WFH - what are your views?

[Notjustabrunette]

Hi all, I’m currently looking for a new role after recently losing my job.
I have always worked in an office as part of a team and found the face to face interaction invaluable. In my last role I was mainly WFH with some days in an office. I found this really hard to get hold of people as I couldn’t just rock up at someone’s desk and really missed the bouncing ideas around that you get from physically sitting with your team. The time spent in the office was more productive then the time at home. It felt that more decisions were made and we could move forward faster.

I know that with the current Covid situation WFH is going to be around for the foreseeable future, however i have seen a role which will be permanently WFH as there isn’t a physical office. I’m not sure how I feel about this. Yes, there are benefits, especially with childcare, cost and time of travel and general flexibility. But I also really miss being in a ‘business’ environment and physically bring in the presence of other people.
I will still go for the job as my current options are limited, but I find the idea of not ever meeting with people off putting.

I did this for a couple of years (around 2015/16, so pre-covid). It has its perks but for me wfh full time is too much and when I left that job I vowed never to do it again. It is hard to stay motivated and gets very boring. I wouldn't do it again by choice, although I'm having to currently due to covid. It's quite an individual thing though, and I imagine it works for some people.

I miss my colleagues from a personal point of view, but from a work point of view we all use the technology available to bounce ideas off each other.

An ongoing group chat in teams and invites to impromptu zoom calls are common as a continuation from our ways of working in the office. With the advantage you can easily ignore if you are busy, it is much harder to do this when you are in the middle of something and someone rocks up at your desk with their own priorities not realising their casual rock up/quick decision is your distraction/waste of time/stress!

It would be much harder to develop good communication, but not impossible, in a new place where the relationships hadn't developed yet.

I've worked from home for ten years.

I love it now.

It took some getting used to but once you get into a routine it's easy.

It's allowed me to work full time with my daughter. I can still do the school run etc.

I think the biggest challenge would be joining a team in the current WFH conditions. It eould be more difficult to build a rapport and develop a friendly working relationship.

Thank you for all your feedback, it’s always good to see things from another perspective.

I agree with @WeAllHaveWings - pre-Covid I used to have to work from home on the days when I really needed to focus, as the constant 'rocking up' of colleagues meant I never got any bloody work done!

For me, things get decided much more quickly when we're all WFH. No one wants to spend hours sat on Teams pontificating.

I'm not sure I miss anything about not being in the office tbh, although I acknowledge this isn't the same for everyone and would probably feel different if I was new to the role.

Actually, I do miss Pret's jambons beurre, but that's about it

I’ve started a new job WFH during Lockdown. Before that I was in a busy office environment. The thing I miss most is like OP said, those ‘water-cooler’ moments of socialising with colleagues. I do worry that the only people I talk to in RL are when on the school run.

However as I’m new I wouldn’t know the new people well anyway, it would take awhile to make new relationships and know what I could say to whom. The company makes sure there are opportunities to zoom chat and they also use Teams, not entirely sure what the difference is! They have put on Zoom chats for newbies, have got Dept Leads to call us individually or in a group etc. In that sense I have ‘met’ more of the company and am across their roles more than if I wer at a desk in one office.

But it’s early days and I know I have to watch my mental health and plan walks, chats with friends etc.

I wouldn't want to be WFH full time personally. I've returned to the office 2 days per week for my wellbeing. Even though there is hardly anyone there and no one from my team, it really helps to be able to see people in person and have general chats about the weekend, our kids, what is going on in their bit of the business. We use Zoom and Teams in my team but all conversations are with your manager or direct reports, hardly ever with someone in a parallel team.

WFH is fine for me because I know my team and we sometimes have Skype lunches.

I like not commuting and keeping my dog company.

But I do feel for a colleague who has just joined and hasn't had chance to get to know us yet.

I love wfh and was already doing it for a few years before this year. I’ve actually found communication easier than in a busy noisy office, for me what really helps is having everyone in the team in a permanent group chat (ms teams/Skype, slack, etc). Then you can also chat directly, screen share, etc. Collaboration has been much easier than trying to huddle round a desk.

I hate working from home. It makes me depressed to think that this is going to be the new normal.

Everyone else I know seems to love wfh home and spending all day in their pyjamas.

For me, spending most of 2020 in the same bloody room and only talking to people over Zoom is not living the dream.

Everyone complains about the commute, but I used that time to read on the train or get exercise walking to work. I also used get half-price gym membership on the gym near to my office, but I don't have that chain of gyms close to my home.

Trouble is, my workplace is starting to see how much money it can save on office space. I fear that wfh is going to be standard even once covid is over.