To think that everyone WFH thinks they are more productive but this view isn’t necessarily shared

[Cucumbertomatoes]

On here, everyone who WFH insists they are much more productive than in the office. However, I’ve noticed this view is rarely shared by others, hence companies wanting workers back. It’s an interesting one as clearly perceptions vary. AIBU to think that while you might think you’re more productive you may not be?

It's not hard to measure productivity in the vas majority of WFH jobs. It's proven fact that I am more productive at home than the office. I manage a staff of ten, I know who is productive and who isn't.

In my experience the lazy twats who don't do much at home are the same lazy twats who don't do much in the office.

Office work, for me - is far less productive. It involves constant interruptions, unnecessary small talk around the kettle, and delays for social etiquette

People standing around talking about their weekend whilst getting paid

You overstate your case OP. You're right to say the view is sometimes shared by others, but rarely? That sort of argument requires evidence.

@Privatelyliving yes it is, which is why I make time to do it twice a week. If I was in my office I’d spend all week doing it so working from home the other three days means I get the actual work that needs doing done.

I work in local government and have legal deadlines I have to meet for my work so working at home is necessary to meet them.

I get a lot more work done as I don't have to commute so start earlier than I would than if I had to travel to the office. Again I work later as I don't have to travel back and consider the traffic.

I always think its interesting that even when it's acknowledged that loads of people swing the lead in the office, nobody suggests that's a problem with office work per se and they should be working somewhere else instead. Yet the reverse isn't true.

I think individuals want their employers to believe they are much more productive WFH.

I don't believe this is the case as it's easy to be distracted or to just do something else that's not work related.

It really doesn't matter if you think its the case.

It doesn't matter what teh individual wants their employer to think, the employer will know for themselves.

Say your company closes at 9pm and there are still calls queuing after 9pm. These calls are expected to be picked up, you can bet the ones taking those calls are the ones working from home and not in the office.

It can be very beneficial to employers, employees and customers having the option to work from home!

My work is deadline based, as is my teams. If we weren't productive, it would be extremely obvious.
It's so much better from home - getting more projects done as less disturbance.

Better work/life balance. i can shove washing on in my lunch break, i can get up 30 mins later, save fuel money, eat less and meetings are quicker as less non-work chat happens on Teams meetings than face to face.

Plenty of work places are asking for people back because they have office space sat under-occupied. Equally, lots of places here have taken the chance to move to full remote and save the office costs! Choosing to rent a much smaller space for face to face meetings and some hot desking.

I'm PT flexible hours and can WFH most of the time. I am way less efficient at home as there are thousands of non work related distractions and interruptions (laundry, cooking, cleaning deliveries, teens coming home & wanting attention etc etc) and I miss seeing colleagues and being able to ask/answer questions or discuss issues. I hate trying to work from home as the tasks just expand to fill all the time, but nowadays if I go in, I'm in an empty office.

I hear what you're saying but I think it needs to be judged on the outcomes either of the individual or organisation, not people's opinions. My employer has just had its best year ever, with everyone working remotely. But they have also demanded that people come back to the office, so staff are rightly feeling a bit confused - if the business outcomes are good, businesses are going to struggle to justify getting staff back at desks.

Mmm, that's how you end up with staff who have options looking elsewhere.

I am definitely more productive at home - no distractions, comfortable, no messing around chatting or having unnecessary coffee breaks or toilet breaks where you have to walk to the other side of the building.

When I go into the office I get pretty much zero done. I get there at 7.30, spend 15 minutes getting a coffee that would take 2 minutes at home. Spend 15/20 minutes putting my bag, coat down and getting my stuff out and logging on because the work computers are slow. Already been there 30 minutes and done no work.15 minutes then spent talking to the people around me because if I don't I'm seen as rude. 45 minutes gone and no work. The work computers are rubbish and the floor to ceiling office windows just glare onto the screen all day. The fluorescent lighting is painful and the air conditioning that's either freezing or heating that's too hot is distracting everyone. Everyone's talking to each other and getting distracted. People next to me are talking loudly on teams meetings virtually despite everyone being in the office. Constantly hyper aware of people around me so I'm thinking about that instead of being able to focus on the computer.

