To never want to work in an office 5 days ever again

[halloweensweets]

Pre-covid I worked in an office 5 days a week and never considered it could be any different, even though the jobs I've worked could all be done from home. I would commute 90 minutes to sit in an office and have more distractions than I did at home.

I hated the temperature politics in offices most of all - I am a very cold person and usually my (male) colleagues would want air con or windows open even if it was 5c outside.

I don't mind going in occasionally to have face to face interaction with colleagues, but on these days I am much less productive as my role requires me to do everything online.

But the thought of ever doing 5 days in the office, sitting for 8-9 hours with colleagues again is horrendous. I would rather go back to working in retail or another customer facing job, at least then there is justification to be actually there and present plus you can move around rather than sit and freeze.

Never. Won’t.

I'm not in the UK, and I think (hope) we haven't quite got to the stage you have described yet. It is disturbing however, how has it got to the stage where young people can't/don't know how to interact with others? I live in a medium size town, and people here still say hello to people they pass on the streets, chat to others when out shopping etc. and I would hate to see that end. Wfh isn't quite as common here either, and most people I know are still going into offices.

In some ways I'm glad I am older - I would hate to be a young person in today's society, life was so much more simple when I was a child/teen/young adult. There doesn't seem to be the sense of fun there used to be (and before people pile on about the problems of today, there have been problems in the past - where I live there was a huge farming downturn in the 80s, which affected almost everybody in rural supply towns such as mine).

I haven’t done 5 days in the office for the past 10 years, and don’t know how people with children managed when that was the norm

Couldn’t go back to full time in the office. I can do every aspect remotely so what’s the point of a 60 mile round trip?

I don’t think I’d cope health wise if we did, tbh. It would be too much for me now, with being a single parent as well.

Im happy with hybrid. Two days a week I am manage, and I like to see colleagues. When I have to do three days in the office I struggle.

I'm the same. My home is absolutely my sanctuary and I don't work out of it. Ever. If I were forced to go hybrid, I'd leave.

Conversely, there are things I do at home that I wouldn't dream of doing in the office 😯

Viva the commute, whatever the weather.

Whatever works for you. We're all different, innit? 🙂

I loathe working on site in the office, I can literally get three times the amount of work done in a day at home, but we have an idiot boss who has overcommitted themselves to virtue signalling nonsense so is pretty much always involved with some bonkers HR initiative or other and has it in their head that we're a frontline service. (We're not, we don't deal with patients directly.)

Literally 99.95% of my job can be done from home. I'm now desperately looking for another job with more consistent home working as health reasons mean I get ill fairly easily when I have to go on site. I've had to be on site three days in a row this week and am exhausted, I've had to take annual leave to recover next week.

There is no point appealing to her common sense either, this is the same manager who argued with me that I was wrong when I pointed out the ultimate purpose of a hospital is to serve patients. Apparently that doesn't apply to some departments. These days I do my best not to engage with her over anything much more than a cursory good morning and instructions/handover for the day and regularly mutter "NHS Professionals" at intervals under my breath.

The office thing is nonsensical presenteeism most of the time and I can't help feeling some of this type of manager must be aware they're not all that necessary. In fact I'd go as far as to say the one I've currently got is an active hindrance.

Please tell me what your wfh jobs are...currently in healthcare and sick to death of commuting, shifts and paying for parking.
I need to wfh...but doing what?

Where I live any half decent jobs are at least an hours commute away. Factor in time to make lunch, get ready for work, feed pets, get washing done etc it made for a long day before your boss wanted you to stay late again for some reason.

Working from home has been life changing! So much more time. Lunch made and eaten in my lunch break along with chores done. No dressing up for the office, changing when I got home. It all takes time.

I am so much more productive working from home too. Head down and get on with it. Much easier to concentrate. No having to make coffee rounds. No making small talk with colleagues who quite frankly bored the pants off me. No being polite to colleagues who talked at me. And if I need to work late, I'm happy to do it because I also know if things are quiet I can do my own thing too. Whereas in an office you have to stay put until "finish" time.

I have a seriously unwell relative and if I need to speak to medical professionals, I can, without having to explain it to my boss.

I don't miss a boss watching "how" I did my job. Insisting I did it their way. Now I can do things my way but with the same results, often in less time.

I do miss having nice colleagues, the ffew I got on well with over the years. But there are so many more positives than negatives.

The thing I find most astonishing, having been hybrid (more WFH than office) since COVID is to marvel at how I ever managed to work properly in an office. I go in an average of two days a week and its nice seeing colleagues but I find the noise, the tech problems and faffing about associated with hot desking, the commute, the gossip and distractions and general background hum of an office unbearable. The amount of actual work I get done falls a factor of about five when I'm in the office.

I did it basically for 20 years up until COVID and I now find it breathtaking that I was able to cope with it. I suppose we all got used to it and convinced ourselves that it was an optimal way to work but it's really not.

