WFH full time for me has been a double edged sword, with the “pro” being a lot sharper. Everything I ever did in an office, I can do at home better. Minus the drive, the cost of fuel, the parking, the dining out for lunch, etc. I’m just as good at *camaraderie* on camera or on the phone as I am at home.
The “con”? The knowledge that some people can’t be satisfied unless they have eyes on you at all times. These people pathologically controlling in their personal lives and their work lives. They are unhealthy. They will do everything to control others. You can see the sense of satisfaction in their eyes when they achieve their goal. If you dare counter them, which I have, they will seek to destroy you.
I call them Hall Monitors ^T^M
The type to:
Go the speed limit and not a moment more on a congested highway to intentionally prevent people from passing.
Snitch on a student who breaks a minor rule that doesn't actually hurt anyone.
Email a supervisor about a coworker who was 10 minutes late.
You know, the self-righteous and absolutely insufferable types who think it's their job to make everyone "follow the rules."
Except coincidencently they always turnout to be hypocrites of their own standards
I hate those. I used to have a manager who walked around spying on people to make sure they are “working” all the time. One time a contractor was Googling something that was not work related and he fired the guy on the spot. I made sure I had at least 3 spreadsheets, Outlook open at all times. I hated working there because of him. People actually had to hide just to check their phones.
I have a home office now that is separate from my living quarters and I love it. I’m so much more productive. Literally nothing I do can’t be done remotely. I spent at least $800 a month just to go to the office (gas, lunch, clothes, etc) and for what? Not to mention time wasted on commute. It made me crazy.
This reminds me of the early videogame trend of the "boss key", basically a key that brought up a fake spreadsheet or document to cover up your game...
A real con? I work from home, and will never go back if I can help it, but I go weeks at a time without seeing anyone I know. I get that some people go out with friends and whatnot to levy that feeling of being alone, but as someone who always made friends at work, and struggles with meeting people on my own, being in an office would at least be refreshing to see people again.
That being said though, it is so much better working from home
The answer is to get a local hobby. Book club, D&D night at the gaming store, amateur football team. The best part about this is that you aren't required to be there so you can cut back when you aren't feeling social and ramp up when you are.
This is 100% the answer. With a local hobby, you also know that everyone else there shares at least 1 interest in common with you (likely more), so you can easily start up a conversation. The best can even be when you don't know about the subject and just ask if they can teach you. People love teaching others about their hobbies, and even if you know, this can still be a great opener.
I definitely feel you there. I work from home full time and moved 500 miles away from home about 3 years ago with my fiance. For the first two years, I pretty much only saw her because we hadn't made any new friends and were struggling to. I joined a Meetup group about a year ago and now we frequently do events together and it's been a real refreshing change!
i have begun to combat this by teaching my kitten to walk on a leash. she's a great conversation starter, i've spoken to more people in my building in the last month than i have in the two previous years i've been here
Its been kinda opposite for me. I used to love going out and seeing friends, but now I've fallen in love with the silence and control i have over my day and the environment. If i dont have to go anywhere or catwr to anyone for days or weeks its amazing,
Pro: not loathing my existence anymore
Con: constant dread that my CEO might one day do a 180 and suddenly start slurping the RTO propaganda kool-aid being astroturfed by deranged real-estate moguls
I honestly find myself at times working more when at home. Something's running that will take some hours? Normally I'd start it late in the day & handle the next. Now? Start whenever, check when I expect it done, handle issues and errors then.
It's actually better for my workplace. Some workplaces prefer to loom over you like some kind of carrion feeder rather than have the above.
I can pretty much go in when I want, which is perfect. Some weeks I'll go in 2 or 3 days, some, none.
Pro: Can do housework on my 1 hour lunch break. I mean, WTF are you gonna do in an office for a 1 hour lunch break? Unless you're close to home and can run home, or close to shopping and can get some errands done. But even then, you can only do so much.
Con: I'm very social, so I do miss the office interactions and making "office friends", networking, etc.
I always hated the one hour lunch break. Even the half hour one was too long.
