WFH is it all it’s cracked up to be?

[jinn2025]

Hi all,
Ive worked in a very fast paced job for 9 years, recently 2 kids later and a partner who works away 5 days a week. I’m staring to think, is it better to find a job working from home?
would I be lonely? I could do all the boring jobs like washing, cleaning and running the house on lunch and while I work? Gym on a lunch break?
there’s alot of pros but also some cons.
For anyone whose made the change please let me know, how you’ve found it?

I had to do this for about 2 years when our office closed and before they found a replacement and had it refurbed.
I loved it for a couple of weeks but then found I was using every scrap of spare time doing all the household jobs because I was just there.
soon grew to hate it, on my lunch break thinking about what chore I could do next so dh or I didn’t have to think about it later.
Didn’t prioritise having actual breaks.
Now have a perfect mix of hybrid, 2-3 days at home per week and I don’t do anything beyond stick a load of washing in and hang it out.
I like my colleagues and team, found I was becoming so slobby and lazy about looking after myself. Didn’t bother getting a haircut for almost 2 years. And it’s not like I don’t have a social life outside of work, I really do! But I need the routine of leaving the house sometimes!

I think it matters your age & experience too. In my 50’s it been perfect. I probably would have hated it pre DC & in my 20’s, 30’s etc when I was much more sociable & outgoing.

Also to add- actual productivity, in terms of delivering results, massively stalled in my department after COVID. Im sure the WFH lovers in my team would deny this , but it’s hella hard to do what we do effectively in 15 different locations.

I have to say I don’t recognise most people’s experience of wfh, I can usually find a couple of minutes to stick washing in the machine but certainly no time to do any others jobs. I do manage my own time so I start when I am back from the school run but the day is manic, with back to back meetings and more work than I can shake a stick at. It is helpful to have no commute.

For me, hybrid is the best solution. It’s great having the flexibility to do both but I’m finding it’s increasingly hard to do my job remotely and I am coming in more than I have done since before Covid (3/4 days per week minimum). It depends on what I have to do but my days are infinitely easier when we’re all in the office together. We also cut down the number of meetings we need because we’re chatting as needed so don’t need so many weekly catch ups, for example

My work is mostly international anyway so location isn’t so important. The “local” team is very small and phone calls / emails are enough.

I can see how bigger organisations would be impacted differently but it works for my company & situation very well.

There will be personal preference at play but I I think it depends on the role too.

I work from home full time and go into the office maybe 4-6 days a year, for all staff days. My role means that I am responsible for my work, but am also part of a team and we have daily check ins for 15 mins each morning which is more for a social chit chat but is very simple for me to just crack on with my work as before.

my partner on the other hand, works on large scale cross-team projects which he finds has become a lot tougher since everyone started working from home as his team no longer over hear each others conversations and catch snippets of info that is useful to the project. I think he feels this has changed the dynamic and I think he’d prefer a 100% office based role.

with regards to getting other things done round the home, I use the time I would have spent commuting on a few house tasks like vacuuming, putting some laundry etc. I can make more interesting meals as I prep something more complicated int he time I would have been commuting home.

my partner on the other hand would end up working more than he should, logging on early and finishing late, but would also think about all the diy tasks around the house that need doing which would stress him out!!

so even though he can work from home most days he chooses to go into the office 5 days a week.

i suppose if you’re unsure, maybe worth finding somewhere that does have an office you can go into as much as you want/ need to?

I only do one day at home and find I am really productive - can just get my head down and crack on with stuff. I’m a lecturer and have three days on campus where I teach pretty much back to back, then my WFH day is a Friday (I’m on a .8 contract so only do four days). I try and get all my planning done for the following week on a Friday, and can blast through marking.

I always strip our bed as soon as I get up and get the laundry on before I get in the shower, ideally get it hung out if the weather’s decent. I’m lucky that our manager doesn’t mind you nipping out to hang a wash or whatever - today is my non working day and I did a couple of hours work this afternoon so it all balances out. I like being able to get up slightly later, and make cups of tea when I want to. DP is usually WFH on a Friday so it’s nice to sit down and eat lunch together if we can.

This week I’ve actually been at home Monday and Tuesday as I had a load of student feedback meetings on Teams. They liked not having to come into campus just for a short meeting, and also that my cat joined a few of the calls!

It’s easier to get a lot of work done without distractions.

It can be difficult to network.

You don’t get the opportunity to spark ideas off and with others in the same way, unless you create those opportunities.

I think it can be very isolating, depending on the type of job, and also your freedom to design aspects of it.

I think I have best of both worlds. I do 40% of my hours wfh and rest I’m in office. I like wfh but not all the time.

Saves wasting a whole days annual leave

It really depends what job you get. When I wfh I am on teams call for nearly half the day, which I am in the office too due to the location of colleagues, so I don't get bored or lonely. If I was working alone with no human interaction I would hate it. I do love it when I wfh as I can get more done, especially with the saved commute time.

I love it, I’ve been 99.9% WFH for 7 years now, I go to the very occasional 8n person meeting.

i do however have A LOT of Teams calls, so I’m in constant contact with people, have lots of social interaction with colleagues and so cannot possibly feel isolated or out of contact.

I do do housework in between meetings and on my lunch, it never takes more than a couple of minutes here and there, I work long hours, pick up emails in the evenings and weekends and I definitely don’t spend anywhere near as much time doing stuff round the house as I used to spend chatting with colleagues in the office in the kitchen or on the way to and from the toilet so I feel no guilt. I am highly productive, do the job of at least 2 people and receive excellent performance feedback and frequent promotions.

