Is working from home really easier, or just a different kind of exhausting?

[warrenettie]

I keep seeing people say that working from home is more relaxed, but honestly, I’m starting to wonder if that’s true. I’ve been doing it for a while now, and somehow I feel more drained than when I used to go into the office.
There’s no proper boundary between work and home life — I find myself answering emails late at night, or feeling guilty if I take a proper lunch break. And don’t even get me started on the constant background noise from the kids when school’s out!
At the same time, I know some people love the flexibility and not having to commute (which I totally get — that used to wear me out too).
So I’m curious — for those of you who’ve done both, do you actually find working from home easier, or is it just a different kind of hard?

My friend says the that working from home is more like living at work.

You may need to increase your time outdoors. Fresh air, walking etc..

I work from home occasionally (I am tomorrow) but I prefer to come to the office. Luckily my commute is only 30 mins and I like the structure of it. I like getting up, getting something decent on, doing my makeup. When I work from home I generally just slob around in my clothes and don't bother putting makeup on. I feel un-motivated and find myself sitting downstairs with the dog because he looks sad that I'm at home but paying him no attention.

I have done both for many years but wfh is open to huge abuse (and is!). And no, the management shouldnt be sorting it out. I worked with government depts and when they allowed wfh the producitivty dropped. There have never been so many goverment employees and yet the service they provide is awful. HMRC, Probate Office, Office of the Public Guardian.

When AI develops the people you dont see, the ones who refuse to meet up, to share their knowledge with younger people - those will be the ones who no one really knows and guess who is likely to be on the list for redudancy?

My old company (large FTSE) had wfh way before COVID. You needed to rub shoulders with people otherwise when they are looking for people to put into the transistion centre due to cost issues or offered VR the people they dont know will be the first to go.

NOT IN A MILLION YEARS CAN YOU KNOW YOUR WORK COLLEAGUES IF YOU ARE THE VOICE AT THE END OF THE PHONE FOR YEARS ON END.

Before people say the company cannot do without them etc etc. I worked with people who thought that... the company was over 100,000 employees so not a niche small set up. I left a few years ago and am doing something else now and am near retirement. Still deal with local authorities, HMRC in current role and they have got worse and worse. One large council takes over a hour to answer the call and emails are taking 4-6 weeks to respond to. One lady at the council said she was wfh and needed to just stop the call as the dog was barking due to a knock at the front door. She took a few mins to come back but I didnt dare leave the call seeing how long it had taken to be answered. She told me her next door neighbour wanted her help with a small task.

I find myself answering emails late at night, or feeling guilty if I take a proper lunch break.

Well that's where you're going wrong. I've worked from home for the past 9 years. I start at 9, I finish at 5. I take my full lunch break, and will generally leave the house for it, take a walk.

I don't have my emails on my phone, and while I do have Teams on there it's set not to give me notifications outside of working hours.

If my laptop is out of it's bag, then I'm working, but once it's been put away, I'm done for the day.

I did have an issue when I first started with the fact that my hobby is computer gaming, and after a day sat at my desk for work I really didn't want to sit at the same desk all evening gaming, so I really stopped gaming for a while, but I've mostly gotten past that now.

I find working on specific tasks easier, but anything that requires input from other people much harder.

I also wouldn’t be on MN at 11am in the office either

I do both too. Average 2 days in and the rest wfh. However. I do have a proper office set up in a room solely used as my office and no young kids. I love the flexibility but also like going into the office so I feel I have the best of both worlds.

When wfh I log out at the end of the day and v rarely log back in until the next day

I like a balance. I work 4 days/week, typically two either office/site and two WFH. The WFH days mean I can stick a wash on, get deliveries, take/collect DC from school and save time by not commuting, all of which is good and allows me to pop to the supermarket at lunchtime or after work, go straight out for a run when I finish, etc. But I also enjoy the social aspects of going into the office, so for me that balance is what I really like.

I love WFH and would never go back.

I have robustly enforced boundaries.

It's definitely easier for me, but I'm self-employed, and I can basically do what I want when I want as long as projects get completed by the deadline. It's nice being able to work with the dog lying at my feet, or to nip out for a walk when the weather is nice, etc.

I'm hybrid, but mostly WFH. I absolutely love it and it's been life changing but you need to be disciplined and have serious boundaries. I'm either in the gym or out walking at 7am every WFH day, so I'm using my commuting time for something constructive. I wear decent clothes and make up every day because that's important to me. I gave minimum 2-3 meetings every day so I'm always seeing people and never feel alone. I have my own office space - it's tiny but it'll do. No kids or pets

Kindly OP, you need to stop being a martyr - switch off all devices when you finish work and only deal with emails in working hours. Take a proper lunch break and eat something nutritious away from the screen. No one will thank you for being a workhorse and neglecting yourself. If you feel cooped up in the house all day then make sure you get out either before or after work, or at lunchtime. Take advantage of the flexibility that WFH gives you

Working from home has been a godsend for me. I haven't been back in an office since covid and it's been so great for me, physically, mentally, emotionally. I no longer spend 2 hours a day commuting, work starts at 9 and ends at 5. I can take time to make a healthy lunch, I get an hour workout every day and don't have to worry about being sweaty at my desk, I can take my dog for a walk in the winter, spend time with my cats, leave for a doc or hair appointment and as long as I make the few meetings I have per day and deliver what I need to, nobody micromanages me or cares how I spend my time. I am so incredibly happy to know that I will never have to step foot in another horrible, brightly lit, migraine inducing office building ever again!