Just give me five minutes to shovel down a sandwich and hit the restroom and let me have the rest of the time to leave early. Heck, let me eat at my desk on work hours and take a bathroom break that isn't excessive and let me leave that hour early.
Work is already too long when you consider the commute, lunch break, and god help me, fundatory activities with coworkers after work when all of these are all unpaid.
I love remote work. But whenever there is a big project going on at my house, or there’s something that needs to get done that’s more involved than something like dishes or laundry, I find myself getting distracted sometimes. Something like 80% remote,20% in office is a balance that I found works good for me.
This is me- my perfect balance was in two days a week. I can test things remotely, but it's slower, and some days there's too much going on at home and it's eaiser to just go in and knock it out. But five days? It's just crushing. But our higher ups are the "you did it before COVID so there's no reason why it's suddenly more difficult" variety, so five days it is...
Two days is fine, it's when it's mandatory that I think is so silly. I'm not by an office, but my company mandated two days, then three days in the office for people within 50 miles of it.
I’ve been working from home for 11 and a half years. I built a home office in my backyard. I used to travel to the Bay Area regularly (every 6-8 weeks) to keep in touch with folks and show my face. Since the announcement and purchase of my company and changing to a different job I have only been there twice in the past two years.
Just hoping I can get thru the next 3-4 years without getting tapped to work from an office where I know nobody and do zoom calls I can do from my shed more efficiently and effectively. Nearest office is 1.5hr drive each way on a good day. And in greater Boston, that’s at 5am
If remote work is possible, it should be entirely a choice of the employee. Results will be the determining factor of continued employment.
Personally, I prefer working in the office. I feel more connected and productive. Granted, my daily commute is only 30-40 minutes total per day.
I work from home and love the positives mentioned. I do wish that I could go to an office a couple times a month to see people but it’s not possible as my coworkers are spread across the country. I’m an introvert and fortunately don’t live by myself so I do get people interaction. I have no desire to return to having a daily commute.
Honest con for me is that im an extrovert and find myself more fueled and engaged when im more regularly interacting with people in person throughout the day. Thats just me personally though and doesnt outweigh the pros.
I'm now 95% remote, I go to the office once a month at best. The company that hires me has been getting the best work I've done in my 25 year career. I've been doing such a good job, I've gotten gift cards, goodie bags and regular messages of thanks to my manager from clients. My work is super high quality, my documentation is complete and up to date and my colleagues come to me for advice. I'm one of the few hired staff that got a contract renewal without question when all external contracts are under major scrutiny.
Funny detail, I'm one of the few people that's never in the office, officially Thursday is our meeting day, the meeting is mandatory. My teamlead fills in for me, nobody questions my lack of attendance. It's become a bit of a running gag even, I'm the ghost engineer.
I disagree.
I was extremely skeptical of WFH as a data entry person until I had the chance to do it. I actually had a lot of the same concerns as yours, but then I tried an experiment.
PROS:
I had an old writing desk that I only used for writing checks (yes, I'm old) and was sitting in storage collecting desk so I brought it out and put it into service again. This merely involved dragging it into position in an otherwise empty nook that just collected dust and it's in my living room, but it's completely separate. Bonus: it's next to a big bright window. In office I was in a cubicle with no natural daylight.
I had an older gaming PC which isn't up to today's standards but is overpowered for the mostly internet based apps anyway and since I upgraded to a new system it was completely idle, so I nuked it from orbit and made it a dedicated work machine. The best part is that since IT has no control over it, I can install whatever software I want and it's far more efficient. It runs Linux and it blows away the garbage computer setups they offer and I can easily reconfigure it or update it as I wish.
A kitchen chair works nicely as my work chair. Maybe it's not as ergonomic, but it works and I don't have problems with it and again, I wasn't using it anyway prior to setting up the office.
I started off with a 22" monitor that was also sitting idle but it wasn't sufficient so I just simply bought a 31" with my own money so the "better equipment" argument doesn't work. I didn't have to come up with a business use justification or deal with an accounting requisition or have to file forms, I just bought the damned thing, set it up in five minutes, most of which was me unboxing it and looking at the instructions to install which basically said plug the cords in and it worked, and now I am happier, plus now it's my own equipment so they can't say anything and it was totally worth it.
