Anyone else fed up with WFH/Hybrid

[HelenIU]

I’m looking to turn this into a WFH’rs are lucky/lazy/work shy sort of thread.

But genuinely interested if anyone who is WFH/Hybrid feels similar and has any words of wisdom:

-WFH in Covid which turned into Hybrid post lockdown ending (2x a week in office, 3 days at home)

I feel utterly fed up at home, miss the interaction and just genuinely long for how things were before Covid - in the office each day part of a big and supportive team. Even when I’m in the office it’s not the same with desk booking and not everyone in.

I finished work yesterday and just felt unfulfilled.

Has anyone been in this situation and seeked a full time non WFH job? Did it work out or did you regret it?

I’ll be honest. My job is field based, so I’ve been WFH for 11.5 years and I LOVE it.

But that’s because I’m someone who likes to be left alone to get their head down to get on with stuff.

I have a fabulous team who I love seeing and talking to. But I love not being stuck in a noisy, busy office. I like not having people come and talk to me. Just being able to get on with stuff with minimal interruptions.

I realise I may be in the minority with this though.

This sums up kinda how I feel about it.

I hated WFH in lockdown, then grew to rather enjoy it (when we were no longer forced to!), now I enjoy going in mostly just so I'm not at home.
However, when I do go in, I soon realise I hate everything that comes with it (commute, cost!).
Hardly any of the rest of my team bothers so then I end up wishing I'd just stayed at home.
I totally understand what you mean by 'transactional' - I work in a largely creative industry which has had most of the 'creativity' sucked out of it due to WFH and everything done virtually or via email. I don't feel like part of any team. In fact, at this point, I feel I could be working for anyone.

Not any more. Long commute, school age kids, hating office noise and the type of job where mostly on calls to stakeholders, going in is pointless. Love WFH suits my life.

Been in my current job almost two years and am permanently home based other than a train trip (there and back in a day) from the North West to the London HQ once every month/6 weeks.

Most of my previous roles at the two other companies I have worked for were hybrid, going back to around 2005/6, so the move to FT WFH has been fine for me as it’s really not much of a change.

The only two issues I’ve come up against is,

1. struggling to differentiate/segregate between work time ending and home time beginning. I often find myself responding to emails etc on my phone during dinner as it’s difficult to switch off in the same way physically leaving an office draws a line.

2. DH is a HGV driver who drives fuel tankers and hazardous loads. He leaves the house at 5.30am and won’t often be back until 6.30-7.30pm as he fits in a gym session on his way home. This has caused some frustrations as it’s automatically assumed I’ll be the one booking the car in for its MOT, calling to make any dentist or GP appointments, running to the post office to send that form off etc all because I’m in the house and it’s easier for me.

Whilst I agree there is a risk of isolation, reduced efficiency and delivery focus, there are numerous things that can make use of technology like Teams to support and maintain connections, communication, collaboration and support amongst teams and colleagues.

Absolutely LOVE work from home and in office hybrid. I work four days a week, as due to carer commitments cannot work five. Two days at home, avoiding the expensive travel, the exhausting commute, two days in the office where I get to catch up and be a part of the team again. Absolutely perfect. Hope it continues like this until I retire.

I think I'm way more productive at home due to all the casual chats I end up having in the office. I do look back and think I'm so much more efficient than pre covid days, even if that was more fun/social

I find WFH just makes my life less stressful. I've recently moved from 1 day in ofgivr to 2 days and it's made a huge difference to my life in terms of stress and managing everything (single parent, 1.5 commute each way)

I hate wfh and feel the exact same way

But i'm just about to return from mat leave and wfh is going to make my life so much easier

I’ve stopped several people on my team (v. junior, several grades below me) from WFH permanently.

I had to go through all the HR processes to do it as well - because they claimed I was being unreasonable, discriminatory (one had caring responsibilities and two had young kids). It took SIX months of them arguing and going through the process until I got my way. Six months of others picking up their slack. In the end they had a choice: demotion or not WFH. Guess what they picked?

I WFH 2-3 days a week, office 1-2 days (compressed hours) as do 95% of my department who I am responsible for. But I won’t have people slacking off and using it for bloody childcare, or to hide!

