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?

Absolutely love it, have WFH flexibly for over 20 years with last 2 employers, although I do client visits in health and social care settings.
I couldn't waste years of my life sitting in rush hour traffic just to do a job
I go to the gym in my lunch break, get jobs done at home that i'd have to take annual leave for. I dont miss office life at all.

Think your 3rd para is very right. I know a lot of MN tends to favour hybrid, and I can see how that suits the people it suits. But it can sometimes be the worst of both worlds as well.

You still have to live within commuting distance of work- once a fortnight admittedly means you can be further away than daily, but it still means both employees and employers shrink their pool. It excludes people with structural barriers to working in person, so the recruitment and wider societal benefits don't kick in. But it's still insufficient for the ones who really want to be physically around others when they work.

We have had lots of new starters since. They learn by having processes in place to help them learn remotely? I guess it depends on the role but we do a lot of working together on calls (not just for newbies) sometimes for the entire day. They have a structured learning path, a buddy, slack, regular check-ins. If someone was left to just sit at home and expected to ask when they needed help then of course they wouldn’t cope - but that’s what I mean by processes not being well thought through

I'm sure I read somewhere that it's possible to engage face to face with people who don't work at the same place as you.

I’ve been fully remote for over 15 years now. I was hybrid before that.

being a fully remote worker has not hurt my career advancement. I am a preeminent expert in my field.

I had a private office when I was in the building. I was still constantly in a state of fight or flight. I hated every single minute.

In person meetings are not more productive than zoom. they are stressful torture sessions where you can’t control the temperature, have to worry about every aspect of your body language, not just what shows on camera, and have to deal with more sounds.

something as simple as walking to use the loo or going to get some water means thinking about the million little social niceties that one must consider while encountering other people.

if you haven’t guessed already, I am autistic and offices are hell on earth. I put up with them for years because it was a necessity, but life fully remote is so much better.

I'm a hybrid worker but WFH 95% of the time. I love it; sit in my pyjamas, can just crack on with my work and don't get sucked into office politics or gossip. Suits me as I am quite antisocial.

I work from home about one day a week and rally love it - because it’s a little treat. I get an extra hour in bed, get to stick the washing machine on while I work and get to schedule parcels etc for that day.

Any more than one day a week would start to drive me mad though. I hear a lot more about what is going on if I am in the office. And so many meetings are going back to in person it’s just not possible for me to be home more than one day a week.

I would feel very isolated being home all day every day. But I guess we are all different

Couldn't be further from the truth, i'm the most sociable person you can imagine, i'm out 5 nights week engaging in people focussed hobbies.
I just don't want to work in an office with people I wouldn't chose to be with or get up 2 hours earlier than I do now to spend hours a day sitting in traffic to get there.

Or work in a global role across multiple timezones and being home based makes it possible in a way that being in an office doesn't. If I go to an office, I am not booting my laptop back up again to get on any evening Teams calls when I get home. Nor will I be working beyond my core hours. The company get a lot more out of me this way.

It also allows me time to have a second community based role, which requires a lot of in person meetings.

But, yeah, we are all asocial weirdos.

I manage a team who are office based and who wfh. I fully support the flexibility we offer but it’s not for me. I really don’t enjoy wfh.

Completely agree.

I'm the same.
Have mostly wfh for over 15 years and am an extremely sociable person.
I'm out and about many times a week in the evenings and at weekends.
But I like to concentrate when at work, and I like the fact I gain about 2.5 hours a day by not having to travel to the office (therefore freeing up more time for socialising with people).
My friend wfh and meets up with a group who all walk their dogs together over the lunchtime.

Completely inaccurate thing to say @TodaRythm

That simply doesn’t replace learning via sitting with your team and listening to what’s going on. Your manager can’t pick up on things by simply observing their team working. It’s also how you get to know others in the organisation, even if they’re not people you deal with. It’s such a siloed experience.

And of course it depends on people having somewhere decent to work at home. Not everyone has a spare room etc. Many youngsters are in small bedrooms in shared bourses. One of our young guys was using his ironing board as a desk during Covid! Not everyone can afford to kit out a home working space.

WFH full time completely suits older workers with the experience and wherewithal to make it work for them.

I think hybrid is best, I'm 2 days in the office and 3 at home. I find that a good balance.

