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?

@thecatandthevicar - I want to work in an office thank you very much. And have complete separation between work and home. I don’t honestly care if my colleagues make a different decision. But I will not be forced to WFH - I’m perfectly prepared to walk and change job. I doubt it will come to that - I’m very good at what I do, and I’d be difficult to replace (the last time one of my colleagues left it took them almost 2 years to recruit a suitable replacement).

@Ellpellwood

Also, let's not forget that a lot of people have done a year. Not just lockdown 3. It's not that long since the government was paying for half a Nandos, the cinemas were reopened, and in some areas you could have 6 in your house. Plenty of people on this thread still hated it.

that's still a lockdown in my books

I managed to escape abroad when the borders opened (briefly) but come on, it has nearly been a year. Nothing has been normal since last year.

I get the impression there’s a London/regional divide here. Would love to know if that’s the case, and what people who work in other large cities think.

As I’ve said a few times on various threads, I won’t benefit from being able to see friends more. I’ll see them less. Instead of all working within a couple of square miles of each other we’ll all live and work at least an hour away from each other.

@JeanClaudeVanDammit

I agree with every word. I like interacting with the people in my office - they range in age from 20 to 64. I don't necessarily want to do a full 2 hour one-on-one social thing with them. Little and often is good.

[quote HarryLimeFoxtrot]@thecatandthevicar - I want to work in an office thank you very much. And have complete separation between work and home. I don’t honestly care if my colleagues make a different decision. But I will not be forced to WFH - I’m perfectly prepared to walk and change job. I doubt it will come to that - I’m very good at what I do, and I’d be difficult to replace (the last time one of my colleagues left it took them almost 2 years to recruit a suitable replacement).[/quote]
well, walk! No one is stopping you!

I want a life out of my office, WFH suits me very well. And I worked damn hard to prove that we were more efficient and it was in the best interest of the business to keep us home. Cheaper too!

If the pandemic has brought one positive, it's changing the workplace. We' be nuts to go backward.

that's still a lockdown in my books

Not really. We were Tier 1 for a while. You could pretty much do what you wanted. I spent 3 days at Alton Towers, in a hotel and restaurants.

I get the impression there’s a London/regional divide here. Would love to know if that’s the case, and what people who work in other large cities think.

Interesting. I think a long commute will be quite a deciding factor. I'm not in London, but used to commute to an office on a trading estate on the edge of a city. The offices have now been knocked down, so when we do eventually go to an office it will be on another trading estate on the edge of another town - a 20 mile drive each way for me.

Also, let's not forget that a lot of people have done a year. Not just lockdown 3. It's not that long since the government was paying for half a Nandos, the cinemas were reopened, and in some areas you could have 6 in your house. Plenty of people on this thread still hated it.

Yes I hated it last summer too. I could go to restaurants and see friends and family and all that jazz, even had 2 holidays, but it was still shite working from home the whole time. We were supposed to go back in September and I cried when that was cancelled. And I don’t even live alone, I have friends who live alone and have worked from home for a year and it’s been incredibly difficult for them.

It takes me at least 1h30, more likely 2h to go to the office!

0 interest to go back to that.

We can still spend a day now and then in the office. WFH doesn't mean to be locked up in a cave.

I get the impression there’s a London/regional divide here. Would love to know if that’s the case, and what people who work in other large cities think.

I don’t know if it’s London/everywhere else or if it’s just people who had long, shit commutes before who have therefore gained time and money they were previously losing. I have always taken decisions about where I work and live to make sure I didn’t have a long or expensive or difficult commute, so I haven’t gained anything positive.

I was on maternity leave last summer but if I’m still wfh this summer I will go insane when the kids are off school. Far too much noise at home!

@Ellpellwood

that's still a lockdown in my books

Not really. We were Tier 1 for a while. You could pretty much do what you wanted. I spent 3 days at Alton Towers, in a hotel and restaurants.

So not the same here. We really couldn't.

If wasn't even that bad for us, but I have friends who are still waiting to get married as they couldn't have a proper wedding (let alone a honeymoon).

And we knew the 2nd lockdown was coming, which did not help.

I have always taken decisions about where I work and live to make sure I didn’t have a long or expensive or difficult commute

sounds nice, but many of us never had that luxury unfortunately.

No one commute for the sheer enjoyment of it.