Oh yes I forgot how loud the office can be with teams meetings and general noise, i have had customers complaining about the noise ….not much I can do about it mind

businesses should be keeping an eye on productivity of all employees wherever they work. forcing people to work in an office because of some gut feeling about WFH that somebody has really isn't the same as effective business management.

I'll never know, because I've always been fully remote at my current job. However, what I do know is that my boss is a millionaire and we're all hideously underpaid. So I'll do what I'm expected to do, enough on top that I get my tiny annual payrise, and I'll keep on enjoying my work/life balance.

Tiny, because it's capped.

My partner has just returned to work full time in the office and I have never been so miserable in my whole life.

He's gone back to the office and with him went my only support during the day, the only adult conversation I get in the day, I'm in immense amount of pain due to an injury caused by an epidural and having to walk to and from the school whilst pushing a double pram and using a baby carrier at the same time (I have very small age gaps between my youngest three) which means I am spending every day topped up on painkillers, he's missing all the little ones 'firsts', I've had to miss one school event already due to not being able to get into the classroom with my buggy and not being able to hold and supervise two non walkers at the same time out of a pram.

The month before he went back to work, out delightful landlord handed us a section 21, so now we are also having to leave our home of 8 years and struggling to find anyone willing to take us on with our young children.
I have had to make all the phonecalls, send all the emails and sort everything to do with our current homelessness, something he would have been able to have chipped in with had he been working at home, and no, it wouldn't have affected his productivity to have sent the odd email to try to help us seeing as he spends enough time on team meeting calls joking around with higher ups.

My partner tells me the call back to the office has resulted in them losing half their staff, as people don't want to be full time in office anymore, so are looking for a new WFH job, or at least a hybrid.
They have already had one data breach since being in office, yet had none WFH for three years.
He says nobody wants to be there and productivity has nosedived.

The call back to work doesn't just affect the workers, it affects those around them too.
It shakes up their whole work/home balance.
We were able to do doctors appointments, school events and other important things without him having to take one day off, because I could just leave one or two little ones with him and he was able to work at the same time.

My mental health is utterly shot to pieces now I'm alone again.
I genuinely hate his boss for it.
Luckily, my partner is leaving them in November for a new WFH/hybrid job, so they can shove it.

@LadyGrinningSoul85
As much as I sympathise, work from home does not mean in order to help you out with the kids
Was the company OK with this?
Was this maybe the reason he has been asked back to the office?

I'm just as productive at home as I was in the office.

What has happened WFH is I'm no longer longer involved in pointless, inane 'enquiries' from colleagues which would usually degenerate into them moaning about their job, life, DC, weekend etc.

So to some, it might seem like I'm doing less. When in fact, I'm just not being bothered by pointless s* which wasn't part of my job in the first place.

@LadyGrinningSoul85 You’re obviously struggling so I’ll try and be as gentle as possible, but surely your husband could not (or shouldn’t) have been doing those tasks anyway - he should have been working.

Inhave no skin in the game (I’m a teacher, PT, today is my day off) but I don’t understand how someone can WFH, do school runs, go to school events (btw, some us have never been able to do that, not the end of the world), care for children and their poorly wife.

Has anyone thought about it another way

If you are experienced you may get more done as you have no interruptions
Whereas if are less experienced you may be less productive as you haven't got the experienced person to interrupt to answer your questions.

Perhaps it's not about you
Perhaps its about overall team productivity

Yes, that comes up in pretty much every thread about remote working.

The answer is that the idea it's easier for less experienced staff to access more experienced staff whilst physically in the office is an assumption. It will no doubt be true in some cases, and not others. Plenty of us have experience of appalling or non existent training whilst we were in office environments.

There is also the fact that more remote work has increased the training opportunities for some of us. I have access to much more now it's generally online, what with not living in the south east.

Yes, indeed, it needs to be looked at on an organisational scale not individual.

My son started his first graduate job last week, along with several other graduates and a few interns on their Uni "work in industry" year as part of their degree. They're basically muddling through themselves most of the time because there are so few experienced/supervisory staff around who are often engaged in meetings, on Teams calls, etc., so not available to guide/support them. The staff who do come into the office seem to do random/occasional days, so there's no continuity with training/support etc - some of the staff who've looked after them well for a day havn't been seen again. They don't know who they're reporting to or who is responsible for their training etc. Yes, I know a lot of this is poor on the part of the employer, but it wouldn't be a problem if so many staff weren't WFH.