That just sounds like a bad company to work for and not the norm anywhere I have worked.

I love it. I work in a team that work well when romote though. So we are working in real time on documents together, constant teams messages. I did a project where I was working alone and had no meetings or emails and really struggled with that, but got through it. But I imagine if I had a type of job where I didn’t need to communicate a lot that I would procrastinate.

I am very structured, I have comfortable but smart work from home clothes and I have an office in our converted attic where I leave my stuff so I take firm breaks and log out on time.

For me wfh means I don’t switch off until the weekend.
Work are getting about 4-7 extra hours out of me per week.

I love wfh and the flexibility it affords me but do miss human contact. If I don’t have any in-person meetings or go into the office during the week, I’ll head into town and work from a cafe or co-working space just to have some human interaction and contact. I’m also militant about packing away at the end of the day (no office sadly) and getting out for a brisk walk once a day either mid morning or lunchtime.

I love it and will never go back to the office but I don't have kids in the background and I work only my work hours once I log off I'm done.
Not having to travel to work saves so much time each day.
As an introvert I no longer finish work completely drained from social interactions all day so I have energy for stuff I actually want to do.
I know many people say they have time to do appointments or housework or dog walks during their work day but I can't do that I am connected to supervisors monitoring at all times during work hours.

I've worked hybrid for nearly 20 years and the only times I've found WFH exhausting was during COVID and when my organisation had an enforced period of remote working a few years ago. My kids were teens but even then the interruptions and general noise made it so hard for me to concentrate and focus.

I found wfh much easier with far less stress.

Commuting included unreliable trains, frequent bad weather, often standing room only. I was always in a rush.

Wfh, I'd drop ds at the school bus, head home and be working by 8am. At 12.30 I'd put soup on to warm, put supper in the slo-cooker, throw in a load of washing, unload the dishwasher, then eat lunch. Back at my desk by 1.30, work until 5.15, collect ds from school bus, home and work until 6. No rush, no stress, no broken signals or leaves on the line.

I did 8.5 hours per day so my boss was happy. By 6pm, supper was ready, and half the chores were already done so I had more relax time in the evenings.

Plus no money wasted on commuting and no need to buy an over-priced sandwich, so I was far better off.

Different kind of exhausting but then I always feel energised by being out in the world.
For me WFH full time would feel like some kind of domestically chained post zombie apocalypse Groundhog Day! No other people, just your own 4 walls.
More on top of the housework, yes, but also creating more mess and also looking at the house all day, so I found it hard to focus on work because there’s always something to do housework-wise.
I like seeing people in real life, like putting on nice clothes and shoes and feeling like part of the human race.
Horses for courses I guess.

I get the train to work, but it’s only 30 minutes. I work in a vibrant city, and I love travelling there everyday. My colleagues are interesting, creative and kind people who I socialise with outside of work. (I manage a small independent business). I would not want to work from home ever, but I might feel differently if I didn’t like my colleagues.

I see both sides as I wfh half the week and on site the other half. The downside is when anyone hears you wfh they assume you actually arent doing anything and can collect parcels/recieve parcels for them and do bits like helping with their kids if they are in school with your kids and other bits. The look you get when you tell someone you are working from home is almost like a conspiratorial wink wink nudge nudge and work is in air quotes. Where I work I get more done when I am at home than in the office so I prefer it and less of the commuting plus I can walk the dogs on lunch meaning not having to after a full day in office with a long commute. It does also mean I can meal prep and have nicer dinners as I save the commute time etc however it also means it is less reason to get up and dressed well and i feel better when I am wearing office clothes rather than loungewear.

I get so much more done WFH as no distractions. Once I log off though that is it. Surprised you can work with kids around you. I know our contract states you need childcare and cannot work while looking after DC at the same time.

I'm self employed and do have a room in my house as an office. Before covid I worked OOH for 2-3 days and WFH for 2-3 days and now it's 5 days a week, sometimes 6 or 7 depending on workload.

One downside is the lack of exercise. Don't underestimate how all the little bits of walking from car to clients office add up or popping out at lunchtime if in a town.

If DD was home then she stayed in her bedroom or was out playing with friends, she wasn't allowed to watch tv in the living room while I was working in the office. You can't work in a shared space with kids around, it just doesn't work.

My hours vary, but generally 9-6, sometimes a bit later, but when I leave the office I switch off. I don't answer client messages , I don't check my emails. I dont look at my phone at all in the evening.

You need to set boundries on yourself and stop checking emails at night. Everything can wait until the morning. Nobody is making you do it.

Have a lunch break unless you work through and finish early. You are legally entitled to a lunchbreak so why would you feel guilty? I eat at my desk but I do stop and look at the news and mumsnet and facebook etc.

Real upsides are the lack of commute, being able to do household stuff around work, so I usually sort the dishwasher while making a coffee, I put a load of laundry on before work and chuck it in the dryer at lunchtime.

I can stop work at 6 and be in my living room seconds later.

I prefer the separation of home and work so go into the office every day. That said, I do sometimes come home mid afternoon and use my lunch break for travelling (30 mins door to door) and log back on. I prefer this in the dark winter months as home before rush hour too. I find it better for my mental health to go into work and see colleagues, but am a single parent (kids almost all grown up now) so enjoy the company. I fell out of love with WFH during covid, but many colleagues love it.

I think for many women they find WFH easier, as means they can fit other jobs (can do some housework at lunch or make start on dinner) or go and pick kids up as a late lunch break). Plus no travelling etc.