To enjoy going to the office? I'd hate to WFH forever.

[YesEllis]

Just from the social side, I'd be so isolated working from home everyday. My office is my only interaction with other adults sometimes. I would become such an introvert working from home permanently. Yet everyone I speak to seems to want to forever! I get their arguments, and the environmental ones of course but it's not for me. Does anyone agree with me? Or is everyone pro WFH ongoing after covid?

I love WFH, absolutely no downsides for me. I am happier and more productive without the distractions of a busy office.

My firm has now said that we will adopt a hybrid approach which is the perfect scenario for me, two days at home, being able to fully concentrate, and three days in the office for meetings, 'admin' and social interaction.

I was working from home pre-pandemic, but lost the travel element - so not a huge change for me.

I think it entirely depends on the work culture. WFH is a big thing where I am - and our technology and behaviours reflect that. To the point where they are removing the office based contract for new entrants (unless needed for the role or for H and S purposes).

I like it, whilst my ‘chit chat’ is more intentional - it is encouraged to keep in touch with colleagues here and i’ve found ringing them rather than messaging helps build relationships and those informal friendly convos.

I am generally happy with wfh personally, i have a great work life balance, I eat better, I spend less, I get to cuddle my dog all day. I also am more productive now i have adjusted into using my lunch break, i get laundry on, run errands and prep evening meals, and i love it as my evenings and weekends are completely freed up.

YANBU it's very isolating, especially if you live on your own. I've been going in the office odd days over the last few weeks and even though there's only a handful of people in it's made the world of difference. I am waiting for the day I can remove the desk from my home and restore the furniture back to it's previous location!

There’s a lot of negative morale in my office and I’ve realised it really gets to me. It makes my job so much miserable and I enjoy my work a lot more not being around the misery everyday.

I think this can be a huge factor.

Those with good office environments are more likely to want to go back. Those with poor ones will want hybrid or stay at home.

But also I think in the last 15 months, lots of people will have romanticised how great their office was and alot of people will have spent time dwelling on the bad things and think its worse than it was.

It will be an interesting time in offices. Even if wbeyikne goes back, it unlikely to be just the same as it was before. In both good and bad ways.

Agreed. I've been wfh since March 2020 apart from when required to go in for a specific type of meeting that can't be done virtually. I'm really hoping that the wfh guidance is dropped in July (govt organisation so management have indicated we must wfh till told otherwise by govt) Pre pandemic we were basically doing a mixture of wfh or in the office and management were pretty flexible as to letting people choose so I'm hoping to go back to a mixture. I find sitting at home on my own staring at a screen day in day out really lonely, I miss my colleagues and just being to turn around and ask what someone thinks about something. I miss having a coffee and a chat at lunch.

I absolutely love wfh. No more hours/money wasted on the commute. I can get so many household jobs done on breaks, always at home for deliveries etc.

However, I do spend approximately 50% of my day, sometimes more in meetings so I feel like I still have quite a lot of social interaction. Maybe if I had an admin type role where I didn’t need to speak to other people very much, I’d find it harder.

However, I do spend approximately 50% of my day, sometimes more in meetings so I feel like I still have quite a lot of social interaction.

Ha! About 75% of my day is in Teams meetings and it feels absolutely nothing like real social interaction.

I absolutely loved wfh - no commute - didn't have to get dressed, minimal interaction with others. I did notice however that my social awkwardness got a lot worse because I wasn't being forced to interact anymore. When I did have to speak to people I felt like I kept saying silly things and mixing my words up. So I can see where you're coming from.

I love wfh but I am always on the phone so I dint really feel like I miss out on the office interactions. I just call people and have a chat whilst we work, is that a possibility?

@JeanClaudeVanDammit

However, I do spend approximately 50% of my day, sometimes more in meetings so I feel like I still have quite a lot of social interaction.

Ha! About 75% of my day is in Teams meetings and it feels absolutely nothing like real social interaction.

Yes agree - Teams meetings are nothing look face to face ones. For a start, they are generally more work focussed, you don't tend to have (useful) side discussions about other things, and you miss out on the general chit chat that accompanies face to face meetings. Plus being on the phone is so much harder work than face to face - there are tech issues, you struggle to hear, and you don't get the visual cues of body language. And if someone goes quiet you don't know if they've been cut off, are thinking, hate your idea ...

