To struggle to see the appeal of full time remote working?

[YasminaJ]

I’ve been fully remote in a new role for the past month and had heard so many positive things about remote working, no commute etc.

I am finding the opposite though. Cabin fever despite having a healthy social life outside of work and teams calls really don’t replace that in person connection for me. I just feel like there’s more to life than staying in my house all week for work. I have a seperate office room etc.

I will give it a bit longer but am thinking maybe I’m just someone who needs to be around people? Has anyone been in a similar situation and found it improved?

I was FT remote for four years but now have to go into the office 3 days a week. I hate it. However I didn’t mind going in to the office two days a week in my previous job. I’m an introvert but I don’t have much of a social life so work gives me that but three days a week is really wearing on me. I’m thinking of trying to find something else but I don’t have anyone specialized skills so the job market is bleak for me.

Like most things in life, it’s not for everyone.

Oh no, fully remote is my dream. I’d move somewhere with a huge garden in the middle of nowhere, no neighbours, no people, no tedious small talk with colleagues. I’d love every second.

I prefer being around people at work and I know I would be miserable working from home. I have the option to do two days a week WFH, but choose not to. It works well for my team as two of us do hybrid and two are in the office FT, so there's always someone there in person. Luckily the commute isn't awful.

YANBU, it works well for me as it gives me more time to do my hobby every day and the DCs get home around 4 most days. I can see why people don’t like it though.

Agree. And I think it's a culture that's rubbed off on my wider industry, which makes things even worse.
I started hybrid working long before covid times; so, at home some days, office some days, in-person meetings other days. I loved my job. It was varied, fun, unpredictable and kept the creative juices flowing.
Post-Covid, it's like I've got a completely different job! Now almost exclusively at home, with next to no interaction with my immediate colleagues (we were 'required' to go into the office 2, 3 times a week, but hardly anyone bothered, so it's never really stuck). Similarly, meetings with clients/wider industry are almost always over Zoom where they would have otherwise been in person.
I used to really thrive at my job but this set up doesnt lend itself to staying motivated at all. Generally speaking, it's just a bit shit.

I would hate it. I’m 50/50 (work 4 days a week) and much prefer my office days. DD is in Year 11 and I like that there usually someone here when she gets home.
I’ll increase my office days when she’s older.

It works well in our office as everyone has mandated days. I think offices when it’s completely flexible and half the time the office is half empty or no one knows who’s in when don’t work at all. You need the numbers in for it to work.

It’s literally my dream set up (another introvert). However, I can see why it’s other people’s nightmare. Are there any co-working spaces near you or a reasonable distance away - these can be so brilliant. I go occasionally when cabin fever hits (one day every couple of months) and also sometimes do a couple of hours in the cafe at my gym. They seem more tolerant than a ‘cafe-cafe’ (and I figure I’m paying a lot to make use of all the facilities). I don’t work from ‘cafe-cafes’ because it’s unfair on the owners and other customers IMO and I’d feel guilty.

If you can find a happy medium and avoid cabin fever, the time and money saved on commuting soon adds up, as well as saving on the extra spent on the odd lunch / coffee, impulse buys that happen when you commute to a town etc.

I’m the same OP - I work remotely most of the time and I’ve always hated it. I’ve had a few new jobs since 2020 and I’ve found it so hard to get to know colleagues plus new tasks, processes, etc. It’s also just so unhealthy to sit in the house on my own all day. I’m also introverted and don’t see many people in evenings/weekends.

It’s annoying because I have an office 10 mins away that I could (and do!) go to, but nobody else goes so it’s pointless!

I went from office full time, to home full time during the pandemic, to in the office 40% and I hate it. I much prefer working from home with the radio to keep me company. I like my colleagues but I’m happy having a relationship with them over teams and not in person. I also like my job but at the end of the day I’m only doing it for the money so I have no temptation to log on outside of my paid working hours.

I just feel so resentful having to get up earlier, commute and get home later just to do something I can do from home. I know everyone feels different. But for me wfh was the best thing to come out of the pandemic and it gave me such a better work/life balance that it feels like a backwards step going back to the office.

I hate wfh even though I’m an introvert. It fees too much like lockdown (a very dark time for me) and I hate the lack of separation between work and home. Also, I will admit I can be a bit of a slacker on wfh days (which is why I’m currently trying to catch up on a Sunday afternoon and hating myself).

YANBU

My job is going fully remote and I’m dreading it and so I’ll have to find a new.