I'm hoping that I can stay working from home permanently. I love going to work in my slippers.

@Kimye4eva
I don’t live or work in London. My commute to the office is 20 minutes, and I’m always travelling in the opposite direction to most of the traffic (I live in town, my office is in a very rural setting). I’m quite senior, and I’ve been doing this job for 10+ years. I have plenty of space at home, and my own home office. And yet I’d happily go back to the office tomorrow and never work from home ever again.

I agree with every word. I like interacting with the people in my office - they range in age from 20 to 64. I don't necessarily want to do a full 2 hour one-on-one social thing with them. Little and often is good.

Absolutely! Some of my colleagues are people I’d never spend any time with socially. That doesn’t mean I don’t like them though, and I do miss them. There’s stuff on this thread about introverts and extroverts and I think it’s precisely because I’m an introvert that the little and often stuff suited me. Having to always make a specific effort to plan something and then be with a group for long enough to make it worthwhile sounds exhausting.

@thecatandthevicar I am telling you that there were people who had relative freedom over the summer and still hated WFH. There's one about a page back. The restrictions in your personal area aren't relevant because you like WFH.

Has it? My working life has remained exactly the same as it's always been except for added stress.

It's probably easier if you have a 9 to 5 and forget work as soon as you leave the office. Many workers always had to work from home at some point in the evenings and weekends anyway, so there's never such a strict separation from home and work anyway.

And all the little things that make life at home so much easier.

Most people I spoke with want the reopening of social places, and are sick and tired of the lockdown and restriction. They are not that bothered about the office. There will still be one.

No one commute for the sheer enjoyment of it.

No but at some point there has been a decision you’ve taken. You could have chosen a different field to work in, or a different place to live. It might mean earning a lot less money or living in a different place but that’s the trade off isn’t it. I earn a lot less than what I could if I worked in a different location, my mortgage is more than it would be if I lived somewhere that I had to drive an hour each way, but for me it was worth it.

My main point is, people who dislike working from home full time and have found out this is the way it will be forever are being told to suck it up and get another job (and I hope they do if they’re not happy) but that option was also always available to people who found working in an office full time such an apparently horrific experience.

[quote Ellpellwood]@thecatandthevicar I am telling you that there were people who had relative freedom over the summer and still hated WFH. There's one about a page back. The restrictions in your personal area aren't relevant because you like WFH.[/quote]
I completely accept some people need an office to feel they have a life and feel defined by their job.

But these people WILL find jobs easily. There only are a few office jobs that are possible from home anyway , and many of these will demand that people come back and work in the office.

I see the change a great opportunity for those who had been fighting for ages to WFH, now it's in place and recognised as very viable, but it won't affect others that much.

At worst you'll go to a different company. But that's what everybody has always done anyway.

I have a friend who lives in a tiny studio flat in London who have been using an ironing board as their desk for a laptop for the last year. She's desperate to go back to the office. I have another friend who lives alone and she's desperate for the company of colleagues rather than be alone all the time.

For every person who loves working from home there will be someone who hates it for a variety of reasons. All valid.

A huge chunk of my social life pre covid was London based friends (either living or working there) who I met before or after work. At home, the social world is based on a village of 1000 people, most of whom I have nothing in common with other than kids in the same class.

I don't miss the cost of the commute and I value the extra sleep but I miss my freedom and friends very much.

I have work colleagues I have never even met, after changing roles last year. I cant work long compressed hours from home with the kids around so actually feel.i have lost some work/life balance.

I cant wait to get back even just a few times a month would be a huge boost to my mental health.

You could have chosen a different field to work in, or a different place to live.

you say that..

Easy to say, but if it was so easy in real life, we would do it.
I can't afford to live somewhere else (or I could live further...)

You can't just "find another job" in another part of the country when you don't even live there! How do you even go to interviews?

It's actually easier to move country than moving across this one

You have the same options you always had, maybe slightly less choice, whilst the rest of us will have more.

It's a fairer system.

So many workers have roles that will never be compatible with WFH anyway!

Some extreme cases do make me laugh. I had a "tiny" studio when I was at uni (and believe me, it was as grim as it was cheap!). Even in a tiny studio you can find a better and more comfortable arrangement to work than an ironing board. (which obviously you haven't even got when you are a student).

Some people are pushing the miserable stories a bit too far. They really are. There's a point where you have to behave like an adult frankly.