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.

It works for us. DH has been working from home since 2018. His commute was a long walk through central London and time squashed on a smelly tube line. Now he just goes downstairs to his custom made office. Saves him two hours a day of travelling plus the masses of money saved that were on travel tickets. Pops out for a coffee when he feels like, has an hour in the garden. It's perfect.

Before having kids I worked full time in city. Commuted in everyday.
Had DD went part time so still commuted in 3 days a week. Dd went to child care from aged 1 till covid hit when she was 4.

At that point I'd been laid off, I didn't want to commute into London when she started school, it would've meant both DH and I were both over an hour and half away if we were needed. So my option was to look for more local work around school hours which would've meant a significant drop in salary. Id have to be working full time just to be able to earn Half of what I earnt on my London PT salary.

Then Covid hit, London jobs suddenly became fully remote!

So I now work full time from home, earning a "city" salary. I get to school runs and go to school meetings when needed. Same for DH.... he is a much more involved parent then if he still had to commute in everyday!

So, we are both high earners so both paying into the tax system, DD has 2 fully involved parents, and is afforded the benefits of having two working parents and having involved parents!

So yes WFH has been a god send to us, our finances and our work/life balance.

It benefits more people and has the potential for more people to be working (single parents, disabled etc etc) yet al because a few people who take the piss (or are perceived to take the piss) people think it should stop!

People who take the piss of WFH are the type of people who will also take the piss in the office...! So why let them ruin it for others!?

I do hybrid working and have done since pre pandemic but I wouldn't have called it hybrid working then and it's moved more to WFH as a result of the pandemic. Works great for me. I have to deliver but how/ when I work is up to me. Some aspects of my role needs face to face so I do a couple of office days a week. Some aspects need quiet time to think or do teams calls with people around the world and WFH is better for that.

I have a full time job, 2 primary age kids and a pretty lazy husband (although nowhere near as bad as some of the people you see on here). I honestly wouldn't cope if I had to be full time in office. Not having 1.5 hours commute a day, being able to bung on a load of washing in a tea break etc saves me. I love being able to do some of the school runs and attend the special assemblies, concerts, info sessions etc. My DH is also hybrid but his WFH days are very fixed hours so he can't do that so I guess not all WFH/ flexi work is the same.

I do think it's harder in a new job as you need trust from your manager to make it work and you don't get so much support from team mates so there has to be a balance. As a team manager I just need to think about that more and put solutions in place.

The OP had an opinion on something she doesn't even do! My partner and I work full time from home. He takes the kids to nursery. I do a couple of hours of calls, emails, chats and admin from bed from about 8am. I then get up and shower and typically go into my study for meetings until lunch. My partner is set up in the dining room on meetings and other tasks. We then usually have a bit of food and a chat about midday. We then go back to our spaces for more concentrated work and meetings until around 5 when we'll agree whose going to go get the kids. I have no idea how we'd be more productive in the office. My partner usually does a further hour after the kids are in bed whilst we watch TV. If I go into the office, it's madness getting the kids sorted and getting trains which are invariably late or cancelled. I'm exhausted by the end of the day as is the rest of the family. Its totally pointless going into the office beyond the social element of getting to know my colleagues better. I have zero intention of getting an office based role. My partner is an Managing Director of a small company and I'm senior leadership in a large company. I manage a large team and they are extremely productive - I promise you that if they were slacking off it would be very obvious very quickly.

I've worked from home since 2013. If I was unproductive or slacking off someone would have noticed by now.

If you feel as if you're in the way in your own home, then no, it's not working for you. Does your DH not have a dedicated room or space? If he's at the kitchen table and you have to tiptoe around him, of course that's no good.
But that doesn't apply to everyone. I've worked at home for years and am lucky enough to have a little office. Everyone else can do what they like in the house and none of us feels like we're in the way.
My lodger WFH full-time in the depths of the pandemic but is now working in a hybrid way. It works for him; he goes in when he needs to have meetings or discussions with colleagues, or just wants the company and the buzz of being in a room with people, but WFH when he needs to just get his head down and focus on something. Best of both worlds really.

It’s fine if you’re well off and can afford a big house with space.

I could work from most days if I wanted but I choose not to. It made me listless and low in mood. I had to either sit at the kitchen table or on the living room sofa, always in someone’s way.

I wouldn’t like my 18 year old to have a fully remote job either, you just can’t replicate the learning by osmosis/water cooler chats.

