Working from home - 2023 edition

you don't gotta go to work, but you gotta put in work

  • I work 50% or more often at home

  • I work 1 to 2 days a week at home

  • I rarely or never work from home

  • I prefer working in the office

  • I prefer working from home

  • I object to companies returning to mandated full-time office work

  • I understand the need to be somewhat regularly in the office

  • I don't think it's necessary at all for me to work at the office

  • I am perfectly happy not seeing much of my colleagues when WFH

  • I miss my colleagues when WFH

  • I think working from home is somewhat here to stay, in some form

  • I think most people will work fully in the office by 2026 (or earlier)

  • Salary being linked to office attendance is acceptable

  • Salary being linked to office attendance is a disgrace

  • OTHER PLEASE STATE

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Jark

Jark

PLUMP and RIPE
Joined
Oct 27, 2007
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a new survey by KPMG has found that 63% of company leaders in the UK (150 businesses polled) support elimination of WFH arrangements by 2026, and 83% believe pay and bonuses could be linked to office attendance (!). the figures are broadly the same globally, more here

www.theguardian.com

Two-thirds of CEOs think staff will return to office five days a week, survey finds

Most company leaders also believe pay and promotions could become linked to workplace attendance
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

maybe it's just that I'm blessed having a creative industry job that allows me to go once a week to the office (and sometimes not at all), spend 4 weeks a year working wherever I want, etc. but this feels ridiculously out of touch to me. what value is there in forcing people to be somewhere they don't wanna be? they won't be more productive, they'll just be resentful.

anyway - let's take a snap poll
 
There are murmurs of office mandates going around the workplace and they're being resisted heavily. Especially as we have a number of locations so going to the office still means remote meetings most of the time, and the office has no cats either, so what is the point?
 
This genuinely made me shudder (out loud- is that a thing?) at the HR policies of the last company I worked for and how the owners got me to employ loads of people WFH, I trumpeted it so much that we won (MAJOR) awards based on our policies and just before I left, they spent the entire time trying to force me to get people to come to the office in Wales ("He lives in Newcastle and he's on £22k a year, why WOULDN'T he want to come here and work two days a week?") and behind the scenes were looking for reasons to make people redundant and "they won't come to the office" was one of them.
 
Anyway, I have office space in a shared office, which is annoying, cause, y'know...PEOPLE...but I get so much more done than when I'm at home. I generally work at home one or two days a week, though at the moment it's mega busy, so it's been every day in the office for the past three weeks or so.
 
I would happily attend the office more often if my salary was a bit higher. I've saved so much money for the past 2.5 years working from home in terms of commuting, lunches, and even office attire.
 
It depends on the job. I voluntarily go in every day as my home working environment is dreadful, we get free travel and it only takes me 25 minutes door to door anyway. I understand that’s not the case for everyone.

We do however work in a “fast moving environment” (sorry for the clichéd language), and there is a strongly noticeable decline in the performance of the people who tend to resist coming in to see people. They just don’t engage and they fall behind on the constant changes. No matter how much they pretend it doesn’t affect them, it really does.

I’m working every third weekend now due to a new role and last weekend I even went in to the empty office on Saturday and worked from home on Sunday. I got a lot more done on Saturday.
 
I work from home two days a weeks and generally feel that I’m more productive in the office. There’s no sign of them trying to get everyone back in, I suspect largely because there isn’t actually enough space for everyone to be in at the same time, so if they tried it, they’d have to lease more floors.
 
Pipo said:
I would happily attend the office more often if my salary was a bit higher. I've saved so much money for the past 2.5 years working from home in terms of commuting, lunches, and even office attire.
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The money saving was one person’s excuse for why they wouldn’t come in… despite the fact that they voluntarily moved away from London during lockdown, and we give a 75% discount scheme on National Rail tickets too.
 
