To feel WFH has had its day a bit?

[Seaswimminginwinter]

Bosses think workers do less from home - bbc article

My job doesn’t lend itself to WFH but I have noticed on nearly every thread on here about WFH, people insist that they are more productive. However, I have to admit that this doesn’t match with my experiences. But I am one person so maybe I’ve been unlucky, except this article is quite interesting about perceptions.

I also think it changes homes and areas. My own DH is WFH today and it is my day off, meaning I will spend it feeling as f I am I the way in my own home. Homes aren’t meant to be offices.

I get there are advantages but overall I don’t think it works well at all.

[LifesTooShortForYourNonsense]

If I still had my job where I had to be in the office (even during lockdown, but that’s a different story) then I would have had to quit this year anyway. My eldest has gone up to secondary, so we have 2 drop offs and 2 pick ups every day, plus the schools don’t have the same holidays (even though they are in the same trust).

Previously we could just about make it work, but now I’m in the office one or twice a month, one of the projects I work for n with people I’ve never met IRL, I’m saving so much money and it all works fine.

Yes it really helps to have a dedicated space - we already had a garden office that was barely used (amazing forethought there!)

[GoldenOmber]

@VestaTilley

I love it, I can do a full days work with no commute, and pick up my son within minutes, and put a hot meal on the table. It’s far better for working parents.

well, it’s better for some working parents. I’m a working parent and I found it miserable. Because of the hours I do I had to work with young DC in the house for parts of the day, and I don’t have enough room for dedicated office space so it was bloody miserable having to constantly shush and shoo a toddler away from my desk because “Mummy’s working now” while DH raced after another child. Meanwhile, my colleagues without kids or with older kids were waxing lyrical about how much they loved the peaceful ‘commute’ from their lie-in to their garden office

I much prefer hybrid over WFH, and a nice commute to decompress between work and children some of the week!

[Bebethany]

I could easily work remotely buy my line manager and senior lead won’t allow me to. They both WFH and I get really resentful when I hear, ‘oh I had the boiler serviced yesterday’ and ‘oh I’ve got to take the dog to the vet’ and ‘oh I’ve got a delivery coming, so got to be indoors’… I have to book annual leave for all these tasks.

[GoldenOmber]

I don’t think it’s helpful that the conversation around this has become so polarised.

Too much “working from home is for slackers, get yourself back to the office and do a proper job” on the one side, which is obviously nonsense because it can work brilliantly.

But then on the other side there’s a lot of people who just will not budge at all on how it’s ALWAYS brilliant, ALWAYS works, any apparent problems with it or employees not liking it are just bad management or not the right equipment or onboarding processes. And that’s not really right either. Sometimes it doesn’t work! Not everybody will get on with it, not everybody has a lovely spare room to work out of, sometimes things really do work better with people in the same room. But to many people it’s like admitting this is the same as frogmarching everyone back to the office 9-5.

[Mfsf]

I’m more productive and work as well if not better from home . I don’t see why you feel bad about him being working just tell him to stay in a room and don’t go there .
i think most people prefer it but I can see why it’s not for everyone

[5128gap]

Well bosses don't have to 'think' people are less productive, they either are or they're not, and it should be easy to demonstrate using objective measures of output and performance.
I couldn't care less if my staff hang their washing out, pick they're children up or have an hour off to watch TV, as long as they do the work I ask of them.
If you add up the dead time in the office with the constant chats, tea rounds, birthdays, 'have you got 5 minutes' etc, it's swings and roundabouts anyway. And the time saved in commuting seems to be giving people a better work life balance and more sleep, so they're on better form.
We're fortunate to be operating a hybrid model with staff able to choose to come in if they want to. Its the best thing to have come out of the last couple of years, and I'd never want to go back.

[VestaTilley]

I love it, I can do a full days work with no commute, and pick up my son within minutes, and put a hot meal on the table. It’s far better for working parents.

[NoLemonNoMelon]

I reckon people will be flocking back in the colder months so that they don't have to pay for heating their homes during the day.