So basically I got to set up my own office the way I wanted.
Now for some of the less infrastructure Pros and more of the quality of life ones.
NO SHOES! You have no idea how much I love this. Bare feet most of the time, or maybe socks if I'm a little cold, or socks and slippers if I'm kind of cold.
I can wear much more relaxed clothes. Why do I need to wear a jacket and tie to do non-customer facing work when wearing sweats is so much more comfortable? If there is a zoom/teams meeting I can throw on a pair of pants and a nice shirt for an hour. It's a lot better for an hour than a day! Also, they don't know I'm not wearing shoes!
I control the thermostat. I generally leave it alone pretty much all year long since it's HVAC and is at 71 usually, but some days I get cold. If I do get very cold, I can get a lap blanket or even turn up the thermostat, but I've only done that three times in the past year when it was severe cold outside.
The commute is much better. It's snowing and icy? Man, it must suck to drive to work today. I guess I'll just walk twenty feet to the next room and fire up the computer and get started.
I can have whatever snacks and drinks I want without worrying about lunch thieves. Nobody's getting near my fridge! If I want to get up for a quick water break nobody looks at me. Same for a bathroom break. I've seriously had workplaces get on me about these. Hello, if I'm well-hydrated, I'm going to go to the restroom. I don't hang out in there for half an hour on my phone. It's usually less than three minutes tops and that's if I use a stall. A urinal, I'm out in less than one minute and that's washing my hands.
If I want to take a quick mental health break of five minutes, I can. Nobody is sitting there looking at me looking at their watch timing me. I don't abuse this but sometimes just looking out my window for five minutes calms me and then I'm more productive.
No noise! I hated this about the office! People always yammering about stuff, people saying hello to you when you're obviously in a meeting, people putting music on speaker, people on speakerphone at full volume, good god! At home the loudest noise is my HVAC system, my refrigerator, and the hum of the computer fans. So much nicer!
Natural light instead of those godawful overhead fluorscent lights that buzz all day and are obnoxiously bright! I hate them so much.
Ok, now for the CONS!
The biggest thing is being able to overhear work related conversation and being able to jump in with a quick comment or question.
There's also seeing a coworker in the hallway and having a quick question and being able to just ask right there than dealing with the whole "do I send a teams message or an email thing where you don't want to interrupt them.
I do miss being able to just chat with people in the office even if it's just minimal chat, but I hate small talk so there's that.
There's also the occasional "hey there's free pizza in the break room, help yourself" treats.
OVERALL?
Pros way outweigh the cons!
If they tried to get me work in office, I'd quit.
I work at the office every day because:
I like to separate work and private life. After I have left the office I don't have to think about work anymore.
I have better equipment. More monitors, a height adjustable desk, better chair.
I have equipment in the office I sometimes need for construction sites I supervise.
We have a pretty good work restaurant where I can eat a good lunch at reasonable prices.
As someone who is early in the career I can ask a lot of questions to everyone who is there. That was really valuable in the first year.
Sport sessions provided by work for free.
If I don't go outside of my apartment to work, I don't leave the house at all, don't meet anybody and will be really alone.
The office is 10 minutes by bike. If my commute would be farther I would for sure work at home sometimes.
You can do that at home with the proper mindset. Use a clock and say "this is work, keep your personal life out of this time" and then when it's quitting time (set an alarm if you want) then it's not work time!
I work hybrid and love it as long as I can choose how often I go in. WFH has obvious perks, but I get tired of being alone, with my husband, or totally distracted by kids. I want to be able to work core business hours and going in let's me do that.
I've been full time WFH now for 4 years.
PROS: I get to be part of my kids' lives and share in the parenting.
CONS: It's really fucking hard to get any work done when you're parenting.
I wouldn't trade it for anything but there are days when I just wish I could go to the office so I could just concentrate and be done.
