When I joined the new place we were expected to do 3 days in the office. That rule was dropped this week and now you can go (or not) whenever you like. So we've gone in the opposite direction to the recent trend. No idea why to be honest.
Working from home worth it?
- Thread starter flibbage0
- Start date
So I've been working from home for the last 15 years. Varying from 2 days a week in the office, through to 100% home working.
It's very true you save so much time by not only avoiding travel, but also not having to prepare to attend the office.
In most cases there are considerable cost savings from not having to travel (getting very expensive these days).
As others have said, having a dedicated workspace, or ideally a home office massively improves the experience. (Especially if you have family/kids etc)
Definitely get multiple monitors, this makes work so much more efficient. A decent chair is also a must. Good quality conferencing kit makes sense too.
Now, for some people, they will find they miss the human interaction. One solution for this is to seek out local workspaces, or business hubs, where people go to work for this very reason. This is also provides networking opportunities.
The extra time you get back from not having to travel can be spent on social activities to help balance out human interaction, with the benefit that you get to choose the people you socialise with. Join a club for one of your interests (cycling, running, tabletop games, RPG, photography, dancing), or join a MeetUp group.
There is really no reason why WFH should be bad for your mental health, as long as you make some adjustments to suit your social requirements.
It's very true you save so much time by not only avoiding travel, but also not having to prepare to attend the office.
In most cases there are considerable cost savings from not having to travel (getting very expensive these days).
As others have said, having a dedicated workspace, or ideally a home office massively improves the experience. (Especially if you have family/kids etc)
Definitely get multiple monitors, this makes work so much more efficient. A decent chair is also a must. Good quality conferencing kit makes sense too.
Now, for some people, they will find they miss the human interaction. One solution for this is to seek out local workspaces, or business hubs, where people go to work for this very reason. This is also provides networking opportunities.
The extra time you get back from not having to travel can be spent on social activities to help balance out human interaction, with the benefit that you get to choose the people you socialise with. Join a club for one of your interests (cycling, running, tabletop games, RPG, photography, dancing), or join a MeetUp group.
There is really no reason why WFH should be bad for your mental health, as long as you make some adjustments to suit your social requirements.
Caporegime
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Apparently the CEO of the company I'm considering joining has political ambitions and wants to keep the Authority happy by occupying the building.
If that's the case, I'm not optimistic that their policy will change.
Agree with all of the above.
I have a dedicated office / study with a good chair and a huge OLED screen (as well as my work laptop). My quality of life and working conditions are both excellent.
In terms of social interaction, work is the last place I would go for that given the choice; the choice being as you say, arranging your own social requirements at your complete discretion rather than having to rely on forced work events etc. when people are forced together.
I suspect one of the real reasons this back to the office wave has started (post COVID in which everyone said WFH was the bee's knees) is that politicians are leaning on companies to get people back into the office, and CEOs are scared about adverse consequences if they don't oblige.
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Soldato
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I have noticed some people give up on home working, they can't handle not having people around for reasons I'll never really understand.
That means there's a percentage of a workforce who need an office. Those people pressure execs to get everyone back in the office. As the execs like the office, and these other people like the office, their little echo chamber makes them feel justified.
At my place, there is regular encouragement to use the office, although none of us fully remote workers ever do. I expect that pressure will ramp up and I'll quit.
I have noticed a lot more Hybrid jobs on LinkedIn. To me that's a good thing because last time I was searching for Remote most of them weren't 100% remote anyway, so maybe the listings are more honest now.
That means there's a percentage of a workforce who need an office. Those people pressure execs to get everyone back in the office. As the execs like the office, and these other people like the office, their little echo chamber makes them feel justified.
At my place, there is regular encouragement to use the office, although none of us fully remote workers ever do. I expect that pressure will ramp up and I'll quit.
I have noticed a lot more Hybrid jobs on LinkedIn. To me that's a good thing because last time I was searching for Remote most of them weren't 100% remote anyway, so maybe the listings are more honest now.
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We first moved to fully WFH after covid unless your role was more office based. But people could come in a day a week if they pleased. They then shifted to a hybrid approach, probably expecting more people to attend the office a day or 2 a week. They're starting to get a bit stricter on it globally as I'm guessing there's a lot of people not even bothering with 1 day a week.
I get home can be unsuitable for many. I like the mix some in office some at home.
Once we switched from fully remote to hybrid, I noticed quite of lot of communication switched back to be in the office only, and back to the water cooler. Its like they are going out of their way to make the office work and remote fail. A lot of the communication that opened up when we were remote, has closed down. We have one mandatory day and one optional day. Though my optional day has been set as they've asked me to cover the office. On day when there almost no one in the office. Also they've not given me access to the systems needed to do it anyway.
