Sorry, not sorry, but wfh really is much easier

[Jeannie88]

I know it's become the norm, especially post covid, but do those who wfh realise how much easier their lives are?

Sorry, but I have found it a bit pathetic and embarrassing that there has been a big defiance of 'going into office' once a fortnight to be such an horrific ordeal?

Don't you all realise how fortunate you are? No commute, time at home to do things those of us have to do after a day of being on our feet, all frontline and retail etc then look after our children?

Sp my point from.personal experience. We are a group of 6 friends (f) and go out regularly together. When we have been to midweek gigs, comedy nights, meal, the 4 who wfh joke how they can roll out of bed and be online within minutes to show present, then have breakfast and just work at their own pace and even during teams meeting they can sit back and contribute what they have to.

Then, the 2 of us who have to get up at 6am, dress for work, ready to drive so sensible of alcohol intake the night before and buy ourselves soft drinks in rounds or even drive and give lifts. Then do a full intensive day with full on human interaction and check e mails on the evening when we get the time to do so.

Of course childcare issues come into this. We who don't wfh have to take our DC to breakfast club or childminder then go on to work, the 3 of the 4 who have DC drop them off at school and rush back having been seen to log on early but not really working as getting them ready.

Ok so my observation and opinions based on this. I guess all the moaning on MN about having to go into the office (which really isn't so hard is it?) had incited me to raise this point.

Oh and I do have DP who wfh and he totally agrees with me. He's hardworking and doesn't do the slob thing, but agrees, in his own words. 'It's a piece of piss compared to going to the office and even that was so easy compared to your job'.

So please those who have the privilege of wfh stop moaning! Honestly, how would the world work if everyone wfh? It wouldn't.

These threads are always the same. Full of jealous people who don’t seem to know the first thing about the sorts of jobs that suit home working. Their job isn’t one of them so no one should have that. And anyone that does get to work from home has to be extremely grateful and never moan about work. It’s always a race to the bottom for some.

I also save loads of money not having to buy smart work attire, as I can wear my vast collection of comfy joggers on work days.

At the very least, I make an effort to brush my teeth, wash my face and fix my hair before logging on to WFH and before I leave the house to go anywhere.

I make myself presentable for MST video calls/meetings and do not wear nightwear, although obviously nobody can see what I’m wearing from the waist down.

When I don’t have time for a proper lunch break, I can quickly grab food from my Kitchen and eat at my desk if need be. I can have a 5 min break in my garden or cycle around the local park for 30 mins.

Around 3pm, I activate my out of office email message, as I’m officially not available for the rest of the day. I often then put on my running gear and head out the door on PM school run.

I’m not a morning person and I tend to work better later during the afternoon/evening when I can get my head down and focus on tasks without interruption.

You should try WFH. It sounds like you need a change for the better.

They’re the same type of people who moan with jealousy when someone goes off sick or takes maternity leave. “ooh lucky you all that time off work!”

I took a full year of generously paid mat leave with all three pregnancies.
OP - Sorry, not sorry 😃

Some of us are grafters. WFH or not WFH. Kids or no kids. Senior/highly paid roles or not.

I am incredibly lucky as I can do either. Work from home or go into the office, which is 5 minutes away from home. I work the hours to get the job done and no one micromanages me. I do however take my work on holiday with me and I am
in immediate contact. I have spreadsheets who are better traveled than most people. Swings/ roundabouts

My point is do people who wfh realise they are fortunate to do this?
^

Yes. Practically every day my husband and I mention how fabulous WFH is!!

🤠😍

I run projects with different companies and the client teams I am working with can be wfh or in office (or hybrid). My outside observation is that the in-office teams get through so much more work, knowledge-share so much better, and generally seem to enjoy/seem engaged more.

I can see it is a better work-life balance for the wfh people, but I have yet to see a company who this model really benefits.

WFH is great, but even just the flexibility is even better. I used to have an onsite job (hospital so couldn't WFH) and I chose to move so I could get the flexibility. I can work around appointments, get some housework done in my breaks and spread the tasks throughout the day without worrying about whether the trains are broken down. Thats why people don't want to come into the office and doing once a fortnight is a strain for them.

