to be tired of the jealousy towards people who WFH?

[WFHFan]

No one can post a thread about it without someone chiming in threatening if their job can done from home then it could be given to someone in another country or AI could take it.

Other people saying companies want everyone back in the office. Yes some do. Mine doesn't. They do not have the space anymore. Neither will my job go to someone in another country because of expertise and it does involve some critical face to face work. AI can't do it either.

Then some people getting offended saying if someone is WFH they shouldn't do anything else but work non stop. I can work and I do chores, shopping, school pick up, errands. It does not affect the standard or quantity of my work. I don't doubt it does affect some people's work.

I have won two awards for performance already.

Work from home is going to become way more prevalent if the government wants to get their way with forcing disabled people back into work - there's gonna be laws forcing employers to allow work from home employees if the job can be done that way.

The government doesn't need to create laws "forcing employers to allow work from home employees". That sounds like a Daily Fail headline, and a rubbish one at that.

The Equality Act (2010) if applied correctly has had provision for the past 15 years to support disabled people in the workplace from Day 1 of their employment, enabling them to request a reasonable adjustment to support their disability, I work for a Government dept that employs many disabled people, and they aren't being "forced" to do anything, either to WFH or come onsite.

Exactly. Surely the answer to making people want to be teachers, nurses, any jobs that keep society ticking, is to make those jobs pay better with benefits that compensate for being unable to WFH; to address the country’s shitty and expensive rail service – I was just weighing up two jobs and ended up choosing one that paid £10k less because the pay difference would have been swallowed by train travel; to ensure that there are a range of jobs and transport and opportunities in all locations: the “20-minute city”.

I took a remote job with a mediocre salary because it was remote, part time and flexible, allowing me to choose school hours, plus a good pension and shitloads of annual leave; the hybrid jobs I was offered didn’t offer nearly as many benefits nor were the salaries higher enough to compensate. Why should anyone want to go to the office if trains cost a day’s work and are always delayed, or parking costs £££ and hours of traffic jams but there’s no good park and ride or public transport or cycling routes? I’m not going to choose an office job so someone else chooses to be a nurse; I’ll choose to vote for parties that support and fund nurses and teachers.

I work in education (HE lecturer/apprentice coach) and I'm 100% remote

Lots of people saying they are more focused at home, same amount saying they are less focused / productive. Lots of people saying they like wfh because it’s quiet and better for their mental health, same amount saying they like working in the office because it’s social and better for their mental health.

Surely this all points to the fact that BOTH are equally valid, and that it’s good to have the choice so people can choose what is best for them personally. If you can’t focus at home then don’t take a wfh position. If your employee is not productive at home then they will not progress / will eventually be let go. I’ve been in offices before where people were toxic in the office environment, or where they called in absent a lot because of family or MH pressures. They would have been a better fit wfh. Both arguments can simultaneously be valid; as a society we shouldn’t go back to picking one or the other. We need to evolve.

I think this is why in workplaces hybrid is often a good answer. In my previous job I liked being in office a few days a week but everyone else worked from home every day, I realised sitting in an empty office was crap but that things wouldn't change so I made the decision to leave. My current job is hybrid, it's great because if people need to work from home for the whole week there's flexibility, but generally we are all in a few days a week so everyone is catered for.

I'm not jealous of people who wfh, I am a bit envious of all the ft wfh jobs that only seem to entail regularly working a max of 3 hrs a day, but I'd be envious of anyone was paid a decent ft wage for only working 3 hours a day wherever they were based!
I understand the concept of being on call , being paid for your expertise etc but there do seem to be lots of MN who only have a few hours physical work to do. My job is technically hybrid, but in reality, mostly in a workplace (I do like my colleagues and wouldn't want to wfh every day) In the industry I'm in the people who solely wfh tend to be self employed and only work pt, but don't earn very much!

I think you’re being unreasonable to care tbh, if they’re jealous let them crack on and enjoy your job. I changed jobs a couple of years ago partly because I hated working from home so regularly! Not everyone likes the same things, just focus on enjoying what works for you

Those jobs only exist in MNLand, the majority of real people who WFH actually work.

I am paid for my knowledge, a large part of my job is answering questions, consulting on projects and fixing problems. But I'm not particularly "on call" for it, I have a proper workload that I manage around it and my own commitments.

So it boils my piss when you see WFH people moan about their child’s EHCP application taking so long.

Weird statement. I work from home and my child's EHCP took well over 40 weeks. I'm not sure my WFH role had anything to do with that. My workload has doubled since WFH after COVID too, so maybe LAs need to be ensuring their staff are productive. It's not the WFH that's the problem, lots of people work over hours and are productive doing it. It's the staff and management doing it that is the issue if the EHCPs are taking a long time, and the lack of staff for an increasing demand.

