To think people who work from home don’t understand this?! And they’re paid more usually

[Ugriap]

I work in a job where I can’t work from home. I get that’s my choice but when I trained, working from home was not common. Now it is in a lot of places. I know I can re train but it’s not that easy!

I can’t just go to appointments during my lunch break. I can’t ever do this. So I have to book leave if I want to get my haircut or dental appointments. Or I go on a weekend so I’m basically having less free time.

A close friend is a high earner and she is always galavanting round during the day then catches up on her work in the evening at her convenience. I can’t understand why people like this don’t get that I don’t have this flexibility?! My time is so much more limited. I feel really isolated from the friendship group these days

I work from home and I have to use my time off to do all those things you mentioned. I barely get time to eat lunch.
A lot of my friends who also work from home are able to work flexibly and will be able to nip out for appointments, stuff for the kids ect but that's not my business, they are still getting their jobs done presumably.

Wfh saves me an hour a day commuting, time at the weekend because I can pop on a wash in the morning and hang it at lunch time or run the hoover round
I don't have to waste time collecting parcels because I can have them delivered to home.

I save money on fuel, lunches (as the temptation to buy a sandwich rather than make one is taken away)

It's much better for work life balance

However, I don't like it! I'd miss my lovely colleagues!

I only do it if I have to

I work from home sometimes in a senior role and would never go to the hairdresser in the working day! But I do put ok washing, emptying the dishwasher and do household tasks. I recognise that this is a privilege.

Of course you shouldn’t get more annual leave, what a really odd proposal.

I work from home. I have no more free time than you have OP.

I'm finishing up now for today, but I started at 6 this morning. My job couldn't be done in an office.

Why should I have less holiday time than you?

I actually did less of those things when working from home than when I was office based - we always had flexitime arrangements but when I was at home I was more conscious that people see WFH as slacking so I took less flexibility

Life isn't fair.

Agree. I actually do more hours on my WFH days as I don’t have the commute so I log on earlier and often stay later as I’m sitting indoors anyway.

More holiday entitlement fir doing a different job - give me strength 😂😂

And I don’t squeeze a haircut into my working day - I manage at weekends or evenings like many people.

Well, bac in the day before we all worked from home part of the time, I was in the office 50+ hours a week. I absolutely did do appointments at lunch etc - but yes, I had to find a lot of these near the office. I got my hair cut at a salon roudn the corner that opened late on Thursdys so I could get there at 6:30. I had a local (to the office) chiropractor and physiotherapist.

I did my online shopping at lunch and bought all my Maternity clothes from the New Look in the City - the only place that sold mat clothes in those days in the area. If I needed to buy a gift.... I did it at lunch in the shops near the office.

Medical appointments for which I needed to access my NHS people near home - my company was obliged to allow me to take. It was a bit stressful sometimes, but it wasn't unusual to be in late or leave early for a doctor's appointment or similar.

I don’t know. Some firms in London are saying they want to remove any London Weighting if people don’t need it, if they’re not travelling or needing to work in town.

It’s mixed. My daughter works from home but has no flexibility whatsoever. She’s in the same position as you. The best she can do is take a parcel in.

I WFH (well, hybrid) and I neither galivant around, nor 'fail to understand' that other people can't. You sound jealous of the WFH element.

Why should you get more annual leave if you can't work from home? Surely the flip side is that she's often working in the evening whereas you leave your work at work?

When I worked from home I certainly didn't have time to go to the hairdresser's. Son wfh sometimes and also has no chance to leave his desk except for 30 minutes lunch and 5 minute break am and pm.

You are judging on one high earner - one of my WFH jobs was very well paid, but I was putting in 18 hour days routinely, so I had way less time to myself than anyone else I knew!

Am I the only one sick of the "It's not fairrrrrrrr" whining?

I must have missed the golden ticket handed out at birth that guaranteed fairness for life.

Ugghhh @Ugriap my wfh schedule consisted of 6am - 3pm meetings (with mayyyyyyybe a 30 minute break when I wasn't in a call but that usually got interrupted with a crisis) then I would get to cram in a full day's worth of stuff to do from 3-5ish . Super flexible and allowed all kinds of time for galivanting and fun time 🙄

Accept it and stop complaining or you will make yourself miserable.

Yes, same here. We have to be available at all times in the working day. We gould get called into a teams meeting by colleagues at any time, so dentist/ doctors/ lunch has to worked out the same as when we were office based. I must admit though, the fact that we dont have the awful commute twice a day has increased my downtime a lot.

I do three days in, WFH on a Friday, and don’t work on a Wednesday. On the days I am in work I take lunch, on a Friday at home I usually eat at my desk. Things like haircuts I am lucky I can do on my (unpaid, my contract is 80%) Wednesday off, and my employer is flexible about dental/medical appointments - I thought they had to be because those places are generally closed at weekends.

In my last job we had flexitime and outside “core hours” could flex our working time over a four week period. That was great as you could definitely do a lunchtime appointment, late start or early finish, or even accrue an extra “flexi-day” off each month if you banked enough time.

It's got nothing to do with whether you work from home or not. It's got to do with how flexible your job is. Pre-covid, I went in to the office most days. If I had an appointment during the day, I made sure it didn't clash with something I had to be in the office for and just went. Same if I had to stay at hime for a tradesperson or delivery. So long as my work was done, nobody cared.

Post covid, I work from home unless I have to go in and it's the same now as it was then.

What makes you think we're all running around for appointments during the working day? I'm certainly not. I'm working because if I don't, I don't get paid.

What like firemen, nurses, police, bus drivers, surgeons, shopworkers, delivery drivers, lifeguards, pilots, soldiers, train drivers, baggage handlers, chefs, road workers, butchers, sailors and builders?

What's your friend doing that makes you think she doesn't understand that you haven't got the same flexibility?

And no, I guess it's not fair that some people can and some people can't, but that's true of many jobs and their particular perks. Some let you wfh flexibly, some get you discounts on clothes, some get you free theatre tickets, some have additional benefit programmes, some let you travel...

I work from home and I have to take leave for dental and hair appointments. I was 8 months pregnant and so busy I couldn't take a lunch break.

Sounds like you're resentful of people with flexible working hours rather than WFH?

Because being senior she's very likely to work whatever hours needed, if business requires her to work on Saturday midnight or be available on Teams whilst on hols she'd be available then. In my experience all senior roles do way more hours than officially contracted to.

As to the rules - I bet she's on higher pay than average, is this unfair as well?

Working from home for most of us doesn't allow this at all. Occasionally we can make up hours in the evening but we are at our desks at the required time and do not leave for the doctor, dentist, hairdresser or school pick ups. And we are absolutely not allowed to have primary aged kids unsupervised in the house while we are working