I am the person you describe, roll out of bed log on and then get my breakfast. As long as my targets are being met, who cares if I am eating my porridge when I read my emails? It's no different to all the people that get in and then go and get a tea or coffee in the morning. I do have an issue that my manager is so laid back I find it hard to get the motivation to do anything, but I am working around it now.

WFH sustainably is an art, but when you crack it it's great. I use the Pomodoro method to get the "thinking and concentrating" tasks done, so when in the office I can spend more time in meeting and working with others. I also found it important to clear away the office things at the weekend, so I didn't sit there all the time.

Those that I know that work from home have put on so much weight, feel lonely and lack connection. Some lose their social filter (hence your post I imagine!) and find it stressful having their home life blended with work life. It’s not easy and it’s hard to stay motivated and focused. The interruptions and noise. I think you are painting a rosy picture of something fairly insular and miserable actually.

I also feel this is really about you agreeing to do things mid week that really are not in your best interests or good for your lifestyle. I would turn down the invites that mean you have a compromised night out, or exhausting day at work. Be clear with your friends that x,y and z would be better for you. They are probably lonely and need the mid week meet ups because they wfh.

Here here! I admit I’m envious that in my job wfh is not possible and as the rest of the nation seem to be (I’m tired of hearing people in the gym on my days off apparently “working” on meeting calls or hearing my friends boasting about how much housework n laundry they get done while working. It’s all waiting for me after a long commute along with my child at afterschool club. And yeh hearing people complaining how hard it is that they have to dern dern derrrrrrn go into the office!!! Shock horror!! Has your memory of office life escaped you completely? Have you become such a hermit at your little home desk that you are scared of face to face real life interaction?? Surely this has contributed to how anxious & antisocial we are becoming (I reference a recent thread on people deliberately wearing headphones in public so no one dare talk to them)
I must admit tbf I’d miss the social side of the job & the laughs at work & id also be about 50stone wfh as I struggle with diet as it is. So swings & roundabouts I guess. Well this is what I remind myself when I hear people boasting about how easy their life wfh. I know I should check my bitterness lol I suppose good for you n all that. Especially women- we have it hard enough right! Maybe I need a career change after all 😬

One thing I don’t understand is how tf is the traffic on the roads worse than ever if half the workforce are still “rolling out of bed to their desks” in the mornings??? My commute is worse than ever

The novelty of wfh has worn off and people are rushing back into offices. Who wants to spend their whole life stuck in the same four walls day in and day out?! Also career progression stalls as relationships are not built, and there is zero visibility even if promotion were an option for someone doing their laundry rather than working!

Standard of service in lots of companies have decreased -I wouldn’t be at all surprised if all the people at the Teachers Pension ‘Service’ for example are ‘working’ from home as they don’t take calls and only state that an endow will get a response back ‘in up to 15working days’ …

Your dh works from home? After he's rolled out of bed why doesn't he sign on get the kids ready and take them to school ? Would make your life easier at least!

I.hated working from.home during lockdown (live slone). The only positive was that I didn't have the commute or discipline problems- I'm a teacher. In different vircumstances, I would like to work from.home at least once a week-highly unlikely.

OMG, how I wish I could work from home at least some of the time. It's not just because of the 2 hours I spend commuting every day. The office has so bloody many people in it! The chatter and noise of others working has been doing my head in recently.

Of course childcare issues come into this. We who don't wfh have to take our DC to breakfast club or childminder then go on to work, the 3 of the 4 who have DC drop them off at school and rush back having been seen to log on early but not really working as getting them ready.

This isn't how it works for me. I stark work at 9, i drop my children at school at 8.40 and im home at 8.50 ready for work. I use a childminder for after school care.

Of course there are benefits but i think there's an assumption everyone working from home is doing sweet FA with kids at home.... no!

You sound jealous OP. If you think wfh is so great then why don’t you change jobs to one where you can wfh?