[WGSW]

Nope. Been a homeworker for almost 15 years now. I love it. Go to the office occasionally to collaborate and catch up on gossip - at home I can get my head down with no distractions. Non-negotiable for me when I take a job, it's written into my contract.

[Mandyjack]

@Seaswimminginwinter

Bosses think workers do less from home - bbc article

My job doesn’t lend itself to WFH but I have noticed on nearly every thread on here about WFH, people insist that they are more productive. However, I have to admit that this doesn’t match with my experiences. But I am one person so maybe I’ve been unlucky, except this article is quite interesting about perceptions.

I also think it changes homes and areas. My own DH is WFH today and it is my day off, meaning I will spend it feeling as f I am I the way in my own home. Homes aren’t meant to be offices.

I get there are advantages but overall I don’t think it works well at all.

I've been WFH since March 2020 and it gives me a far better work life balance, I don't get constantly interrupted, I can have the room as hot or cold as I want, not have to put up with peoples smelly food. Basically there are many pros and I don't miss the office at all. I have some long term health issues so it also helps me cope with those.

[pinkpantherpink]

I can't decide whether I'm more productive at home or in the office. Earlier this week in the office was challenging because it was loud and I was disturbed by lots of people.

My SiL hates her DH wfh as he took ove the lounge 2 years ago and hasn't left. Makes it difficult when children are on school holidays. He is quite selfish in that respect.

Even if i wanted to be in the office 5 days a week, I couldn't be. We have a 8 desk to 5 people ratio.

[LadyHelenaJustina]

I’ve mainly worked from home for the last 10 years; there’s no way I’ll be going back to an office full time.

[mansviewpoint]

Been WFH for over 5 years.. and I can say that for me it works. But when ovid occured and the other people who worked in the office started working from home productivity dropped massively. I had to train / show them how it can work out muych better. Now we are doing better than we did in the office. WHat it really showed was that our managers have no idea of our jobs / how much effort we put in etc... They didn't notice any drop in productivity but we did. Poor management is the reason why WFH doesn't work. Oh and yes there are still people (not part of my team) who do not put in a solid days work, but they didn't do that when they were in the office either.

[AndTwoFilmsByFrancoisTruffaut]

DH and I absolutely love WFH. We are so
much more productive. For us it’s not about having time to ‘put a wash on’, it’s about peace and quiet, being able to focus. We both have comfortable, practical areas to work and carry out Teams calls. We don’t ‘take the piss’ and doss about. We work, solidly. When I go into the office I lose 3 hours valuable working time to the commute and then lose more time to general office distractions.

My company (hedge fund) is more fruitful than ever since we moved to hybrid working. So, no, OP, WFH has most certainly not had it’s day, in many cases, WFH is the reason people and firms are flourishing.

[XmasElf10]

I’ve wfh (full time, nearest company office is 180 mikes away) for 13 years in a senior leadership role. Works well for me. I have my own office space in the spare room. I run a team of 25 all fully home based and in various EU countries. I work with clients in Asia, EU and US so wouldn’t be meeting them in person generally anyway.

[BloodyHellKen]

Yabu
Just because you aren't productive wfh doesn't mean others aren't.
I've wfh for the last 10 years (I run my own business) and I'm very productive 😌
My clients are happy and it also allows me the flexibility I need.

[ErrolTheDragon]

@purplehair1

Are you Jacob Rees Mogg writing undercover? Works well for me but I can choose whether to be in the office or home on some days. Does mean I get distracted by sorting washing but I generally am pretty productive and end up working more hours (and getting the washing done - win win!)

If it is - surely it's bonkers that having figured out how to do Parliament with remote participation, they don't keep that ability. It would surely be much better for MPs who aren't in the South east to deal with both Westminster and their constituencies, better for 'widening participation' in the democratic process (more family-compatible, probably a lot better for MPs with some types of disabilities).

[mewkins]

@OooPourUsACupLove

It will be interesting to see how that plays out. For roles which are generally individual and/or process-based rather than collaborative and creative I agree time together in person is probably not necessary.

