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

[LoveWFH]

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.

Agree Op - I strongly suspect those people who are so against wfh are just jealous of those who can.

Thankfully I work for a public sector organisation that has sold off a large chunk of its real estate so there is simply nowhere for us all to go if they dragged everyone into the office.

They could rent office space from private landlords. Funnel public money into private hands, it's the right wing way

A chap I worked with used to move a pile of paper around all day!

It’s Farage causing the drama. That’s how it works in his world.

I agree. Some posters on here complaining about WFH or colleagues that WFH, they just sound like they have no life. Other people have family, friends, hobbies, some people are just too obsessed with work and need to get a life. That sounds harsh but I mean it literally, so many people that have ultimately low stakes office jobs need to chill a bit and improve their work life balance.

What a great use of public money that would be!

Most of the people at the company I work for live all over the country so would not even be physically possible. I go into office maybe once or twice a week but I work so much better at home... at the office I get distracted with chats and conversations with colleagues, coffee breaks, sometimes my form of transport gets delayed and I can miss maybe 10/15 minutes at the start of the day, I have to take an actual break to go get lunch from somewhere (we don't have a fridge or microwave) whereas at home I do not have any of these distractions and can get on with my work and get so much done. I actually save office days to days where I don't have much to do because of the fact I get way less done.

WFH keeps women in the workforce who want or need to be in it.

I say this as even though men can take time off work to raise kids or part time work, let’s be real, it is primarily women who do this!!!

Because of WFH I was able to do a full shift then pick my baby up from nursery at 16.10pm for four years, rather than him being in there till 6pm!

I was able to be just down the road if he was sick and needed me to pick him up within minutes not hours.

I was able to exercise on my lunch break in comfy clothes when time is limited as a working mum.

Now he’s at school, I am able to pick him up him up at half 3 and make up any lost time later.

Without this I would be working part time or SAHM, be out of my career and not earning enough as a household.

I'm a retired gardener who by the nature of my work couldn't have worked from home.

To me WFH seems like an absolute no brainer. Less commuting, more family friendly, no big spend on office space, a better work life balance.

Farage and his ilk are trying to keep the office market going for the financial benefit of their pals and to stoke culture wars.

The culture wars bit is working as you can see here pensioners are getting it in the neck.

If I was younger and WFH I'd do two things

• ignore anyone who says WFH is a bad thing
• vote to keep that wanker Farage as far away from power as I could.

Ahhh the office paper shuffler. Every office has one of those 🤣

It's a great use of public money. It's going to make rich people richer. What better use could there be!

My Fil will be ecstatic, he’s completely unhinged about it, he knows literally nothing about wfh, but is obsessed about people wfh being slackers, I’m included in these rants as is his neighbour despite knowing nothing about either of our work.

I wonder if you actually need to be better at your job if many people work from home.
So you can't just have managers who spend their days in pointless meetings. Meetings have to be useful and getting promoted to a level of incompetence becomes harder as you are judged by your output rather than the fact that you left the office last all week.

I am freelance, working from home, and if i am not working (like right now), I am not being paid. So obviously the motivation to be productive is there but I also benefit from what any WFH employee can do - take a break if you need to, work later or earlier if you need to, let the plumber in without taking a day off, and no commuting.
There is no way Farage will be able to stop this, and it's being talked about so much in a way that I am not sure promotes Reform's real agenda.

DH is one of those who doesn't like people working from home - it isn't good for them.
He used to do it occasionally even in days before COVID was an absolute nightmare getting in the way and needing silence. Would suddenly announce that morning when I would be surprised to see him sitting at the dining room table papers and stuff everywhere when I got back from taking the DCs to school. He must have known his plans the previous evening (I could have gone out for the day or swap my part time work days). I don't think I could have coped with his "important" job being done at home for the last six years.

Also the push against WFH in the civil service goes directly against the governments push against disability benefits.

my DD went from part time topped up by benefits to FT with no benefits due to WFH as it worked with her condition. To stay in the civil service she’d have had to go back to very part time and be topped up again.

thankfully she found a new fully wfh job.

Farage is deluded over this. What's he going to do to support this? Things like affordable travel, extended wraparound care at every school, affordable property rents for offices, measures to counteract the increased pollution? Fuck all. Or maybe its just a ploy to get more women staying at home (since for a lot of women who can manage childcare around flexible working, going into the office full time would likely mean leaving).

One thing though, please could people stop working from home while looking after their toddler full time? This can't be good for thr toddler or work and it's examples like this that are going to be used to ruin it for the rest of us

Yeah it's a jealousy thing. So many people think WFH means the worker is sitting there twiddling their thumbs and going shopping. I flaming wish. I replied to that poster earlier who said she thinks WFH should end because it doesn't suit her personally, and I said how I've never worked so hard. I start at 7am and don't finish a minute before 5.15pm. One hour lunch. I get so much done. No one is there to distract me or make me change the toner cartridge, etc.

WFH managers now think nothing of putting in calls for 6pm. Mine did it on Monday. I had a gym class a little later and had to cancel it. This never happened in the office. There's a sense of "you're at home, therefore you can attend a meeting at 6pm".

I also know people who were very jealous of WFH people, as they themselves had manual jobs. The usual crap about "sitting around doing nothing all day". Then some of these people ended up in desk-based roles, and oh look, suddenly they're massive supporters of WFH.

This is why Trump and Farage don't like it though - they want us all to be trad wives dependant on them for money.

It’s envy.

Or resentment thinking everyone at home isn’t really working when they’re slogging away somewhere. Truth is, I get far more done when I’m at home.

Yet another reason to be wary of Farage, after he dismantles the NHS and sells the lot to US big pharma and insurance companies.

There's certainly validity to having some minimum level of office attendance. I do WFH full time for a small business that has no need for anyone to be physically present, but I couldn't do this job without the decades at the start of my career, learning my craft in the office environment. So if I was part of a large enough organisation to need a policy on this I would have a maximum of 1 day per week WFH for all early-career staff, and a maximum of 4 days per week WFH for senior staff, with everyone else in between agreed on a case-by-case basis with everyone with more experience having it as part of the job description that working alongside junior staff in the office, helping them to learn more from you, is part of everyone's responsibilities.

We literally saw school mum with laptop in her hands on school run. What kind of quality you can get from it?

But if you don’t work with this person or in the same organisation why on earth would you care?

One of the many good reasons to keep Farage out of power.
I work largely from home, with some office days, usually once per week. However I can plan when that is to suit me.
Farage's idea that people aren't more productive from home is not grounded in reality. I start work 5 minutes after dropping the kids at before school club instead of having to commute for 50 mins. I dont have constant interruptions or the team behind chatting loudly while I am trying to focus on a task.
I have a professional career and far more integrity than the WFH naysayers think.

Further, my authority has downsized its estate and our team of 20+ simply doesnt fit on the 12 desks allocated to us!
I am also a single parent and a 1 income household. Being able to work from home keeps me in a career and gives me a work life balance and my children some emotional stability.

Pure jealousy!! Lots of people resent others having this privilege while they don't for whatever reason.

Entirely reasonable though. I wfh almost full time and would be incredibly envious if I didn't.

I totally dont get it either. There seems to be this 'well i have to go in every day' attitude with some. They are very short sighted.

I have to go in every day. I WANT everyone to WFH.
Quieter roads, more parking, cheaper petrol with less queues. What's not to like?