To think remote working is shit

[Doodoodoodo]

I understand that lots of people like remote working for many reasons. However, AIBU to think it is shit? It's so hard when you start new places/teams and you never have a clue who anyone is or who to speak to about things.
I really feel that I'm missing out on some much with hybrid working and I worry for the younger graduates coming through right now.

I think there's pros & cons. I have done both. Personally I prefer a balance of the two if possible. So instead of 5 days in office, 3 in and 2 from home.

WFH -
more flexibility, no ridiculous commute times adding onto your day/ save money as not spending on expensive coffee breaks/lunches. Can pop some washing out when it's a nice day/ no pressure to get dressed up for work/ able to manage work/life balance better.

Office -
Team spirit, communicating more effectively in person, work/life balance in terms of when you're at home people expect you to be available all the time. Office can have start/end time. Enjoy company of colleagues/ ability to network better in person as can read the room better.

My ideal is hybrid.

I prefer 2 in the office and 3 at home, but currently have the other way around.

Spontaneous, organic learning, questioning and interaction is something I miss hugely. I miss in-person meetings instead of the stiltedness of Zoom and it’s one-person-speaking-at-a- time model, which is nothing like the complexity of communication that happens when you’re in the same physical space. It’s definitely affected my workplace culture.

but we’re virtually completely remote. Maybe it’s better in workplaces where there’s more balance.

I hope you are asking consent for the pics and even then its a bit questionable

YANBU to have your own opinion of it.

What works for one won't work for another.

However I, for one, love not having to commute. I love that my employers have recognised that it's daft making people pay for travel or spend extra time in their day commuting.

I love how in summer, I can go out in my garden and chop fresh green lettuce and other vegetables from my garden to eat for my lunch, on my lunch break!

I love how I don't always need to have clothes ironed, and I can get a shower during the day rather than fight for the bathroom in the morning or the evening.

I honestly don't care who is in my team at work, as long as they're good and decent people who have identified one of the many ways they can contact me in the 21st century. I don't care how they do their job, as long as it gets done.

I love working from home permanently, not because of the work but because of the freedom it allows.

You're entirely entitled to feel how you do about it, and it doesn't make you wrong.

I absolutely hate it. Manage teams of staff around 30 - 40. DH has wfh for years. I do it as infrequently as possible. Had a fat at home this week & I wax irritable all day. Team mixed, some love it, others hate it.

I am howling at the original post. Fair play, that is a decent amount of effort to make. However if I did that at every placement I went to, I’d definitely get no work done! 😄

It feels so much more professional at least in my line of work. Meetings are brisk and decisive, and discussions with colleagues are straightforward .

I've had jobs before that I've really enjoyed doing in person - but those are still being done in person. The one I do now is much better as wfh, so I think it depends on what you do as well as who you are.

I'm aware I'm a bit of a hermit now but I'm much happier for it. It's been an extraverts world for so long, and this way there is room for everyone .

I’ve done several role changes during the pandemic - some teams are good with virtual onboarding, some teams very much less so. It massively depends on personality and team make up. Where I’m working currently the team is hybrid and has a massive geographical spread - we have skills and experiences we wouldn’t have access to if we were limited to recruiting to people who lived within a commutable distance.

I find the “new grads are missing out” argument weird though. I’ve worked with 2020/21 and now 22 cohorts and when the question comes up about being in the office v working from home most of them are massively in favour of wfh - it’s allowed them not to have to move houses every rotation, not to have to move at all so they can stay with current housemates/friendship groups, apply for roles that perhaps caring responsibilities would mean they couldn’t have considered previously…not a single one has (publicly) said they felt they were missing out.

At the end of the day, the office should be there for those that want/need it and those that don’t can work flexibly - people just need to remember to ask these questions at interview so they know the team dynamic they are going to be working with.

I work with software engineers. They hugely prefer working from home because they can concentrate. Most are introverts too.

I wfh pre covid, started a new role and was onboarded in covid, I love it. I get it's not for everyone though and particularly for the grads that come through.

I think this is the crucial thing that lots and lots of people seem to be not grasping.