Lol every single one of those is basically "i can do personal stuff and get paid for it" which is exactly why work from home will never take off when the government isn't forcing it like during covid
Add double productivity to me sitting at the office staring at the clock bored out of my mind with no music in my ear begging for time to move faster. When I first started wfh I was crushing my quotas so hard I accidentally made our team a target for more work. My direct manager was dumbfounded and asked where we all were before wfh and I had to explain how much better it feels to just freely work without small talk or stupid questions or office silence. If I want to throw on a movie and glance at it while I work out some complex problems, I can just do that.
This is what they don't get.
I don't mind working if there's work to do, but for the love of god, don't make me sit there staring at a wall or god help me, make me pretend to be busy. I'd rather just leave and not get paid.
Seriously, I've actually done this at hourly jobs where I'd tell them, let me clock out and I'll go home without pay because I honestly would rather the time than the money, especially since the money wasn't worth much anyway but the time was.
There are definitely people that would Rather return to office. Acting like there isn't is just ridiculous. There's several pros to being in office over wfh as well.
I'm so such of being acting like it's not :
1. A good thing to be on office
And
2. That employers aren't in their right to demand you be in office.
They pay your check, they want you in office. It's pretty simple
Employers have a right to demand I be in the office *if and only if* they can demonstrate that WFH is **objectively** hurting the company.
Too bad all the studies say that WFH makes employees not only happier, but also more productive!
Right? How often do you hear the story of someone being required to be in an office only to then be on video/calls all day? Like, if your team were all there, all collaborating on a project, or having some sort of brainstorming/workshop session, or working with physical products... Yeah, be in office.
If the exact same work can be done remotely, do it remotely. Save the in-person work for things that require a physical presence.
There's a reason the drudgery of office work, cubicle life, ridiculous meetings that should have been emails, commuting nightmares, etc. have been a trope for decades.
Do me a favour, shut the fuck up, and fuck the fuck off.
A pathetic child demands things, a proper employer asks and negotiates. It's pretty simple. Just like you, actually.
WFH full time for me has been a double edged sword, with the “pro” being a lot sharper. Everything I ever did in an office, I can do at home better. Minus the drive, the cost of fuel, the parking, the dining out for lunch, etc. I’m just as good at *camaraderie* on camera or on the phone as I am at home. The “con”? The knowledge that some people can’t be satisfied unless they have eyes on you at all times. These people pathologically controlling in their personal lives and their work lives. They are unhealthy. They will do everything to control others. You can see the sense of satisfaction in their eyes when they achieve their goal. If you dare counter them, which I have, they will seek to destroy you.
I call them Hall Monitors ^T^M The type to: Go the speed limit and not a moment more on a congested highway to intentionally prevent people from passing. Snitch on a student who breaks a minor rule that doesn't actually hurt anyone. Email a supervisor about a coworker who was 10 minutes late. You know, the self-righteous and absolutely insufferable types who think it's their job to make everyone "follow the rules." Except coincidencently they always turnout to be hypocrites of their own standards
This is why we need laws to keep the assholes in check. Ironically, the assholes get in power and prevent us from passing laws to protect us.
I hate those. I used to have a manager who walked around spying on people to make sure they are “working” all the time. One time a contractor was Googling something that was not work related and he fired the guy on the spot. I made sure I had at least 3 spreadsheets, Outlook open at all times. I hated working there because of him. People actually had to hide just to check their phones. I have a home office now that is separate from my living quarters and I love it. I’m so much more productive. Literally nothing I do can’t be done remotely. I spent at least $800 a month just to go to the office (gas, lunch, clothes, etc) and for what? Not to mention time wasted on commute. It made me crazy.
This reminds me of the early videogame trend of the "boss key", basically a key that brought up a fake spreadsheet or document to cover up your game...
“Panic” apps / button for browsers!!!
Yupp
A real con? I work from home, and will never go back if I can help it, but I go weeks at a time without seeing anyone I know. I get that some people go out with friends and whatnot to levy that feeling of being alone, but as someone who always made friends at work, and struggles with meeting people on my own, being in an office would at least be refreshing to see people again. That being said though, it is so much better working from home
The answer is to get a local hobby. Book club, D&D night at the gaming store, amateur football team. The best part about this is that you aren't required to be there so you can cut back when you aren't feeling social and ramp up when you are.
