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 agree. Same with dealing daily with HMRC in my work. So many times they can't access the system due to "bad internet today", or background noises, dogs barking, children, doorbell ringing. Then if it's not something they can deal with, they can't just ask someone on the next desk - it has to be formally passed over to someone else, but they can't transfer the call, so they say they'll "ping" a message, but 9 times out of 10, that's the end of it as no one calls back, so I have to go through the whole fiasco again.

I have no doubt that WFH works for those with longer tasks, but for places like call centres, call handling, customer service staff, it's not fit for purpose, when it's a constant stream of calls.

No problem with people wfh if they’re actually doing the job. But when you’ve had experience of people supposedly wfh who then strangely don’t seem to be available when you phone them and they don’t respond to emails (and have been seen out for a couple of hours doing their weekly supermarket shop) it understandably pisses people off. Not jealousy, just annoyance that some people think wfh means be far less productive

Taken years

Definitely not to make you feel bad. It was intended to do the opposite. People are really resentful and frothing alot ATM and WFH is something many probably wish they had so will froth in your direction.

I've not had any issues yet dealing with services who I can tell are WFH. Usually utility or housing related.

I don't think you have to justify anything. Just be mindful there are alot of resentful people feeling frustrated by COL issues and societal stories and really want a target. Enjoy your work and don't feel any guilt 💐

Yes. I dug through it all when I successfully made the case for dropping hours (and increasing pay) at a previous workplace.

We worked hard on the three classic strands - people, processes, technology - and with those nailed we had a brilliant uptick in productivity.

We'd shifted to wfh in the pandemic, but I'd been encouraging people to do it and hoc for a year beforehand. When offices reopened, we had fortnightly full team days where we got everything discussed and actions listed. People could meet and hoc in the office, and just agreed a schedule that worked for them.

Fortnightly was MUCH better than weekly - it gave time for work to happen without pissy little updates that could be covered in the alternating fortnightly stand up on Teams.

I personally work really well with Pomodoro. But I also choose to blast through work during 2x 2h periods of the day. I do work/am present for the other 4.75h of my (compressed) work contract, but I find I do the most in those focus slots.

Haha I thought this, kinda just proving the point that plenty of people like it because they can do less work.

Personally I think life's too short to worry about what other people do, sounds like a miserable existence to be stuck at home behind a computer, appreciate for others they love it.

I think WFH increases work performance and mental health for a lot of people. You're less distracted by noise and people around you. You don't get sucked into office politics which is so draining. With no commuting into work there is more time for family and home life. More people with disabilities can join the workforce this way too. If people are jealous why don't they get a WFH job

I don’t understand the angerness and bitterness. Other people having the ability to work from home does not impact these people. I can work from home 2 days per week. I have colleagues whose arrangement is 4 days per week. I don’t get jealous though.

I'm a mental health nurse by profession. When covid happened I was in a referral and assessment team. Our team initially cancelled the service for routine referrals-urgent referrals were still happening via a&e and our crisis line. I was temporarily redeployed to our depot service. Depots are slow release injections given as an alternative to oral meds to those with schizophrenia, and are prescribed mostly for those whose compliance with medicines is patchy. Clients usually came to our base for them but the building was shut to the public so we visited at home. I bloody loved that time, proper nursing, not just the administration of meds but engaging with clients, making sure they were OK. As time went on we started phone assessments wfh so I did that from home. I really hated that. I couldn't get the same rapport over the phone as I did face to face and there were also a lot of technical issues, long story short I had no phone coverage with my work mobile and my WiFi was only really available in my living room meaning my retired husband had to spend tye day in the kitchen because of confidentiality. I hated it, I like to compartmentalise work and home, and I missed my colleagues and being able to discuss patient care with colleagues.

I would hate to wfh, even hybrid. I'm a nurse, and don't ever want to spend my working day behind a computer. I was delighted during lockdown I had a valid reason to be out and about and never want to go back to those times I did hybrid. I know there are jobs I could do wfh such as assessments for benefits but no thanks, not for me! I am not in the slightest jealous of those who wfh.

I think some people don’t realise that not everybody has actual work to do every second of the day from 9am to 5pm. There’s a difference between work and availability.
I NEED to be logged on to my laptop and available to work during those hours. But I could have absolutely fuck all to do for 3 hours straight (so in the office I’d be sat there bored out of my mind, feeling awkward) and then the following 3 hours are manically busy because some important tasks come in all in one go.
Once I’ve done all my usual weekly admin/paperwork type stuff, it’s not my fault if no new tasks come up all day Thursday, for example, and then on Friday 20 people ask me to do 20 different things all at once. It doesn’t always come in steadily every hour of every day. But I HAVE to be available when it does.
Life is so much less stressful when I can take care of my own life during that down time. Whether that be household chores, jumping in the shower, or just having a rest.

It's been great for the perimenopause. I think WFH supports women's, helps them maintain their careers.

I'm in two minds about WFH. On an individual level, it's great; the work/life balance is greatly improved, people have more time to upskill, etc., but from an economic POV, it's not great.

Cafes and other businesses that rely on foot traffic are suffering, and yeah, you can say boo hoo, bad business plan etc but those business bring in taxes and create jobs which we are in desperate need of atm.

