Working from home

[Hallelujah2020]

I’m a people person but a job has come up that I’m skilled at but it’s working from home

Do you find it isolating?

I love it, I leave the house every day, a walk, a trip to a cafe for a coffee, a mooch around a shop, swimming or to the gym. Whatever I fancy but I make sure I leave the house every day.

Other than that I make sure I have some social chat with my colleagues every day too, I have regular catch ups with some of my favourite people. I have a weekly meeting with my team and make sure that some of that meeting is general chat and updates on their lives, the same with the 1:1s I schedule. It's important to not completely lose the 'water cooler chat' element.

I thought I would like it but only Iasted about 6 months in a wfh role as I missed the Social contact. I was really unfit too as I was in the house too much! Does your potential job offer travel or alternative office locations that you can use so you can mix things up a bit?

I'm almost 7 years into WFH and i can honestly say I'll never go back to an office job.

I have a dedicated workspace, I'm disciplined with my hours (though this was difficult at first)

It definitely works for me.

I wouldn't want to work from home more than half of the week

I I prefer being in the office

I like it 2/3 days a week but hate it if it's all week. You have to be very strict with yourself to take 'proper' breaks and lunches. I found that I would just work through and not go for a walk or shut down the lap top for a half hour. Felt like I was sitting all day going fuzzy eyed and ended up going to the fridge to snack alot and I put on a bit of weight in the first year. I'm sure others can manage it better than I did though. I am out at locations a lot more now, and while it's a bit more challenging with the kids I prefer seeing people as I am usually very sociable. With a family it's good but if I was young and single I wouldn't like it.

Not at all, I love WFH! I've been a SAHM for the last 2 decades, and this is my first job since going back to work. Absolutely perfect as I hate socialising and office culture.

DH works nights, so he's around all day most days, so I get to see lots of him. Take the dog out for a walk on my lunch, the (adult) kids pop their heads in when they're off out/back home.

I am a people person. I WFH for a couple of months in lockdown. Never again. And that was with teen DCs at home, I really wouldn’t have coped without them for company.

See I'm not the greatest at office culture so I now when I go in I'm a blustering idiot that has had no practice dealing with different colleagues.

I love it. I have DH and a dog at home. It means DS can be at home more too because we're not under so much pressure with hours.

It made me a bit of a hermit but I can get SO much done around the house.

Have you changed jobs? I’m feeling like this and can’t really carry on in the isolation. I don’t hear from the company I work for at all, and I have more contact with clients but the odd teams call and never even have phone calls. I feel like I’m drowning in perpetual isolation

Both DH and I work from home. And I couldn’t find a similar job locally (it’s fairly well paid, but mostly only a role in large companies). I also have a disability and need a lot of rest. And a child. For me wfh is ideal.

but if I was single or didn’t have an existing social life, or didn’t have the dedicated space then I wouldn’t like it at all. It’s not what I would recommend to a 20 something starting out in life: but for a middle aged person with an established outside life, it’s great

No. I love it. I go to the office a few times a month for a catch up but I get far more work done at home.

I left. I hated it. I just became more and more depressed. Like you felt so isolated, didn't help the team was really cliquey as well.

I prefer hybrid even though I’m naturally quite a lazy cow 😂 spent 18 month wfh last year and the year before because we were between offices.
It was initially great, no commute, saved a fortune, had more time to do chores wound the house, was around when teens got home from school/college, walked during my lunch break, have my own office in the house so wasn’t working at my dining table etc, loads of positives.
But I had genuinely become an absolute slob, couldn’t be arsed to see people much outside of work (although I still did it it felt very forced at times), wore the same pair of jogging bottoms for 5 days straight, became very lax about brushing my hair, generally just felt like I’d become quite withdrawn and was spending all my down time at work doing household jobs which I sort of just started doing off my own back because I was around more. Then became resentful because I was also working full time.

Anyway, much happier now I’m hybrid, have a proper appreciation of my wfh days but equally happy to be reintegrated into the office society again!

I hated my 100% wfh job and I'm quite self reliant. It was very isolating with young dc, as I couldn't socialise much in the evenings either. My boss went through a MH crisis and there was no escape or anybody to support. I wouldn't recommend it at all. I find hybrid absolutely fine though.

I think if you're really established in a team and have strong relationships it can work well. It's a funny one. I know people love it and I can see the benefits from what people say on here but it totally wrecked my mental health and we need to be honest about it not being for everyone.

I love it. I don’t feel isolated because I’m often on calls and I keep up constant chats with my team. I wander into the office once a week but I can go more often if I want to.
I’m disabled and it takes me longer to get going in the morning. Working in my pjs in the morning and showering at lunch time really helps 😃

I currently work 50/50 office and home. There are benefits to both but if I had to choose I'd go full time in the office over full time at home. I'd find it isolating and depressing being at home unless you could find a cooking environment that works for you and somehow maintain good colleague relationships.

I heard from my neighbour that his wife had developed agoraphobia after 4 years of working from home. He said it started with her experiencing mild anxiety when leaving the house and being around other people, which then developed into panic attacks, and then led to some kind of breakdown outside a school (they don't have children) after coming back from the doctors at the same time as the kids were going home.

I haven't seen her for years as she still rarely leaves the house. It's all really sad. She was quite nervous before, but I don't think WFH helped as it could have made her more withdrawn.

I adore it but my husband now also works from home and I miss my solitude sometimes.

Don't do it, if also means you have no work friends or any proper fun or banter all day. I hate it. Hybrid is good. I also feel the longer you do it the more unmotivated you become and you'll start to find going out anywhere a hassle.

Thanks all. It’s so helpful to hear your experiences

I found the isolation creeps. I really like being on my own but after three/ four years of wfh it feels so isolating and even things I love, like walking the dog in the countryside near here, just feels like more alone! It feels perpetual and I feel like I’m losing confidence in talking to people.
I feel stuck as my real alternative for a hybrid / in office job is in a highly stressful role

I’ll have to look into alternatives

No. I have wfh for 20+ years and I still love it. No commute time, all my time is productive time, and I can be flexible when I need to be. But I think you have to have a certain mindset to enjoy wfh…