To think working from home is a cushy number?

[MrsSlimShady]

I’ve got a new job that entails loads of e-learning, and webinars. They said I could do it at home and I literally sat there on the sofa and ate crisps and had cups of tea in my loungewear on the computer.

My DH works 3 days a week at home. He has back to back meetings but also manages to go the shops, go the gym, do exercise classes before work and at lunch time and do other chores. He’ll say his first meeting is at 0900, then nothing till 1130, then he can pop out 3-4pm….. it all goes like this.

I have another job and I have a 2-3 hour commute, and I am on my feet all day. I cannot get one chore done for my outside life. It has to wait till I’m off unless it is a text or email.

I know there are people working from home who work really hard too, but come on, AIBU to say that if you WFH you are really lucky and have it a lot easier than most other people?

I work very hard from home, not least because I regularly work past official hours. Yes, I have a bit more flexibility for being around for deliveries at home or getting home chores done, but only because I don't have to waste time travelling and I'm obviously at home at lunchtime so can do bits and pieces then like unloading the dishwasher and washing machine.

Yes this. When I do go to the office it feels like a break where I get to focus on one thing - just my job. It always felt like that pre-Covid tbh when my kids were at nursery. To me that’s the privilege men have had in years gone by when they got lauded for being at work when really anyone at home has it harder just down to the volume of multi-tasking and stuff that needs doing.

its both but rather than belittle it, why don’t we all aspire to it?

i work harder at home without the distraction of colleagues/chatting but I also walk the dog at lunch and put the wash on.

I work longer at home as I don’t really have an off button and sometimes feel that I love at work rather than work from home! However I don’t have the commutes so it works itself out and I like working hard.

i do know some people who abuse it but they’d abuse work in the office also. They are probably just in the wrong job.

My friends who work from home seem to have a lot more ‘free’ time than me, even though they work full time and I work part time (except I am in the office all contracted hours).

But I don’t begrudge them, I cope at work because I have my own office and not many distractions. You can get a lot more done without colleagues nattering at you all day.

I work from home 2-3 days a week - in all honesty I work harder as I enjoy working from home and I appreciate the privilege. I do dog walking/ clothes washing etc in the day but am mostly on line from 8-7pm (job is 9-5).

Back in the early 90s I worked in an out of town office complex that was a couple of miles down the road from my house. I loved it - could leave the house at 8.45 and be at my desk by 9 (there was plenty of onsite parking and this was before unnecessary car journeys became a concern), similarly finish at 5 and be home by 5.15. I’d go home for lunch which broke the day up really well. Maybe if people worked more locally working from home wouldn’t be so popular?

If you're working from home and your work involves lots of meetings then it doesn't matter if you're at home or in the office or in India. Both of us have been involved in international collaboration jobs with people on several continents.

If you're home based or office based it doesn't matter with a bit of thought it can go somewhere cheaper.

that be great wouldn't it - but companies are not doing that they are all ging to the main cities. Last month there a global financial services announced they were closing there offices in our local town, 300 jobs gone they were moving everything to the capital. That's one very large company gone now, a few have gone in the past few years. The other issue aswell is pay, a friend of mine has started locally after being made redundant from a job with a long commute however she is doing the exact same job, 20k less, no bonus less holidays, yes its only down the road but the perks are not the same and when you have them for a few years its hard to loose them

Depends on the job, like office work, I’ve had call centre work at home where every minute is accounted for having to plug in going to the toilet etc and had flexible jobs that would be flexible hours in an office too, that has offered much more freedom to do things like workout

Work from home two days a week and ended doing more on these day as I don't have to rush to collect the kids.

It sounds like the workload is low - that is the cushy part. Where you do it from is irrelevant. I work from home but I work flat out due to heavy workload.

My DD works from home too, very hard. Because this is something she usually does (she rarely goes in more than one day a week) the people she works for normally contact her at home and sometimes do this in the evening or at weekends if necessary

She is able to do some other things during the week (for example take the GC to school) but does treat the day as a normal working day, booking time off if she needs it. She doesn't just nip out to do something other than during her lunch break and arranges clubs for her DC during school breaks.
As@Seeline says, there's always work and preparation to do other than actual meetings. Her employers probably get more than their money's worth from her as she can work without interruptions from phone calls and colleagues chatting, and saves more than an hour's commute at each end of the day.
I'm sure that there are many people who take the p*ss when they work from home though I would have loved to be able to do it when I had my DC at home.

