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?

Yes OP it does come across as jealous, which the vast majority of these posts do.

For all those managers who are grinding their teeth with resentment that their employees are allowed to work from home (a privilege & perk that was only available to people at director level or higher previously), for me, the biggest sell of work from home are the following, in this order -

1. 0% commute. After years of wasting so much time outside of my 40hr week, it's lovely to have no commute. As a result of not being in cramped, badly ventilated train carriages every morning & afternoon, and not having people coughing into the back of my hair on the bus without covering their mouths even, I think I'm ill less often as a result. Bonus for the company, which no one talks about.
2. Being able to distance myself from unpleasant work colleagues & toxic manager. I can still feel the effects, but it harder to bully remotely....and there's usually a written record of it, if it happens, which is handy.
3. More generally, not being exposed to unpleasant atmospheres. I can pick up when people are tense in group meetings, but I feel grateful to be able to switch it off. It's more difficult for people to do passive aggressive behaviour through body language, because you're simply not there to witness it. As a result, it's easier and nicer to work.

I wfh and my job is creative, so I’m paid to think.

My boss doesn’t care if I have an afternoon nap or do my shopping, so long as I keep coming up with the ideas.

No way would I ever work outside the home again. For me it’s just non negotiable. I do appreciate I am lucky though.

You are not wrong OP. Unfortunately there is a lot of pisstaking with work from home. Hence why productivity is just getting worse and so many businesses want people back in the office. Of course no one who works from home would ever admit to taking the piss. Why would they?

I WFH FT and I do a normal day’s work sitting at my desk in my spare room at home in exactly the same way as I would sitting at my desk in an office. Only with fewer distractions, which is a significant benefit because my work requires concentration & focus. I do take a lunch break, but apart from that I’m getting on with the job, not going to the gym or doing chores.

The fact that I save a huge amount of time & money by not commuting is a massive bonus, of course, which is why I’m quite disciplined & conscientious. I really don’t want to have to work in an office ever again.

Couldn’t agree more! Once one reaches a certain point you are paid for what you know and what you can get done. Not task you do. No one senior is paid for carrying out tasks…though there are some micromanagers who struggle to get their heads round that ;)

Surely working from home is a different experience for everyone. And it comes with downsides too.

YABU, WFH involves actual working! The time I would have previously commuted for has additional meetings, so no, properly WFH does not involve exercise, childcare, going to the shops, any more than squeezing a personal errand into a lunchbreak does when office based.

I wfh 3 days a week and love the balance. That said, some days I get to 3pm and haven’t drunk anything since morning coffee and haven’t had a wee (not an issue as I’m dehydrated anyway) due to back to back meetings (that’s my Thursdays for you). Mondays however… I often have reading to do so can sit outside in the garden reading work related things and planning. It’s lovely.

I tend to squeeze shops into days I’m in the office as it’s in the town centre so those days I take a lunch break.

If it's a tech company, it won't be any old crap. It'll be filled with privileged, middle class people wearing selective casual-wear, often athleisure, in order to appear like the common folk, when their education, names, accents and pronouns scream otherwise.

agree re health - the narrative around wfh as cushy pushes some people to feel
they must chain themselves to the desk. Not only are we missing out on the steps that would normally go into moving around an office, going to to get lunch or do errands, on top of the commute, but then some people feel unable to even go downstairs for a brew.

Nonsense, I work harder from home, so does my global team. We physically can't be in an office together due to the global nature of the business. We work long hours and are dedicated. I manage a large team and they are all insanely hard workers.

Oh FFS this old canard. Show me the evidence.

You can’t. All you’ve got is anecdotes and gossip.

You're right it is cushy compared to going in to the office. I get a lie in and save about 1.5 hours cos I don't need to commute. If I don't have any meetings I can sit there on the couch in my pj's until mid morning. Love it! However I understand it's a privilege that could be taken away at any time so don't take the mickey. And I actually get more done at home cos I haven't got those office distractions. I can get the tea on about 4pm but then I'll work half an hour later to make up for it. I can't get way with sitting watching day time telly cos I have projects to complete and deadlines to meet and my line manager would soon notice if I wasn't meeting those. If there is a productivity drop then its up to managers to manage. Its their fault if they can't tackle it properly. But yep I love it.

Why not just get a glass of water before your working day starts? Or a water bottle… there is no logic to that.

