To feel sad that the world of work as we knew it has gone forever?

[Youngatheart00]

My work confirmed today we are moving to 100% remote working and will only get together a few times a year for team meetings. I find this so sad. I loved my working life - I know realise so much of that was down to the people. Now all I do all day is stare at screens and give myself a migraine.

They are justifying it by saying ‘most people’ want this despite me never seeing any such survey. It’s a blatant cost cutting exercise.

Anyone else fed up and lonely?

Although most work based 'friendships' are transitory it is possible to make very good friends at work, particularly when you are younger. I'm retired now and still see a friend I worked with when I was about 21 and she was a Saturday girl in the same store. I don't see her regularly but when I do the years fall away and it's like we say each other yesterday. Same with another friend who I worked with in the job after that. I see him every 3/4 years for a catch up. Even though we aren't in each other's pockets he is one of my closest friends. We are all very different people from very different cultures so our paths would never have crossed if we hadn't worked together.

My DS works for a large accountancy firm in the city. Every year they take on a massive cohort of graduate trainees from all over the world as well as seconding already qualified people from overseas offices and sending Brits to work there. Without work friendships most of these young people would have no life in the city they end up in and that's what's happened this year. Young people who came to London to further their career and experience another culture have ended up all alone working in a bedroom in their shared house or bedsit struggling to make connections with colleagues they've never laid eyes on.

I feel quite content working from home and not seeing people as much as usual but I do understand where you are coming from OP and I think it is sad that the days of us all getting together with our colleagues on a regular basis is a thing of the past.

“ Couldn’t disagree more. Wfh gives you so much more of your life back. No commute so hours extra to do as you please. No stress of a commute, better for the environment Lie ins , comfy clothes, no small talk , more time with family, in for parcels, can eat lunch at home, use your own toilet. Absolutely no negatives at all.”

So different for me: I like using work loos (as they are cleaned by fairies, and not myself ), I like getting lunch from Pret (no prep, no washing up), I like the small talk and office banter. I like my home just being for relaxing, not work

WFH is ok for some and not ok for others. I fully understand and respect people’s choices, concerns

It will get interesting if the internet goes down and those people WFH can’t get anything done.

Will work expect you to make up the hours while you wait for the internet to be fixed?

How long will it take to actually get fixed?

Technology is amazing, till it falls over and you just have a very expensive paper weight 😳

I miss work but am going to embrace the WFH experience going forward. I’m hoping for a happy medium of 60% home/40% office. My work haven’t decided yet.
I can empathise with you, OP but maybe you could instigate some get togethers with your colleagues after work and ask your work to organise more social events as well.
Try to think of the positives 😁 like emptying and refilling the dishwasher/washer and hanging out the washing whenever you feel like it, being home as soon as you finish work etc.

One poser earlier said she knew no one who didn't like wfh.

Some of my friends do. Some don't. I prefer to go into the office.

Not everyone commutes. An hour plus, 2 hours on the train. Introvert. Hates all social interaction? Not everyone. I can and have partly worked at home in covid, now I walk to work for one job, 20 minute lovely drive for the other.

Will the city be the same again? Will thousands of commuters pile into London from the commuter towns?
There will be massive repercussions if people worked from home. Train companies would lose passengers, coffee shops, sandwich shops would close as would all the supply chain jobs.
Seriously ,the job market fall out will be massive.
That aside, thinking the social side that could be lost. People form friendships and relationships from work.

An uncle of mine has been commuting to Fenchurch street for 40 years and hates working from home!

I think it will even out? People now finding themselves WFH who want to be in an office will leave, and those in an office who want WFH will take their places.

If you aren't happy, get looking!

In as much as I understand where you are coming from, businesses will be saving quite a lot of money because they do not have to pay rent for working spaces and similar costs. Money saved means less cost to the end-user/consumer (you and I). Maybe we should find other ways to socialise such as more appreciation for family and friends. A win-win for all, I guess.

Thinking of these large buildings, it’s not just the workers they employ. There’s the cleaners, maintenance workers, security guards, kitchen staff etc.
Again lots of jobs could potentially go over time.

