Working from home worth it?

I can't stand our office. The 100 people in open plan all having their own conversations makes a wall of noise that is horrific to listen to all day. While the location might sound great being a 30 minute walk away, it is barely walkable as the major roads don't have controlled crossings (or even Zebra crossings), driving is pointless as there is about 50 parking spaces for 400 people, there is a shuttle bus I can use (which I can get a pickup point without driving to) but the punishment for someone asking you a question as you leave is a 30 minute wait for the next one. I have tried cycling once but you spend 10 minutes breathing in excuse fumes sitting in traffic. There is no food offerings on site, but the next industrial estate along has fast food, except you can walk through so you are back to the walking/driving problem.
 
Quartz said:
Except this is someone who knows their subject.
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I've 25yrs working with outsourcing internationally. Its just part of normal IT. All that time its been hit and miss.

Where I cam currently we've a bunch of projects and systems outsourced. Though we are pulling more projects in house using contractors s but discrete systems still get outsourced now and then.

Some work some fail.
 
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Trifid said:
I can't stand our office. The 100 people in open plan all having their own conversations makes a wall of noise that is horrific to listen to all day. While the location might sound great being a 30 minute walk away, it is barely walkable as the major roads don't have controlled crossings (or even Zebra crossings), driving is pointless as there is about 50 parking spaces for 400 people, there is a shuttle bus I can use (which I can get a pickup point without driving to) but the punishment for someone asking you a question as you leave is a 30 minute wait for the next one. I have tried cycling once but you spend 10 minutes breathing in excuse fumes sitting in traffic. There is no food offerings on site, but the next industrial estate along has fast food, except you can walk through so you are back to the walking/driving problem.
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In a study between cyclists, pedestrians and driver/car passengers. Cyclists inhaled less pollution, and driver/car passengers the worst.

We lost most of our parking. I can get a slot on quiet days like a Friday. But our anchor day is midweek. So I'll be back to using the train which I had stopped using in 2019 because of over crowding.
Got the train last week, took about 1:40 most of it standing. Drove into today and was at my desk in 35mins. I might go back cycling. We'll see.

But it was amusing when someone rang looking for something I could tell them if I was home I could have done it, but because I was on the train I couldn't. When I got to work I was dragged into something else. So I didn't get to them for hours.
 
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Black Noir said:
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.
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Get it written in to your contract if possible. I wasn't even looking for work when an agency contacted me. As it was hybrid and the hours and role suited me I took the temp job. The senior manager called me the other week and asked what it would take for me to stay permanently, so I told them I'm not interested in attending the office more than one day a week and want to stay on my current part-time hours (they were looking for a full-time employee). They said if that's all it would take they'd have it added to my contract as they've apparently been very happy with my work. The wording on the contract could be slightly better but it does state I am a hybrid worker and my hours in the office are by mutual agreement with my line manager, which is good enough for me. There again, if my line manager agrees I only have to come in once a month, it works out even better for me ... there's a thought ;)
 
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UPDATE: Secured 2 interviews both remote working. I spoke to my prospective line managers and apparently everyone works from home. However I will need to go in maybe once a month. Both line managers said if it changes it will be at most hybrid working, but there are no plans at the moment for that.

My current work doesn't really have the culture of going out for drinks or meal after work. Maybe twice a year + Christmas party/meal. Also ex-colleagues are still invited to them so I wouldn't miss that anyway

If I get offered a job I will most likely accept it. As for feeling like I'm in prison cell, there's a spare room I can use that isn't my bedroom for work.
 
OspreyO said:
We also silo information, so you hear much more from eaves dropping than official meetings.
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I think this is a somewhat overlooked advantage of office working, as a manager I used to get wind of potential issues before they blew up due to overhearing discussions in my team, i.e. there might be something they are concerned about but maybe not enough to want to directly trouble me about. Occasionally it might be something I'd want to get on top of early so being able to jump in and get the lay of the land was helpful. You could argue that's a byproduct of the culture not being transparent enough but I see it more as a reality.

It's also a reason why I'm generally not in favour of hybrid working, preferring fully remote or office based. With hybrid you have this awkward scenario of informal comms taking place face-to-face but with only a subset of people present, so it becomes somewhat pot luck as to whether people not present are kept in the loop, unless you put a lot of focus on comms channels. As I've said in previous threads, that's not to say you can't make it work, but I think people are a bit naive in thinking that hybrid working just literally means a 'best of both worlds' that will organically happen just by having people working some days at home and some in the office. I think hybrid is harder to get working well than fully remote and hence needs investment.

Unrelated to the above, the comments above about needing a dedicate working space / home office when WFH, I don't really agree that it's essential. Beneficial but for sure I can work anywhere so long as the logistics are there (proper internet connection, privacy etc). Whether that's the desk in my study or a kitchen table doesn't matter THAT much to me. The whole 'virtual commute' thing I don't really buy into personally, I do understand the principle about having a clear delineation between work-life and home-life but for me that doesn't need physical boundaries, it's a mental not physical thing for me.
 