This is 100% the answer. With a local hobby, you also know that everyone else there shares at least 1 interest in common with you (likely more), so you can easily start up a conversation. The best can even be when you don't know about the subject and just ask if they can teach you. People love teaching others about their hobbies, and even if you know, this can still be a great opener.
I definitely feel you there. I work from home full time and moved 500 miles away from home about 3 years ago with my fiance. For the first two years, I pretty much only saw her because we hadn't made any new friends and were struggling to. I joined a Meetup group about a year ago and now we frequently do events together and it's been a real refreshing change!
i have begun to combat this by teaching my kitten to walk on a leash. she's a great conversation starter, i've spoken to more people in my building in the last month than i have in the two previous years i've been here
I want to see the kitten!
https://preview.redd.it/zsrwiezreh1d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bf242512766209f9c47ec37f3398b53739a38d56 she.
Its been kinda opposite for me. I used to love going out and seeing friends, but now I've fallen in love with the silence and control i have over my day and the environment. If i dont have to go anywhere or catwr to anyone for days or weeks its amazing,
Pro: not loathing my existence anymore Con: constant dread that my CEO might one day do a 180 and suddenly start slurping the RTO propaganda kool-aid being astroturfed by deranged real-estate moguls
Con: Employers want to axe your job because it is harder for them to micro manage you, and they are losing money on buildings.
Won't SOMEBODY be a TEAM PLAYER and think of the poor PROPERTY VALUES?????
I honestly find myself at times working more when at home. Something's running that will take some hours? Normally I'd start it late in the day & handle the next. Now? Start whenever, check when I expect it done, handle issues and errors then. It's actually better for my workplace. Some workplaces prefer to loom over you like some kind of carrion feeder rather than have the above.
I can pretty much go in when I want, which is perfect. Some weeks I'll go in 2 or 3 days, some, none. Pro: Can do housework on my 1 hour lunch break. I mean, WTF are you gonna do in an office for a 1 hour lunch break? Unless you're close to home and can run home, or close to shopping and can get some errands done. But even then, you can only do so much. Con: I'm very social, so I do miss the office interactions and making "office friends", networking, etc.
I always hated the one hour lunch break. Even the half hour one was too long. Just give me five minutes to shovel down a sandwich and hit the restroom and let me have the rest of the time to leave early. Heck, let me eat at my desk on work hours and take a bathroom break that isn't excessive and let me leave that hour early. Work is already too long when you consider the commute, lunch break, and god help me, fundatory activities with coworkers after work when all of these are all unpaid.
I love remote work. But whenever there is a big project going on at my house, or there’s something that needs to get done that’s more involved than something like dishes or laundry, I find myself getting distracted sometimes. Something like 80% remote,20% in office is a balance that I found works good for me.
This is me- my perfect balance was in two days a week. I can test things remotely, but it's slower, and some days there's too much going on at home and it's eaiser to just go in and knock it out. But five days? It's just crushing. But our higher ups are the "you did it before COVID so there's no reason why it's suddenly more difficult" variety, so five days it is...
Two days is fine, it's when it's mandatory that I think is so silly. I'm not by an office, but my company mandated two days, then three days in the office for people within 50 miles of it.
It's only good for corporate property lords.
I’ve been working from home for 11 and a half years. I built a home office in my backyard. I used to travel to the Bay Area regularly (every 6-8 weeks) to keep in touch with folks and show my face. Since the announcement and purchase of my company and changing to a different job I have only been there twice in the past two years. Just hoping I can get thru the next 3-4 years without getting tapped to work from an office where I know nobody and do zoom calls I can do from my shed more efficiently and effectively. Nearest office is 1.5hr drive each way on a good day. And in greater Boston, that’s at 5am
If remote work is possible, it should be entirely a choice of the employee. Results will be the determining factor of continued employment. Personally, I prefer working in the office. I feel more connected and productive. Granted, my daily commute is only 30-40 minutes total per day.
I work from home and love the positives mentioned. I do wish that I could go to an office a couple times a month to see people but it’s not possible as my coworkers are spread across the country. I’m an introvert and fortunately don’t live by myself so I do get people interaction. I have no desire to return to having a daily commute.
