Why does it seem most are against WFH?

[user6776]

Just read an article that has said civil servants are now to work from the office at least 3 days a week. I'm not a civil servant, but my company adopts the same approach. WFH is generally frowned upon and they are all about being in the office as much as possible.

I prefer WFH. Less time commuting, more productive as no office distractions, can get stuff done on my lunch hour. It's a no brainer for me. I agree going in the office periodically to meet with the team and for important meetings but other than that I don't benefit much

What does everybody else think?

I wfh and I’m far more productive than when in the office and I also find it harder to concentrate in the office on the rare occasion I go in now

I'd love to have a couple of WFH days a week. Unfortunately as a teacher, that wouldn't really work!

A lot of civil service doesn't have the real estate now to do this.

I work from home with occasional days in the office - works for me and my employer.

I do two days in the office and two days at home and it's perfect for me. I try to do all my research/writing tasks on home days though as I find it much easier to concentrate.

Would you be as productive if you were 18 and just starting in the job and doing so at home by yourself?
We are expected to be in because otherwise the experienced staff tend to stay home and the less experienced struggle. It's one thing saying they can just call us on teams but in practice people need the informal peer support.

We've also found that many staff who WFH develop unhealthy practices eg actually working too long, not taking proper breaks.

I work out on site, in the office or at home. And I arrange my work to suit my location. We are very much measured on output and as long as the work is done nobody is especially bothered what hours are worked.

However, some of my friends work for companies in which people plainly and blatantly take the piss, which causes issues for the wider team. Things like having children present, being uncontactable and opting out of meetings to avoid being allocated actions.

It is also really difficult in most settings to integrate new starters, especially those new to the industry like graduates.

I'm all for wfh and I find my 16 hours in the office (with 8 hours wfh) now utterly tedious. BUT I am 60+, my work is completely autonomous (no one really supervises me or checks up on what I'm doing) and I don't want to make friends with my work colleagues, don't need to learn anything from them, don't want a social life via work. I think for younger people wfh is awful.

I’m in the civil service. In my office they’ve rented out a lot of office space so there’s now going to be something like 8 workers to every desk but at the same time we’re getting messages about how people aren’t coming in the three days and we need to push for that. There’s the worry that people coming in won’t be able to sit with their team which defeats the purpose of coming in. Also due to centralising the offices there are some people who commute a long distance and so if they come through and can’t get a desk it’d be such a waste of travelling time.

Anyway to answer your question yes I like working from home better

In answer to your title …. Jealousy
My productivity is at least 1/3 more when home working. No distractions , chit chat, etc and I often forget to go for a wee or make a cuppa I’m so engrossed .

@ThomasinaLivesHere

They need a desk booking system - we have to book a desk and a car parking space.

Works well - you know you are sitting with your team so makes it worth coming in.

I’m with you!

I Love WFH for all the reasons you mentioned. Like PP said, so many taking the piss and ruining it. Not sure what the New Year will bring as we’ve had no guidance yet so basically two days in and 3 days from home is what most people are doing at the moment. I think i’d have to search for a new role if i was back in the office full time. Sucks the life out of me when i’m there just the two days…

I miss my dog too when i’m in the office. She’s the best work colleague… never complains and is always available for lunch and a walk ☺️ and is a great practice audience for my presentations.

I’m guessing many employers don’t agree with their employees’ self-assessment of being more productive at home. It’s also particularly difficult for younger employees beginning their career for whom a lot of learning opportunities and exposure comes from the spontaneous discussions they have and when they get chatting with a senior colleague at the coffee station - and employers recognise this.

As an aside, I think WFH exclusively badly impacts women in terms of career progression - because it ends up being mostly women who want to WFH to fit around childcare and school hours. There’s a lot of research which concludes that employees who aren’t seen in the office aren’t perceived to be as hard workers as those who are and are more likely to be passed over for promotions and picked on when it comes to redundancy time - and that’s definitely evident in Board discussions in my company.

Agreed. In 2 years of work my DD has been into the office just once. Looking at people on a screen is simply not the same.

I WFH 3 days a week and the office 1 day a week currently. The office day is always by far my least productive day and is usually spent chatting to colleagues, procrastinating and/or stuck in meetings that quite frankly could have been done in half the time via teams. I would really struggle working from an office permanently now - I have ADHD and didn't realize until I started WHF just how much the work environment was effecting me - I just always thought I was a bit shit to be honest 🤣 but turns out it was simply the office environment was not suited to me. I have been thriving ever since the majority of my work has been WFH and often get complimented on my organisation and productivity.

In my experience, the people who are usually against WHF or who seem to think those who WFH are lazy are either A) in a profession that can't WFH and have no knowledge of what it is actually like, B) the type of person who likes other people to do their jobs for them and steals other people's ideas to fob off as their own, C) office gossips, or D) bad managers - the type who like to breathe down your neck all day to feel important instead.

I am much, much, much more productive working from home. I am a chatterbox and I love my team and I can literally talk to them all day in the office and get nothing done and I am the manager!

At home I can focus really well for hours on end - often run over (I only finished half an hour ago) and I am much more relaxed and contented without having to go through the whole palaver of 'getting ready' first thing in the morning. I am not a morning person so I hate the hours between 7-10am.
I see my team once or twice a week and that seems to suit everyone (I think they find me distracting too!)

People generally don't want anyone to have anything nice, including themselves.

WFH is genuinely on par with policies like annual leave, maternity leave and sickness pay in terms of beneficial worker policies. WFH is amazing for so many people for reasons nothing to do with productivity, commuting, work/home balance. It's also a great equalizer which really upsets the British psyché as a matter of course.

Studies show on the whole home working, 4 day working week and reduced hours are beneficial to employees health/quality of life, as well as to the work productivity outputs.

It doesn’t generate income for corporate commercial lettings though, who do have some political sway.

Presenteeism is culturally quite ingrained culturally in Britain, we start young with giving children attendance certificates etc at school.
It also crosses over political ideology, old school working class man who takes pride in his hard labour, for being a provider and putting a good shift in before returning home.
conservative capitalists who feel the underlings should work for their dinner or career progression.

It’s a battle of what works and is beneficial versus ideology.

@StrictlyComeSnoozing sadly I’ve come to the conclusion I agree. For me, wfh is immensely productive but only when you ignore the fact there is much poorer communication and “work culture” benefits are often reduced especially amongst junior staff.

I mostly wfh, my team are all over the country with no-one based in my office.
I do have peers in the same job family but honestly unless we all agree to go in tge same day (we have no real need to get together from a work perspective) then I go in, work less hours due to an hours commute each way, and do exactly what I would at home.
We promote reducing carbon footprint yet are regularly told they want us in the office more...... go figure!

i worked from home when I was young and I loved it.

The owners of office blocks etc are losing a lot of money, and I think some of the newspaper owners have shares, which means they are publishing a lot of anti-WFH articles without any real foundation.

But with a falling and aging population in the coming years and labour shortages already in most industries, the truth is that employers are going to have to compete to attract the best people, and the flexibility to WFH is attractive.

Also, If the government wants to retain more older people in the workforce for longer, and the economy needs ths, it’s going to have to support WFH.

This describes our team really well too.

It makes sense WFH if people actually work like you do but not all people claiming to be WFH are actually working. Many are cleaning their house, dropping off and collecting DC from school, shopping and goodness knows what else. I can recall one person on MN saying she liked WFH so she could use her home gym. I think there's a world of difference between throwing on a load of washing and the other stuff.

DH is in the civil service and isn’t being asked to go in 3x p.w - is as required. He’s also not asking his team to go in that often

i work in the private sector and go in the office as required