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.

My local council are still WFH. I used to be able to walk into the office and speak to someone (usually had to wait 5-10 mins, if at all). Now I have to ring them. The phone is answered, if at all, after about 50 mins. Then there was the man at a call centre who went on and on and on about his family, children, illnesses, etc, etc. When I said (very politely) that I really just needed the answer to my question because I had a lot to do, he said he was WFH and hated it, and wanted to talk to people.

Hopefully that was anomaly and not a pattern that the private sector generally can make wfh work, staff answering calls professionally etc as I've found but the public sector has a long wait and staff being completely unprofessional as in that case!
(Our only interactions with the council recently have been via Internet and absolutely fine)

I agree. The only time I WFH was when I had covid and it was rubbish. I did barely anything. Not productive at all. My DB WFH in a flat when my SIL has a primary aged child, toddler and baby in the livingroom. She feels like she has to go out everyday.

I work from home, I have the option to go into the office but it's a 4 hour round trip for me. I still chose to do it once every other week but when I do I am no where near as productive, the noise of the office is too distracting for me and I save the tasks that I need to concentrate on for when I am at home.
I have to give myself strong boundaries at home. For example I work 9-5 contacted, I inevitably do more hours than this but I make a point of not logging on until just before 9am and using my time in the morning to do bits and bobs round the house. Ultimately I get work done quicker when I am home, I find client calls easier from home too.

My local council are the same!! They have a backlog going back to Jan as they are all WFH and nothings getting done.

Works for us too but we have our own areas in the house with closed doors and a good wifi connection. We can get errands done when time would have been spent walking to /from canteen for drinks for example. I certainly know from my annual review I have been productive the whole of last year.

DH gets much more done at home. He works overtime because he has no commute. No interruptions from people in the office. No pointless in person meetings, he can work through zoom calls etc.

He’s a software designer so his output is easily measurable. When the company were making noise about coming back into the office he was able to show them hard evidence of how much more productive he is wfh.

We do have a home office though, and no toddlers or distractions. He couldn’t do it from the kitchen table with a two year old hanging off him.

I love wfh as does my dh. I hope I never have to go back! Don't begrudge those that disagree but I certainly have only seen advantages in our households, not least dh actually sees the dc now!

Also to add I put my children in childcare most days too as its impossible to work well with them at home so it doesn't save me any money there. My colleagues who work from home with their children there aren't very productive. My eldest goes to breakfast club and afterschool club 4 days a week and my youngest does 8am-5:30pm in nursery 5 days.

I love how overall you don’t think it works well but you don’t even do it!
Ive worked flexibly since pre pandemic, my partner only as a result of covid. We both do about 2 days at home and the rest out or in the office.
Hybrid working offers a while range of benefits for the employees and employers.
I thought we weee beyond the days of presenteeism, it’s quite archaic.
In actual face a hybrid work model is actually a cost saving for businesses.

It works extremely for my husband and me.

I have a role that has always worked well remotely. I wfh 1-2 days per week pre pandemic.
The office was always too distracting, groups of colleagues, chatting all day, phones going, too hot, too cold, office politics. I have always been more productive at home.

DH started wfh in the pandemic - we both have different rooms - and he saved on 3hrs of commuting a day. He's due back in the office 2 days a week, because those who chose to go back are asking when everybody else is!

At my work, there are some people who also choose to go in, either because their particular roles don't work at home, they don't have space, there are small kids (grandkids) at home, or they simply prefer it. Most of these though are the workers who - even before the pandemic - like to socialise at work, and chatter all bloody day, go out for lunch etc. All had never wfh pre pandemic and said they prefer office work. Fair enough.
Their return is up to them, but they are now threatening to spoil it for the rest of us, asking when others will return. Deliberately asking those of us who do prefer wfh on Teams calls if we're still wfh (er yeh, I'm on a Teams call with you).

It's not fair on those of us who have quiet spaces, who are fine working remotely, who don't need to socialise at work, and who have wfh for years. These are not young people by the way - these are women, like me, in their 40s/50s.