Envy is about what people don’t have and would like, there is nothing wrong with that. It can actually be helpful identifying changes that we’d like to make in our own life. If we become the source of envy we should be gracious about it.

Someone like you should work in an office environment to thrive. Me on the other hand cannot stand being around people. I get so drained and easily distracted from chatter, noise and smells I just want to be by myself in my own space. Different people with different needs

I've worked from home for part of my job now for over 20 years. My old job we hot-desked with 1 desk for every 5 employees in the office base. I went in more than once to find there were no desks free! Most of the time was spent with service users or clients at their workplace, and by the time I would have got to the office from the last appointment, I was as well heading home where I was guaranteed a desk!
My job now is mostly WFH for non-client-facing work. I have my own desk in the office, luxury after previous job!!! Depending on where I've been seeing clients, I head home or to the office but find I get more done at home.
I think the pandemic did a lot of good for people who WFH as it made people realise that you can get just as much work done etc etc. I'm sure there are people who play the system too! You get that in every job.

I agree with this although I have not experienced it myself. The calls are usually recorded so it should be picked up on.

Fortunately I don't deal with the public. I rarely get calls. They even took our landlines away!

Sometimes at lunchtime I stick something on to slow cook. Or if it's a slow day work wise I might take 15 minutes to prep some veg for fajitas or something. But I'm working, so I never really plan to cook something like that.

I do stick a wash on before the nursery run and hang it out in place of a coffee break. But on an office day, I can spend 20 minutes in the kitchen trying to escape the people who just want to chat, when I just want a coffee. So 🤷

Other days I forget to stop for any breaks cos I've loads on and calls never stop.

Agree with this 100%. It helps women to keep their jobs.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/worklife/article/20240408-menopause-women-job-quits

EHCP applications are not delayed because people are working from home. Councils are massively underfunded and deliberately string out and block EHCP’s to preserve their struggling budget.

I hope they left. Or were sacked.

I'm amazed nobody has highlighted our resident GP's hypocrisy. @SalfordQuays. Just after lockdown ended, GPs were in hiding. Funnily enough 'working' from home. As it still takes a ridiculous amount of time to get a GP appointment, I hardly think you're the best person to be talking about the quality of work being affected by remote working.

We had this with our employees unfortunately.
It was very difficult for us and clients to get hold of them. They may answer the phone and say they’re at their desk but when asked to check something up on a drawing they didn’t have access to it, because they were actually out and about.
When everyone came back to the office productivity increased.

Im aware it’s not an issue for many businesses but it didn’t work for ours.

I think for many people it’s an excellent idea particularly if there are other family commitments or for those with a long commute.

It really isn’t a good point at all. Do you honestly believe swathes of nurses are saying to themselves “Well, it was alright going into nursing when the alternative was an office job, but now I could do that same job from home I wish I’d been an accounts clerk instead”? Nursing is obviously an exceptionally challenging profession, but you must admit there’s at least some vocational element to it for the majority of those who go into it. It certainly isn’t for the money. So why weren’t all these unhappy nurses applying for office jobs in the first place?

The same goes for all the hospitality staff and delivery drivers the PP is convinced will now be flocking to WFH jobs. Why weren’t they doing these jobs when they were 100% office-based? Better paid jobs with more sociable hours? Did they just really hate the idea of an office, but now love the idea of these jobs because they can be done from home, and therefore will be swapping waitressing for being an administrative manager tomorrow?

Maybe, just maybe, they were waitressing or driving a van or working in a warehouse because they didn’t have the right skills or qualifications for these jobs. Guess what - they still don’t. And if WFH jobs are in great demand, surely employers can be pickier about who they hire? Why would they want an unqualified waitress who just doesn’t fancy being on her feet all day anymore? I keep hearing people like you talk about how there’s no incentive to do in person jobs when you could “just take a WFH job”, but the point is you can’t “just take” one. You have to have the skills, qualifications, aptitude - and more importantly, the job offer.

I had moved to hybrid working before lock down, and have been entirely WFH (aside from occasional meet up days every few months) since 2022. It's a massive game changer for me. I can manage my health conditions much much better, working during the time I would normally commute. Yes I can throw the cooking on in my lunch break, or hang the washing out, but these are done during breaks that would be taken even if I was in the office.

When I am particularly busy, I can work late a lot more easily rather than leave the office as I need to be at home for something. And my kids can do their hobbies (outside of work time) a lot more easily because I don't have to add on a commute to my day.

If I have a question I can't answer, I can contact colleagues via messaging systems quickly and easily. I can also transfer a call if I need to. I spend money locally now rather than at chains near work base.

This afternoon my son has a medical telephone appointment. Rather than have to take 40 minutes either side of the appointment to get home to him, I just need to take the 45 minutes needed for it.

Exactly...

Maybe those jobs that can't be done from home and people are leaving to find WFH jobs need to have the right compensation and benefits, regardless too.

Why would someone starting their career choose an on site job, let's say nursing, where there's mandatory overtime, they have to pay for parking, get no flexibility AND they get paid less than a WFH admin assistant?

Society should be compensating roles right, not whining that WFH roles are the reason the NHS is on its knees.