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’ve always found fully remote (unless the entire dept is) are always at least a step behind. With all the best will in the will, unless your team have the exact same access points, they will miss out. It bugs me. I have two team member, one which I know would be the best team member and my replacement when I’m promoted, and another who is good, but still needs work. Needs work (who I adore and is capable) is absolutely the one who will be promoted because of things he’s picked up by being around people. Remote chap, with the same access as ‘needs work’ would be simply amazing. But he misses out on nuance and relationships.

I much prefer wfh. I don’t have any problem switching off between work/home. I don’t have teams or e-mail on my personal device. When I log off for the day/weekend/time off that’s it done! I don’t log back in unless it’s urgent.

I didn't realise you were talking about huge organisations. I've only worked for smaller organisations, usually with academia, with many overseas workers.
WFH hasn't been problematic at all from what I've seen.

that is very rare. Only for an all hands sort of thing. For project meetings, no one bothers to book conference rooms anymore. Even if people are in the same building, they stay in their individual offices and attend virtually.

I worked for a huge global organisation- we had better collaboration across countries because of modern technology.

Our public services are not performing well because of constant cutbacks, not because some people work from home.

I work from home permanently and have done for 3 years. Previously I travelled a lot and would spend a good 2 hours on the road going to and from offices, I never even considered WFH until this job but I absolutely love it, I was an extrovert but now I've gone the opposite way (I've also learnt to enjoy my own company and not feel the need to be around people all the time) and that suits me perfectly fine. I still see my friends handful of times a month but I love being at home. My partner finds it crazy that I sometimes won't leave the house for 5 days but it hasn't impacted my mental health or anything. I have flexibility and I just really really love being able to get up at 7:30am, enjoy a coffee in my pjs, get showered and dressed and start my working day without getting up at 6am, rushing around and driving an hour to work to have to spend 8 hours talking to people I have nothing in common with. It's not for everyone though.

I do however, think it's awful for building friendships and learning to socialise for youngsters. From 18-25 I had some brilliant times working in an office surrounded by different people, a good 8 years but I've had my time doing that. I think that's why now young adults struggle to form friendships and are so socially awkward because all they've known is working from home and being shut away from society.

I do think hybrid is a better option

2 days in the office

Well yeah, if you need to collaborate accross countries i am sure its more efficient than getting on a plane everytime..but as someone who experienced the way things worked before the pandemic and thevway they worked after i can see that there are real problems with this satellite way of working.
I dont mean that people are sat home slacking on purpose- most arent. It’s more a question of communication. As another poster mentioned, it’s about nuance and relationships.
I’m managing a project, and have been chasing something from a notoriously taciturn member of a digital function.
I happened to bump into her in the kitchen at work, had a chat while we were making tea, and mentioned the specs she had promised to look at. We found some time to sit at a desk and look them over. If we had both been at home I would have sent a Teams asking if she had had a chance to look at them. She would have said “ not yet” and I would have had to escalate to get it done. Delays and faffing waste vast amounts of public money.
I think a lot of things that people like about remote working ( being left alone, not having to interact) are damaging to effective running of organisations, and damaging to our ability to connect as humans.

i dont think it is healthy

yanbu. Each to their own.

I love home working. I drop my ds at the school bus, no pressure to be in two places at once.
No time wasted commuting. No £260 a month train ticket. No stupid money wasted buying a sandwich. I can put supper in the slow cooker at lunchtime so it's ready at 6pm. More time saved.

I'm £400 a month better off and have 4 hours a day more free time. And I am much less stressed.

I think it depends on your phase of life. We never went back after the pandemic, and I really enjoy being able to hang a load of laundry over lunch, to put together a healthy lunch from the fridge, the reduced cost on transportation, the time saved in the mornings and evenings by not commuting, being around for deliveries or tradespeople, and being home when the kids get in from school. I’m an introvert, so it suits me well. I’m also not young, so I’m not relying on learning from older colleagues. I can go into the office if I want to, and I have done when our internet went down, but I sat in an empty office space by myself all day, which was horrible. So even if I wanted the watercooler chat, I wouldn’t get any if I went into the office.

Bottom line is - I don’t want to find a new job where I’m in the office, so I’m staying put.

I don’t think its as simple as extroverts love working in the office and introverts love working from home.

I’m somewhere in the middle but sociable and with extrovert tendencies but I love working from home.

Career starters need some face to face interaction but otherwise I think office life is generally wasteful and draining.

I get nothing at all done in the office due to incessant chatter and shonky technology. Add in a commute of an hour each way its just an incredibly inefficient way to work.

The supposed “sociability” of office life is vastly overstated in my opinion. It’s pretty low grade social stuff and the faff and stress isn’t worth it.

This. I love it! I'm an introvert though.

I happened to bump into her in the kitchen at work, had a chat while we were making tea, and mentioned the specs she had promised to look at. We found some time to sit at a desk and look them over. If we had both been at home I would have sent a Teams asking if she had had a chance to look at them. She would have said “ not yet” and I would have had to escalate to get it done. Delays and faffing waste vast amounts of public money.

Some people are crap at prioritising or doing tasks they're not keen on. Not everyone is bad at it. Some people are perfectly capable of slacking off in the office too.

Low grade social interactions are the whole point though. Face to face social interactions have been proven essential to mental wellbeing, even those of the small talk chit chat variety. I speak as someone who is kind of enjoying the convenience and low stress of working from home. But I sense it’s not really doing me good. I’m an introvert and it feels comfortable- and I think that’s why it’s especially bad for us.

I agree with this

I love WFH in so many ways but it isn't good for me to do it every day.

Fair enough, different things suit different people.

It does if you speak to clients and can’t risk your conversation being overheard for confidentiality reasons

WFH frees me up to have social interactions I actually enjoy though. Rather than my battery being depleted at the end of every working day, it means I have the energy to see friends and get out and about in the evenings (or depending on my work schedule, the daytime), rather than doing a zombie commute home and flopping on to the sofa in a darkened room. The quality of my social life has been immeasurably improved by WFH. I'm an introvert but I'm still sociable - with my friends, not with my colleagues.

I’ve just been for a lovely walk with a friend.
I’ve WFH for 12 years.
I have a fine level of social interaction.

It's really individual tho whether you can do this.

I have lots of friends but not many who live very nearby to meet up with on a WFH day. Whereas in the office, I have loads of colleagues who are really friends now and I can have coffee or lunch or a walk with.

Of course. I'm fortunate. I've lived in my village for nearly 30 years. Both my children went to the primary school. I have lots of local friends and lots who live very far away. I worked in an office for many, many years and now have friends who used to be colleagues (or people who worked on the same campus).

Of course it works better if you have a great social circle. Perhaps many of us don’t have quite the social circle we would like though. I think we are mostly a bit lonelier for working from home, even if it’s easier and has many advantages.

For many though, the fact that you are already at home the instant you log off, means you have the ability to then use that time to either maintain, or start activities that can widen your social circle.

As has been said previously, whether or not working from home is what suits you, depends on many layers of all sorts of factors.

I love the social aspect of work but love it so much that I find it difficult to get work done. I miss the social aspect of work but don't miss having to work within what I saw as a social setting. I work best doing focused tasks. I need to WFH flexibly so I can raise my kids without being half dead.