WFH

[FlyMyPrettiesFly]

One of the potential long-term impacts of covid frequently commented on is that people won’t be going back to working in the office. The traditional office is dead; indeed I’ve heard of companies abandoning office working altogether, closing offices in favour of regional “hubs”. However, I wonder if those predictions were premature?

I definitely agree that there will be much more working from home and flexibility in future. I hope to return to 3 days office based having always worked 5. In that sense covid has accelerated a trend that was happening anyway. However, virtually every person I have spoken to this week - colleagues, clients, others - when asked how they are has said “ok..... but sick of working from home”. It does seem a lot of people are chomping at the bit for some human interaction. This differs from earlier in the pandemic when there was a lot more enthusiasm for WFH.

I wondered if others had experienced the same.

Everyone I know who is WFH is loving it. A lie in every day, no longer have a 3-hour daily commute, money saved on car fuel exceeds the cost of fuel spent on home heating, using MS Teams to have a daily get-together (not work). People are enjoying time with their children they would not otherwise get and even enjoying helping them with school work.

No-one I know wants to go back to the office and none of the companies have mentioned going back either. (Most are large multi-nationals).

Most people at mine want to go back to the office, but with more flexibility for working at home. I think it’s end up settling on people being in 3/4 days per week and working from one 1 or 2 days.

A bit of both at my workplace. The main complaint of WFH is never being completely 'away' from work. That and having work emails on our phones - which I know we don't have to read - means some are struggling a bit.

I love aspects of WFH and aspects of the office. I hope to do a mix of both in future.

I really miss the interaction in the office

It will be a mix but where I work we will get everyone back into the office on their previous t&c's first to give us time to establish what sort of wfh policy will work for the post covid world.

I think it works at the moment when everyone is WFH. The test will be if some go back in, whether or not that works.

I’d like more flexibility in WFH but I only work three days a week, so wouldn’t necessarily feel the need for one of those to be a regular weekly WFH day.
I think some workplaces with strong Union influence (mine included) will struggle to justify not being flexible with WFH requests (and flexible working requests in general) post lockdown - seeing that we have all be doing it exclusively for almost a year now.

I want to go back to the office full time and, as far as I know, that will be happening. I refuse to have a desk in my living room any longer than necessary. If we're told we have to work from home permanently I'll be looking for something else (and I am aware there's not much out there before anyone says anything!).

I can't wait to go Back to the office but I also cannot wait until I can work 2 days per week from home ... a lot of the big financial companies want their employees back in the office

I imagine that a lot of office jobs will be outsourced abroad to cheaper countries or automated.

I did a mix pre covid and want to go back to that.

Flexibility is the key. I think being in the office 5 days a week is unnecessary for jobs that can be done at home just as I think WFH full time isn't great for collaborative work.

2/3 or 3/2 to me is the right mix.

@WalrusWife

I imagine that a lot of office jobs will be outsourced abroad to cheaper countries or automated.

I imagine there will be a lot of this.

For me the main thing I miss is proper collaboration. I work in a job where we all have our own case load but where a collaborative approach really helps - even if it’s just bouncing something off someone else. It’s happening far less because people feel less inclined to pick up the phone. A lot more working ‘in silo’.

We also have a yearly intake of trainees who are just not getting the same experience or quality of training. They’re out of sight, so more out of mind and it’s more difficult to just grab them to assist with something if they aren’t physically there.

I agree that a mix of both is the best of both worlds, and what I’d prefer for myself.

I'm a lawyer and I work for a firm with branches in a few different UK cities. Everyone in my team is pretty desperate to get back to the office.

Yes, you save time on the commute with WFH. However I think the "more family time" is a bit misleading - I have the kind of job where you really need to get your head down sometimes, and think, or hold long client calls, and it's much more difficult to do that with the whole family in the house even if they're not actively disturbing you. I agree that it just becomes very difficult to separate work and family time so you end up feeling like you can't do either properly.

Also, I think we're all realising that no matter how many teams meetings you have, it's hard to replace the casual interactions with people in the office. Those are important both for morale and for work - you might

...posted too soon. Was going to say being able to wander up to someone's desk to ask a question, or overhearing how someone else deals with a bit of work, is important for employee development. Maybe less important for more senior members of staff but pretty crucial for juniors.

We could already WFH if we wanted to, either on a set day a week or on a more ad hoc basis. I think we'll go back to that arrangement as soon as we can.