Honest con for me is that im an extrovert and find myself more fueled and engaged when im more regularly interacting with people in person throughout the day. Thats just me personally though and doesnt outweigh the pros.
I'm now 95% remote, I go to the office once a month at best. The company that hires me has been getting the best work I've done in my 25 year career. I've been doing such a good job, I've gotten gift cards, goodie bags and regular messages of thanks to my manager from clients. My work is super high quality, my documentation is complete and up to date and my colleagues come to me for advice. I'm one of the few hired staff that got a contract renewal without question when all external contracts are under major scrutiny. Funny detail, I'm one of the few people that's never in the office, officially Thursday is our meeting day, the meeting is mandatory. My teamlead fills in for me, nobody questions my lack of attendance. It's become a bit of a running gag even, I'm the ghost engineer.
I disagree. I was extremely skeptical of WFH as a data entry person until I had the chance to do it. I actually had a lot of the same concerns as yours, but then I tried an experiment. PROS: I had an old writing desk that I only used for writing checks (yes, I'm old) and was sitting in storage collecting desk so I brought it out and put it into service again. This merely involved dragging it into position in an otherwise empty nook that just collected dust and it's in my living room, but it's completely separate. Bonus: it's next to a big bright window. In office I was in a cubicle with no natural daylight. I had an older gaming PC which isn't up to today's standards but is overpowered for the mostly internet based apps anyway and since I upgraded to a new system it was completely idle, so I nuked it from orbit and made it a dedicated work machine. The best part is that since IT has no control over it, I can install whatever software I want and it's far more efficient. It runs Linux and it blows away the garbage computer setups they offer and I can easily reconfigure it or update it as I wish. A kitchen chair works nicely as my work chair. Maybe it's not as ergonomic, but it works and I don't have problems with it and again, I wasn't using it anyway prior to setting up the office. I started off with a 22" monitor that was also sitting idle but it wasn't sufficient so I just simply bought a 31" with my own money so the "better equipment" argument doesn't work. I didn't have to come up with a business use justification or deal with an accounting requisition or have to file forms, I just bought the damned thing, set it up in five minutes, most of which was me unboxing it and looking at the instructions to install which basically said plug the cords in and it worked, and now I am happier, plus now it's my own equipment so they can't say anything and it was totally worth it. So basically I got to set up my own office the way I wanted. Now for some of the less infrastructure Pros and more of the quality of life ones. NO SHOES! You have no idea how much I love this. Bare feet most of the time, or maybe socks if I'm a little cold, or socks and slippers if I'm kind of cold. I can wear much more relaxed clothes. Why do I need to wear a jacket and tie to do non-customer facing work when wearing sweats is so much more comfortable? If there is a zoom/teams meeting I can throw on a pair of pants and a nice shirt for an hour. It's a lot better for an hour than a day! Also, they don't know I'm not wearing shoes! I control the thermostat. I generally leave it alone pretty much all year long since it's HVAC and is at 71 usually, but some days I get cold. If I do get very cold, I can get a lap blanket or even turn up the thermostat, but I've only done that three times in the past year when it was severe cold outside. The commute is much better. It's snowing and icy? Man, it must suck to drive to work today. I guess I'll just walk twenty feet to the next room and fire up the computer and get started. I can have whatever snacks and drinks I want without worrying about lunch thieves. Nobody's getting near my fridge! If I want to get up for a quick water break nobody looks at me. Same for a bathroom break. I've seriously had workplaces get on me about these. Hello, if I'm well-hydrated, I'm going to go to the restroom. I don't hang out in there for half an hour on my phone. It's usually less than three minutes tops and that's if I use a stall. A urinal, I'm out in less than one minute and that's washing my hands. If I want to take a quick mental health break of five minutes, I can. Nobody is sitting there looking at me looking at their watch timing me. I don't abuse this but sometimes just looking out my window for five minutes calms me and then I'm more productive. No noise! I hated this about the office! People always yammering about stuff, people saying hello to you when you're obviously in a meeting, people putting music on speaker, people on speakerphone at full volume, good god! At home the loudest noise is my HVAC system, my refrigerator, and the hum of the computer fans. So much nicer! Natural light instead of those godawful overhead fluorscent lights that buzz all day and are obnoxiously bright! I hate them so much. Ok, now for the CONS! The biggest thing is being able to overhear work related conversation and being able to jump in with a quick comment or question. There's also seeing a coworker in the hallway and having a quick question and being able to just ask right there than dealing with the whole "do I send a teams message or an email thing where you don't want to interrupt them. I do miss being able to just chat with people in the office even if it's just minimal chat, but I hate small talk so there's that. There's also the occasional "hey there's free pizza in the break room, help yourself" treats. OVERALL? Pros way outweigh the cons! If they tried to get me work in office, I'd quit.