This generalisation about younger workers completely leaves out all the ones who aren't able to work much/at all in person. The fact is that for some, remote work is what lets them get the job in the first place, and some of these people are young.

The problem with people already established in their careers discussing this issue is that they too often conflate their own experiences when they were a young worker with young people per se. They're not the same thing at all. And you're doing it in your first paragraph too. As if anyone could possibly understand how training works in every role and sector.

Maybe that’s how you learn best but not necessarily how everyone learns best?

I think this is quite an antiquated view. If a manager needs to sit and watch their staff to know how they are performing then they aren’t a very good manager, sounds a bit like micromanaging. Trusting employees will make them perform better than watching their every move. And if they can’t be trusted then they shouldn’t work there!

Yes, I agree, a company should ensure that their employees have the right set up to work from home. My company provide things to ensure you have the right set up. Also this is why I say that hybrid should exist for those who want or need to go into an office.

I think WFH full time suits anyone who works best that way provided their manager / company provides the support needed.

It sounds like you have a lack of trust in (and maybe a little bit of bias against) the ‘young’ ones. It’ll be the way the young ones work in future when the ‘older’ ones who are stuck in their ways have retired.

It isn’t for everyone. I work fully from home and I thrive in it, but I am a homebody and love the convenience.

That's exactly what I did. Bliss.

Yeah I hate it. Just gone back into the office after FT WFH for a few months for health reasons. I'm so much happier back at the office even though not many people are there. I have one colleague on my bank of desks and love having her there to talk to throughout the day. I wasn't talking to anyone all day before outside of my husband and kids. She seems to feel the same because she's in the office way more now I'm there. I think there's an effect where it's less appealing to come into the office if there aren't many people there. Then when people come in there aren't many people there so they don't come in again. And so on. I think a lot of people would enjoy being back in the office if everyone came in, like the old days. I definitely preferred that.

Fully agree - you learn so much by osmosis in an office environment that really can’t be replaced on Teams.

Also agree WFH suits older employees and those that have been there for a while. My manager by his own admission is lazy and likes to stay at home because he’s close to retirement. My team also haven’t had to train anyone new in a long, long time so the processes just aren’t there. It’s so difficult for me coming into a job like that. I end up sitting at home twiddling my thumbs while he finds work for me to do.

I think it depends on the job role, the person, the stage of career.

It suits some personalities - and those with the space at home or in a nearby cafe or similar to be able to work with sufficient seclusion from others if discussing confidential info (some of the things I've overheard on commuter trains!) and sufficient networks bandwidth.

It simply doesn't work for all roles. I can WFH but only with planning - there are a lot of tasks I can only do in the office, and indeed, not all areas of the office, for security reasons, do I need to make sure any of those are postponable or covered by others if I WFH.

I think if you have a new person in a team, it can be helpful for relationship building and knowledge sharing to be physically together to start with. Having said that, I've successfully built relationships with overseas colleagues I've never met in person over the years, and sharing screens can get over a lot of the "let me show you how to do this" issues.

Several years back, I wrote my car off, and was stuck WFH for 3 weeks until I bought a replacement. It was not good for my mental health, but at the time I was living rurally and the lack of car meant I also wasn't getting to my evening classes or swimming pool in the next time, so living alone, I felt extremely isolated, as i was not able to see anyone much at all. During covid, in contrast, everyone was in the same boat, and making an effort to check in with each other, so I didn't feel alone in the same way.

I truly love WFH but I'm an introvert and live near lots of major A roads and motorways so rush hour traffic is shocking and commuting anywhere in a 10 mile radius from home is a complete nightmare.

WFH is a blessing for me, it suits my personality and job. My role is stand alone with little interaction with colleagues other than the odd message/ email back and forth. I moved my desk so I'm not facing a wall, and I get natural light, more than I did when we had an office. I have my podcasts playing all day, they are interesting and funny background chatter.

There are lots of people I know that it definitely wouldn't suit, their jobs or personality need face/face interaction.

Hybrid working ( 3 days at home and two outside the home ) is the ideal imho

When we had lockdown, I thought I would love WFH. Turns out, I absolutely hated it.

I can see the appeal of WFH one day a week to get some real focus to do a list of tasks but I need people to talk to in a real life setting.

I guess some people like WFH full time because it suits their personality/life style. What suits one won’t necessarily suit another.

I agree