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@HangTime There's only so much you can do from the kitchen table. Having a dedicated space with an adjustable chair, large monitor, keyboard and mouse is always going to trump working for long periods at a table with a fixed chair, on a laptop. Summer time when you're checking emails or typing up reports etc, then sure... the patio table in the sun with a beer is pretty dang hard to beat but not all-day every-day.

Fully agree with it being mostly mental but there's an undeniable health benefit of having your own little space with the right tools.
 
Throrik said:
If I can help it I won't ever go back to an office, one day every now and then is fine, but working from home has so many benefits for me. No commuting alone is a stress reliever.
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Same here, i'll avoid the office as much as possible. I think it depends on personality, i'm perfectly happy being on my own, but accept not everyone is like that. I'm social too when i am in the office, so not a weird hermit type person (apologies to those hermit people :p)
 
Black Noir said:
@HangTime There's only so much you can do from the kitchen table. Having a dedicated space with an adjustable chair, large monitor, keyboard and mouse is always going to trump working for long periods at a table with a fixed chair, on a laptop. Summer time when you're checking emails or typing up reports etc, then sure... the patio table in the sun with a beer is pretty dang hard to beat but not all-day every-day.

Fully agree with it being mostly mental but there's an undeniable health benefit of having your own little space with the right tools.
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Maybe because I normally work from a desk in my study I don't fully appreciate it but for me it's just that that huge an impact. I don't even plug my monitors in most of the time and never a keyboard. I used to do hours of work on the train every day in a cramped area with no mouse when commuting, also I've worked in offices that are less pleasant than the kitchen table due to the rubbish equipment, noise etc. I appreciate for some people it may be a big deal but I don't think it can be blanket described as essential for anyone considering WFH, it really depends on what their role/WoW is.

The summer brings up an interesting point too, my study is on the second floor in the eves so gets hot in summer, sometimes the kitchen on ground floor is a nice respite. Also better lighting for video calls in the kitchen.
 
Been working home for about 30 months now.

Starting to get lonely coming from a busy office with a great lunchtime and post work social scene :/
 
My employer (who I didn't work at pre-pandemic) drum up a bit of atmosphere with beer and pizza one day a week but to be honest I'm not blown away by the general vibe of the office and it's a pretty vibrant company in general (away days do have a good atmosphere). After work socials add a bit but the actual working day in the office is just a less convenient version of working from home (more noise, worse equipment, commuting time etc).
 
Before the cost-of-living crisis I could see businesses pushing for staff to return to the office but with the rise in energy rates many are actually saving money through reduced lack of gas/elec.

If they've got a large office building with thousands of desks to fill they may start getting nervous about vacant buildings and rent, but they may also choose to downsize and take the hit. The organisation that I work for has done this as they simply can't get people to come back... not when many roles offer WFH / hybrid work as a perk.
 
UPDATE: Didn't get the 1st job, unfortunately my presentation wasn't good enough however when I asked for feedback on how I can find out more information about the specifics of the job role (which the presentation was about) I was told to find a mentor... Sounds like a YouTube Guru response to me but hey ho.

2nd Job interview coming up, I think the main point for me is the ability to exercise more and make money on the side (my friend has been trading whilst working from home and has managed to make a decent return).

Maybe I am being unrealistic with the money making aspect but at least it will mean a change in my job role.
 
I've not been in to an office since March 2020, and I don't miss it one bit. I do have a dedicated room for an office though which helps a lot, I'm far more productive in my own space than I would be otherwise. I'm a contractor and have gone to a client who's based in Scotland, so I'm never expected to go to the office so will be at least another year or so when my contract is up that I may have to go in to an office.

Software development doesn't need an office, it's a waste of the companies time and money to expect people to come in. As bad as COVID was, it's fast tracked remote working and shown people that it can and does work
 
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I've always had a degree of flexibility as a contractor even before COVID and would work from home a couple of days a week, however having now been full-time at home for almost two years I can't say I enjoy it as much as I did.

I don't think it helps that my current client doesn't really have an office at all and even then the team I'm working with are all scattered around the UK.

With my previous client I did a fair amount of UK/Ireland travel which I'm not doing for this one and I suspect that's partly the difference for me, but I certainly will be looking at my next role with an eye to being in an office sometimes, I personally don't feel that the project I'm working on is progressing as well as it would if we all had some time together in the same room.

That said one thing it has opened up much more for me as an IT contractor is taking on a client that isn't Edinburgh or Glasgow based, I could easily take on a client in London, Leeds, Bristol, etc and still be there a day a week / couple a fortnight as needed - something they weren't always keen on before.
 
I tend to work from home and prefer it. Fortunately have my own office. If I never had to go to an office id be fine with that but leaning more towards 1 day in the office based on management pressures.

If I lived within spitting distance of office, I'd be less bothered, but frankly I'd rather have an extra hour of commuting back every single day.
 
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