Page 16 | to think some people would be weirdly excited if WFH came to an end?

LoveWFH · 2026-02-13T09:22:26+00:00

Why do some posters sound almost delighted at the thought of Nigel Farage stopping WFH? There’s this tone of “that’ll teach them” whenever it comes up. As if people working from home have been getting away with something. Here’s the practical bit though. My company couldn’t bring everyone back full time even if it wanted to. They’ve sold off chunks of the office space. Whole buildings gone. Desks gone. Leases not renewed. There literally isn’t room for everyone anymore. Hybrid working isn’t some trendy phase. It’s how a lot of businesses are set up now. They’ve planned for it. Budgeted for it. Recruited around it. You can’t magically create space that no longer exists. If you prefer being in the office, fair enough. Plenty of people do. But I don’t get the satisfaction at the idea of other people losing flexibility that works for them and their employer.

bluebelle78 · 14/02/2026 18:01

I've worked hybrid since 2007. Would never take a job that was full time office based. I get so much more done at home than I do in the office and the time spent commuting.

RiderOfTheBlue · 14/02/2026 18:21

cramptramp · 14/02/2026 15:02

I could have worked from home but chose not to. It would have made my life much easier if I had. A few of team did because that’s what they liked to do. But our department worked much more efficiently when we were all together and we could hear each other talking to clients and deal with problems really quickly. We provided a much better service. I think some people want to do what’s easier for them and don’t take other colleagues or service users into consideration.

You're damn right I want to do what's easier for me, i.e. wfh. I like my colleagues well enough but I don't care enough about them to put them before my own needs/wants. And as for service users (customers in my industry), I couldn't give two hoots about them. I'm good at my job and provide a good service to customers but I don't actually care about them. Does anyone actually care about the customers of your employer? Enough to turn down the opportunity to make your life much easier by working from home?

usedtobeaylis · 14/02/2026 18:35

Newbutoldfather · 14/02/2026 14:29

@AmusedShark ,

I did in the pandemic, and it wasn’t great, but I am also middle class and middle aged, and had a study to work from.

Of course, the ability to work from home is a boon, and all work is a negotiation between willing employer and willing employee.

But I still see a lot of drawbacks from accepting a lot of working from home on a population level, both social and economic.

i think a lot of people remember their first jobs fondly, both for being learning and social environments (with a lot of overlap between the two).

My first job was in retail where I started at 7am and carried palettes of lager around all day, I don't remember that too fondly 😅

I'm fond of this job's flexibility, where I work from home most of the week and quite like the other two days in the office but still spend most of them wishing people would take their calls elsewhere and turn their Teams notifications off. If I leave this job, I would be looking for the same flexibility.

usedtobeaylis · 14/02/2026 18:43

RiderOfTheBlue · 14/02/2026 18:21

You're damn right I want to do what's easier for me, i.e. wfh. I like my colleagues well enough but I don't care enough about them to put them before my own needs/wants. And as for service users (customers in my industry), I couldn't give two hoots about them. I'm good at my job and provide a good service to customers but I don't actually care about them. Does anyone actually care about the customers of your employer? Enough to turn down the opportunity to make your life much easier by working from home?

Show quote history

No we should definitely put our colleagues before our own work-life balance 😅

I like my colleagues fine and where I care about them is maybe covering a day in the office if they were supposed to be in but want to wfh that day for some reasons. Or staying til the office closes for departmental cover if someone wants to shoot off. The idea of adults in a workplace managing to get along fine without being in each others pockets five days a week seems to be something that hasn't occurred to some people.

As for the people I deal with on a daily basis, it really makes no odds to them where I am physically located. If I need to speak to a colleague or a manager for something to get back to them on, I can still do that from home. There isn't a forcefield that prevents that.

cramptramp · 14/02/2026 21:44

RiderOfTheBlue · 14/02/2026 18:21

You're damn right I want to do what's easier for me, i.e. wfh. I like my colleagues well enough but I don't care enough about them to put them before my own needs/wants. And as for service users (customers in my industry), I couldn't give two hoots about them. I'm good at my job and provide a good service to customers but I don't actually care about them. Does anyone actually care about the customers of your employer? Enough to turn down the opportunity to make your life much easier by working from home?

Show quote history

Yes I did. Because I was being paid to do a job.

CypressGrove · 14/02/2026 22:59

5128gap · 13/02/2026 10:08

Not unhelpful though. I feel there will be a fair few people at the intersection between the three groups of 'Enjoy working from home' 'planned on voting Reform' and 'don't understand the limits of the power of government over businesses'. Think Farage has misjudged this one.

Show quote history

Agree. In Australia the opposition party was strongly predicted to win the last election before they decided to come out with 'we will end working from home' and even though they backtracked before the election they lost because nobody believed them. Even though a government can't stop businesses from working from home - the government is a very large employer (at least in Australia) and them shifting to full time office work would have had flown on effects to private businesses. Also it raised question marks about their integrity - why would a right wing party be bringing in a change like that if it wasn't bowing to donor interests. Stupid move that cost them.

RufustheFactuaIReindeer · 15/02/2026 09:55

Working from home is so much quieter

somet its quite difficult to hear the client when i am on the phone to them in the office. I have also had a few customers saying they can’t here me because the office noise is loud

LlynTegid · 15/02/2026 10:10

Thepeopleversuswork · 14/02/2026 13:57

A lot of the resentment towards remote working is from blokes who object to women being supported in making their lives more family friendly.

These are often men with “facilitating” wives who do all the childcare and chores and have enjoyed decades of being able to take large amounts of working hours to go to the pub or dick about on the golf course safe in the knowledge that their SAH wives would manage everything on the home front. Ot just making a point of presenteeism so they can be seen to have their bums on an office chair past 6pm.

WFH irritates them because it reminds them that women are often far more productive than they are out of necessity because they usually don’t have “facilitating” husbands who can do all the domestic work. So they bitch about people “stealing time from their employers” for having the temerity to take five minutes to put a load of washing on when they have no compunction about stealing several hours in the pub “networking”.

Its based on insecurity about the fact that their historical dominance at work is eroding and it’s absolutely pathetic. I’m not surprised Farage champions this self martyred bullshit.

Whilst I don't think it is the main cause of resentment, I think there will be some men who feel this way. I think another view though never expressed is I guess some who enjoyed seeing younger women in the office who they find attractive and now see them less often or never.

The main resentment I think comes from those who do not have the option, or think it enables lazy people to get away with more.