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.

I agree

I think it works well for many people. DH and everyone else on his team love WFH and say that they're more productive. They all go into the office two days a week now and everyone complains about it, apparently! They like the face-to-face meetings, but generally find it easier to do their individual work at home

We have an old terrace house though, so DH could set up his office up on the third floor and isn't bothered by noise. We also have teenagers, so they don't need constant supervision.

I go into my office as I prefer to separate work from my home life - although I can log on at home if I need to.

Easy enough to have a proper set up if you're seriously wfh though. Desk, office chair, screen etc. if you're sitting on a bed you're not genuinely working from home, you just happen to be at home.

I feel like I personally work better. When I go in the office I have 50,000 people trying to bloody talk to me.

i feel like some of my team do not, to be quite honest. Some have really slacked off and it’s very obvious. Boss’s issue though!

Being at home with someone wfh is a nightmare, it's why I work full too.

Otherwise, no it's not had it's day. Ok, maybe you can get distracted by the washing up but otherwise can really crack on and follow thought processes through.

I worked in the office the other day and my colleagues drove me mad coughing and spluttering all day.

Not really, the vitriol around the working/SAHM divide is a thousand times worse!

Do you work from home regularly or just occasionally? If it's a regular thing, your work should be making sure you're set up with all the appropriate apparatus.

I like going into the office but WFH is still very popular with colleagues so just based on my experience I don't think that it has had its day.

Today I have had Teams meetings with colleagues in the US, France and the Netherlands. Which office would you like me to go to OP?! My actual team is based in the US. The commute from the UK would be rather long don’t you think?!

Trussle I called hsbc business and I swear the lady was drunk. I just knew she wouldn’t do what she had promised to do so went into the branch the next week and sure enough she hadnt the staff were 🙄 and very apologetic!

I'm not currently self employed. The company I work for reimbursed people for desks and proper office chairs within a set budget when COVID first hit. We all had laptops and smart phones before lockdown.

I have a desk and office chair in my living room. I use my kitchen table and even the sofa if I'm making a lot of calls.

Works for me!

I've never been as happy

Work/life balance is fab

My regular zoom meetings are with people in San Diego, Las Vegas, Texas, Boston, Cambridge and Paris. The nearest physical office to me is about an hour down the motorway but they all work on a completely different product.

You ain’t wrong (public sector, this is rife where I work).

I struggle with WFH as my husband does it too and even though he works in another room he's constantly in meetings and has the loudest voice that penetrates through walls/ceilings. It's made life quite claustrophobic

We are grudgingly allowed to WFH one day a week only, due to various people taking the piss, not doing their work, not answering the phone or emails during WFH in the pandemic times. It really ruined it for the rest of us.

All the office space in our business park is full and back to normal.

Bet they complain the most about not being allowed it too.

Our department asked for wfh options for years and constantly denied. COVID gave us it and we all worked hard. Sickness went down too. They let us keep it thankfully after COVID restrictions ended. 😄

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!)

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

😂

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.

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.

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.