To be so glad WFH became a thing (and to absolutely hate anyone who tries to curtail its availability)

[Designless]

It's just life changingly good

Pre COVID I WFH 2 days a week, it was fabulous. Post COVID we now have to go in twice a month, because it's a Wednesday 🙄 & one of the higher up bosses wants to look like they are doing something (they aren't)my team lead is based in Thurso.. I'm much farther south & have met them in person once. When we are in the office very little gets done. It's crowded, as they sold half the offices during lockdown, noisy, too bright & too hot. Takes me 10 minutes to clean desk keyboard etc etc, It costs me £30 ish because I drive in (the buses I used to get now no longer run post COVID, as bus co. said not enough use... That's another story) the clean air payment, plus £20 to park for the day etc. plus takes 2 hours round commute out of my day. At home I am very relaxed, all work gets done, no stress, I can fit in getting the washing done & pegged out etc, house tidied, during breaks, my team lead is very good & does expect proper breaks taken. They also expect all the work to be done, but happy for us to run an errand, very flexible. It works for me. My DH cannot work from home, but says he doesn't think he'd have the discipline to do it any way. But we are now on the wind down to retirement. Dh says he's going to do a 2 or 3 day week for as long as he can, or at least till I pack in, I'm a good few years younger. As he says he'd just sit on his arse festering without me about too, as his hobbies are watching films & napping😂

I have arthritis which gets worse in the winter, so without WFH, I would be struggling massively and I wouldn't be able to comply with the hybrid max hours needed to be in the office. I am the only one in my team who would work in Leeds anyway, the rest are over in Manchester.

Hybrid working was a game changer for me, and as I race through my 50s I have no current thoughts of retirement.

Hybrid is the best in my opinion. In my role and my teams role it’s important to have some face to face time and it absolutely hinders my knowledge not to have the input from wider teams. I work in the office 2-3 days a week, mainly 2, and whilst it means I have less control of my time it drives my work forward in a way being 100 percent remote and communicating by teams doesn’t

I'm hybrid and love it. I am genuinely more productive on WFH days but office days are good for bouncing ideas off each other and keeping the team connection strong. I am lucky though as the people I work with are all lovely and brilliant.

It's impossible to WFH in my job, but I don't think it's a bad thing and don't begrudge other people for being able to do it (though I'm a bit envious!).

Couldn't agree more- I only WFH one day a week but I am without doubt 50% more productive away from the office environment- the work I need to do on that day is legislation based and I need peace to do it. I cannot do it in our open office.

Yanbu, wfh has been life changing in that it gave me an actual career, been wfh for years now, pre covid. It’s great for people with disabilities, helping people stay in home towns or spread geographically, it’s a great option to have.

I hated every minute of it during covid and would never take a job if it wasn't possible to be in the office 5 days a weeks. Don't really care what other people do but I have very little contact with my colleagues who work from home.

I’m hybrid with 1 day per week in the office (would be 2 if I was FT). It works well for me because the company I work for are flexible.

I do in person meetings or just sit with my team in the office, no teams calls and do all the work I need quiet for at home.

I am one of those people who put a wash on/tidy up while WFH but a lot of my job is problem solving and sometimes getting away from my desk and doing something totally unconnected helps me think. Plus in the office I would be making tea/chatting to people so wouldn’t be 100% focused and working then either.

I am also a migraine sufferer and being able to alter my work environment has meant a lot less sick days - I can close the blinds/turn off lights/turn down or eliminate background noise at home in a way you just can’t in an office. Plus sometimes my sight it effected which before would have meant I couldn’t travel to work at all whereas now it means I just move things around and start late.

I would hate to be 100% in the office now, but after Covid I realised I wouldn’t want to 100% wfh either as I got very lonely (DH was an essential worker and was out 5 days per week, we had no dc then so I sometimes went several days where the only person I spoke to was DH).

Hybrid works very well for many teams, especially as the big push for all open plan over the past couple of decades means that it can be harder to do focused work in the office. I love wfh for efficiency, focus, health, and control over my environment.

Hated it and got a new job so I didn't have to WFH. Did nothing for my physical or mental health. However, I can see why some people like it, so up to the individual.

Absolutely

WFH allowed me to go back to working when DS was 9 weeks old as I could flexibly work when my DH wasn't doing his job. It allowed me to work school hours when the kids were older meaning I could still make it work- I was contributing by tax and NI without my entire salary being swallowed by wrap around or nursery fees. Now it allows me to work flexibly around my hospital treatments for my secondary cancer. I can stop start, make up my hours and not have to worry about working outside of our office building being unlocked. I now can't work in an office due to being immunosuppressed so don't have to be on the sick but I'm still of use at 38 of being able to provide for my family but also to society. Actually this week was the first time I've called in sick for 10 years, I've been WFH for 6 of those.

For some people who can WFH it absolutely makes sense. I don't believe in a full outdated policy that being visible in an office is the only way of working. If we want women and the disabled to be working then we have to provide alternative options.

I'm back in the office 2 days a week and since tge new year I've noticed so many things broken that take forever to get fixed.
1 of 2 lifts been out of action.
Billi tap for hot water broken for weeks,fixed then sink blocked so can't use the sink, dishwasher, billi taps. Have to go to another floor for hot drinks.
One of two soap dispensers unusable in ladies on a couple of floors (been like that since last year).
They want us in but fixing stuff just not a priority to them.

WFH has been genuinely life changing for me. It allowed me to move from a city to a remote place on a Scottish island, which had been our dream for many years. Local jobs here are generally seasonal/low paid. We couldn't afford to live here if I wasn't able to WFH.

Yep. If it doesn't work for other people then I support their ability to go into an office or look for work that gives them what they need. Why some of those people can't afford me the same, I don't know. Why they think they know my job and my team and my organisation and what works best for us, I don't know that either.

Being expected to pointlessly commute to keep pointless businesses running is just transferring resource from individuals to businesses. It’s not victimless it’s ripping us off. I eat better healthier food when I’m not forced to buy a greasy over priced city centre sandwich. How is it not obvious that it’s only in the interests of a few to force us to do that?

I bloody hate it. It serves a small section of society only.

Why do you hate it? How does it affect you?

The people who bitch about it are envious.

I will never return to working in an office again

wfh has enabled me to get a very well paid senior role that would have previously required me to relocate to London.

it’s a geographic equaliser

I always try to take the equivalent of five minutes from the computer screen every hour regardless of if I'm in the office or not. Generally it will be making a phone call or refreshing my to-do list, but I will never understand why people get their knickers in a twist that at home that might involve standing at my own back door in the sunshine instead of standing in the work kitchen under florescent strip lights making tea and chatting.

So?

I can’t work from home and never have. I don’t have particular feelings about it either way. I can see some benefits but I also think that for some jobs in particular, it must be hard when you first start out and you might miss out on aspects of office working.

@Shinyandnew1 "I presume Farage is so upset about it because people are spending less on coffees, lunches and office rents!?!"

That may be part of it but it's just as likely to be that it's part of a divide and conquer policy that works well for them in the polls - if people are getting angry at people working from home they aren't noticing and gettign angry about the people with millions and billions in the bank created by the work of the average worker.

I say that as someone who works from the office 95% of the time.

Hybrid since Covid has been life changing. I have suspected since then that I am autistic, but no more noisy office, no stinks of other people’s lunch, no shared toilets, fewer office clothes to sort out, no sad damp commute, more sleep, no Typhoid Mary forced to show up in person... all of the above is now at a bearable level only going in twice a week. It’s improved everything for me.