I find the people who wang on about WFH being poor for productivity unbelievable. How anyone can think that eight hours of pointless meetings, endless tea runs and stupid conversations about their Netflix habits conducive to productivity is beyond me.

This is my and me friends. We all prefer a hybrid model ideally 2 days a week in the office maximum.

Lots of offices especially law firms and private equity/banking (city) want you in office 5 days a week though.

Yes, this in spades! The amount of people who want to talk (either in a bank of desks or in kitchen or elsewhere) really irritates me, plus you seem unfriendly if you don’t want to do it!

I get far more work done at home and I can concentrate better too.

I'm sooooo glad I went freelance after COVID. I used to spend nearly two hours a day on trains and buses to do 9.30 - 6.30 (when ALL our customers left their offices at 5) so that last 90 mins was a complete waste.

@givemeasunnyday

Being on MN has actually opened my eyes to the number of people who really don't like interacting with others, and I agree it is quite sad.

I do agree with this though, despite my feelings about working in offices. There's an epidemic of neurosis about other people these days which I find incredibly disturbing. People pathologizing minor irritants (such as awareness of other people making noise or eating) and turning it into some great phobia that everyone has to tiptoe around. Endless bellyaching about "misophonia" and over-reactions to minor office irritants that others are expected to treat almost as a protected characteristic.

Grumpiness and misanthropy about the most basic social interactions being passed off as "introvertism" (no you're not an introvert, you just don't like people, it's not the same). And the desire to retreat into your shell the whole time rather than making a minor effort to be pleasant and open your mind a bit.

I get the need for space and the resistance to the horrors of forced corporate interaction and politics. And yes offices can be full of annoying people who you'd not be around. But that's showbiz. The pendulum has swung too far in my view and people are massively over-indulging an entitlement to turn these minor irritants into big dramas and excuses not to participate in life. It predates COVID but COVID gave a lot of people a license to let a lot of this hang out.

I hear you.

I can't imagine how I used to be up, showered, dressed with make-up on AND in my office 40 mins away by 8.

Now I wake up at 8 and say 'morning' to my team whilst lying in bed. I do pop into the office when I feel like it, but the thought of doing it all day from first thing is anathema.

I wfh 2 and 3 in the office now and I think it's ideal. I get the washing done on wfh days and tbh the people in my area of desks drive me up the wall. They're nice people but just talk mundane bollocks and then I get dragged in and get told off! Not all the time but one guy you can't just have a quick chat with him. Everything is so deep 😂. The other one just brings everything round to herself and is always ill with something or other but will 'plough on' anyway because she's strong like that

I agree.
Now go in to the office 1 day per week, sometimes 2 if I need to be face to face for things.
I am not as productive when in the office,but it is good to meet people face to face, instead of just on video calls.

@user1497207191 I think the issue your DS faces is not just about wfh but about the commitment or lack of it to new employees. Lateness is largely avoidable and unprofessional in my opinion, and his longer serving colleagues should behave better.

I think you get to know yourself over the years and what your ideal scenario is for work.

I hated working from home - and after the lockdowns, I never want to have to do it again. I found sitting alone in front of a laptop soul destroying.

I work full time in an office, but I’m working with young people and I’m very much not glued to my computer. I am up and about all day, in and out if my office, lots of interaction and then quieter periods later in the day where I close my office door and get on with administrative and ‘thinking’ work. I have my own office, which helps.

The sort of set-up I thrived on in my twenties - big open-plan office full of noise and chat amongst colleagues and - I’d find very hard now.

Im in the office 5 days. During Covid it was the same. I love it! I can’t imagine being hone all day work. It would drive me up the wall.

I have spells of WFH depending on the project and I can’t understand how anyone does it full time. I’m so unproductive and distracted at home, I also eat snacks constantly so think I’d end up the size of my house if I did it full time 🙈

It would make my life so much easier if I could WFH more but I just can’t be trusted, I need the threat of judgement to keep me motivated!

Agreed!

I hate everything about daily office work: the politics, the noise, the constant the gossip, the commute.

I currently work for a charity and their office is in just a small room. It is not even accessible for people with disabilities, has only one loo and there are no computers there so you always need to bring your laptop and find a free desk. The wi-fi connection is awful and there is only one meeting room so you have people having loud zoom meetings in the main room...

So frankly it is simply not fit for purpose and I can never do any work there.

One of the reasons why I am starting to job hunt for something new.

Totally agree. I am currently looking at new jobs and I won't give any consideration to anything that says more than 2/3 days in the office. My preference would be 1 day or fully remote as my role is nearly all computer based.

I am the opposite. I don’t like wfh. One day a week is more than enough. I hate the silence. I like to interact with my colleagues. I find training new staff almost impossible from home. Personally I can be equally productive from home but as a team overall productivity suffers as each person has to put a lot more effort into keeping on top of particular cases. It’s easier when we can chip in and help eachother and all have the same knowledge based on just hearing what’s going on.