My personal experience, as noted upthread, is that spending time together in person does make a difference and the fact that my employer was one of the many who were initially positive about the idea of roles going fully remote is now investing in facilitating face to face contact suggests this is not just my personal bias.

I think it's too early to tell whether some of those businesses who are calling themselves 'temporarily remote/hybrid' fully return. This month was meant to be the big return again. But other companies called time on being limbo ages ago and make the decision to get rid of office space and change contracts to fully remote. It means they have hired on that basis and have attracted decent candidates from across the UK/world rather than be restricted by location.

[BritWifeInUSA]

I’ve done it full-time since 2014 and it isn’t 100% perfect, but neither is working in a company office. I do miss the separation between work and home. When I finish work I open the office door and step into home-life right away and I need a bit of time to decompress. My husband is a stay-at-home-person and it bothers me a little that he will walk into my office to ask things like “did we remember to order xxx” or “where did you put the xxx”. And I have to remind him that if I worked in a company office he wouldn’t just walk in and ask trivial questions.

It works for me as I have my own office, proper desk, office chair, footrest, Varidesk to stand or sit, three monitors, printer, separate phone line and internet connection so I can work productively. It doesn’t work if you’re at the dining table, dressing table, balancing a laptop on the sofa or in bed, don’t have a dedicated room with the proper equipment to sit correctly, don’t have the screen at the correct eye level, etc.

During the COVID shutdown everyone from my department had to work from home, even those who are usually in the office. For some it worked, for others it was awful and they were delighted when they could go back to the office. For example, someone who lives in a flat share with 3 others also working from home with no dedicated space who had to balance a laptop on a pile of books on her bedside table and sit on a folding chair. That’s not sustainable or healthy.

[OooPourUsACupLove]

@mewkins

The op was asking whether it's had its day. Lots of (forward looking) businesses think its just the beginning.

It will be interesting to see how that plays out. For roles which are generally individual and/or process-based rather than collaborative and creative I agree time together in person is probably not necessary.

My personal experience, as noted upthread, is that spending time together in person does make a difference and the fact that my employer was one of the many who were initially positive about the idea of roles going fully remote is now investing in facilitating face to face contact suggests this is not just my personal bias.

[mewkins]

@OooPourUsACupLove

On the other hand, my employer is paying millions to increase our central London office space and making it very clear that hybrid means at least a few days a week on site. So while fully remote may work for your business it clearly doesn't work for all.

The op was asking whether it's had its day. Lots of (forward looking) businesses think its just the beginning.

[OooPourUsACupLove]

@mewkins

Op you really need to pass on your view to businesses. I'm sure my employer (with a headcount of over 50k home based employees in the UK) will happily find suitable office space to accommodate everyone because you think it's better. You could probably also tell them how they can keep their overheads down and still achieve their carbon zero goals while doing so 😂

On the other hand, my employer is paying millions to increase our central London office space and making it very clear that hybrid means at least a few days a week on site. So while fully remote may work for your business it clearly doesn't work for all.

[mewkins]

Op you really need to pass on your view to businesses. I'm sure my employer (with a headcount of over 50k home based employees in the UK) will happily find suitable office space to accommodate everyone because you think it's better. You could probably also tell them how they can keep their overheads down and still achieve their carbon zero goals while doing so 😂

[mewkins]

@purplehair1

Are you Jacob Rees Mogg writing undercover? Works well for me but I can choose whether to be in the office or home on some days. Does mean I get distracted by sorting washing but I generally am pretty productive and end up working more hours (and getting the washing done - win win!)

😂

[HRTQueen]

It’s not just about if it works for individuals in many cases many of us work in a team

and for some teams it doesn’t work we end up picking up the pieces or those wfh seem to forget that we are not just in front of our desks all day and arrange meetings that we just don’t have time to sit in

I’m also fed up of calling companies and they can’t access information, they can’t transfer calls, they are interrupted, they cut the call off (happens far more often now)

it’s works foe some but services are slacked in some areas where it simply doesn’t work apart from for
the individual as it works better for them