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?

Very few people are made happy by a salary reduction. I’d have thought that would be obvious. However, I think quite a lot of people who were given the choice between one salary for five days a week in the office and a lower one for a fully remote role would happily take the lower one if the lack of commuting costs meant things evened out.

PP was saying wfh doesn’t work because people clean, do the school run etc. I was simply saying that some roles allow for this through flexible working. As it should be for any that can. I think some people are just very brainwashed into believing we must work in an office 9-5 Monday to Friday, when often it really isn’t necessary,

Last week I wfh one day as I had a dentist apt first thing. I went to the appointment, worked 10-12, met a friend for a run and had lunch together, then took DD to school, then worked 2-8.30pm.
All my work was done ready for the next day and the only time I wasn't available to contact was obviously during the dentist apt and from 12-1pm.

I wouldn't do this regularly but it worked for that day

I agree. I deal daily with HMRC and get very frustrated at having to keep repeating myself when the CS assistant gets distracted or can’t hear me due to dogs barking, children or their doorbell ringing. If that’s not bad enough, the phone connection/line is often poor quality and they usually say their computer is slow due to poor broadband. How is any of that efficient?

In answer to your title …. Jealousy

Yep, this to a tee.

I’d love to WFH but it’s not feasible in my job and that’s probably for the best as I think for me personally it wouldn’t play to my strengths. However, I can’t say dealing with people who do WFH has caused me any problems at all, either professionally or personally.

That's never been my experience. In all my desk jobs I have been up and down all day. I got far more exercise at work than I would at home, where I would be more likely to be "chained" to the desk due to not having to go and find people, go to the copier on the other side of the room, go to the stationery room, or even go outside to make purchases, deliver things etc.

The government is being heavily lobbied by the money who own central London coffee chains and restaurants etc. they want workers back in London buying coffees and lunch stuff not sitting at home eating a homemade lunch. And the government want us to buy stuff all the time too because that generates taxes.

Neither the government nor ‘big business’ care much if people are happier at home, or that wfh has revitalised local village high strees.

It would appear, even from this thread, that many people don't want to wfh, so why would they be jealous. I have literally never heard anyone irl say they wished they could work from home, and as I said it's not as common where I live.

Not everyone wants to be a recluse who rarely leaves the house.

Sunak and the rest probably have shares in Pret a Manger....

@ithinkthatmaybeimdreaming Just to offer a difference experience, when I worked in the City I had a small room on my own and would stay sat in it non-stop for 9-12 hrs, with perhaps a short walk at lunch (although that was frowned on as not committed to job). I wasn’t going to the copier or the stationary cupboard etc that was what the support staff did I was expected to be at my desk and, as I had to record every 6 minutes of my time, it became pretty obvious if someone wasn’t where they were supposed to be.

I quit that job partly out of loneliness!!

I get frustrated when dealing with people working from home who are clearly not as productive as they are in person. I've had training sessions run by people from home. One had his kid in and out of the room, one had dogs barking whenever anyone walked by his house, one had unreliable internet and one was computer illiterate.

I also don't like the idea of having confidential discussions with someone working from home. I worry about my data being secure or my conversation being overheard. I had a phone call with my bank's fraud department during the height of the pandemic, so I was very understanding of the woman working from home, but it sounded as though she was on a mobile phone with poor reception, so not the best equipment.

I've phoned an admin department at work, the woman I spoke to couldn't do the stuff I was asking about as she was at home and she didn't have access to the documents needed.

Shirking from home

I prefer hybrid.
I never work from home, but rent a co-working space close to home for "WFH" days, lovely bunch of people, really sociable, but they aren't colleagues, it's brilliant.

As an interim manager, going into new roles and never meeting the team is really hard to get team cohesion/spirit/motivation going - I prefer getting to know people face to face.
I turn down any roles that are fully remote, and similarly not keen on 100% office based either, but currently considering a role that's 15 minutes walk from home, so I might drop the co-working office if I take that one.

