WFH, how's that going for everyone now ?

[weeksy]

So who has been sent back to the office ?

Who wishes they had ?

Who's happy staying home full-time now ?

Or anything else....

I'm still WFH full-time and that still suits me perfectly well. More than happy. We did have discussions about going back 2 days, but they never really took hold, so we never bothered. If i can get to retirement without having to go back to the office regularly, i'll take that

[DefTrap]

WFH almost exclusively for over 20 years, don't miss office lifestyle one bit, horrendous waste of time.

[MrLongbeard]

WFH for over a dozen years, maxed out at four days a week at home @ the start of Covid and been the same since, wouldn't go back to the lab / office full time for any money.

[KungFooBob]

I only do Fridays from home, which is also early (3pm) finish day.

I can do Thursdays too, but prefer being in the office.

[weeksy]

I can do Thursdays too, but prefer being in the office.

Why ? Genuinely curious as to why...

[Taipan]

I never liked it at first and I still love going into my little studio when I get there, but I have got used to Mondays and Fridays at home now and enjoy it. Not sure i'd go back to 5 days on site and have had a 4 day week, for family reasons, approved and whilst i've not taken it yet, that would probably make me take it tbh.

Where I work, there's a bit of a change (slowly) coming to hybrid working arrangements and i think we may see more people back on site at work. But a few of the most senior people have moved over 1-200 miles away, so there is a resentment to the lower paid being forced to pay travel costs whilst the higher paid don't.

[KungFooBob]

I can do Thursdays too, but prefer being in the office.

Why ? Genuinely curious as to why...

Just better setup to work from, also I have no discipline. On Fridays I do fuck all except watch shit on Disney + and housework. If I did fuck all for two days in a row someone might notice

[Mr Moofo]

Having worked from home for the last 5 year of my life - with a lot of international travel, trips to Germany and conference calls, if I was till working I would demand those that worked for me were in the offoce 3-4 days a week.
I can see all the advantages for the employee - but it does seem to be a charter to skiv and short scahnge the company, with dog walking, shopping trips, taking kids back and forwards, watching Disney + etc.

And there will be the cultue of idleness creeping in ....

[Mr. Dazzle]

I do 2 days in the office, 3 days at home. It works out pretty well.

I reckon I actually work more 'desk hours' than I ever have. I'm online sorta 8-4ish but I'll often keep going longer and/or come back to it in the evening after Baby D is asleep. I work quite a bit at weekends too. I don't find it stressful and the company don't expect me to do it, but having all the stuff set up and right there conveniently on my desk means I just dip in to it when inspiration strikes, which I'd obviously never do if I had to drive to the office first.

There's quite a lot of real life stuff to see and do for me, so it wouldn't be practical to be 100% from home. There's only so much paper based stuff you can do before you have to actually build and test something

Plus I do actually like seeing my colleagues in real life. We have quite a lot of brainstormy whiteboardy sessions and they always work better IRL.

[Horse]

If i can get to retirement without having to go back to the office regularly, i'll take that

I did Although I do part-time work for the same company which may require me to work away from both office and home!

With MS Teams other staff can see whether you're online or how long you've been off. But being away was acceptable if you put it in your diary and did the hours and work.

It saved me 2 hours commuting each day and I did more desk hours.

[KungFooBob]

MS say that the Teams away thing isn't 100% accurate and should not be used to measure working time, it's just a 'status' to give colleagues an idea if you're available.

Where I work use Insightful, but I don't have to use it cos I'm IT and administer it

[Mr. Dazzle]

Any fule knows that. It also shows you as "busy" if you've got something in your calendar, even if you haven't actually joined that meeting etc.

Plus you can manually change it to whatever you like.

[Count Steer]

One company I worked for, if you weren't assigned to a project or client ie 'not billable' you were colloquially termed 'on the bench'.....and HAD to come into one of the offices.

(I think it was to make life uncomfortable and encourage you to get assigned - or leave. So, attendance could be seen as a form of punishment, which says a lot about the company ).

[Rockburner]

I've always hated being in an office anyway. I dislike the lost time of commuting (although I used to thoroughly enjoy the actual riding when I went by bike ), I dislike the horrendous coffee, I dislike the arguments about the aircon settings, etc etc. The actual people are alright.

So, currently very happy working from home, I have a nice little "study" which I can close the door on at the end of the day and leave all the work stuff aside. The organisation I'm working for is a small, but global group, approx 30-40 people spread all over the planet, so we do the vast majority of our internal communication online by default: so despite the fact that my team (of 4) are all Surrey based (except a couple of us in Sussex/Hants) there's not really a lot of point in actually being in the office, especially when the team lead is currently living in Lithuania. I don't believe the company has any plans to attempt to enforce more office time.

We occasionally have days in the office, I think I've been in 5 times this year, and probably only a bit more last year, and have a daily catch up each morning to ensure we're all busy, but otherwise we barely speak to each other. Apart from lunch, my team probably communicates more freely over Teams when we're not in the office than in person when we are in the office. We're web-devs, and most of the time we're working on different projects anyway so communications are minimal.

[dern]

I’ve been working from home since the pandemic. I prefer not having to commute and I prefer the peace and quiet at home. I don’t miss the banter too much to be honest, I get that from friends and family. Every now and again I’ve worked with someone I’ve really enjoyed spending time with but often it was clearly just a work relationship with everyone having their own agendas. I wouldn’t want to mix colleagues with social, I prefer to keep it all separate.

I work with mostly Americans in the states now and while I do have an office I could go to, nothing that’s done there has anything to do with the projects I’m on.

Decently we’ve moved to Norfolk, away from the office on the m4 corridor and working at home has allowed me to do that. There’s no way I’d give up what we’re now have here to work in a noisy office again with a load of people I have little in common with.

Work to live and even then, only if I really have to.

[Horse]

Downsides of WfH include:
- as Dazzle said, 'brainstorming' works better face to face
- new / younger staff don't get to know others (and may be sleeping and working in the same room)
- miss out on 'overheard' stuff. I've heard a conversation and said "shouldn't I be involved with this project?"

[gremlin]

I'm 3/4 days in the office and recently asked my team to do three days minimum, which is what our employer has suggested. Despite a bit of grumbling, there is compliance and an understanding that we are an operational team that works and communicates better in person between ourselves and with the other desks we interact with intraday.

I commute on the bike for the most part, so no transport stress, and the people I work with vary from tolerable to good fun, so being here is good for the shits and giggles too.

[gremlin]

Downsides of WfH include:
- as Dazzle said, 'brainstorming' works better face to face
- new / younger staff don't get to know others (and may be sleeping and working in the same room)
- miss out on 'overheard' stuff. I've heard a conversation and said "shouldn't I be involved with this project?"

A lot of comms is on a 'prick up the ears and join in' style, IME.

[Horse]

Downsides of WfH include:
- as Dazzle said, 'brainstorming' works better face to face
- new / younger staff don't get to know others (and may be sleeping and working in the same room)
- miss out on 'overheard' stuff. I've heard a conversation and said "shouldn't I be involved with this project?"

A lot of comms is on a 'prick up the ears and join in' style, IME.

I sometimes struggle to find stuff on the intranet that I'm working on ...

[Taipan]

Its starting to sound like Big Brother in here. Drug and alcohol testing, management spying on your working time with teams etc!