Do you like going in to the office?

[summermidnightsun]

Just wondered how people feel about this nowadays. Personally I find office days exhausting, hot desking stressful, and feel it’s something to endure. It would be easier if I could be someone who enjoys it but it makes me feel mentally drained.

YABU - I like going to the office
YANBU - I don’t like going

It is only a 15 minute drive away, I like knowing what is going on, people stop by my desk where they wouldn't go to the effort of messaging me and it means work can stay at work, home can be home. Also it stops me eating loads of chocolate and wasting time on my phone. I cannot think of a single advantage for me personally to WFH.

I go in twice a week and enjoy it, it’s not far, nice to see people and nip into town on my lunch break.

I can't believe how many people love WFHall the time... well I can as this is MN (antisocial to the least)..,

I go into the office twice a week and would go mad if I didn't see my colleagues apart from on Teams.

Hate it. Noisy, the toilet seat is always left up, roadworks around the town turn a 20 minute commute into a 50 min slog and generally people are annoying. Thankfully I only have to go once a week. I’m more productive at home.

I love it, but I only do it twice a month so it's the change of scene and different energy. WFH every day gets monotonous. I also love my team and we usually do something social on those days. If that wasn't the case I'd be less bothered.

I don’t blame you.

My last but one job was fully remote and I’d still be employed with them if the new manager hadn’t been impossible to work with. I’m too used to having my own space now and it’s much easier to have private conversations, which I have all the time due to the nature of my work, when I’m at home.

I went on to do a job that was hybrid with a 3 days in the office, 2 from home split and it was a complete waste of time going in. I also managed to get a stomach bug and a stinker of a cold virus when I returned to a job that was office-based. Hadn’t experienced either when fully working from home.

As it was with that hybrid job it was pot luck if anyone in my team would be in on the same days. The one colleague was like the Scarlet Pimpernel and would vanish for over half the day. Nobody from other teams came into the office for help. What exactly am I here for went through my head every day. I felt like I had to make an effort to talk to people when they were in. They were stilted, awkward conversations.

I’m glad I wasn’t working there when we had that spell of hot weather recently as you could tell the place would be a furnace.

Hybrid works perfectly for me. We have a minimum of two days a week in the office but I usually do three or four. Lots of our meetings now are in-person and while there’s often a dial in option, I don’t think hybrid meetings work very well. I think it’s really important for my junior team to get some in-person interaction as well and I like getting to know people. While WFH is better for getting things done, so much of my job is about coaching and relationship-building that I don’t feel like a day in the office is unproductive at all.

The advent of working from home in my profession was only brought about by covid because it's such an old-fashioned profession and it's been an absolute god send to me.

At 56 there is no way I could work full time in a stressful job and be in the office. I don't go in at all and I'm far more productive at home and much happier.

Honestly, I have no interest in meeting colleagues. I'm extremely happy talking to them via email and teams.

I much prefer socializing with my friends and family. I tend to go for a walk with a friend who lives around the corner once a week and my mum pops in for a coffee several times a week.

We do a mixture of both however I spend more time in the office as I need to see people really as I supervise them! I do one day a week from home and 3 days in the office
however we currently all have a desk but we are all moving offices and there will be double the number of people than there is desks which is going to cause an issue because we can’t have only 50% of teams in at any one point in a hospital - it won’t work as we need to see the doctors!
then in the next breath it’s “everybody back to the office full time”
we have flagged this to management and they are “reviewing” this as the current plan won’t work!

I now WFH full time. I might go into the office once every few months at most. My work life balance is now the best it’s ever been.

I’m in my late 40’s in a very senior role and settled down with a family so I don’t feel the need for any of the social aspects that office attendance can offer. If I were 20 years younger I’m not sure I’d feel the same though. At that age I think the social benefits of face to face contact is important. I also think it’s hard to progress your career if you don’t build the face to face contacts first.

I think the lesson here is some people thrive and are more effective in an office, some people thrive and are more effective at home. A good workplace that is focused on outcomes will accomodate both types of workers rather than ham fistedly implementing a policy across the board.

One day a week is enough

This is why I hate going to the office. Everyone treats it like a social get-together these days. I can't concentrate, because the team behind me spend all day chatting and gossiping at full volume. I try to only go in for specific meetings or delivering sessions.

I go in about once a week. My team are all in different cities so I still have to spend most the day in teams meetings but it's nice to see other people around the office who I don't work with on a day to day basis. But it's way less productive and the travel is a pain.

Its not about MN antisocial. I’m pretty extrovert and love meeting and socialising with people.

But I am also insanely busy and stretched and am working more or less from when I wake up to 6 or 7pm.

It makes no sense to add an hour of unproductive time each way into this just so I can sit at a desk there rather than sitting at one here.

Plus all the pointless faff finding a desk, finding headphones that work and an obligatory ten minutes chatting to someone about the holiday you don’t really care about.

I’m really busy and its phenomenally inefficient and wasteful.

i dont have any choice - but then i dont hot desk, i do have my own desk

When I’m busy, I work from home. When I’m cruising, I go to the office.
We have incredible offices, with restaurants, small supermarket, gym, pool, relaxation areas, even a bar. All the bollocks, it’s very nice.

Exactly.

It sounds really awful but every bit of chit chat with a coworker is eating into time which could be used to make a dent in the mountain of things I have to do.

I think the office works well when you are at the start of a career and learning the ropes, networking. When you get to my age there’s really not much value in spending 20 minutes talking about a Netflix show with someone you will almost certainly never see again after you leave the job. Or having to move into a separate booth in order to be able to think properly on a phonecall because there are too many other people on calls.

I like people I work with but I can’t justify the two hours commute and hours of pissing about getting technology to work just for “face time” which I don’t need.

I’ve worked for the same company for 21 years. If I think about the best times, it was when I was 4 days per week in the office on a decent commute. I enjoyed the company, the collaboration, quick lunch with my colleagues in the canteen most days, the pub down the road for retirement dos, leavings dos and drinks for big birthdays. I’ve missed a lot of that wfh, because they sold off the buildings during covid. I’m currently job hunting for a job that gives me a local office location.

I like the idea of being in the office and the opportunity to see people face to face. In reality it’s 2.5 hours each way and the wider team are in the US so it’s a lot of travel and expense to sit on Teams. Plus it’s hot desking and what I do is confidential so I’m less productive. I’ve tended to go in a maximum of once a week, usually less, but we recently had a 4 day mandatory RTO. I couldn’t comply with that but I’m retiring in two weeks anyway 🎉
I can see why organisations want certain people back in the office more, but it feels a bit unreasonable when they took advantage of the trend for location agnostic hiring and now a lot of those people they hired are under pressure to do unrealistic commutes.

Yes, although I appreciate a day WFH too. If I'm at home too much, I lose energy. My output doesn't change, but my mood really suffers. I enjoy the buzz of the office and being in a city.

I would say I'm an ambivert and need a certain level of interaction.

I think positively about office days retrospectively. I recognise that the social aspect is good for my mental health, as well as the change of scene. I think if I only work from home my productivity wanes, but likewise being wholly in the office can be draining. Think a hybrid approach makes me appreciate both and keeps my productivity levels higher.

I enjoy it, getting dressed up, being in London, I’m more productive. But I also appreciate my two days at home. I like the mix I must admit

I go in for about half a day on a Friday, the rest I wfh or attend sites , I’d never work in an office 5 days a week again, it’s just not for me anymore.