I do both ever since COVID demonstrated to my company that they don't need to be in the office every day so I commute twice a week. It is nice being able to get up half an hour later and not having to pay for the return train fare. On the other hand, when I am doing complex/difficult software development/coding and I live on an estate with several screechy kids and yapping dogs, it can be tiresome.

It just proves how needless most management is. People do perfectly well on their own. When I worked in an office (once) I found the whole dynamic toxic.

You are correct OP. I’ve worked from home in various roles for many years, long before it became more common, as has my DH - no matter how demanding the work is, the WFH aspect makes it v cushy compared to having to be in a workplace; you have so much more freedom. I now work in a secondary school….total opposite 😫

I do 3 wfh days a week and 2 in the office. The wfh days make life easier in that I can start cooking tea as soon as I finish. Or if I've not slept well I can stay in bed til half eight, have a quick shower and be at my desk by 9. I work at a desk and I don't really stop except for lunch. In that sense it's the same as being at work, just less distractions.

I WFH and set my hours to suit me. Which in reality means working between 6am & 8pm.

I do an hour at 6-7am, then get DS up and ready for school. Straight home after school run, then work from 9-2.30. Do school run, and make dinner, take him to the park, do homework with him, housework. Then working again from 7-8pm.

So I'm not working solidly from 6am to 8pm BUT do work a solid 7.5 hour day. And that bit between 2.30 & bedtime isn't a rest. It's doing housework/childcare.

I'm knackered by 8pm. TBH, I'd rather do 9-5 normal office hours. That way I wouldn't be up at the crack of dawn and wouldn't have to work when most other people are relaxing for the evening. But this way I don't have childcare costs so...

I quit my 4 hour round commute job to work from home. My pay took a hit but my mental health and work/life balance is so much better. Sometimes you have to decide which is more important.

I wouldn’t say it was cushdy I work hard but I don’t have to get up at 5am anymore.

Watching ur kids when ur meant to be working is ridiculous! I can’t take me kids to work with me for good reason. From experience in my own work those who choose to work from home never answer their phones or emails so r clearly at it

Yeah, I agree it's cushy. I think people who say otherwise are in denial.

I do wonder whether the job market will eventually correct to mean what jobs are paid less for this reason, like part time jobs often were. There is a price for convenience.

I feel for my husband, a teacher, who is out of the house 12 hours each weekday, and is absolutely knackered compared to me when I wfh.

So yanbu.

On another note, having RTFT, I do less actual "busy work" in the office, and I do more solo work from home. The problem, that people don't acknowledge, is that it's a very selfish perspective.

I make an effort to go into the office because it's only then I can actually get effective work done. My job is very much about teamwork and making change happen. I can be super busy at home, churning out content and barking orders at others via emails and project plans, even teams calls. But it's being in the office, visiting people, and talking face to face that really gets change happening.

I find the relationships I build in the office invaluable to smoothing over the conflicts and resistance that would otherwise result.

I developed massive resentments against junior staff who thought that sending an email constituted doing work. Ordering someone to do something in an overly busy workplace can very often just land in the ether, and get ignored. This was how some people felt they were doing their job, but actually they were just getting paid for "moving paper around", and nothing ever got done.

I feel like a bit of a grizzly old battleaxe saying it, but getting stuff done is harder and more complex than that. But I'm very expert, very senior, and fairly well-remunerated. So maybe that's the wisdom of age speaking.

I WFH 3 days a week. The 2 I am in office I start and end on time due to commute. The other 3 days I start early and often finish a couple of hours late - we’re always so busy and it’s ’just One more thing and I’ll log off’ , and then another etc. but at least there’s no commute

This has a lot to do with the person and not so much on the work . I have a team of currently 11 people including myself . 6 work from home , including myself . 5 of the best working are the one worrying from home , they work faster and more efficiently than the others on the office . Yes I stop to drop and collect kids from school , to speak with my mum if she calls or if anyone calls for a chat . Obviously some days are made off meetings etc but I work fast , in fact I do most of my work in condensed super focus time . I have someone else in the team who I know does the same but most will take all day doing what I do in 3 hours . I think it’s one of the few benefits of ADHD . I also work better under pressure so I be under the stress of timelines I’m at my best , while others will stress out non stop and fail targets .
The downside is I often will also work at crazy hours if I must so often find myself still up at 2 am preparing or helping keep team deadlines , because I absolutely hate failing

You are not being unreasonable.. I have gained back over 80 hours a month by WFH from travel time alone. I can drop my kids to school
and I can do what I like in my lunch hour instead of wandering some crap cafe or shops or being stuck in the office eating a sandwich at a desk.
Obviously it has its downsides like being stuck at home 😂 but I like my home so I’m ok with that.