Productivity getting worse is more of a public sector issue than a private sector one in the UK. Private sector productivity is back above pre pandemic levels, though does lag many other countries. Public sector productivity has yet to recover to pre pandemic levels despite (or because?) the number of people employed in the public sector increasing by around 400,000

I worked from companies that embraced hybrid working as early as 1997 and recall having an ADSL (pre broadband!) phone line put in at home to facilitate it. It was a constant through out my career in many successful multinational businesses.

If hybrid working isn’t effective for a business I would always always always look at the management as the cause of failure, and it generally then comes down to a combination of unclear objectives (a leadership issue), poor understanding of individual and team performance (a management issue), an inability to delegate effectively (a management issue) and an unwillingness to have ‘difficult’ conversations with those that aren’t delivering (a leadership and management issue).

It’s sounds like your DH isn’t really doing very much though 😆. It’s not a work from home job you are looking for it’s a work from home job where nobody notices if you toss it off for several hours a day!

Like most things...it depends.
Husband and I both work from home. He can put washing on, feed the cat, have lunch outside,logs off on time and is on the sofa by 5.

I barely move from the desk from the minute I log on at 9 to when I log off at 7or later. Any breaks, housework etc would just mean I have to stay on later to get everything done. I had a better work life balance when I was in the office, but my job has changed since then. I'm looking to leave asap as I'm burning out.

I agree with you op. I wfh 2 days a week and can fly through my work as I have no distractions. I don’t have a commute to contend with and can instead start my day with a walk or put some washing on or just do anything I want for the 45 minutes between waving ds off to school and when I log on. It’s a far more pleasant way to start work. When I log off at the end of the day I can immediately go and lie down for 10 minutes 😂
Can wear what I like which is sometimes joggers and a sweatshirt and while I might wear leggings and a sweatshirt to the office (very casual, usually wear a dress but can be less formal) I literally put no thought into what I wear when wfh as long as it’s clean.
Can eat when I want, make proper lunches at home, read in peace during lunch time.
I work hard when I’m at home as I do in the office but I’m far more productive in many ways without the distractions of my colleagues. But I must say on balance I have the right mix, I enjoy being in the office, some of what we do is collaborative and also it’s just nice to have people around me to just ask a question if I’m pondering something.
I wfh exclusively for about 18 months while we were between offices and though it was great in some ways, in others it was terrible for me and I really went downhill quite a bit.

I work from home. Prior to that I had a five hour round commute. I'd never do that again. I take calls between 7-9pm. I'm at the end of my career and will turn contracts down if office based particularly if SE London. Too far from my London station.
It's a waste of my time and fuel.
I do like to go into the HQs but I have had to switch back to consultancy to get the flexibility.

Overall the evidence on productivity is mixed, but there are other benefits to employers - reduced office costs, flatter salaries - and employees (many reported on this thread).

I don’t know where you’re getting your data but most large scale studies show that WFH results in longer working hours and more meetings, even where it also shows a decrease in productivity. That doesn’t suggest ‘a lot of pisstaking’ but does align with fairly strong evidence that longer working hours are associated with slightly lower productivity. Which is why we’re now seeing growing interest in shorter working weeks.

The main downside that I always emphasise to people who ask me about WFH FT is that it’s very isolating, and many people would find it very lonely. Being on your own at home all day every day definitely isn’t for everyone. As an introvert who struggles in noisy, zero-privacy open plan offices WFH does suit me, but more extroverted types would hate it & be miserable. Even I find that I need to get out of the house as much as possible at weekends.

It never seems to work like that in our place. The shirkers have been there for years. I'm baffled at how they get away with it.

People that spout this are the type of people that have no self discipline or drive, can't work autonomously, or are bosses with trust issues and expensive offices to fill.
I have spent 4 years working from home now in a very high salary and I am pretty sure if ai wasn't performing and spending all day sleeping then someone would have realised 😂
That said, I am paid for outcomes, not hours. If I spend 1 hour or ten hours creating a solution then noone cares as long as the solution is delivered within deadline and I am available to speak to when needed.
People that are jealous, nokne has said you can't enrol on a computer science degree and spend all day building solutions in your living room whilst wearing pyjamas and getting paid a nice amount, you are welcome to join us 😂

One of my jobs is a WFH situation. I fucking hate it- is really difficult to concentrate when I know there stuff needs doing/the dogs are feeling needy.

I’ll take getting showered/dressed and going out to work anyday!!

If you used to commute to work 5 days a week then WFH is a cushy number.

It's irrelevant if you are working hard as that should be a given not a bonus from your employers perspective.

The fact is that if you no longer commute you are better off both financially and time wise.