I work as a bid manager

I'd say I'm in the office on average once per month. And that's just basically to socialise.

I can do my job 100% from home, I just need a laptop.

It very much depends on you, your job, your circumstances, your boss, and who you work for. For me, it is the best- I can work school hours only (4 days over 5) and have a lot of flexibility if I need to do something, so I can catch up later if needed. The whole team is largely remote, and the team I manage is also mostly remote- we go to the office twice a month, and focus on collaboration and planning then. DH commutes 2 days a week, so I see him more than I would. We both have our own home offices as well, so that helps.

I am lucky that I have the school run to bookend my days- the best advice I received was to try to have a routine to start and end days, eg go for a walk, need to be somewhere, go outside- to "start" and "finish" your time working and reset.

I had DD just before COVID, so I am used to balancing everything around it. I'm not sure I would be able to do my job without it- post COVID, I find offices difficult, and it is hard to find anywhere private to do a lot of what I need to do. I have colleagues who have also found a happy medium in terms of work/life balance and working hard.

It's not for everyone, though. Some people really find it difficult, especially if they don't have a dedicated workspace. I also feel bad for more junior members of staff, but those who fit that brief in my team actually get more formal training and guidance than they would have in the office, and we work on soft skills and relationship building a lot to try to make up for the lack of office time. We also work for an organisation that makes sure that culture is at the forefront.

On the other hand, I have also had to get rid of someone who was taking the piss with very little quality output. It becomes pretty apparent if you are managing them correctly and have good tools in place. It's just a different way of managing that takes a bit of getting used to.

On the flip side, it works every well for my (newly) disabled colleague as it means that they can manage their condition and stay in the workplace.

I worked from the office for nearly 20 years pre-pandemic, including 10 years with small children and a 4hr per day commute.

I now work almost exclusively from home. I am much happier, and my kids benefit endlessly. I don’t take the piss (we have to log our hours, so if I take half an hour at 11am to shower, then that is logged as a break!), and I am always ready to work long hours in return for the flexibility when needed (again, that is logged hours!).

I don’t think wfh would be good in the “building your career and reputation” years. I can wfh now because I know who to call, I know the people, we have had difficult conversations in person previously, we can read each others voices on Teams because we have spent hours in meeting rooms where you have body language and eyes to see! I’d hate to be trying to build my career from the start while wfh. But maybe the youngsters have different skills to me and will do just fine remotely or hybrid working. I have no idea because I didn’t start my career online.

I am also reluctant to move to a new company while wfh a significant part of the week. I don’t know how I’d build networks and learn the culture via Teams. So I am staying put and reaping the benefits of working incredibly flexibly while I raise a family and run a household. It would take a lot of money (employ a housekeeper lots of money) to entice me back to the office 100% because I know how utterly shit it is to collect kids from nursery at 6pm and head home to an empty house to start making dinner. It is relentless and unforgiving. By being here at home, I have fetched the chicken out of the freezer while the kettle boiled, put the heating on when it got a bit chilly, turned the lights and lamps on when it got dark, and so the house I bring the kids back to at the end of the day has been alive all day and not mothballed since 7am!

I think hybrid might be best. I wfh most days, but try and go into the office at least one day a week. I also get my whole team in for a face to face meeting one afternoon every other month and we go for a drink afterwards.

I get all my work done when i wfh. I tit about and chat when I go to the office.

I’ve never had a job where I had to be in the office everyday and I honestly don’t know how people do it. I feel exhausted after a day in the office. Not least because I have to get up 2 hours earlier in order to get ready and commute in. Then there’s all the extra hassle of planning lunches and outfits and making sure that appropriate clothes are washed and ironed etc. Add to that the stress and hassle of crowded (and often delayed) public transport, ensuring that your outfit is weather appropriate, and having to make mindless small talk with colleagues when you can’t be arsed. Then you get home late and have to start cooking and doing chores. I would absolutely hate to have to do this on a daily basis!

I work exclusively from home and while there are endless benefits I think it’s still important to recognise the potential downsides, even if you yourself don’t experience them.

When I started wfh it was after having been a SAHM and then a period of serious illness. It worked perfectly for me and I worked in a digital webchat team. Having been out of work for so long it kind of just fitted into my life, plus working in webchat, while I didn’t actually know my colleagues we at least could engage on teams etc.

But then I had to go into hospital for four months and i literally talked to people all day every day, members of staff, consultants, other patients etc and it occurred to me that I had become isolated without even realising it. Kind of like the boiling frog iyswim?

While I was off our department was outsourced and we were all moved into the telephony team so now I work in the call centre.

Again, it benefits me wfh because I am now immune suppressed and so I am less likely to be exposed to people who are ill etc if in the office, and I don’t have a commute on public transport to contend with either, again see sick people vs immune suppression.

But while I do talk to actual people now by virtue of being on the phones, those people are the public, the customers, but now the team thing is absent, because targets and deadlines and KPI’s mean that there is no opportunity or indeed encouragement to build work connections with colleagues, on teams, and because you’re not in the office you don’t see them face to face.

In essence, I’ve worked for the same company now since September 2022 and I’ve never met a single one of my colleagues in person, and we all work all over the country so it just doesn’t happen.

And yet I know I need to be thankful that I have a job at all so it’s not something which it’s considered ok to complain about.

I also work weekends and erratic hours so there’s no opportunity for out of work activities.

But it is what it is. At least I have a job. I realise not everyone is so lucky.

I work hybrid but I do personally prefer to get out of the house and go to the office.