Oh and I also ensured my office space was basically within walking distance- it takes me 10 minute door to door. It's also the perfect distance for my Apple Watch to kick off the automatic "We think you might be going for a walk" thing, literally once I reach the steps of my office/ building either way.
 
I’m in the office two days or so, the rest at home. Obviously it all depends upon roles, locations and the like, but I fail to see ‘it’s how things were done’ as a reason not to let people work at least 1-2 days from home if their job is still able to be done in that manner.

On the contrary for my company, we have nearly half our workforce outside of London as WFH has enabled us to find ‘talent’ that otherwise would not be willing to commute into London more than once every few weeks.

For companies it surely saves a bit of money and is an easy way to give workers perks (essentially, as in less time and money commuting). There is no doubt productivity issues, but it’s not hard to have policies (cameras always on etc) to ensure it isn’t being abused - anymore than a slacker in the office spending 7 hours a day on their phone or shopping.
 
I do think there is lots to gain being in an office, so where practical I think people should be in a couple of times a week. But there’s also lots to gain by not being in an office, so why a hybrid approach isn’t possible for some companies seems archaic.
 
Devil said:
On the contrary for my company, we have nearly half our workforce outside of London as WFH has enabled us to find ‘talent’ that otherwise would not be willing to commute into London more than once every few weeks.

For companies it surely saves a bit of money and is an easy way to give workers perks (essentially, as in less time and money commuting). There is no doubt productivity issues, but it’s not hard to have policies (cameras always on etc) to ensure it isn’t being abused - anymore than a slacker in the office spending 7 hours a day on their phone or shopping.
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Last year we managed to hire a couple of people who lived in Birmingham. Turned out they had other day jobs and were rushing through our work in the evenings, doing everything wrong and caused absolute chaos. They were quickly let go.

We have our policies on it and they are almost always ignored with people who just try to get away with it for as long as possible before being found out.
 
Ellie said:
Last year we managed to hire a couple of people who lived in Birmingham. Turned out they had other day jobs and were rushing through our work in the evenings, doing everything wrong and caused absolute chaos. They were quickly let go.

We have our policies on it and they are almost always ignored with people who just try to get away with it for as long as possible before being found out.
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Oh yes there will be extremes, but I wouldn’t say that’s the standard.
 
I like a 50/50 split, I really don’t get a lot done when I’m home and also part of my job requires me to be on site on certain days.

It’s easier for me because I live next to a subway stop and it takes me 30 minutes to get to campus.

Also as someone who joined during the pandemic it was very difficult to get to know people. And it’s not like I need to make friends but there’s a lack of familiarity even after 2 years.
 
I’m 100% WFH and I LIVE for it. But it’s also because I’m about 50% of the time at customer sites.

I have absolutely no issue with productivity, I’m actually more productive at home than at the office where I still voluntarily go to see colleagues a few times a month.
 
I work for an American company who had home office policy before the pandemic, so I don’t think that will be changing. And besides that, neither my manager nor my direct colleagues are France anyway, so it’s pretty pointless.
 
I think we’re still transitioning. Part of my job is to build offices and working spaces but no one comes in to use them. They haven’t really enforced the cone to the office 2-3 times a week thing but eventually I think they will.
 
half the reason companies want people in the office is literally just because they're paying expensive rent. but then... take a smaller office. the overheads (based on a working culture that's now changed) shouldn't dictate people policy.
 
I am hybrid, well it is actually called 'flexible first', because you're not ever obliged to be in the office really (although some teams will get together once a week). As a lawyer, that's quite rare, but I am in-house and at a tech firm, so I am pulled along with the overall culture (which is fine by me).
 
If people prefer the office that’s obviously fine, but mandating it is ridiculous and so irresponsible. There’s about to be another Covid wave. Are people who can just as easily do their jobs from home supposed to just accept a vastly higher risk of getting sick to hit an arbitrary attendence target? The world has changed!

Don’t even get me started on this notion of tying it to your salary. Utterly reprehensible.
 
