'd move on to somewhere that was, as you would in any circumstance.

One day a week would be nowhere near enough for me.

Yes of course but whether I needed 1 or 5 if I couldn't have what I needed I would be off.

DH was offered a job last yr in a big American firm (pre Covid the culture was pretty anti remote working. They wouldn't agree to 2 days optional wfh so he turned it down as it wouldn't suit our lifestyle. He would have loved the role & work though.

I'm an extravert and still LOVE working from home. People who don't must have difficult home set-ups

One of my friends has saved 1k a month on train fares in her household. I do wonder what will happen to public transport, will 2 days end up costing the same as 5? will they reduce services?

@Chollok that’s so true. No ones looked at priorities, just at distribution and hours. I’m practice it’s meant some doing 40% more and other the same or more less. I do have a huge amount of empathy for those trying to juggle and I absolutely don’t resent their family lives, I just resent the assumption that if you don’t have children you will automatically cover that work (what else could we possibly be doing!!)

I am just as productive wfh as I was in the office. I was used to working alone as most of the time my office was empty anyway.

But I miss that divide between work and home. I loved getting up, dressed for work, make up on and in the car each morning, then driving home through rush hour traffic singing wildly to my music and de-stressing on my way home.

I do however like not paying out childcare fees as my kids school is only round the corner so I can do pick ups and drop offs easily.

I am so much more productive working from home. This is because I work when I feel like it and get it done in peace and quiet. In the office I am forced to sit at my desk in a noisy office until 5pm regardless of whether I am in the mood or not.

I have been working really early in the morning, having a big break in the day and then coming back to it and feel like I am getting much more done. I guess I am lucky that that is possible.

I just resent the assumption that if you don’t have children you will automatically cover that work (what else could we possibly be doing!!)

Completely empathise. Honestly the first thing that ought to have been done at the start of this is managers sitting down with team members and looking at every single piece of work. Then establishing which were priority and which could be postponed. I'm astounded at how many haven't done this and seem to have just assumed it is fine to foist extra work onto people.

I've been WFH for 4ish years now and agree with PP that this year has been very different.

I don't have children, but it must be hell on earth for those that do trying to work with them at home.

Plus add to that the lack of outside the house social life and it becomes a very different beast than usual.

@XelaM

I'm an extravert and still LOVE working from home. People who don't must have difficult home set-ups

I'm an extrovert who lives by themselves (apart from children) so I guess maybe I'd feel differently if there were other adults here. I don't think so though, I like varied interactions I think. I'm also happy being in a hubbub but not actively engaging in conversations. E.g. on my own in a busy coffee shop. So I like being around people even if I'm not doing much talking myself. I often describe myself as a shy extrovert.