Anyone surprised at how long they will be wfh?

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DH's company finally ordered some office equipment for the staff, delivery date in 8 wks time! He & I never expected to wfh this long & lots of our friends have been told they won't be going back till the NY.

Anyone else in the same boat?

My work have said they will reopen the office soon for those who really want to work in the office - eg young professionals who have no space to work in house-shares but it will be on an exceptional basis.

DH's work is saying this. My work is vaguer. It has always been very dependent on line manager so (preCovid) I went from a boss who very reluctantly let me WFH for 1 day when I had workmen in the house (people doing that job now are completely WFH) to a boss who doesn't care where we work as long as the work is done. So I'll continue to be able to WFH as much as I want but in other depts there will be more pressure to work on site even though it's not essential. We also have had about half our staff working on site all along, we are keyworkers and some jobs do need to be done on site rather than at home.

I think DH's work are being sensible, if you are established at work and have a big house WFH is manageable. But for young graduates or for people without a study it must be very hard (never mind losing the social aspects of work). We have the space but are thinking about reconfiguring it so is a double study with a sofabed rather than a spare bedroom with a small desk. Or maybe even divide the space into two rooms

I’m ‘older’ and since being ‘older’, and single parent I have pushed very hard to wfh 4 days a week, with a begrudging one day in the office.
I actually think they’d have to threaten to dismiss me to get me in now!
I like my boss and we chat all the time but don’t like anyone else 😁. But I’m an introvert. And I don’t think I would have wanted this in my 20s.
I go for a run, garden, cook on wfh days. Things I’d never have time for on a commute day. Plus it costs me £50 a day when I go in. I don’t think I’ll be in an office regularly ever again which is odd but takes a massive mental load off me.
I found it very surprising to begin with how my younger colleagues were struggling so much.

We’ve been to,d up to 25% can go back in September - you have to ore book to go in. We should be up to 50% by year end.

DH was told this week that his office will be wfh permanently, if they want to. The office will be closed until at least next summer and after that, people who wish to come in can (within Covid secure guidelines). They've all been given PCs/office chairs already. We're so relieved - we're saving so much on fares and he's saving 3 hours a day commute, plus his lunch hour which he now uses for far more useful stuff than queueing for a sandwich. More money and time saved means more money and time to spend on leisure etc. Also I'm higher risk so the idea of him spending hours a day on packed trains, then going into an office with hundreds of other people, was a huge worry.

Covid has changed so much.
Offices in city centres and all the support like newsagents, coffeee and sandwich shops will disappear.
In a few years we will all look back and say “who was the crazy who thought is a good idea to spend 1 to 3 hours commuting to JUST work”.

I miss the office

If our September opening gets pushed back to the new year, I am thinking of spending the wintering a milder, safer climate

My husband has been busy doing surveys at many of the corporate companies in London all based on the air con and virus spread. Based on his findings which isn't rocket science.. no one is going into the building unless absolutely necessary and you may well find many of them shut complete. H&S at work at it's finest.!