I was already wfh when lockdown started so nothing changed for me. I worked in an office for nearly 20 years and I’d reached the point where I’d had enough of spending 10+ hours a week commuting on busy public transport. Fed up of being brutally woken by the alarm at 6am every day. Too knackered when I got home to do anything fun or interesting. Sunday always being ruined by knowing it was back to work on Monday so prepping for that. It wasn’t the job itself, it’s the sheer relentless routine day in and day out. The minor interactions in the office weren’t really enough to make up for the downsides.

Although the job I do now is purely output based and can be done whenever. I imagine if you still have a standard 9-5 but at home, it isn’t as good. I can decide on a whim to start late or take an afternoon off etc. I even take a nap sometimes. I couldn’t do that in an office!

I wouldn’t do more than 2 days a week in an office now and the rest would have to be flexibly wfh. Luckily I am in the type of career where this can work. Prior to covid, they were pretty resistant to any home working (my role was a specialist one, just a very small team hence why I was able to wfh). But now they seem to have seen the benefits and everyone’s been issued with work laptops and mobiles, rather than the desktop computers they had before. So they are now a lot more open to hybrid working. That’s really the best of both worlds for everyone.

I have wanted to WFH for ages, but didn't know where to start. So back in March 2020 I was hoping that I could get to May 2020. Of course it lasted longer. Got a new job in March 2021 and have been in the office ever since.

My preference would be to split my time. Only because I saved (well spent on other things) a shit load of money not driving every day. From £300 a month to £25. However, my mental health is better going in so if it was one or the other I'd rather be in the office, which is why I'm ignoring the fact that I should be at home, but the boss wants us in.

I hate WFH if DH and DC are also at home. There is a massive gap between how respected I at work, and at home. E.g. DH will ask if I've 'finished chatting' when I have actually been running an important meeting. Drives me fucking crazy. Plus its really hard to manage people and help them with personal/personnel issues from the setting of a family home.

If I had a house big enough for a study I'm sure it would be better. But that would need a salary increase 🤔

I feel like you. I'm lookingvfjrwardvto going back to mix of office and home working.

Looking forward

Completely disagree, am self employed and would hate going into an office. Work outside the home was never my social life though , op don’t you have friends , family?

I have social interactions with people at work still just using teams. No different to before really, ask them about TV shows, any holidays coming up, diy work they are doing etc.

I'm in IT though, we seem to be a different breed when it comes to this. Tend to just fall easily into communicating via technology. It's not for everyone, but I don't want forced back into the office just because others want that.

I enjoy WFH, however having the option to go back to the office occasionally and work directly with people is also important for me. Hybrid working might be the way forward for some time. Interesting to see how it all goes!

I would happily work from home other than the occasional visit, and to meet new starters, say goodbye to those leaving. I recognise others think differently and so OP YANBU to have the wish you have.

For some people work colleagues are friends, whereas for me they are work colleagues only, much as they are good people to work with.

Not unreasonable at all. Most of my team are looking forward to coming back and some are already doing so voluntarily, including myself, for part of the week.

I get that you can have social interaction via Zoom/teams or whatever. But personally nothing can replace actually seeing people. having half an hour over a nice canteen lunch face to face chatting to everyone in RL. (Not on a screen with all the glitches that can entail) I get that others wouldn't feel the same.

A colleague was asking me what I thought of her new perfume the other day. Bit difficult to do stuff like that over a screen.

We're almost all going back to hybrid working at the end of July - I'm looking forward to it, sounds like the best of both worlds. They haven't told us what day/s of the week we are going in yet though as everyone wanted the same days.

YANBU but I prefer to WFH - I have done it for 10 years anyway.
Offices are full of people being disruptive (why is there always one person who uses the phone as if they have swallowed a fucking loudhailer?).
I realise I am lucky as I have my own space - but I don't miss arguments about heat/cold, whether to have the radio on etc etc etc.
I love being able to just do my work.
Also love not battling traffic to get there - less stress for me (and others) and better for the planet.

The latest survey I've done on for our office shows 5% want FT RTO and around 7% want FT WFH. The rest want somewhere in between with 2 days in the office per week the most popular. We already had a lot of flexibility and most were at home or site based a couple of days a week anyway so it's a return to normal (for my firm) wrk patterns.

Circa 500 staff in the City and most commute via PT.

My experience is the opposite. I work in an industry where people email the person sitting next to them, and wear headphones all day to avoid conversation. WFH means we have set up team meetings etc and communicate much better.

It also means I get to do the school run more often and say hello to school mums in passing who I would never normally see.

I'm trying to make the most of it and arrange lunchtime walks and trips to the coffee shop with friends once a week or so.

So I feel a lot of that office interaction has been replaced with different interactions.