I'm loving working from home, mainly as I don't have to pay thousands of pounds for the privilege of being crammed onto a train for hours every day to get to the office. If I could magically teleport there I'd have no issues working in the office every day!

I do agree that it's not good for the trainees though and it's harder having an informal chat with someone to just run something past them. On the other hand it is definitely easier to focus as I've not got people coming up to my desk to ask me things all the time! I think a mixture with some WFH is probably ideal.

My works London office has already stated that they will go back to a 3 day in the office 2 day WFH.

Our Scottish office already had this for many staff members and we still struggled with space as everyone has to hot desk which is a big covid no no!
Reality is that for most scottish office will either be 3/2 like before or more likely 1/4 but the key is flexibility. Some people want to be in more due to set up such as house shares or living alone.

I'm happy doing 1/4 when we do finally return to the office it means I save on nursery fees as my son can do a shorter day til 3 and a pick him up then do a bit of admin to finish the day. We have also got rid of core hours which has made a huge difference.

I don't mind wfh but have moments of missing social interactions!

We work across three sites spread across the country and I expect they’ll slim down the office space at at least two of them. We already did 3 days at home 2 in the office for long-standing staff and had a cohort of permanent homeworkers before covid. Most people are saying the ideal would be going in one day a week to maintain the social interaction. Personally I’d prefer one day a month because I have a long commute, regular video calls with the colleagues i’m close with and am comfortable picking up the phone to those I’m not but who have particularly expertise I need. But when people are in the office more the video calls may well dwindle and then the office becomes more important for checking in. I work in a highly individualistic role though and we already did a lot of virtual collaboration because of the distance between offices, so hasn’t been as big a shift for most staff as other places might have been.

Our senior management team have already given up their office as the lease came to an end. I anticipate when things get back to normal we will probably just be in the office for a day a week, maybe two.

And most importantly, I am very lucky to have space at home to work and DH works outside the home so I am not jostling for peace and quiet. When he’s WFH more often I might change my mind!

DH works for an insurance company. He's hoping to go back to the office 2 or 3 days a week in the longer term and he thinks that will be the perfect combination.

I'm a uni lecturer so I'm wfh now (all teaching is online) but will go back to work when teaching is face to face.

I'm happy wfh but I do miss a printer.
I'm not liking the extra bills (heating, lighting when I wouldn't normally be needing them). I work 3 days per week and cannot get help towards the cost which pisses me off somewhat. The only P. T in my team.
However, I LOVE the lack of people, no fish in microwave making me nauseous at lunchtime, no filthy hot desking, no boiling office with no windows that open, lie in, no cycle to work through rush hour (dicey!), eat hot lunch if I fancy, view of the garden, here for my DD home learning and as she recovered from surgery, FANTASTIC.
I'm dreading going back.

Yes gonna be interesting. My DP's office lease comes to an end this summer, they had been looking at a larger new office but now, instead, they opted for a tiny office with meeting rooms and a small number if hot desks in an open plan area. There was 250 people in his building before covid, they have completely changed their culture due to covid.

It's certainly reduced the amount of overtime people needed to be seen to be doing - they will probably employ more people doing saner hours. Which is a really good thing imo.

I am really hoping for a mixture too. I love WFH, but my mental health does suffer. Back in summer we had a rota for a couple of people a day to go in for the phones. This usually meant you were in 1 or 2 days a week. Due to holidays and illness I went in 4 days in one week and my mental health improved greatly then. I was really struggling before then.

Also I'd like to keep the option to WFH at least for certain scenarios. We had heavy snow on Thursday. Last year I would have the choice of either driving in it and spend the day worrying I wouldn't get home or ringing up and having to take a days holiday when I really didn't want to while feeling incredibly guilty for not getting into the office. WFH meant I didn't have to do either of those things.

I feel for me I'd like 3 days WFH and 2 in the office. That would be perfect. Will see how it goes though.

I think wfh has just been a temporary change and it will soon be a distant memory. Lots of job vacancies were previously stating “working from home” but this has now switched to listing office base. It will be no time at all until we are all back at our desks . Employers generally like to have collaboration, control, visibility and a strong presence. I would love to have a mixture of wfh and office but I know our CEO is desperate to get us back in as soon as it’s deemed safe.

I could WFH before Covid-19 but didn't like doing it that often, once a week was more than enough. I find it hard to concentrate at home and I have a study far away from the noise of the DC. Soon as we can go back I'll be back. I miss the casual chats about work and the social interactions with people I'm not working with. I miss the swimming pool near my work. The only good thing is not commuting but I only have a short drive so it's not too bad.