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.

I love WFH and would never take another job that is full time in the office. I don't really care if other people are jealous, it's just the same as any other form of job envy - other people earning more, having a more interesting role, having more autonomy etc. It's part of the mix now.

@owlexpressyes I work in a hospital and we have recently lost two OTs who are going to become PIP assessors because they can WFH. Friend stopped nursing and went into a health insurance as a clinical call handler. All are way happier and better paid than in the NHS.
The NHS has got to do something. The local authority has got to do something, although in our LA a lot of roles are hybrid but an office presence is required to train new members. Trainee social workers for example learn so much more from being around experienced social workers. It’s miserable and isolating trying to think of what you should do from home, potentially dangerous too!
Good for all of you that can WFH but this is about the bigger picture and not creating a two tier society where half of us commute, run to after school clubs with seconds to spare, have to pay £8 a day to park at our own workplace, do everything else on our days off and the rest of you.., don’t.

@gannettbut your life is reliant on others not working from home e.g. god forbid if you get sick or need an ambulance.

And it is just as likely that the Government will use WFH jobs as an excuse to cut disability benefits to and move to job seekers as they will think, well if you can't leave the house there are numerous jobs where you don't have to and you should get one of those.

I’m not jealous at all of people who wfh. I tried it and hated it. I don’t like people wfh who think their employer has to let them wfh if that’s what they want to do. You’re paid money to do what your employer wants and if they want you to go back to the office, tough. Find another job if you want to continue wfh.

I do smile when people say if they can do their 'job' in half the time then bring on the chores, school pick up etc?

Surely their 'job' is not set up correctly to be a full time role if they can do it quickly.

I have done both wfh (and see clients half the time) and fully office based.

I worked in a job during Covid that couldnt be done at home.

My previous company (large FTSE) only allowed middle to senior managers to work from home. The more junior admin roles were allowed on a trial basis and massively took the piss. Could never find them, never around for urgent calls, constantly asking for more and more devices to work from home such as special chairs etc. In the end management put a stop to it. It is actually quite tricky to take someone to task for taking advantage of working from home. That is why it was stopped. A colleague of mine tried and she knew that the employee was doing all sorts. Difficult to prove and it took her months of really focusing on exactly what this person was doing before HR allowed her to tackle it. In the meantime the other 8 members of her team were not getting the attention they needed.

I was a line manager for a while. I had six people. I would say that ONE person took up 50% of my time. She was often off sick for a day here and there a lot. I let that go. Seemed to struggle with the job but wanted the salary so wouldnt admit it. Brought all her personal problems to work i.e cat wasnt well, could she work from home, needed to work from home because she wanted to attend a parents evening which came up about 20 times a year!. I called her once and heard children crying in the background. She said BOTH her children were off sick.

In the end I left the role and my successor found she had been working from home as much as she could to do childcare. Her Mum was on stand by if she couldnt think of any more reasons not to come in.

Its bloody rife

WFH jobs are hard to come by nowadays it seems. Most people appear to be wanted back in the office as apparently some people were taking the piss.

I'm not jealous though, I wouldn't personally want to do it myself. I would miss the social side of work and wouldn't be wanting to push up my heating and electricity bills! 😂

Have WFH 4 out of the last 5 years. The positives out way the negs for me. So much unnecessary flapping around in offices, rearranging the chairs, my team, your team, office wankology.

I avoid most of that these days.

Negatives :lose interest in appearance, don't do as much exercise, miss out on the (minimal) office fun.

Pros: avoid toxic people. Less stress, no commute, less drama. Save a fortune.

😂 never once has anyone seen my child he has had SALT and an educational psychologist doctors etc but county hall has never EVER come to see my child they never attend meetings the reviews are done without input from them they once didn't action an emergency review for 18 months my MP had to get involved time and time again and she STILL has a job she "works" in an office and is quite famous for her Friday bombshell email followed swiftly by her out of office email

My messages were, I need a local suitable SEN provision as agreed by all parties her response

As per your email I'm consulting with schools 60 miles away as it's parental choice you will be responsible getting him there

Me what? That's not what was agreed it was local or local as possible with transport

I'm out of office right now on annual leave for two weeks

Me .... stage one complaint process began MP contacted sorry can you deal with this bullshit please it's getting RIDICULOUS

Four years Four VERY long years

And she still has a job

If it really worked wouldnt companies embrace it? Encourage it as it leads to more productivty - oh wait......

