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.

Will it vary sector by sector? My friends who work in more creative industries are really missing the interaction. The ones who do more tickbox jobs are fine wfh (although some of them are more concerned that their jobs may be outsourced abroad, as becoming apparent that it might be possible.) (and they describe their jobs in that way!)

I really miss my office. It wasnt even busy, I actually had an entire wing of the building to myself.

But it's that separation of work and home, not to mention being able to have a proper full size desk and computer. I have no room for that in my house so it's a tiny laptop.

I enjoyed the days I jumped on a train into london to meet my team (they were all based there) and have our team meetings together.

I was a sahm for 10 years, I only got back to work in Oct 2019 and then was wfh from early march. I went back to work to get out of the house!!

As a WFH veteran (been freelance for years now), i think the current situation doesn’t really replicate WFH in normal times. I don’t get lonely or miss interaction because normally i can pop out to my coworking space/go and work in a cafe/make plans to meet friends or colleagues for drinks on a friday etc etc. Full time WFH in a lockdown is rubbish, i agree! But the greater flexibility will remain, i hope - it’s so beneficial to be able to work around other things in your life.

My office were already thinking about a hot desk type of set up and allowing a mix of wfh and in office working.

This past year has confirmed it will work so presumably they will carry on with the plan.