Does anybody feel happier WFH?

[Spanakopitas]

I've never done it before, but I've got a new job which is 60% WFH 40% office based, and I've no idea what to expect.
I am just ready for a change. I've always worked in education and social care which involve being around others constantly, I've never had an office sort of role.
I'm fed up of toxic workplaces, cliques, bullying and so on. Not saying the new role will be perfect but I'm hoping that being at home most of the time will help things.
Just wondered if anybody else feels happier now they WFH?

I used to work full time in an office.
Now I wfh 3 days and go into the office 2 days a week.
This suits me fine.

I can roll out of bed with minutes to spare on wfh days. Get out the house and socialise with colleagues when in the office.

As long as you have a suitable environment to work at home it can be a good mix. I can do little things around the house when taking a break for a cup of tea, be in for deliveries etc.

I have been WFH in my current job for a year and half and I have mixed feelings.
I absolutely love the flexibility, being able to pick DD up anytime, more relaxed start of the day, more productive, no commute.
I miss being around people but to be fair my last job wasn’t great I didn’t like most people and was glad to leave….previous few jobs I always made some good friends at work and loved coming in….so it’s a hit and miss I suppose.
I think a 60:40 hybrid is a good compromise, you will still have some interactions.

I wfh four days a week. I love it.

I get far more done. No time wasted commuting. No interruptions, no cliquey bullying.

No ridiculous rail costs. I can wear what I like. I can start at 8am, finish at 5.15 & do school run without all that rushing & stress. And I can put supper in the slow cooker at lunchtime which means I get a chunk of my evening back too.

I’ve been wfh full-time for about 15 years. Before that I was hybrid. I can’t imagine working in an office again unless I was desperate.

This... I could never work in an office 100% again.

I agree. I find WFH full time is only really enjoyed by people who are antisocial by nature. Spending 37-40 hours a week alone is quite unnatural and lonely.

Mine is 3 days in office / 2 days at home but my work are quite flexible on this. I really like being able to do both and wasn’t great when i WFH full time.

DH is able to do the same work pattern so it means that there is always someone home for DS.

I've WFH for 14 years across multiple roles and industries. I will never set foot in an office again. The flexibility it allows me to fit my job around my life is invaluable.

It's better for me, because I don't start the day frazzled from a commute or in a rush to get out of the house. I catch up with emails and admin over coffee before I've got dressed, then get myself ready more leisurely.

I eat healthier food rather than grabbing a mediocre Pret sandwich. I exercise more because I can go for a run in the daylight whenever I want. I can maintain my working environment exactly how I want it in terms of temperature and noise (whether I want silence or to work with music).

I also do better work when I'm by myself and in a relaxed environment - the sensory overload of open-plan offices, not to mention having to be "on" all the time and the constant interruptions, did my head in.

It's also freed me up to work across multiple time zones and to do work that doesn't fall into set UK 9-5 hours. If I need to work at 6am or 11pm then I can do that without having to be in an office at an ungodly time. And in my industry the flipside is that when that happens, I'll often be free for good chunks of the normal working day - which I can then spend as I please rather than waiting in an office twiddling my thumbs.

Better for my mental health, better for my physical health, better for my work quality, better for my career. Genuinely life-changing in so many positive ways. Glad the pandemic finally made society catch up.

Oh, and now I have a lovely house and my own office, but when I started WFH I was in a houseshare with 4 other people. I was young, and junior in my industry. All the benefits still applied!

I've never been great at making connections in offices anyway. I find it hard to be in "social mode" and "work mode" at the same time - if I'm concentrating on work I'm pretty much trying to ignore anyone around me. When I started to WFH, I was able to get my work done and then arrange separate coffees, lunches etc with other people in my industry, and I'd travel to them for those. That was a much more effective way of networking.

I love hybrid it's Absolutely the best of both worlds for me!!

I’m happier, more productive and efficient when working from home.
Im 100% wfh, except for off-sites once a quarter - usually abroad for 3 days

Yep I'm 80% WFH and 20% site visits. Love it, could never go back to 100% office based. I love being at home with DH all day. Having lunch together and avoiding the 2+ hour commute every day.

My life and my kids life is way better working from home. I was headhunted for a job paying £25k more and said no, partly as I am
in a once in a lifetime job, partly as when you tax it, pay for commute and wraparound childcare for two and holiday clubs there isn’t that much of an increase.
I can also get washing done and hung and pick up kids and if needed do a couple of extra hours in the evening. I’d love the cash for a study in the attic, but maybe one day as the downside is our snug isn’t used for much else now.

The main downside is have to use 2 of the spare bedrooms as home offices

I work from home full-time and it is absolutely the best thing for me in that I don’t have to commute, I have a heart condition so I’m not at risk of fatigue from a lot of travel etc.I don’t get other stuff done because my job doesn’t give me the time for that as it’s customer service so I have to be at my desk when I’m in. I have a home office which is separate so it’s easy to walk out of my office and shut the door and then be home.

I work shifts so I can go out before work or after work and that works fine. But….

It’s isolating. I’ve been in my current job now since last year and I’ve never met any of my team face to face and never will. I did all my training remotely, and aside from a half hour team meeting once a week and a one-one once a month I can go almost weeks without talking to another human being. My DP is here at weekends, but not during the week, and my DS is at work a lot of the time, so I can literally go for days without talking to someone else.

I wouldn’t change my wrt status because of the pro’s but I think the downsides and the isolation need to be acknowledged when people talk about wfh.

Following!

It's fantastic! I've recently moved to a job where I am hybrid working and I love it. Days in the office and days at home with no commute. It's really beneficial to my work life balance and my teenagers

I was happier when I started wfh pretty much exclusively pre covid. But now hate it, I look forward to going into the office despite “wasting” an hour getting there. As soon as I no longer have to do school runs, I’ll happily go back to being in office 5 days a week.

I get that some people find it isolating but I think that depends on the job you are doing.

I have a team of 7 to manage and a lot of meetings. Last week every single day I had about an hour where I wasn't on teams. I actually just needed to sit quietly on my own when my working day finished! So I very rarely feel isolated.

I personally don’t find video calls a good substitute for actual human interaction. I have multiple video calls every day but in January I went 3 weeks without having a face to face conversation with another person.. it was a pretty miserable time.

Agreed.

I read a statistic somewhere that the internet has isolated a lot of people e.g. those with disabilities who, while they have made friends online, no longer leave the house, and this has isolated them hugely.

In lockdown the isolation caused to children was massively talked about even though those children had a lot of online interaction.

Teams absolutely isn’t a substitute for real human interaction., although someone who oesn’t crave human interaction isn’t wrong if that’s what works for them.