I am glad it helps disabled people and single parents to work and hope it stays for those who need it.

But it’s absolutely not for me.

I started a new role in February and I’m technically hybrid but as a knock-on to wfh policies we now recruit anywhere in the country for a team that used to be based in one office. This is the bit I really don’t like. I go into the office, I sit on my own because no one else in my team is in my office and most of the time I speak to no one. I then go on zoom all day just like I was at home. I may as well be totally wfh. I have all the disadvantages of having to go into the office a couple of days a week but non of the advantages you would normally get.

Thing is I’d love to be actually hybrid and see my team 2/3 days a week. I really miss talking to people face to face. The quick 5 second question or reassurance that I’m doing something right or “can I just show you my screen?” No quick questions to my manager anymore or scooting across to ask someone a question.

instead we setup zoom calls with every man and his dog to answer a question that could be done in 30 seconds if we were in same office in an attempt to make sure everyone is included and we have lots of meetings to “keep in touch” and “make sure everyone feels involved” which means 40 minutes of talking that mostly is irrelevant to me so I find it really hard not to switch off and miss the bits that are relevant to me. A simple question has to be an email which sometimes takes 48 hours for a reply which slows things down massively and as a new person can you make feel reluctant to ask because there’s your potentially stupid question in black and white whereas before you could just ask the question to the person sat next to you. I’ve also found that sometimes people are doing things wrong and it takes forever for someone to notice because there are no casual conversations around the work. No one ever overhears you talking about a piece of work and says “oh I think I could help with that I’ve done x” you only get help when you formally reach out for it. this company has a huge focus on development but I’m still learning much slower than I ever did in prior jobs.

also we don’t pick up on peoples mental health. Someone who’s feeling unwell but not unwell enough to need time off can go unnoticed or if they are overworked again no one notices until they reach out and by that point they may be quite stressed which could of been avoided.

I personally also find it really hard to concentrate on zoom compared to face to face meetings.

I don’t know what the answer is here. If they forced everyone back into the office full time at my place it wouldn’t solve my issue. And i know it wouldn’t be right for everyone.

and I miss the social side. I’ve been at my current job 7 months and I could move cities and no one in my office would even notice. That’s really bloody depressing.

I was part of an agile working pilot in 2017, in a nutshell it means working where and when you need and want to rather than set hours or locations. It worked really well and the business took it forward for all roles that didn't need to be location based.

Now in a different organisation I have a similar set up but not formally 'agile' and again, it works really well because the type of work is suited to it. I could be at home, in any of the UK offices, on a train, in a coffee shop or at a supplier office. The hours aren't set so we do whatever works. The general feedback on it is that staff well-being, happiness and job satisfaction is much higher, productivity is higher and quality has improved because there's less burn out.

So no, I don't think it's 'had its day', I think more companies should assess their roles and ways of working.

Works for me but does not for everyone, especially if you don't have space. The comment about bosses not liking it does not surprise me- I expect some want to be in an office to micromanage, or for men who want to avoid to do their share of childcare.

I imagine it would be hard to replicate. As I said I don't think it is just the support and mentoring (although that is also very important) but just being around people who can do the job, you hear how they deal with something, they hear you and can give you some follow up advice.

It actually feels unfair to me, experienced staff it works for is great but they had all that to help their development but they can't pass it on.

Same. I hate it and although we are allowed a hybrid approach i only ever WFH now when delivering training via teams, so as not to bore my colleagues.

I just don't get in the work vibe at home. I even resorted to playing office background sounds on you tube! I'm just conditioned!!

I wfh permanently before covid. I can categorically say I would never choose to work a job that was full time in the office again. Wfh is great for me, it's good for productivity and availibility (as pp I sometimes have calls which are outside normal working hours due to time zones which I can attend as I am home), and it's great for a work life balance. I do have my own office at home though.

Some people and some jobs aren't suited for it, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be a thing for those people/ jobs it does work for.

I’m a WFH convert too, but it helps that I’m in a role where meetings are with people from all over the globe and all on zoom. We get together a few times a year for offsites.

I think it’s brilliant for working parents, I can wake up and check email, give DS his breakfast, drop him at school (like my mum did with me) and then log on for some productive, focussed time.

I’d leave my current employer if they made us come back into the office. I think they know this. Recruiting talent is hard enough.