There seems to be a culture/mindset still that being seen at one's desk is a measure of productivity. And a culture that if you can't/don't want to wfh then nobody should. The irony is, that when I was in an office with those workers, they spent all day nattering and I could not focus.

Absolutely. I works for me as I have a dedicated office room and invested in a big monitor and docking station. Not everyone can do that. Especially not junior staff living with their parents.

YABU. I work for a small tech company. We don't have a full office any more so we can't go back to full time office working. For us, it's permanent.

We have one room in a Regus-type building, plus a meeting room once a month.
We can fit about a third of the staff into the ordinary room. The younger London-based staff who don't have space at home, work in the office more often. Those with houses go in once a week.

Month on month, we're up 76% on last year, so I don't think it's hit business levels, and I do far more hours now because I don't have to commute any more.

If they asked me to go back to the office full time, I'd resign. I'm 59, I have no desire to commute any more and this works.

I work for a global company and often work closely and effectively with colleagues for years before meeting in person.

Without fail, every time I've met someone face to face, no matter how well we alreasy worked together before, the relationship still notched up a gear, while relationships that may have been hard work for a long time get much easier.

I hate my days in the office. My role requires the space to think. It's impossible to think sometimes in an open plan office when there are salespeople shouting into their phones in one direction and people idly chatting in the other.

My own experience is I'm more productive at home. If nothing else it cuts out all the chit chat and interruptions I face in the office.

I understand why bosses dislike it - if they can't see what we're doing, they assume we're doing nothing. It says a lot about their mentality though and the fundamental lack of trust management have in workers actually working of their own accord.

I wonder how it is affecting young people new to a job. Do they get the same mentoring and support. I think back and remember how much I picked up from listening to more experienced staff dealing with things and being able to ask a quick question.

Personally I've had issues when phoning a business and the person at home can't access something, then you get a promise of a call back within x hours that never happens. Drives me mad.

For people who can choose to do it then I am sure it works very well
For customers,I think the jury is still out

Not at all. I work with students entering the work place, the only ones WFH works for are those that are already privileged and able.

Firstly privileged as they need a quiet room, decent broadband, able because they need to be at a certain academic level to cope with the remoteness and extra skills that WFH require, the lack of direct support and building of relationship.

WFH will alienate a large proportion of the workforce, whilst some employers manage to be successful it requires time money and investment, something which most employers are not doing.

You mention people who are not NT, whilst there are benefits these people often need extra support put in place, when they are WFH it is easy to miss the adjustments they need.

Honestly, I think it's difficult to provide the same level of support and mentoring for young people @ancientgran. We have identified this as a specific problem, which we're currently trying to find creative ways of addressing.

Anything that means I don't have to do my usual commute still works just fine for me, thanks.

We have always had the option to work from home if it continues to meet the needs of the business - most people did a mixture - some prefer to work in the office
During Covid I had to increase my staff team and everyone was home based this didn’t work either
Now we have totally home based roles on 0 hours contracts so they can choose their own working hours and how much they do
Others are on contracted hours but have to do one day a week in the office
Some roles are fully office based
We are also very good on flexible working so children, dogs and other caring responsibilities are negotiable

I work for an organisation that has had people doing my role remotely for about 25 years. Works brilliantly here. My friend is an it specialist and they work from Wigan for a US company and have done for 15 years. It's not that new and can work excellently if staff are motivated.

I do hybrid.
3 at home and 2 in the office (4 hr commute 8hrs in total), it works for us.

I don't think it's had its day, no. I do, however, remember a time when lots of people were saying they are never going back to the office and yet there seem to be a lot more people commuting these days.

There is but it's still much better than it was. My pre-covid commute used to entail cramming onto a train like a sardine - and often not being able to get into the carriage at all. Now on the two days I go in I can often get a seat.

I WFH, contact centre. Makes no difference where I work from, everything is recorded and monitored and I don't leave my desk unless I'm on my lunch or a break. Calls automatically come through so I'm as productive as in the office because well, I can't choose not to be!