I couldn't handle that.

I work in the community, but also spend a fair amount of time in the office doing admin work and phone calls etc. I love the mix I have between home visits, working from home and working from the office.

I am going back to the office regularly now and it is great to see colleagues. I think of many of my colleagues as friends and enjoy seeing them. I have friends outside work etc, but spending time with people who do the same job as me, people who understand the pressures of the job and who I can bounce ideas off is invaluable to me.

Just going over to a work colleague for advice or a chat, help is invaluable.
You can’t get that support virtually, surely?..

Hearwego They will adjust. More local coffee shops will thrive instead of big chains like pret and starbucks getting all the profit. Money will move from London to other cities.
I think it's a good change. The office culture isn't sustainable and we should use this opportunity to change it.

People form friendships and relationships from work.

Some of the posters on this thread clearly have no intention of making friends at work

Re the commute - one of my workmates said that she misses the drive to and from work as it gave her some free time between work and dealing with the family. Driving home was her down time.

@EngTech

WFH is ok for some and not ok for others. I fully understand and respect people’s choices, concerns

It will get interesting if the internet goes down and those people WFH can’t get anything done.

Will work expect you to make up the hours while you wait for the internet to be fixed?

How long will it take to actually get fixed?

Technology is amazing, till it falls over and you just have a very expensive paper weight 😳

We just hotspot from our work phones if there are any internet issues. Or if we really can’t get online we just do offline bits. It’s nbd

@Hearwego

Just going over to a work colleague for advice or a chat, help is invaluable. You can’t get that support virtually, surely?..

I think it depends on your culture. We often call one another to run an idea past, and we have an informal coffee meeting once a week just to chat. Totally appreciate not all companies would have this culture but it can be done!

Do people think full time work from home will shut off an escape route for domestic abuse victims?

I like a clear divide. Home is home and work is my work place. Not that I work from home anyway!

@Hearwego

Just going over to a work colleague for advice or a chat, help is invaluable. You can’t get that support virtually, surely?..

As PP said it depends on the culture. I could WhatsApp any of my colleagues for advice, feedback, a bitch or moan... we have a secret WhatsApp group where we vent about all the problems in our workplace as well as the ‘official’ group with our manager, but all communications are very informal.

@Pepperminttea16 - do you think that chatty relationship will be easy to continue with new members of staff who never worked together?

I love WFH, but in the long term my company have said it will be a blended approach with some people having regular days in the office and some coming in on an adhoc basis for meetings.

I don’t need work for my social interaction as I can get that from my outside of work life. WFH saves me 10 hours a week commuting and parking and petrol costs. I’ve got gone to exercise after work (e.g. 4 mile walk) and still be home before I’d have usually got back. I’m less stressed and feel so much better than when I was office based.

We’ve been waiting years where I work to get any opportunity to wfh and I’m glad this forced their hand. I get not everyone likes it but where I work if people want to work in the office they will let them. I think that’s how most companies will operate - I think very few will have all their staff wfh full time.

[quote MargosKaftan]@Pepperminttea16 - do you think that chatty relationship will be easy to continue with new members of staff who never worked together?

[/quote]
We’ve had 4 new members of staff join our team and they all do the same. Everyone gets set up with a “buddy” when they first start to be a link person to chat to when you first start but the nature of our work means we have to do a lot of liaising with one another so relationships have formed very easily. It’s crazy half our colleagues have never met one another but it doesn’t feel like you haven’t met them in real life

@Hearwego

Just going over to a work colleague for advice or a chat, help is invaluable. You can’t get that support virtually, surely?..

Of course you can. We're a close-knit team and we Teams chat, or Whatsapp each other all day, with queries, check-ins etc.

But the good thing about that is that if you are genuinely busy, you can ignore the text or whatever until you're free. In the office, some colleagues would think nothing of plonking themselves down in my office 'for a chat' whether I was busy or not! Much as I genuinely like most of my team, I much prefer having more control over my working day at home.

@AgentJohnson

I can understand your personal disappointment but the hyperbole was really not necessary.

Blimey, you're harsh.