WFH has been vital for us. My husband has a very specific skill set, does a brilliant job for his organisation. He is disabled and has had various additional serious health problems over the past few years.

WFH has allowed him to continue contributing in a very meaningful way. He would no doubt have had to take early retirement if it hadn’t been an option, which would have been dreadful for him. He loves his work and would have been devastated.

Our son in law works in a hybrid way. His employers are very flexible and he is able to take our grandson to and from school at least 3 days each week, time that they both find very valuable. He then continues working at home until bath time.
It’s great for their family, as mum has fixed hours which would make life very difficult without dad’s flexibility.

Couldn’t agree more!

Not going to lie I’m super jealous of people who can work from home! I would absolutely love to but as a physio there’s not many who would want a hands off service 😂

I've wfh for the past 4 years, my dh for the past six. We love it BUT we are towards the end if our careers. I think wfh is not a good thing for younger people starting out because a lot of learning is 'passive', seeing others do something, office banter etc, which they don't get wfh.
I've never had any animosity shown to me because I wfh, but then I've never had any because I don't drink alcohol or had an only child for 11 years or all the other things MNetters seem to imagine either.

It has been embraced 100% by my company. They have committed to it for the future. It has allowed them to take on additional staff now they no longer to provide a desk for every person.

I do not want to WFH - I would find it boring, I need people in my life.

Having worked in an office where some colleagues WFH and some didn't, there is resentment from the office folk who feel the WFH colleagues have a simpler life because they only do specific tasks, and never get disrupted by random events in the workplace, like visitors etc.

I am attached to an office 200 miles from where I live. My part of the company is entirely home-based with no expectation of going into the office. I have a wfh contract. It's great, isn't it?

They are often quiet times in some roles. My job has ebbs and flows. January is quiet so I was told I didn't have to go in at all and it will be the same over the summer too.

It is not that the job has not been set up correctly.

My work is split between remote and in-person depending on the client (pre-Covid it was 100% in person). When I commute to an in-person job on Mondays or Fridays I silently bless the WFH/hybrid people for the lovely empty trains, quieter tubes and bizarre queueless Prets at 8.30 am in the city. 😁

I fully WfH under an Occ Health referral - without this I'd be hybrid and in the office 2 days per week. I worked hybrid (50%) prior to Covid.

I think that over time we will see things shift with regard to WfH. I think that, for generally office based roles, salaries will stagnate for WfH jobs, and will have to rise for in office jobs in order to recruit. I think hybrid will be the way forward for most jobs that could be done/partially done from home, but I suspect hybrid will be at least 50% in the office rather than just one day a week etc.

I think retail will likely be picked up more by young people/students and won't really be seen as a desirable long term career choice. Potentially hospitality too.

But ultimately I think the pay rates of certain jobs will end up changing somewhat in response to how desirable the jobs are. And for the majority, WfH is desirable, so those jobs will end up paying less or being harder to secure.

YABU. I'd be jealous of my job. After years of long commutes, office politics, frantic cleaning at weekends and forever being behind on life admin I am on top of things. I work very hard but still have time to run the hoover around,prepare dinner etc in my breaks.,although i dont leave home during work hours. The time I used to spend commuting is now spent on walking the dog. Sometime I miss company but rarely.

I’m very jealous. I’m not even going to pretend I’m not 😂 I’d love to work from home!
My house was absolutely spotless when I was allowed to work from home for 1 week, I was still just as productive with my job.
I was more relaxed, less stressed, I managed to get odd jobs done, quickly wash my hair etc. which took up no more time than having a natter in the office or making a round of hot drinks.
My friend used to do 3 days at home and 2 in the office and she loved it too.
I’m pregnant so I’m waiting to go on maternity leave but seriously… what type of jobs are you in? I’ve looked and looked and can’t find a remote job.

Hardly! It’s always those who don’t wfh with the permanent chip on their shoulder whining it’s not right that people do chores in-between their work because they’re missing the entire point of hybrid or wholly wfh that it’s meant to alllow the worker to develop a good life work balance.

What industry are you currently in? There are call centre jobs from home (those won’t be flex though) tech companies tend to be good for wfh (there are lots that are remote only companies),

People can provide whatever they like, it’s up to their manager to accept it or not. Same as someone being allowed to leave every day at 3 for a reason you don’t like. These anecdotes are meaningless.