Because people are not all agreeing with you doesn't mean they are "not grasping" what you are saying. They just know that there are a lot of people (including people new into roles) who prefer to wfh most or all of the time.

Personally I'd prefer the office.

Love wfh. Love it! Can start a new job wfh and integrate myself easily.

At the moment I go in to the office 3/4 times a month. It's awful. I hate it. I like my colleagues but I can't manage the lack of productivity. At home I work 70 miles an hour, in the office I barely get above 20mph.

I always reach out to new starters and younger colleagues even while wfh but I'd do that if I was in the office.

I'd say I'm bang smack in the middle between introvert/extrovert although most people would put me at the extrovert end as I'm confident and well connected. I'd have been fine wfh as a grad or younger - even when moving cities I made more than work friends.

I'd be fine if I went to work in a face to face role doing things but to sit in an office at a desk doing virtual meetings is insanity!

I can see why people are saying age can be an important factor, but not always. I truly beleive I'd have loved been at home even in jobs in my twenties. I wasn't a different person then, I still found socialising exhausting and still didn't enjoy commutes or being around people all day-but few accessible (to me) jobs were available with WFH as an option so I just had to get on with it.

I love it.
No commute, no petrol expense, no parking charges, no having to continuously buy new work clothes saves a fortune.
My office is my home, which I love. My office colleagues are my dogs, can eat more healthier at home than work.

Can't think of a single negative

I couldn’t do it every day but I like the flexibility of being able to work from home when I need to or just fancy a break from the office. It’s annoying when I need something from a colleague when they’re working from home and I’m in the office though. My colleagues are usually in the office though as they don’t like working from home.

I definitely wouldn't like it as a graduate, as you say, but as the parent of a child with complex special needs, I absolutely would not be able to have a job full stop if I were not able to work from home. It feels as though I have been cut off at the ankles, career wise, and yet I am still able to do something I'm good at and contribute financially too. I feel very lucky to have found a flexible employer and specifically a WFH role.

I love it. I finished a job last week having never once met my colleagues face to face, which was a bit weird. My new role is fully home working so I guess it’ll be the same 🎉

personally opinion is that remote working can work great. I worked (prepandemic) in international teams where we were never in the same room. There was a sense of team and we knew eachother well. I am still in touch with some now.

However, they were companies who had done this for years and were good at it and people in their first jobs settled in well. Dhe to the experience.

So many companies went to remote so quickly, due to lockdowns, they didn’t have time to look at how to do this. Especially for new starters. Companies who are the best haven’t looked at how to do this since and ignored it, despite staying fully remote.

The better employers have.

I personally prefer hybrid though. My teams are only in one day a week, but with new starters we are all in full time for about a month, before slowly reducing it. With younger people we ensure they are in when most of the teams are and do alot of work, ensuring they meet and mix with many people. I take new starters to meetings, where appropriate, as an example. Despite growing my teams by 40%, no one has left in 3 years or showed they aren’t happy or under performing. My teams always get incredible personal feedback.

My teams also work with other teams through out the UK where it’s no always feasible to travel for an hour meeting so do build relationships over the phone with about 80% of the company and that’s a skill young people need to learn as well.

I think fully remote can be difficult for people just starting out their careers or new to a company. But good employers will have found ways to mitigate that.

I think its been fine for our graduates and new joiners. Lots have done very well.

I am older and established and happy to remote work. But I always thought that it would be hard if starting out like that. In my 20s and 30s, I met a lot of friends through work, I moved cities and it was a big part of my social life, plus I think you learn more just from being around people and over hearing general conversation at your desk.

Still I don’t really understand your thread. It is not 2020 anymore, if you don’t want to remote work then don’t, lots of employers want people in these days. Even where there is hybrid working, they don’t generally tell you you must work at home some days and unless you work somewhere very small, there is surely going to be some other people in.

Yanbu I took a second job just to get out of the house at night

A problem for younger people is usually space when working from home, whereas we were able to use two spare rooms as offices, graduates usually live in quite small or even shared accommodation so probably have to work in a living area or their bedroom which isn't usually good long term