Forcing people with low output back into the office should be made easier, but other I have no quibbles with WFH (and I work in an internationally and external facing role). I come in as needed and my departments
output (minus these few people) is excellent.

its horses for courses. Some people prefer wfh, others hybrid and others fully on site. I’ve wfh for nearly 18 years now and I’d hate to go back into the office. Infact I know I’d really struggle with the transition, so understand why others would struggle to move fully in the office to wfh. My fulfilment is on a Friday when I log completely off, shut my laptop, have a quick tidy round of my office and shut the door. Knowing it’s unlikely I’ll go back into until Monday morning.

I do enjoy going into the office for a team meeting, once a quarter, but that’s mainly to see my team face to face for a good old gossip.

YABU your issue is not related to WFH its ther fact you don’t like your work environment.
so look for a job that has a working environment more suitable for you and that you’ll find more fulfilling.

I voted Yanbu. But in the basis that it doesn’t work for you.

Many people do enjoy WFH. They have the set up they can do this from and it works better as their commute is long and save money, works better for childcare hours etc.

Yanbu to look for FT WOH job of for you that is the better option.

Why don’t you just do what a lot of others do and arrange to go in on the days when the people you get in with are going in and sit together? That would mean you’re fulfilled at the end of the day having seen them. I personally love my days from home and enjoy seeing mates in the office but honestly I would be devastated to ever go back to 5 days in office. I’m living again.

Yes same here. Wfh has been my dream job, but now I have one I miss the social chit chat. It feels quite lonely and isolating. There is a work app to chat. Unfortunately colleague keeps bombarding it with photos of things she's selling! I mute it now. Definitely not filled with normal chit chat from the office. Online is different to real life conversations.

I absolutely love WFH and would never return to an office. My commute is actually a peaceful 5k walk with my dogs, my lunch is whatever takes my fancy from the fridge and my mid morning latte is free from my kitchen. I’m never too hot or too cold because of the air con and I don’t have to worry about being in for parcels to be delivered. I run a fantastic international team without having to worry about timezones (because I can hop online at any time,) and if I feel like stepping away from the screen I can be super efficient and put a load of washing on! It’s also opened up a whole new world of opportunities as the geographical location of the company is no longer relevant when it comes to applying for a job. I do understand it’s not for everyone but for me, it’s just perfect

I remember getting absolutely roasted on a thread here in about 2021 on this issue! My job has always been hybrid. I was on maternity leave for most of 2020 and returning to work in 2021 I found it very difficult that no one went to the office anymore at all. I mourned the loss of impromptu conversations, ad hoc learning opportunities, networking and the social element of grabbing a coffee / lunch with someone. Given I was fresh back from maternity leave I also wanted to get dressed smartly, have a takeaway coffee on my commute and feel like a professional 🤣

In my work now all meetings are virtual, and it’s meant that the opportunity to run something past a colleague while walking to a meeting room or similar has gone. There’s a lot of emphasis now on not wasting people’s time with too many emails or calls, which I do appreciate but it means there’s a lot of opportunities that are missed because something feels too trivial to suggest in a formal online meeting.

Things have moved on slightly and there’s a requirement to be in the office 40% of the time. However, teams are based all over the country and so my nearest office has no one that works in my team there. I’m now on a WFH contract because I was spending 3+ hours commuting to sit at a desk (that usually had broken IT equipment) and be on teams calls all day. Virtual working has increased the number of meetings we have in a day, and it’s not unusual for me to have 6+ hours of meetings a day - a meeting heavy day pre covid would have been 4 hours of meetings!

What I value, and the rest of my team, are true opportunities to collaborate and connect face to face. We absolutely love travelling to a central location and working together over a couple of days - we build in some face to face meetings, some quiet time working “next to” each other at desks (no teams calls allowed), 121s, and usually a social meal out. Without fail the feedback will be how much it’s boosted our moods, how much we appreciate each other as a team and it’s done us good to be together.

I’ve now got two kids, two school/nursery runs, the dog to walk and DH works a pressured job too. I couldn’t work full time without WFH, and appreciate the ease it brings to my family life. But I do think there’s some downsides, and in the future leadership training should include teaching on how to get people to truly collaborate and get benefit from hybrid working. It’s not by just making people be in the office for 40% of the time, there’s more nuance that that.

My firm shut offices to save money so now my nearest workplace is 60 miles away. If they opened a branch nearer I would go in bus as is they don't pay me enough to drive there every day.