I love it, I'm based in a large open plan office, but I deliver a lot of training as part of my job. Remote working gives me the peace and quiet without constant interruptions to write my training and practice it. Without it I would be driven mad and having to work at home in my own time anyway to do a good job.

What you are describing appears to be an issue with your partner being around when you are not working. Which I am not sure bears any relationship to the value and effectiveness of remote working.

Training up a new starter depends on the job. I've learned way more about processes in my work from someone sharing their screen on Teams than I have from being there in person.

Dedicated space is essential. IMHO the main reasons for people being anti-WFH is that they are very rich and selfish and own commercial property, or they are in management, incompetent, and are only capable of judging a member of staff based on whether they arrive early and leave late.

I encouraged WFH during quiet periods before Covid, and WFH one day a week before then too. It's massively beneficial to preventing migraines.

I was a manager of staff throughout the pandemic, and honestly, it was no different in productivity.

The biggest improvement I made to productivity was in fact reducing working hours (and increasing pay), and reduced management oversight. I shared the financial projections for the company, made it clear what everyone's work contributed to, and bingo! Everyone beavered away to make sure our numbers and their projects kept making money.

Turns out, people are perfectly happy working autonomously towards a collective goal if they can see the rewards. Whether from home or not.

I love it - as a person with a developmental disability who can’t hack the commute/office environment, for the first time in my life I’ve got a shot at a career. Asked for this as a reasonable adjustment before, not possible, until covid hit and suddenly it was.

I’ve now got a perm role with contractual home working, when before I was temping and struggling to manage the health impact of the job. Have been able to coach and train others remotely, take on additional responsibilities, even step in for management, and my productivity is not far off double what it was in the office.

Some of these posts complaining about wfh show a lack of knowledge about utilising the various tools available. Screen sharing is brilliant for the type of work I do. Digital whiteboards to collaborate on brain storming. Teams. My teams is going constantly with people asking me quick questions or calling me to run something past me. In the office, in person, I used to find that volume of contact overwhelming and tiring. Via teams, I bang it out making sure everyone I work with is aligned and understands my direction. In my role, I often need to say something multiple times to finally get everyone heading in the same direction. Teams is excellent for helping me do this. I employ a lot of women with young children. Right now I have two pregnant women. They tell me all the time what a life saver wfh is. Many are like me whereby travelling to the office is a major strain on their family life.

I am more productive working from home, I did it pre pandemic.

More to the point, working from home allows someone like me, with multiple disabilities, to get a better job and work more hours than I could ever hope to do in an office etc.

Working from home has been shown countless times in the pandemic to be more beneficial to disabled people, yet every week it seems there is another thread on here moaning about people working from home.

Must be nice to be able to work out of the home without having to spare a thought for the people who find that too hard.

I bet there is a cross over between the people who moan about WFH and the people who moan about those on benefits (like you know disabled people who can't work outside the home)

I only get about 50% of the work done that I can do at home if I go into the office - so many distractions. My quality of life has improved and it has made me a lot more productive. Just my experience, but those who have pushed for everyone to come back are those who are pretty work-shy and rely on presenteeism to show they’re working, rather than actually doing any work!!

I wfh and I love it. On the times I went back to the office I can't get anything done. I chat to everyone and it's very noisy. I end up having to log on at night to catch up. I can get more done at home and if there are quieter times I can get on with some housework (doesn't happen very often). I wouldn't go bk to being office based now. I also use my lunch break to pick my dd up from school and then go bk to working once I've sorted her out with drink/snack.

I actually don't like it if dh is home when I'm working it puts me off. I often work from kitchen but we are doing some bedroom shuffles shortly and I will be making the spare room my office.

DS got his first job, his team wfh 4 days a week so he really struggled to get a handle on what the job entails as asking questions involves emailing or phoning rather than just turning to someone next to you. He didn’t make his probation and I think in part it was down to lack of training and being left to get on with it. Sure, it’s a bonus to those already settled but Think it’s really tough for those just starting out and I feel really sorry for them.

YANBU. I've never worked from home - even in the middle of Covid. I know exactly which company's employees work from home. I choose different suppliers. Nobody ever answers emails, there are always many people cc'd but no reply. Nothing is ever solved so I take our business somewhere else. Councils are the worst offenders but also other big companies (shipping lines, agents). I don't like listening to someone washing the dishes while on a call with me....