I dunno. When my husband was able to start WFH more or less 5 days a week it was the worst thing possible for our marriage.

I was a SAHM to young children, I soon got a job that worked around childcare!

They are lazy skivers! The ONLY reason people wfh are so desperate to cling onto it is because they get away with so much. Weak managers/employers enable it. Every single person I know who wfh finds time to do the school run/go to the gym/walk the dog/have workmen round to quote or do odd jobs/receive deliveries/go shopping/go to dr appts, hair appts etc. The list goes on.

All the bs like : “I’m so much more productive at home…yada yada.” Bullshit.

it’s an absolute joke and I wish employers would get a backbone and make all the shirkers get back to the office where they belong. Any party proposing that would get my vote.

WFH gives a much better work life balance. My employers can't get a backbone and get everyone back to the office because they no longer have the space.

I do not doubt that there are some shirkers.

But I do my job to a very high level even though I do life stuff at the same time.

Sorry to disappoint you but doing the school run etc is actually allowed in my job. It's called flexi working. Not everyone is sneaking around behind their employers backs, it is often something they are OK with. Employee starts work an hour earlier to make up for school runs or appointments. It's a system that works quite well imo.

Yeah I have hybrid working and flexi time. I have set my life up in such a way that I can take my kids to school every day. They go to after school club twice a week and I can work around them the other three days. And I’m still working full time hours.

Let me tell you, my work gets plenty out of me. I work my arse off doing hours at night etc because I’m so grateful to have a job that enables this and I want to do well at it.

You realise flexi time and WFH have been things for YEARS, well before COVID? Especially in the civil service, I knew people whose partners were doing it when I first started working way back.

And there's laws in place that say if something has been the norm for you for 2 years, it's actually now part of your contract even if it's not written in?

And that just because you don't understand how someone makes things work doesn't make them lazy?

Open your mind.

I think in the long term, the “market” salaries will adjust so that wfh becomes paid less than office attendance. If organisations want people at an inconvenient workplace they’ll have to pay more to recruit them. But it will take time. It’ll end up a kind of London premium but for workplace attendance. As you say to compensate for travelling time and costs. Maybe 10 years or so. Or organisations could just get better managing their wfh workers where wfh is possible.

I do understand how it works. I know many people who wfh. They ALL take the piss to some extent or another. Absolutely no one is sitting at their desk from 9-5 with a 1 hour lunch break, that’s for sure. The only reason people want to wfh is to be able to do all the private life stuff they can’t do in the workplace.

Not even a reason on my list of why I like working from home.

But obviously you understand that, given you know everything about everyone and their reasons.

Let me guess - you’re so much more productive wfh? You love the solitude of working your solid 8 hour day with no interruptions? 🥱

Let me guess - you dislike anyone having anything that benefits them in anyway unless you also have the same benefit, because otherwise they're lucky or smug or lazy?

Get a grip.

Judging by the reaction of @Reliablesource to my last post, I've hit the nail on the head.

Makes me laugh that their name is "reliable" source when their only evidence of anything to do with this is that "people they know" are lazy skivers.

Says a lot about who they surround themselves with I suppose. Or maybe that's the only people who will give them the time of day...

Not sure why you think retired people would be bitter. I'm retired from retail so wfh wasn't possible, never bothered me in the slightest.
My dd wfh during and after covid. One good thing was it enabled her to save enough for a flat deposit quicker the negative was she eventually ended up feeling very lonely and isolated. She has now changed to an office job and is happier but tired because her days are quite a bit longer. Swings and roundabouts.

I do think WFH and flexitime work well for family life and I can see how WFH would be lonely if you lived on your own (or for those whose partners were away a lot or did really long hours).

My sister's DH works nights, so if she did a WFH role (she can't in her line of work but that's not the point) she might never see people. No fun for her.

But for some of us, the reduced contact with people means we can handle the contact better when we have it. I find being around people (other than my chosen few) all day every day really draining and when I was office based that meant a lot of my down time was used for recharging. Once or twice a week in the office is plenty for my social needs and leaves me with enough social energy to go out with my friends, go on days out to busier places etc without the need to recharge as much.

It's just different strokes for different folks. Works for some people not for others. Some organisations need to manage better if they want to continue with WFH. It won't work for other organisations or sectors as well as some.

People take the mick in every line of work and every working location. It's not specific to WFH so it doesn't deserve the hate some people give it.

People take the mick in every line of work and every working location. It's not specific to WFH so it doesn't deserve the hate some people give it.

That's the issue isn't it? Skivers are Skivers wherever they are and good workers will work regardless of their surroundings.

Exactly this.

if you’re “surrounded by people who take the piss when they wfh”…then take a long hard look at who you are surrounded by and why you picked them!