Working from home worth it?

I love working from home, have done it occasionally over the years and have been fully wfh since Mar 2020. but it not been perfect.

Our organization has a lot of managers who want to be in the office. For me personally the reporting chain, above me are all in the office 5 days a week. Even though we now have a 2 day hybrid system. I'm in today and in a office with about 250 there's about 14 in. About 7 on my floor and my unit/team there are 3 out of 4 in. So I'm probably in the most entrenched return to office crowd. That said it not rigidly enforced yet. We also silo information, so you hear much more from eaves dropping than official meetings. Stupid, but they can't see it.

At home I don't have a dedicated office, though I do have good equipment. But ideally you need a dedicated room. I don't have small kids but I still get interrupted a fair bit and working late is almost impossible.
 
I WFH combined with flexitime and wouldn’t go back to 100% in the office. If I was to change jobs this would be a key consideration
 
I'm the same. I wouldn't go back to 100% in the office. Our place is back 2 days and I expect it will increases. They are already falling back i to old habits. I'm already looking for something else.
 
OspreyO said:
Our organization has a lot of managers who want to be in the office.
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Sounds like general middle management that does very little and nothing useful other than annoy people. Too scared to get found out that they do nothing unless they're in the office walking around with their clipboards :D
 
I had a brief period of 100% WFH for a 6 month spell during early COVID, but then switched jobs which required me to be on-site every day.

In hindsight, the WFH was the best work-life balance I'd ever had. Need to walk the dog? Go for a run? Put the washing out? Nip out to get some milk? No problem, providing you're available and get the work done.

I'll be starting a role in January which is 3 days WFH and 2 days office based and I can't wait. Hoping that they don't push for more time in the office as I really don't crave the social aspect of the office and would just happily conduct meetings remotely 100% of the time if i could.
 
My firm went hybrid post lockdown like a lot of others. I do 2/3 days a week in the office but preferably 2. The commute has not got any less miserable than it always was although this is a personal thing.

I notice that the youngsters prefer more office than home, and when I was house sharing all those years ago I would have been the same
I also notice that those with young families appreciate the "me time" they get from commutes/office
Old timers like me don't need the "me time" and find the office days invigorating and useful

Personally, if I have a day of back to back calls I prefer to do this at home or I have to book a meeting room at work. If there is a "big" in person meeting we all make the effort to go in.
I have to do a fair amount of "thinking" work and the office is terrible for that with the noise and all.
Due to my diary often even buying lunch let alone eating it can be impossible. My wonderful wife will make me lunch if I am busy!

All in all, 2 days a week in the office is perfect.
 
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I've worked from home for over 20 years. It is isolating. Which is one of the reasons I like it. I do have lots of friends I've made over the years. School, university, work (when I used to go), but I don't live anywhere near them. Facebook and mobiles are very useful.

I also don't have kids so going to visit people at weekends is easy and people like to come here. I have a nice spare room and there's no kids ;)

A home office is imperative. I couldn't do what some people do and work at a kitchen table on a sofa with a laptop. I like to walk into my office, go to work and shut it in when I leave.
 
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Throrik said:
Sounds like general middle management that does very little and nothing useful other than annoy people. Too scared to get found out that they do nothing unless they're in the office walking around with their clipboards :D
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In fairness to them no.

But their default is to do everything themselves and communicate in person. Avoid any organized communications. They were like this before COVID.
 
OspreyO said:
In fairness to them no.

But their default is to do everything themselves and communicate in person. Avoid any organized communications. They were like this before COVID.
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Sounds like they don't have the capacity to adapt to different situations, strangely I bet that they require this for people they interview.
 
Like anything it depends on situation and personality, there's also different levels to working from home.

I've been working full-time self employed from home for 7 years as an independent contractor. There isn't anyone who tells me what to do, I'm completely free to do what I want at any given time as long as I can earn enough money to live. Which means no boss, no commuting, no wearing work clothes, no BS office politics, no more attending time wasting meetings being chaired by the stupidest person in the room.

But it also means being completely self sufficient in all areas, no paid holiday time, no paid sick time, break a bone or get ill? Better find a way to work through it. Absolutely no one else to rely on in any professional capacity whatsoever. No one to to talk to for large parts of the day.

Then again my working conditions are very relaxed, on a sunny day I'll go out whenever I want for exercise, knowing full well people are in boring meetings just wishing they could be exercising in the sun, which likely still applies to home workers who still have to attend long Zoom meetings or sign in at 9am, etc, so work from home freedoms vary a lot depending on your job.

Covid changed the work from home game a lot, previously like my situation many, if not most home workers were self employed, suddenly after covid you had a lot of people getting most of the perks I get but with paid holiday, paid sick time off, etc, all the protections of a commuting job combined with work from home freedoms. No wonder a lot miserable bosses don't like it - it's a very sweet deal if you can get it. Main thing is having a quality home office space and taking daily exercise.

Also outsourcing from UK to India doesn't affect all work from home jobs, it's even quite the opposite in some areas.

So it really varies, working from home plus being your own boss is total freedom but also total responsibility. Like others have said, a mixture of work from home freedom and commuting job security and perks is likely best.
 
Throrik said:
Sounds like they don't have the capacity to adapt to different situations, strangely I bet that they require this for people they interview.
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Well there are in tech and doing fairly high level stuff.

Just just bad habits which they haven't been forced to change. You might find they've changed something, like rename your project/system and moved it, changed permissions, but not told anyone. But if you were in the office they probably would have told you. Dumb stuff like that. They make working remotely harder than it should be. Then argue its remote working thats the problem. But it isn't its them.
 
Minstadave said:
I enjoy working from home every now and again (no commute is lovely) but full time would kill me. Its very isolating.
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I work from home.

Although video calls help it’s not quite the same. Socially it’s lonely so ensure you have an active social life.

It can be good but i’m working with people hence at least the day passes. When it’s work to be done i can concentrate but in reality it’s lonely time.
 
NickK said:
I work from home.

Although video calls help it’s not quite the same. Socially it’s lonely so ensure you have an active social life.

It can be good but i’m working with people hence at least the day passes. When it’s work to be done i can concentrate but in reality it’s lonely time.
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That's can be true.

In my case our dept doesn't really socialize or even lunch together. If I'm having lunch its with people not on my team or dept.

But I agree 100% at home is isolating unless you make arrangements to counter that.
 
inogen said:
A home office is imperative. I couldn't do what some people do and work at a kitchen table on a sofa with a laptop. I like to walk into my office, go to work and shut it in when I leave.
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Yes, this is essential. As is getting into the mindset of still actually 'going to work'. I would never dream of sitting in my office, unshowered and in my dressing gown. I always go to work, even if my commute is only twelve seconds. At the end of the day, I kill the power to the office and in the winter, turn the radiator off and close the door.
 
Feek said:
Yes, this is essential. As is getting into the mindset of still actually 'going to work'. I would never dream of sitting in my office, unshowered and in my dressing gown. I always go to work, even if my commute is only twelve seconds. At the end of the day, I kill the power to the office and in the winter, turn the radiator off and close the door.
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I'm not so strict. I leave my PC on 24/7. I sometimes get up in the night and go to work. I sometimes do 10 mins here and there over the weekend if I think of something. Or last thing before I go to bed. Probably makes me less productive overall, but I enjoy working through ideas more whilst they're fresh sometimes.

It's the physical space that I need. Sometimes I've just had enough, I shut the door and that's that. Helps to reset the brain more than anything else.
 
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