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 hybrid with 2-3 days at home. Sometimes it is quiet, as it is in the office but mainly it’s just as mad busy as it is at busy times in the office. I may have back to back teams meetings, I get teams calls on a whim 20 times a day and it’s not unusual to be told to write an urgent brief at 4.55 or make changes to a report at 4.59. And it has to be done there and then

I second this - been doing it since the mid-90s, long before it became trendy!

Depends what your job is. If it's an on-call type of job where you actually do very little but are paid well to be available to step up when needed, I'm sure WFH is "cushy" because you can do as you please until you're needed, as long as you remain contactable.

Sadly my job isn't like that, it's full on for all working hours plus extra (lawyer). In fact i work longer hours when wfh to make up for the time lost in commuting on my office days.

My wfh is not like your husbands and I have to be at my lap top and contactable between 9-5.

That said, it’s amazing for keeping on top of laundry etc and the time saved not getting office ready and the commute. Work/life balance for office jobs that can be done remotely is significantly improved by wfh.

If you can find someone in a developing country with my very specific skill set, my 25 years of experience in this type of role combined with my 10 years of experience in this specific industry, and who also offers native-standard written English, then I suppose they could. But good luck with that.

It's a skivers charter. No wonder firms want folk back in the office.

It depends on the job.

I don't WFH but do run my own business and the flexibility and ability to choose your own days and hours is the best part. I personally work around 25 hours a week and earn the same as when I worked full-time in a management role previously.

I often plan my days so that I have time to come home and sort my cats, do laundry, go to the shops or fit in appointments. I'm always done by 2.30pm at the latest and often see friends or go out for coffee etc. after work.

I'd never go back to being employed in an office/building now.

Travelling to work and back for several hours a day, every day, and suffering random delays, is horrible.

Working from your loungewear doesn’t really make it any easier.

Most people who work from home do it because it suits them, why should the be concerned about how easy or difficult anyone else’s job is?

I can work at home 3-4 days if I like, but I prefer to go in. I hate staying at home all day. Yes I can make some food at lunch but i’m generally very busy, certainly can’t pop out.

Both myself and DH WFH and visit our respective offices once or twice a week.

We are both very busy, DH has more meetings than I do. I would say we work more than our contractual hours but ok with it as we've no commute when at home.

I will throw a chicken in the oven, hang out or rescue washing, answer the door to deliveries etc so that's a great advantage. I don't believe I have it cushy though, just suits my lifestyle better.

Being able to work in warm, comfortable clothes absolutely does make it easier!

I WFH exclusively. I have no requirement to go to the office and even get my kit couriered to me.

One thing I would say is it’s very isolating, I have some amazing friendships I’ve made at work that I’ve maintained over the years. I do find myself going stir crazy sometimes. But the benefits to my family make it the only feasible way to work - unless I worked with no commute I wouldn’t be able to get the hours in I do now.

My job is exactly the same no matter where I do it. Answering 120 or more calls in 8hrs isn’t really.. cushy
I don’t move from my desk as I’m on a wired headset

Absolutely this. DD has only worked from home, and it's crap for young people.

I think it depends on your job. If you job would be a cushy number in an office, with some downtime, then being at home means you can use the downtime to do stuff at home rather than sit and look like you are working at work. However my job is generally a busy pace most of the time, lots of work and meetings so I work at pace at home as I do in the office.

Yes my commute is terrible. When I first started it was 45 mins each way, now with shitty transport it can be up to 3 hours round trip. I do like this job and my colleagues though. It’s a p/t job.

I’ve just got another p/t job and it’s a 5-min commute which of course is loads better.

Still wish it was WFH though.

It’s not that wfh is ‘easier’ it’s more that it’s meant to be a better work life balance. Also for some strange reason, people think wfh just means having to be available during calls time. The vast majority of people have to be available 9-5. You can’t just go awol between calls. However work does expect that you may on the side to break up the day put washing machine on, pop to local shop in lunch break etc. In terms of work you still have same deadlines, appraisal standards whether you’re at home or in the office. One great think is lack of office gossip/drama. I’m a quiet under the radar just do my work kind of person on my office days and yet people will still gossip about you 😑

That’s got absolutely nothing to do with working from home though.

I wouldn't even contemplate a 45 minute drive to work, let alone a 90 minute journey each way, lol.

That's from experience of doing it for several years, though, it just let to exhaustion and burnout.

Tell me you know nothing about wfh without telling me 🙄

Of course it does - most offices have a dress code, at home you can generally wear what you want.

I work in recruitment and I work remotely. I speak to candidates frequently who want to move away from remote working as well as those who want it. More people seem to be wanting the balance of an office as well because they’ve experienced wfh on a full time basis and realised it’s not as easy as they thought. There’s a massive difference between doing it occasionally for a training course / watching videos etc or even being hybrid and working from home a couple of days a week to doing it day in day out.

Having the balance between the two is what most people are ideally looking for. But honestly ft wfh can be tough. Yes, you can arrange your own diary more and have flexibility and no commute. But there’s also very blurry lines between work and home, it’s incredibly isolating and sometimes if work is tough, you need people. Others can see it as ‘you’re at home’ so expectations can be that you pick up more slack with chores, or caring for elderly family members or children. Every day can blur in to one and I find that almost everyone I speak to who has actually does it says that it’s really tough mentally.

Giving the flexibility to work from home is the only way I am able to work at all!

I am disabled in chronic pain/tiredness every day, take a bucket load of pills and need my wheelchair to get around.

I physically could not cope with hoisting my wheelchair four times a day and commuting to my nearest office and hoping I get the singular yellow space for the four floors of office workers, adding an additional 1.5 hours to my day and I would be unable to work the following day, due to the additional pain and tiredness levels.

When i do travel for work, i have my husband drive me and book the following day off work for me to recover.

So if you want disabled people to work, we need flexibility

Work from home was my dream, I was always full time in the office until covid then never went back.
I am full time wfh. I rarely leave the house, I am at my desk from 7am to 8 pm, I havrle to do school runs and cook dinners and get washes on in between, so it extends my day. I rarely eat a proper lunch, I am in back to back meetings. I hardly speak to anyone face to face anymore. Some days i don't shower and I have stopped washing my hair very often. It has descimated my health, sleep and mental health doing it for a long period. I can't now change as someone needs to pick up the kids and do stuff at home and my partner went back to the office full time.
Once the kids are older I will go back to the office and I am looking forward to it