There seems to be a trend now for hybrid working organisations to have at least one day of the week when everyone is expected to be in the office, which works well.

We have hybrid and I would not now ever be without it, especially as a person without domestic support. I do the work (it would be almost immediately obvious in my role if I did not) and I might also throw on the laundry or take out the bin. I have a proper evening, not just going home and doing tasks. My physical, emotional and domestic health is better for it. I don't spend ages commuting in the rain and I don't have to have my will to live sapped by the 'chatterbox' in the office who won't shut up so I can concentrate. No one's stinking lunch to cope with and fewer office outfits to sort out. I don't really see the harm in someone painting their nails or sitting in a face mask on a pictureless Teams call when the work ends up done fairly. The one who might have ruined it for everyone in my place was someone who was blatantly doing childcare but he had made himself indispensable at that point. That's taking the piss. The only ones gunning for a full return to office were an old white male who enjoyed feeling important just by being there and a very loud nosey woman who gets the entirety of her social quota through work. Those two seem to be a theme.

I'm always baffled by this. I'm as social as they come but I am much more productive at work!

My DH is in the IT industry, he's been wfh for a few years now. Most of the firms in his sector don't even have offices for staff to work in. It's all done remotely. He manages a large team who are based globally, all wfh. They are highly skilled, professional people, they don't need to be micro managed, when they are getting the job done. I think this is true of any business. If you have confidence in your HR procedures and your staff are delivering, wfh is better for everyone. I wfh by default.
It's a great step forward in work/life balance and is only resented by people who aren't able to do it or just don't want to.

Or E) mangers of individuals who spend their WFH time mowing the lawn/doing childcare/watching Netflix. There’s nothing about me as a manager that enjoys breathing down people’s necks, unfortunately hybrid working doesn’t suit everyone and some people just need to be in the office in order to actually work.

Employers have trust and control issues and most companies don't care about work life balance.

It depends on the job and the person. I’ve done 100% wfh and found it quite lonely and isolated. I’m now 60% wfh and I love it- enough contact to keep up the team spirit and develop good working relationships but enough time at home to really focus.

Agree that there’s a lot of jealousy at play. I read the comments under a Times article on this and it was full of retired people grumbling that they did 40 years in the office so we should have to as well.

I’m a civil servant who has worked exclusively from home for a few years, we’re now being told to go into the office 40-60% of the time.

this will mean a 40 minute commute for me to spend all day in teams talking to people whilst in an open plan environment - no one I work with will be in the same office with me. I really wouldn’t mind if I could have face to face contact with people I work with, but that’s not an option as the nearest group is 3 hours away.

my department has been very pro homeworking, constantly restating no mandatory back to the office moves. Consequently people have planned their lives around this. Many people have been knowingly hired on the basis of occasional trips to the office - and live 2+ hours away.

anyway, lots of job hunting going on.

That's good for the government though as they want to reduce the number of civil servants, if lots leave because of this they don't have to pay redundancy hurrah!

I suspect the people who will leave will be the ones you wouldn't want to.

Such a shame to go backwards just to support real estate companies and pret.

It's still just over half of the week in office, I think there's a lot of drama about it when there has been tonnes of soft guidance up to this point to encourage departments to up their time in office. As many haven't done this a harder line that crosses everyone seems like the next step. There are plenty of people who benefit from working in the office, as part of a team and an organisation it's not all about yourself- its always been clear that unless you're on a remote contract or have a formal adjustment in place you'd need to be in sometimes, if people didn't listen then I'm not sure it's anyone else's fault. Hybrid is still a world away from the workplace pre covid where any home working at all wasn't overly common.

I hate wfh. So I rarely do it.

I work in an office with lots of trainees - they benefit much more from face to face contact rather than teams etc.

I don't care if others choose to wfh as long as it doesn't negatively impact my work. We did have someone who wfh regularly but did all their hours at night. Wouldn't answer their phone or emails in working hours so was really difficult to work on jobs together.