I know some people have just not come back to the office. That's causing some friction.
Once we switched from fully remote to hybrid, I noticed quite of lot of communication switched back to be in the office only, and back to the water cooler. Its like they are going out of their way to make the office work and remote fail. A lot of the communication that opened up when we were remote, has closed down. We have one mandatory day and one optional day. Though my optional day has been set as they've asked me to cover the office. On day when there almost no one in the office. Also they've not given me access to the systems needed to do it anyway.
I know some people have just not come back to the office. That's causing some friction.
As long as the work is getting done. Doesn't matter if they are at home or in the office.
But some bosses like their staff to be in the office, even when they themselves are not. Which is total BS.
Main reason I am leaving my current job to an more hybrid working company.
But some bosses like their staff to be in the office, even when they themselves are not. Which is total BS.
Main reason I am leaving my current job to an more hybrid working company.
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IT for me
Caporegime
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Accounting / finance here.
I'm seeing a lot of jobs advertised as "hybrid" lately and what they actually mean is almost full-time with an expectation of more work done from home on top of that... so you are probably doing like 50+ hours while still being paid as if you were doing 40-45 hours in the office...
Always read the contract to avoid those pit falls.
Some of them don't make it obvious upfront/dress it up - my brother was looking at one like that and only at the final stage did it become apparent what they really meant by hybrid.
That assumes the person dictating policy care the work is getting done. That not always the case.
My policy is, if you cant trust your staff to work from home then why are you employing people who you don't trust.
That’s a good point actually. When I’m in head office, the amount of time that gets “wasted” is incredible with all the meetings and small talk. It’s a nice break every now and then from home but I very rarely go in.
At the end of the day, people aren’t robots so it’s not always down to getting X amount of work done in X amount of time. It really depends on the job and how the business is set up.
It can be difficult to have much of a presence in a company if you’re fully remote while a lot of the staff work in the office full time or a few days a week.
I don’t agree with those trying to push for everyone to go back to the office full time but there’s likely a balance that works best for the majority. On forums like this and on the likes of Reddit, it seems everyone wants or has a full time WFH role and anything outside of that is blasphemy. In reality, it’s not the case and I’d say the majority of office workers still want to be in the office semi-regularly or they’ll go loopy.
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Oh I agree. But how often do you meet someone more interested in your clock than your work.
Soldato
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Software engineer, pretty easy for a dev team to work remotely.
I love working from home - can get so much done without office interruptions, don't have to go out in the cold weather, no rush hour rat run, an extra hour in bed, save on transport costs and paying for lunch, less damage to the environment/pollution.
On the days I have to go in the office I get hardly anything done and I find it way too noisy and make lots of mistakes.
It's not for everyone and there are quite a few at my place who go in every day and opt not to work from home, but I suppose it depends on personal circumstances.
On the days I have to go in the office I get hardly anything done and I find it way too noisy and make lots of mistakes.
It's not for everyone and there are quite a few at my place who go in every day and opt not to work from home, but I suppose it depends on personal circumstances.
Worked permanently from home for just coming up to 5 years and I love it.
If you are efficient you get get your work done quick then go skive, rather than having to look busy in an office.
Saves on transport costs, that is a big one for me as I live in a rural area.
You can stick the dishwasher on etc, get dinner ready, everything.
Everyone is different but I don't miss working next to people at all, I've had some jobs where the people have been a good laugh but some where they have been miserable *****, and the latter is awful. I think some people prefer to work in an office because they are useless at their jobs and need to rely on other people to hand hold them, it's a lot easier just to lean over and ask a quick question when you are in an office but not so much at home.
Unfortunately I work in mortgages and due to the economic climate things are really slow and in all likelihood if things don't pick up we are all going to get sacked off, the thought of actually having to work for a living is dreading.
If you are efficient you get get your work done quick then go skive, rather than having to look busy in an office.
Saves on transport costs, that is a big one for me as I live in a rural area.
You can stick the dishwasher on etc, get dinner ready, everything.
Everyone is different but I don't miss working next to people at all, I've had some jobs where the people have been a good laugh but some where they have been miserable *****, and the latter is awful. I think some people prefer to work in an office because they are useless at their jobs and need to rely on other people to hand hold them, it's a lot easier just to lean over and ask a quick question when you are in an office but not so much at home.
Unfortunately I work in mortgages and due to the economic climate things are really slow and in all likelihood if things don't pick up we are all going to get sacked off, the thought of actually having to work for a living is dreading.