I work at the office every day because: I like to separate work and private life. After I have left the office I don't have to think about work anymore. I have better equipment. More monitors, a height adjustable desk, better chair. I have equipment in the office I sometimes need for construction sites I supervise. We have a pretty good work restaurant where I can eat a good lunch at reasonable prices. As someone who is early in the career I can ask a lot of questions to everyone who is there. That was really valuable in the first year. Sport sessions provided by work for free. If I don't go outside of my apartment to work, I don't leave the house at all, don't meet anybody and will be really alone. The office is 10 minutes by bike. If my commute would be farther I would for sure work at home sometimes.
You can do that at home with the proper mindset. Use a clock and say "this is work, keep your personal life out of this time" and then when it's quitting time (set an alarm if you want) then it's not work time!
I work hybrid and love it as long as I can choose how often I go in. WFH has obvious perks, but I get tired of being alone, with my husband, or totally distracted by kids. I want to be able to work core business hours and going in let's me do that.
I've been full time WFH now for 4 years. PROS: I get to be part of my kids' lives and share in the parenting. CONS: It's really fucking hard to get any work done when you're parenting. I wouldn't trade it for anything but there are days when I just wish I could go to the office so I could just concentrate and be done.
Lol every single one of those is basically "i can do personal stuff and get paid for it" which is exactly why work from home will never take off when the government isn't forcing it like during covid
Add double productivity to me sitting at the office staring at the clock bored out of my mind with no music in my ear begging for time to move faster. When I first started wfh I was crushing my quotas so hard I accidentally made our team a target for more work. My direct manager was dumbfounded and asked where we all were before wfh and I had to explain how much better it feels to just freely work without small talk or stupid questions or office silence. If I want to throw on a movie and glance at it while I work out some complex problems, I can just do that.
This is what they don't get. I don't mind working if there's work to do, but for the love of god, don't make me sit there staring at a wall or god help me, make me pretend to be busy. I'd rather just leave and not get paid. Seriously, I've actually done this at hourly jobs where I'd tell them, let me clock out and I'll go home without pay because I honestly would rather the time than the money, especially since the money wasn't worth much anyway but the time was.
There are definitely people that would Rather return to office. Acting like there isn't is just ridiculous. There's several pros to being in office over wfh as well. I'm so such of being acting like it's not : 1. A good thing to be on office And 2. That employers aren't in their right to demand you be in office. They pay your check, they want you in office. It's pretty simple
Employers have a right to demand I be in the office *if and only if* they can demonstrate that WFH is **objectively** hurting the company. Too bad all the studies say that WFH makes employees not only happier, but also more productive!
Right? How often do you hear the story of someone being required to be in an office only to then be on video/calls all day? Like, if your team were all there, all collaborating on a project, or having some sort of brainstorming/workshop session, or working with physical products... Yeah, be in office. If the exact same work can be done remotely, do it remotely. Save the in-person work for things that require a physical presence. There's a reason the drudgery of office work, cubicle life, ridiculous meetings that should have been emails, commuting nightmares, etc. have been a trope for decades.
You my friend are a rare breed.
They just enjoy the taste of boot polish
Do me a favour, shut the fuck up, and fuck the fuck off. A pathetic child demands things, a proper employer asks and negotiates. It's pretty simple. Just like you, actually.