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?

WFH is pretty isolating. I enjoy human interaction as well.

My lovely desk by the window has become a socially distanced hot desk, deep cleaned every day. I hope they've put my photos, my coaster and my mug somewhere safe

If DH has to work from home for the long term I will lose the plot. Pre Covid I got one morning a week in the house by myself and it was a sanity saver. I can only do bits of my job from home, but I NEED THE SPACE.

Not really. I've no idea when I will go back. Two kids, one at a special school so it's going to be complicated.

It dawned on me yesterday that I could be WFH for at least the rest of 2020 so I have ordered myself an office chair from Staples as my back/neck/shoulders are in a bad way after 2 months working at the dining table

I like some aspects of WFH but hate others.

It's a really interesting question. I expected it to be a couple of weeks and was rejoicing as I hate my job, don't respect my boss and really dislike a couple of colleagues. I have spoken much more to the colleagues that I like and not at all too the 2 I don't like. I have spoken, 1 to 1 with my boss 3 times in 8 weeks, which is pretty bad (especially as he had stressed the importance of reaching out blah blah to the whole team, and he only has a few direct reports. It's been nice to not see the awful ones but my mental health has still really badly suffered. I will be resigning as I can't take it any more (homeschooling tipped me over the edge a few times but fundamentally it's the job and the team). Looking for a new job will be interesting...

We're expecting September time for opening the office, at reduced capacity.
I think a lot will want to keep working from home anyway.
I'd like to go back a couple of days a week once allowed

LilacTree this is one of our problems. We're a firm of accountants and you really can't (or shouldn't) have a full years worth of client's records (including bank statements, physical cheque books, payroll records) sat in your spare room.

Some clients can provide all information digitally, which is fine (although sometimes more difficult to work from) but the vast majority cannot provide all the information we need to prepare (or even audit) a set of accounts digitally.

It's probably the biggest barrier to full time home working for us - not that I mind!

I developed back problems pretty quickly at the beginning because I simply didn't realise how bad working at a cobbled together set up was, despite us being encouraged to go through a full DSE risk assessment and set up process by our employer. I couldn't stand up straight or walk around properly for a couple of weeks until I had done something about it and recovered.

Now I've been into the office to collect all my proper kit (separate screen set to the correct height, separate keyboard, wrist rest and mouse) it's much better and I've now set up my home office in our spare room and I'm feeling very fortunate that I can do this.

The only problem I have now is that the desk I'm using is a bit small but it's OK. It helps that we're mostly paper free, which is good for confidentiality too - some of the information we handle is subject to security requirements so should not leave our reasonably secure office building.

We've been told to prepare to be at home until Autumn but plans are being made to be at home until January. I work at a uni. They will priortise people going back and really there is no need for me to be in the office so I will be one of the last back. It suits me, I work part time and being at home has allowed me to be more flexible, and I'm more productive. However some of my colleagues are struggling and missing the daily interactions with other people.

I'm wfh until at least July and am negotiating through August currently.

As has mentioned one of the elements attractive to employers is the possible cost saving.
I see that some WFH have been supplied with equipment and others have mentioned purchasing a desk or repurposing a space or room.
Frankly these changes and costs plus heating and Lighting should be born by the employer.
Perhaps asking for a financial contribution is something to think about before spending your own money.

Yes we got told it would be unlikely to be back before Christmas.

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@usernotfound0000 I work at a uni too and similar things are being suggested. I’m only part time too but would so love to be back in the office because I struggle with anxiety and depression, and getting out and about, seeing people and having some separation between work and home are really helpful to me.

I hope as things ease up my uni will bear mental health reasons in mind in terms of allowing us back. Maybe find out who actually wants to continue wfh and let them.

@agentcooper yes, I think that would be a good way forward. In my office of 8, 5 of us are happy to continue WFH, it would make sense to priortise the ones who don't and would make it easier to manage social distancing if only half the people are in.

Clash that’s the sort of thing I was thinking

Accountants, solicitors, banks, anyone running any kind of therapy.

There was an article about the ICO effectively not working at the moment - deliberate. I suppose all privacy will go out of the window, what was left of it.

I’m really hoping all this is just worst case scenario planning and as lockdown lifts we begin to see that things can be more normal.

I'm just being nosy since I can't WFH and my OH already did, so the only change for us is that he isn't out seeing clients at the moment.

The cost savings will be huge and there will be environmental benefits too if businesses end up choosing WFH but I couldn't WFH full time, it would ruin my mental health. I don't think I'd be very good at it full stop but I'd have thought a mix of in office and at home would work best overall for most people.

I work at a uni too. Our offices are quite crowded so I think we'll be wfh until Jan. I miss my lovely colleagues and struggling to work with noisy kids at home, small laptop and uncomfortable work chair.

I took home everything except the office desk (too big, I got one on Gumtree). So I have chair, PC, desk raiser so I can stand or sit, monitors... Beats working on a laptop on an ironing board, like someone I know.

The bosses are now making noises about is going back in soon, despite the fact that we are in Scotland, and we are all working perfectly well from home. And if we went back part time I'd have to take the office equipment back, and then wouldn't be well set up at home, so I don't fancy that either.

Just been to collect my PC and office chair, and have ordered a desk to be delivered.

I work in Central London and I'd originally left in mid March (about a week before lockdown - I work in infectious diseases research, not on COVID, so we all knew it was coming). I left with the plan to not return til end of May/early June. At this point, I can't see returning until August/September. Probably some of that will have to do with schools going back as it's easier for me to wfh than dh (who is self-employed, working alone anyway). But all my work has moved to processes that can be done remotely. I think it would be September at the earliest, but probably a lot could be done remotely for a very long time. Certainly all meetings for the autumn are currently planned to be held virtually.

@Xmasbaby11 any talk of your uni allowing you back to the office on rotation before Jan? That’s what I’m clinging to. We have very little student contact in our office, spacing’s not bad (and please God we adopt the 1m rule instead of 2m as other countries are doing). I am honestly going to argue that wfh until January will seriously affect my mental health.

Yes, I have been told it will be until at least the end of the year.

I bloody love it!!

It's interesting that it's already becoming clear that long term, involuntary wfh will impact women more negatively than men.

I hope that organisations to a balanced risk assessment taking into account individual circumstances before they issue blanket 'wfh for the foreseeable/until 2021' directives.

And just thinking about those big corps and younger people, are they really planning for their graduate trainee programmes and the like to take place entirely remotely? How depressing for those young people.