Genuine question for those still working from home

[HeritageQuay]

I'm a manager in a company that employs about 100 employees across several locations in the south of England. We are in an industry that stayed open throughout Covid but apart from that we think we are a fairly normal business, i.e. we sell things, and then we deliver those things to our customers.

However, we have always been puzzled by the concept of people being able to "work from home". We think that our employees perform a full range of business functions and but none us have ever been able to work from home, even at the height of the pandemic, because our jobs mean that we have to be in the workplace.

So my question to those currently working from home is "what do you do" and "what industry are you in"?

I'm with you on this. And actually IRL most people I know are back in, at least full time.

As service, fuel, etc prices go up, are people going to be so pleased that they get to stay home all day and pay to heat their homes? It's essentially like work is hiring your home, your facilities, your Internet connection as an office space, and for free!

I think that for younger people, a lot of progression and learning opportunities are also lost when fully wfh.

In our immediate family (me, husband and 2 adult children, plus one partner) 4 do paid work. All 4 work from home for the vast majority of their time. All in different fields of employment. All find it a very positive experience and it's working well for their employers too.

"ime it was always easier to wander into the office of 'Carol from accounts' or Dave from training' and to have a chat with them, rather than to phone or email. I still think so."

I agree. People still don't use chat/Teams functions s readily as they would just ask something face to face.

"Maybe we just watch different things. I’m thinking about programmes that include office working and the only things coming to mind are the office due to the name which I’ve never watched, modern family and the wardrobe company, and love actually with the Christmas office party!"

We must watch different things! I'd say half the things I watch have some kind of office in them, from Hollywood films to soap operas to drama series.

"WFH sounds like my idea of hell - but then my home is my sanctuary and I would hate for work to encroach on it."

WFH all the time is hell for me too, but some days a week is OK.
Where I live, most workplaces allow a combination, but in reality some people find that once others are back, they have to be back too. Anyone whose job involves supporting the management, for example (admin, IT...).

NHS estates and compliance, I do a hybrid as I need to be onsite some days, it works out maybe 2 a week the rest at home

what about the price of petrol train fares etc to get to work our team is based in 3 or 4 different offices around the country so will never be all in the same office in any case

I'm an Executive Assistant to a Chief Executive of a public sector organisation.

I can do my role from anywhere, so long as I have a laptop and a phone. My laptop replicates my office computer and my desk phone is diverted to my mobile phone. We do hybrid working now, 2 days in the office, 3 days at home. It’s perfect, the best of both worlds.

Law. Hybrid working, 3 in the office, 2 at home. Like most people, I tend to go into the office on Tuesday-Thursday; the office
is a bit of a ghost town on Monday and Friday. I like the mix of home and office but there’s absolutely no reason my role can’t be done full time from home.

Tech. I'm not returning to the office willingly ever again. Can do my job at home and I like it, its much less stressful for me and I actually work better there. I know everyone says that, but I do. I don't have kids screaming in the background, or dogs barking or whatever else happening. But I am lucky in that way, it wouldn't and doesn't work well for everyone. But I'm not giving it up willingly for anyone else who just wants an ass in a chair.

OP, you may struggle to recruit and retain staff in the future, applicants for desk based roles will expect hybrid working

It must be quite isolating for new recruits fresh out of education to spend most of their time working from their bedrooms.

I expect they will want to be at work with their colleagues rather than WFH most of the time. We have three apprentices on our team at work, and they are in the office every day. There are always a few team members there to guide them.

I’m an Admin in the social care sector. Fully WFH. Cost and time of commuting far outweighs additional energy costs. I have a disabled young adult son who needs lots of support and would find it almost impossible to work if I had to go to an office even just a few days a week.

Young adult DD in Law Admin also WFH but now has to go in once a week. She is still saving over £350 a month if you include lunches and coffees (London) but it’s ridiculous really as there’s only her and one other in her department who’s in and it’s so quiet so she says she feels more isolated there than at home! It also generally takes her hours to get home due to underground issues. It’s utterly pointless and just box ticking for the government as they want people back in offices.

Progression being lost is a tired old trope. Maybe if you were the only wfh person in a team and so could be forgotten about but when the whole team is wfh it makes no difference at all. If anything I have seen better etiquette on teams calls such that people who would get talked over in the office have come out of their shell and as such have been promoted as people are able to sit up and take notice.

also bear in mind some people are introverted some extroverted so what works for one doesn’t work for all. WFH for an extrovert can be hard, working in an office can be draining for an introvert

"She is still saving over £350 a month if you include lunches and coffees (London)"

She could take sandwiches as people do who want to save money. That would be the same price as eating at home.

I’m pretty sure your employees could answer this question and many of them could easily work from home! I’m Head of Comms and Marketing at a large university.

Yep.

I've said this before, but when MNers talk about young people missing out due to the amount of wfh, they mean young people with certain characteristics. Not the ones who are excluded from or disadvantaged by opportunities requiring physical presence in a workplace because of geography, neurodiversity, caring responsibilities etc.

There were always people who were disadvantaged by so much of work being expected to take place in set physical locations, because different people suit different systems and ways of doing things. It just got ignored until recently.

Senior civil servant. I'm not going back in. Haven't been back in once since the start of the pandemic.

Any job based on a computer can be done from home in theory

Introvert vs extrovert is a tired old trope. In my experience, people whose voices may get lost find them getting even more lost on Teams.

Virtual assistant. Our company doesn’t even have an office to go into, literally everything can be done from home. I don’t even have set work hours, just work whenever I want & pays great 😃

I've WFH since 1995, I write scientific software. Plus a couple of years around 1990 when DH was seconded to the US - That was hard, only had email via a dial up modem, had to fly up to the us office once a month

It's so much easier now. Most of the team I'm in is in California but others are all over the place ... the only difference during the pandemic is that the normally office-based people got better at doing meetings everyone could join.

Solicitor - Risk & Compliance. I work with systems and can be done 100% from home on a laptop.

I manage a team and require the team (and me of course) to go in Wed/Thu which helps in training and collaboration and generally fostering team spirit. I do think the junior members feel more engaged with the firm by being in the office when it is buzzy.

I’ve found it the opposite. In person people often talk over each other on teams it gets a garbled mess when that happens so people often get heard more, and it’s allowed time and space for people who get talked over to actually have their say.

obviously YMMV but that’s what I’ve seen across my last 3 jobs

And really, anyone who thinks it's simply about who gets heard loudest on presumably multi person Teams meeting has, even if their anecdotes on that point were the plural of data, mised a large part of the point.