Would you rather work from home or at an office?

What is your preference?

  • Total voters
    44
Home forever thank you.

Our office recently forced people to come back into work a few days a week. It's everything I thoight it would be - distracting, time consuming to get there, uncomfortable seating, poor technology. I spend most of my time on calls anyway so it just seemed pointless.

Much of the benefits of "collaboration" are mitigated because if people are hybrid working then you're not all there at the same time anyway.
 
I think that working from home also reduces conflicts, tension, or people getting offended either for one's tone or how he/she may have meant something etc, cause when you're just exchanging emails or instant messages, which really is the main way to interact with colleagues, it can never get too personal, plus you can use emojis to simplify sth that perhaps could have been perceived ambiguously. I don't know I think it makes interpersonal communication so much easier and overall helped me to create better relationships with everyone.
 
Queen of the Bells 🔔 said:
I think that working from home also reduces conflicts, tension, or people getting offended either for one's tone or how he/she may have meant something etc, cause when you're just exchanging emails or instant messages, which really is the main way to interact with colleagues, it can never get too personal, plus you can use emojis to simplify sth that perhaps could have been perceived ambiguously. I don't know I think it makes interpersonal communication so much easier and overall helped me to create better relationships with everyone.
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I feel the exact opposite :D I’ve sent emails that I think came across harsher than they would have if I had just said the words, and used tone/mannerisms to help get across what I’m trying to say. Written word makes it harder to know intentions sometimes
 
PranceRJN said:
Written word makes it harder to know intentions sometimes
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This is part of the reason why I feel it makes things easier, you'll never get really really pissed if an email looks kind of harsh, cause that's the nature of writing, it's simple, is usually sterile and you don't expect it to be emotional anyways. Plus it is the non-verbal communication that mostly pisses people off, a sigh, a shoulder's shrug, a look at the ceiling. You have none of these now.
 
See also: bitching about colleagues on Teams. More difficult sitting in the office! :D Literally just this morning I had to think on the spot how to diplomatically tell people that I would directly ask soandso to do something but she "won't have a clue what I'm on about".

There was a guy sitting about four desks away from me and my colleagues could hear him chatting away in the background. They asked me who was speaking so loud and I very nearly said the guy's name completely unthinking! Stopped myself thankfully.
 
Queen of the Bells 🔔 said:
This is part of the reason why I feel it makes things easier, you'll never get really really pissed if an email looks kind of harsh, cause that's the nature of writing, it's simple, is usually sterile and you don't expect it to be emotional anyways. Plus it is the non-verbal communication that mostly pisses people off, a sigh, a shoulder's shrug, a look at the ceiling. You have none of these now.
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I think I could express what I’m trying to say better in person right now :D But I do think I understand what you’re saying and we just disagree

Edit: yesterday, my coworker who is not my manager asked me to do something over email. She said something like “it’s best you do this by Friday,” which annoyed me because I was already going to do it yesterday and it sounded like she was accusing me of not getting things done on time. When I saw her in person later, I realized (from seeing how she was acting) that she was stressed about her own deadlines and it was not personal at all
 
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Indie Bleak Midwinter said:
Home forever thank you.

Our office recently forced people to come back into work a few days a week. It's everything I thoight it would be - distracting, time consuming to get there, uncomfortable seating, poor technology. I spend most of my time on calls anyway so it just seemed pointless.

Much of the benefits of "collaboration" are mitigated because if people are hybrid working then you're not all there at the same time anyway.
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I was asked to go in a day a week for a while. My office isn't one of the three that I oversee, so I was literally there to fill a seat and was having to do all of my work by Teams anyway. I stopped going in a few weeks back and it's not been questioned so I think they grasped how fucking stupid it was.
 
What about the stinky person in the office? I have heard many a horror story of being stuck in an office with people who have HYGIENE ISSUES.
 
Oh yes there was poor old Stinky Dave at my last job. Such a lovely man so you felt bad but DEAR GOD. Someone got him a bunch of LYNX AFRICA or something in the Secret Santa but I still don’t think he clicked.
 
PranceRJN said:
Edit: yesterday, my coworker who is not my manager asked me to do something over email. She said something like “it’s best you do this by Friday,” which annoyed me because I was already going to do it yesterday and it sounded like she was accusing me of not getting things done on time. When I saw her in person later, I realized (from seeing how she was acting) that she was stressed about her own deadlines and it was not personal at all
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I think this is a good example of both the value of non-verbal cues and also of people's EQ to be able to interpret them correctly, however, in my experience, the latter is not always given.
 
Surprisingly my boss came in to work this morning and said "right, from Monday we're closing the office and you're all working from home until at least new year".

We'll still have to go in to pick up work but that's no bother because we can just go when we need to.
 
But I shared an office for a year with a colleague who used to CRUNCH and MUNCH on apples everyday at 10 am sharp and it used to drive me CRAZY.
 
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