I wish I could work from home. I know so many people who do and it just seems to make life easier and less hectic. I'm forever exhausted.
 
I know loads of parents who are facing 3-4 figure real term pay cuts because of this move back to the office, because childcare is so expensive.

Also you just know the senior management types mandating all of this sure as shit aren’t coming in to sit among the proles three days per week.

As you can probably tell, I feel very strongly about this.
 
We only work from home on Fridays and I go in anyway as the office is only 15 minute from my flat and I get so much done when hardly anyone is there.
 
I think I worked from home for about 3 days total during covid, and I hated it. Don't have the discipline for one, but also my home is my sanctuary, and I don't want work in it, thanks very much.

About 65% of my work is client facing and I'm needed to be in various places across the city. The other 35% is office based for doing admin/meetings etc, and I still prefer to be in the office for that, but a lot of people do at least some of it from home, but there is increasing pressure on them to return to the office.

It's true that the people in the office tend to end up doing more of the work than those working from home, but that's only really because there's been no will to make it otherwise. It feels like the decision was made to get people back in to the office and this is how we will justify it, rather than approaching it with a 'how can we make this work?' position.
 
Initially I did have the same concerns as @lolly about not wanting to be connecting my work & home but for me it was easily overcome by working from the spare room on a (decent) foldaway desk and chair which I put away at the end of each shift so it became out of sight out of mind quite quickly.
 
VoR said:
I know loads of parents who are facing 3-4 figure real term pay cuts because of this move back to the office, because childcare is so expensive.

Also you just know the senior management types mandating all of this sure as shit aren’t coming in to sit among the proles three days per week.

As you can probably tell, I feel very strongly about this.
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It is insane. We only manage because Mr Star is at home and does the school runs. My parents then come over and look after the kids. Without him being at home we'd have to do breakfast and after school clubs 4 days a week, which I just think is a bit sad all around - never mind the cost!
 
Plus not having the cost of travel into London every day saves loads. Not to mention the hours travelling each week saved.
 
BoysForSeles said:
Initially I did have the same concerns as @lolly about not wanting to be connecting my work & home but for me it was easily overcome by working from the spare room on a (decent) foldaway desk and chair which I put away at the end of each shift so it became out of sight out of mind quite quickly.
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I think in my case it's because the work I do can be emotionally draining. On one of the days I was working from home a few years ago I was dealing with social workers regarding the removal of children, and then dealing with all sorts of abuse from clients. That certainly doesn't happen every day, but it's always a possibility.

It's just created a bad energy in my home. Normally I can leave that in the office or wherever it's happened, and then process and discharge it on the way home. Simply couldn't do it walking from the spare room to the kitchen or around the garden.

I suspect I'd feel differently if I was doing different work. Mr L has a corporate job, hated WFH for a few weeks initially, but then grew to love it.
 
I think hybrid would be ideal for me. Right now I work from the office 99% of the time (sometimes I work from home for a little, and then drive in to avoid traffic). Parts of my job have to be in person, because I run programs, but a lot could be done from home.

I like coming into the office, because it’s nice to be around people and I usually have lunch with people here and talk throughout the day. I would be more productive at home though, I think, because I sometimes (often) end up talking to people for hours instead of working
 
Jark said:
CAMERAS ALWAYS ON?! @Devil

it's giving authoritarian regime.
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Same in my job. For every single Zoom call we have to keep our cameras turned on, I think it's more of a peace of mind situation since they can't be watching you for 8 hours a day so no social media nor eating during meetings, but I can at least be on Moopy :basil: besides, they don't give a shit at what you're wearing!
 
I sometimes start meetings camera off and then turn it on when I speak, or vice versa. usually morning calls start camera off because I'm still making coffee :D

who really cares if your camera is on or not though. most of it just comes down to a (baseless) lack of trust in people. if you do trust your workforce and they feel it, they'll be happier and work better, and in most cases won't take the piss. this should all be common sense.
 
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