To wonder how we ever did 5 days a week in an office?

[OptimismvsRealism]

I work hard and love my job (legal). Spent a day in the office today for the first time in months and honestly feel sick. The people flu! I couldn't go back. All those blokes in the City saying WFH was an "aberration" are deluded.

I get that some people love it and there's enough diversity in this world for everyone to find their niche but Oh My God am I glad I don't have to do the daily traipse any more.

I'll add teachers to that list...not sure my class of 30 x seven year olds would all fit in my lounge 😬

Goodo!

In the 1950's, maybe. I don't think that's been the situation for decades. I am 42 so grew up in the 80s and didn't know any families for whom both parents didn't work, except the Asian ones. I don't know any SAH parents now. It's just not been the norm for a long time.

Obviously that comes down to the management to ensure staffing does cover core hours, in exactly the same way we would in the office.

Jesus, people will argue about anything!

Who gives a shiny shite if OP is over the moon about being able to WFH? I don't good for her and everyone else who is benefitting from it! As I said upthread, I can't think of anything worse so I am eternally grateful that I don't have to WFH and go into my office every day.

I'm sure OP knows that nurses, doctors, teachers, firefighters etc can't WFH. My husband can't build things from the settee. But she's talking about office workers specifically. And yes, if there is a nurse and she/he really really no longer likes having to go into hospital to work and it doesn't fit in with her personal life then she/he CAN get another job if that is what they want to do!

As I said, arguing about absolutely fuck all.

It also, and people don't like hearing this, comes down to paying employees enough to make them willing to forego flexibility.

Of course. And that might mean increases in income tax or council tax, or paying higher prices in order to make the jobs more attractive.

I agree. It should be happening but in some cases it certainly isn't.

Yes, and this is the bottom line really. The job market has changed, 2019 isnt coming back and labour costs more than it used to. Roles that can't offer flexibility are going to have to compensate for that in some other way.

This again.

Getting hold of people in government departments has always been painful. The public sector has always been full of untalented shirkers.

Why are you so sure your difficulties are due to people WFH and not a lack of staff?

Great, another sarcastic teacher trying to be clever on Mumsnet. Because we don’t have enough of that!

Yeah, OP does say "in an office" in her OP, so it seems a bit redundant to keep coming on to say "but teachers! but nurses! but fire-fighters! but posties! but delivery people! but gardeners!" etc etc. She was clearly only talking about office-workers.

There are a loooooooot of posters on MN who think the existence of jobs that can't be done remotely is relevant to other people's wfh arrangements.

I’m always surprised when I hear people are still WFH full time after previously working in office full time pre Covid. When I hear people complaining about having to go back in, I always wonder if they’re complaining about having to go back full time or just one day a week.

I’ve been hybrid working for nearly three years now and it’s great. You get to build a culture (which disappeared over the lockdown) but have less burnout and less stress from the commute, having to rise at 6am to make yourself presentable etc.

Recently there’s been a bit of a clampdown and I feel like the risk of them taking any wfh away from us is hanging over our heads. I work in a business park in the middle of nowhere which makes it difficult to get to and means lunch is a chore - there’s no nipping to Tesco at lunch for some paracetamol or a drink either.

If I had to go back more than 3 days a week, I would leave. I think 2-3 days a week is the sweet spot.

But I work alongside university STEM educated colleagues with professional qualifications, so we can all be trusted. From previous jobs I know some types who would take the piss. But then again, these people took the piss in the office every day.

I also have a very long commute via public transport. I’d be much more open to going in full time if I worked a 30 minute walk away.

Interesting comments and I can see you might see it like that.

My experience of WFH is different from that, but I work in tech.

We have a lot of collaboration and remote meetings since our team is global, I do not feel we work in isolation at all. We can go on a video call anytime to discuss something and we have active messaging channels where people respond immediately. There is a huge amount of knowledge sharing, it's just done remotely.

I turn the sound off my phone and don't answer the door, or if it is the occasional parcel delivery I ask them out of the window to leave it by the garage.

Do those who wfh permanently worry about globalisation and their job being outsourced? My husband wfh all week in IT with colleagues all over the world in his team and I have to say I'd feel less secure knowing the competition for jobs is huge.

I have the luxury of 1 wfh day a week in health care for meetings,admin and service planning and the benefits from a work and life pov are huge. Covid was a totally game changer in the way we worked in the NHS and this has been one of the few benefits.

Mine wouldn't be as it's a particular skillset, but even for people where the skills are global, why would they worry now if it's not happened already? Roles like that will have been done remotely since March 2020 if not earlier. That's really quite a long time. If it's not happened by now, there's a reason.

I can't work from home for my business and am very happy about it. My kids are adults now and I love getting out and being social at work face to face. My dh works from home and it is not good for him but he has no choice. Ds luckily has an office job as it would be miserable working from home at 18. No wonder so many younger people are lonely now.

The second part of your answer is nonsense. Anyone with half a brain cell knows these jobs can’t be done from home so therefore never will be.
it’s clear that there are jobs where wfh is possible and that’s what the OP is on about.
if a person wants to wfh then find a job that allows it, not one that requires a person to on site (just my opinion). My place of work wanted people back 5 days a week, it didn’t suit me to do that so I found a job that would allow me to wfh….been there 6months now and loving it x

WFH won't make a difference to this. I've been made redundant for work to go to Poland in the office days (and they were later made redundant for it to go to Bangladesh). Office or not nothing is reliably forever. Then there's AI!

I thought perhaps with a lot of leeway WFH work just not getting the full attention that it needs.

WFH is great for those with kids, younger/single people prefer to go into the office, companies should offer a mix to get the best people 🤷‍♀️

I like going into the office to be honest. I do wfh 3 days a week so that I can be around for teen DS but I'll probably go into the office more often when he goes off to uni.

For those who struggled to concentrate in the giant open plan bins that are public sector offices (hotdesking so you never really build up rapport anyway) the opposite can be true.

I'm quite happy with my hybrid work schedule and 1 day in the office is enough for me along with 2 days on site and 2 WFH