I wfh every day and I absolutely don't moan about it.

I spent 10+ years commuting 2 hours each way in to London for work, including dropping small children off or picking them up from childcare. It was exhausting, but work wouldn't even consider one day a week wfh.

Wfh is very very very much easier on my kids, some of whom are still small. Shorter hours in childcare, school pick ups for older ones in my late lunch hour and then they can chill at home, dishwasher done in the morning because I'm not on a 7am train, dinner served by 6pm instead of coming in the door exhausted with tired kids at 6pm .....

Wfh is an absolute privilege to me.

I would absolutely hate WFH.

I really struggled during covid and it’s one of the (many) reasons that I found I couldn’t continue working as a teacher, because of how much work I was expected to do from home.

I like my work to be work and my home to be home.

My commute is me switching off from home mode into work mode or vice versa.

I also enjoy the routine of waking up, getting ready and going out to work, having my work area, seeing my colleagues and clients etc.
Then coming home and having that routine.

I would feel as though I had less identity if I WFH, especially as a single parent.
I couldn’t be a SAHP though either.

But WFH is easier when it comes to childcare, housework, cooking, exercising, sleeping etc and that was something I found quite shocking during covid.

My lifestyle during lockdowns (even though I was still going in to the workplace PT) was so much healthier, simply due to the better work/life balance.

I was able to get up later and get a full 8 hours sleep, exercise, make a healthy breakfast before work.
I was also able to go for a walk on my lunch break, do the housework and prep/cook meals from scratch all within the time it would usually take me to get ready and commute to and from work.

I very much realise how fortunate I am to mostly WFH. I go into the office one day a week (sometimes more, and I do only work 3 days at the moment) and with the dog (who we had pre-lockdown before anyone whinges) and the child (post-lockdown) it's manic and exhausting.

While I don't do the "slob" thing as you put it, and whether I'm at home or in the office I work hard at a full on, intensive job, I know it's "easier" in terms of general life.

BUT. I start at 8am, so to get everyone ready and where they need to be on time, I'm up not long after 5, even on a WFH day. I usually have a very full day of meetings, which means I have that full day of people interaction you seem to think only comes from being in an office. Some weeks I have more interactions on WFH days than office days, depending on what the project demands are on everyone else.

I usually manage to log off on time, but often that means cutting a lunch break short. Sometimes I don't, and I justify it as "well I'm not commuting". But that means I'm working more hours than contracted. It's much harder to leave the office on time, which then means a mad rush to collect everyone, because people are physically in front of you. But they're also pretty understanding of traffic and childcare restraints, which for some reason they don't consider when booking 5.30 meetings with you when your working hours are clearly stated. Because I'm "at home" so I'll be available.

Not all jobs can WFH, and not all people should. But the lack of commute isn't the only thing to consider as to whether it's "easier".

Surely those moaning about going in are doing so because they prefer wfh…. Because it’s easier…. And therefore they do know how lucky they are. What’s your point?

Jesus Christ, if you’re having to get to at 5am to work then you really just need to time block the two hours out in your calendar during the working day instead. How are some people so useless?!

YABU. What people are likely moaning about is being ordered to go back into the office when they are much more efficient at home and there’s no need for it, other than the fact that some 50 plus senior manager thinks that people who WFH are slackers, often based on no evidence whatsoever than their own prejudices.

And there are numerous disadvantages from working from home- like being assumed that you’re available to work 24/7, having to create sensible office space, paying for heating and electricity yourself- sometimes I look back on the days in my career when I could simply walk out of the office and forget about work until the next day and think I didn’t know how lucky I was.

Whilst I don't have a commute, I am busier in this job than I've ever been. I dont have time to stick a wash on, and regularly skip lunch. My DD is a teenager but if she was younger, I'd probably still need to use childcare as I don't get breaks. Its also likely that whilst your friends are doing the school run etc, they are not actually skiving, just working flexibly. I know people who do some work during the day and some of their work in the evening when the kids are asleep.