I WFH FT and generally prefer it but feel it’s FAR more beneficial for the organisation than for me as they have no overheads. I’m starting to get sick of it because I have an extremely busy job so end up doing more overtime (which I do get back in lieu) because it’s so easy to just do. it makes it all a bit harder doing certain things because rather than just asking someone, I have to keep track of loads of Teams messages and wait ages for the skivers some people to get back about basic things. There’s also tension at work at the moment because some people aren’t pulling their weight as much as others and I’d happily address this in an office environment but it’s difficult to do when WFH as, even though you KNOW some people are doing fuck all and probably napping from 10-2, you really can’t properly make an accusation.

I also miss people. I’m an extrovert so I find it tough to not be around them. We have a 4 day long away day next week I’m so excited to be around humans! But again unresolved tension is bound to affect this.

I enjoy wfh, pre Covid I was in an open plan office with 100 people, and some people just completely did my head in, talking drivel the whole day. The constant interruptions were a nuisance and I couldn’t get my head down and focus as I do at home. At my place of work the norm is to go in once a week (as that’s all the desk space we have), but my team don’t do that. We have so many online meetings with other departments that my recent office day involved me sitting in a small meeting room on my own all day. Also when we do go in there’s no way of reserving seats to sit with your team, and you feel like you are interrupting others if you go and speak to them - gone are the days where you can just scoot your chair over and sit next to someone.

I love WFH. I save thousands on commuting, am
able to drop my son off to school and collect him from ASC, I can make dinner and actually be present for my child while doing a full day’s work. I go in to the office a day a week and that’s enough.

I appreciate it must be very different for new starters, young workers or those without DC.

We do a lot of pinging a quick teams message to say "are you free?" Or we'll ask if they can call when they have 2 mins. Then we chat it through, and probably have a quick life catch up too. It's a good way to connect and share ideas when you aren't f2f. Does mean making an effort to contact someone rather than just catching them by chance in real life. But it can work.

I'm a software engineer. I do NOT miss working in the office. I absolutely do NOT miss all the impromptu chit chats and questions. I love that when someone has a question for me, they message me, rather than finding me at my desk and interupting my train of thought. I love working in comfortable clothes, drinking good coffee and tea, eating a fresh lunch, and not having to commute. I love being able to flex around school runs and dentist appointments. Although, my company is very good with flexi time and I would be allowed to do that anyway, just the distance would be prohibitive.

Our morning stand up meetings always start with 15 mins of social chatter. And we have virtual social events every week, and in person ones less frequently. We have Slack channels about all sorts of things that aren't work related, so that everyone can socialise around shared interests. I feel like I still get the best parts of office life, without it interferring with my work.

From various threads on here, I wonder if a lot of companies have shifted to wfh/hybrid, without actually investing in it, or setting it up properly. They save the money on not having an office space, but don't invest it back into the teams. Which is a bit rubbish.

I recognise everything you posted lighteningthequeen

It really is more nuanced than “ just go in more”. I think a big part of the problem is that hybrid in the way it seems to be done doesn’t work.
If I go in, and the office is all open plan, most people there are on Teams meetings with people are are not, and teams are rarely together, it feels like a waste of time to a lot of people.
I would love to see more actual divided offices- at my place there is always space now so they could actually divide the open space into office for 6 for example. That would enable teams to actually work together, and make noise rather than everyone trying to be as quiet as possible. I really miss collaborative working and it’s so stilted and awkward on Teams. Only 1 person can speak at a time, and there’s a tiny lag which means you always feel like you are interrupting. I do have 1-1 chats on Teams but they can feel quite intense and very different to the walking to meeting chats I would have had before.
My boss is so toothless about enforcing in person Team days and there’s always someone who has an excuse. I feel like people have become so insular and lazy ( me included) and I hate it.
I do wonder about young and single people too, and how many people used to meet their partner at work. I guess that’s happening less and less.

Having suffered serious burnout this year in my workplace , I would love to find a WFH or even hybrid job as the flexibility would just be a dream!

One day wfh is enough for me. I’m full-time so am in the office 4 days a week. One days wfh is useful but it’s a bit boring with no one to talk to. I also don’t have a comfy swivel chair and have to sit on a hard dining chair.