Its a shame because I love my job and team but I’m not doing remote work full time.

I couldn’t think of anything worse.

Exactly. I left a role because my employer was making changes so that my position would be WFH in the mid 2010s. Fast forward to lockdowns and was forced to WFH, it was absolute hell for me for a myriad of reasons but the critical ones are that it doesn’t suit how I work, what I do, and my personality. Each to their own.

I'm in the office one day a week and that's enough for me. Some weeks it's more than enough. I get much less work done in the office but I suppose it does force me to socialise. In the sense that it forces me to listen to my colleagues talk solidly about their kids for 8 hours.

If you're someone who needs more face to face contact then of course YANBU to not understand the appeal of WFH. I think the media is very all or nothing about it, rather than accepting that it works for some of us and not others.

YA neither BU nor NBU.
Individuals feel differently.

There are lots of positives for so many people, but others don't enjoy it.

That's going to depend on combinations of all sorts of things - including your job, you household set up, your self discipline, your personality, your (previous) commute, your social life.

I love remote working, but we have monthly get together and I think it’s the perfect combo. I would hate to be forced into the office because of the commute and time missed at home with kids, hobbies, friends etc. However, there are people who love being around people and that’s fine. I think hybrid should be an office available for people to go in as they choose and remote practices to allow those how work best at home to do so. I really dislike enforcing people in 3+ days per week just to fill the office or for ‘collaboration’ as I just think it’s a lack of thought put into remote practices which are the way of the future surely.

My job became fully remote just over a year ago. Hated it. Left and now do 3 days in the office, which I think is ideal.
I've had mixed remote teams most of the last 20 years and, as a manager, it's hard work to keep those teams going well

I’m introverted but don’t like WFH much. What do you get out of a co-working space? If you do completely different jobs, with different schedules and confidentiality, I’m struggling to see how that’s not just like WFH but in a place you can’t concentrate in.

For me, despite being introverted, I miss the opportunity to build relationships, where you can then have a joke and hear about Sallys husbands woes and her aunts latest holiday (for example). I don’t think I’d get anything out of sitting with strangers in a cafe environment.

But collaboration and learning together is SO important! It’s how most of us learned our trade and expanded our experience beyond our job description.

The problem with saying you can go in 2/3 times a week is that people go on different times and days so you end up working alone in a building which is a waste of time.

I think they should mandate teams to go in on set days to make it work better.

I’m fully remote and it works well. But the nature of my job means I go to in-person meetings a couple of times a week.
We do have an office but the CEO announced only last week it’s got to go because it costs a fortune and no one uses it. Not even her!

I pay for a co working session ace once or twice a week. I pay for it myself so I obviously think it's worth it.
It's a small place so you see some of the same people and everyone is always up for a 5 minute chat over making coffee so I get some socialising

How will new starters and those in their first or second job learn? They need in-person interaction which means other people need to be there.

Remote works fine for those who’ve been there for ages or who are very experienced. How did you learn? Through the others around you.

"It’s annoying because I have an office 10 mins away that I could (and do!) go to, but nobody else goes so it’s pointless!"

I work from home 80% of the month, so one office day a fortnight mandated by the very outgoing social butterfly that is the managing director at my work.

I do think forcing something through that some people like and others don't like will lead to resignations either way. Team A wants office days, team B wants WFH, then the managing director decides to mandate an office day once a fortnight in an effort to appease enough people but piss off a small number of other people. That's the democratic way (ignore the other people who disagree because they can always leave and probably will, we'll replace them), instead of the populist way (let individuals decide where they want to work because we care for our employees).

I've been at my place of work for 11 years. 8 of those years spent commuting and sitting in an office for 8 hours a day. Pure drudgery for a bit of money each month. No life. Go to the office, push a few buttons, listen to a buzzword bonanza, try not to nod off, come home, eat, sleep and repeat the process again the next day. Then lockdowns hit, remote work became mandatory. Massive relief for me. Bit of a nightmare for the people that made my job miserable.

I hate WFH, it was OK in Covid when my husband and I worked in the same room, but working from home I find it too easy to get distracted and barely move.

I am so glad I can work in the office every day, I walk in and have lunch with colleagues, or go for a run. I couldn't work in a cafe or a library because I need two screens, my sit/stand desk and a proper chair!

It suits DH but I did it for a few months during COVID and hated it. It wasn't early lockdown either. It was at the point where you could go out to eat or socialise in 6s or something - not a case where if I'd been able to get out I would have liked it more!