Post by followyourarrow on Oct 9, 2019 13:53:54 GMT -5
I work from home about 1 day a week, but it's pretty flexible. It's so good for my mental health. I'm WFH right now with a dog on one side of me and a cat on the other.
My H can WFH if he or family members have appts, when sick, if he needs to be home for repairs/deliveries. But if he works from home too many days in a row/too many in a month it's frowned upon by the CEO. H's boss doesn't care. When H interviewed with his current company he was sold on the flexible WFH options which really aren't there. They said he could do x/amount per week/month on a regular basis. Then CEO said no after he was hired. H wasn't pleased. H has an hour+ commute each way so WFH is amazing for him. He gets so much more work done even though he works around appts, sickness etc.
I work PT for a public school district currently so no WFH for me in that regard.
I am an odd duck in that I don't like working from home. I appreciate the option to do it when needed - I'm actually WFH this afternoon while I wait for the dryer repair guy to show up. But I haven't been very productive. I find it distracting because there are a million other things I need/want to do at home so it's hard to focus. I also hate working from a laptop - my dual monitors at my desk at work are much easier to deal with for most things.
I rarely WFH in my current job, though - this is maybe only the 2nd or 3rd time I've done it. My previous job had a lot of WFH and I was so lonely (though it was lonely in the office, too). I remember 6 years ago when I worked at home for a few weeks while staying with my parents out of state, I felt really left out. I missed the causal office chatter and felt like people didn't come to me to ask my opinion on stuff.
My H on the other hand could never interact with anyone and be perfectly fine, so I wish he could WFH every day. He has a long commute and most days he just sits at a desk in an office and then comes home. He does WFH one day a week, but I really feel like he could do 1 office day a week and have basically the same experience. And it would be SO MUCH cheaper because his commute is expensive. So, I definitely do see the value in it, but selfishly I never want to get to a point where most people WFH most of the time because it would not be a good fit for me.
The article mentions that a “con” of remote work is the blur of the 9-5 job into all hours. I would argue that with technology (e-mail/text/cell phones), that those boundaries have been gone for a long time for most workers.
I have to give my department props in this regard. Whether you work from home or in the office, you're expected NOT to work outside of the regular workday. We're not supposed to have our email on our phones, not supposed to be taking our laptops home to work on the weekend, etc. So, when I WFH, my laptop stays in my laptop bag until I pull it out to start working in the morning, and goes back in the bag when I stop working at 4:30/5. I can count the amount of times I've checked my email outside of work hours on a half a hand - and this we're really specific circumstances where I checked my email once to see if I got an email from one specific person about one specific thing.
I was a home based employee for almost 15 years. While I loved it, I think I forgot what I was missing having office co-workers. Now I feel like I have a good situation. I can work from home 1-2 days a week and I'm in the office the other days. You miss a lot of office gossip/info when you aren't interacting face to face.
This was me for 2.5 years. Although I wasn’t 100% remote, I did miss the face to face interactions and the bits of info you pick up from random hallway conversations etc. That just didn’t happen when I was remote.
I actually found myself going to the grocery store a few times a week just because I needed to see people and have human interaction 😂
Now I can WFH 2 days a week (and I do) but it seems like a much better solution for me.
I work from home 3 days a week and it's such a game changer for me.
I'm not sure I would work for another agency if they didn't have such generous telework.
I do miss my dual monitors and my standing desk when I have a project that I really need to dive into. Someday I'll have to look into setting up a better workspace than my laptop on our dining room table.
I have WFH for 8 years now and I will never look back. I am fortunate to not have set working hours, so the flexibility is amazing. Being able to start dinner, be home for random appts, etc. I will never go back (hopefully!). It’s gotten more difficult since I have a direct report in office who has set hours. I find myself wanting to stay in my seat even though I could be doing things elsewhere for support. It does get frustrating when people in my company go to her because she’s there in person for things they should talk to me about, but I am trying to just let those roll off and not take it personally. I don’t find the socialization part very difficult. Being introverted helps, but I also have a ton of friends and neighbors who work from home. Sometimes we will meet somewhere together to work or meet for a walk or lunch break. One thing that I don’t deal with is friends who have their WFH life micromanaged. Not allowing the computer to go idle, being expected to respond immediately to video calls, etc. I think those thing don’t jive with what in-office individuals are expected to do.
I’ve worked from home full time before and seemed to be one of the few people who really disliked it. I would get so stir-crazy because my job required absolutely no human interaction other than over instant messages and email.
BUT I love the idea of not needing to have your butt in your seat eight hours per day. Like I’m writing this from our office coffee bar/lounge, where I typically spend at least two hours of my day. I can WFH whenever I need (or want) to and since I often take meetings with people in other time zones, it’s not unusual to meet with people (coworkers) who are dialing in from pretty much anywhere, whether from home or on the train or in a hotel room.
I will miss this if I ever leave this company/industry. I hope it’s the future.
I could have written this word for word. I currently work from home one day a week, sometimes none, sometimes two. I like that I have the flexibility to decide and I can do my work from anywhere, almost always.
I am another person who would like a mixture of WFH and traditional office based work. I would appreciate the flexibilty of WFH and I knwo I do concentrate better when no one is around. But I also enjoy bouncing ideas of my colleagues over a cup of coffee and know that is a valuable part of my work.
I think this is why I like coming to my office most of the time. This is something that is not talked about a lot, but I find huge value in "on the fly" conversations about a certain project or something.
I am an odd duck in that I don't like working from home. I appreciate the option to do it when needed - I'm actually WFH this afternoon while I wait for the dryer repair guy to show up. But I haven't been very productive. I find it distracting because there are a million other things I need/want to do at home so it's hard to focus. I also hate working from a laptop - my dual monitors at my desk at work are much easier to deal with for most things.
This is one of the main reasons I do not WFH more--I even have a second monitor that I can set up, but I do not have a place to do it, other than dining room table right now. When we move, if we have space I would love to have a small office desk, even as part of the guest room, so I can be more efficient when I work from home.
I am very fortunate in my current set up because our official handbook says we can work up to X days at home, but it is not enforced in any way what so ever. We can pick and choose what days we work remotely which is nice because while I often work from home every Wednesday, it gets swapped out based on appointments, meetings, etc. We are moving to new offices in a month and there has been some talk that the owner does "not want to fix up nice new offices for no one to be there ever" so he wants to start limiting the WFH/remote work which would be a huge drag.
I wonder if any of our major environmentalist-minded folks like pixy0stix have any references handy about projected environmental impact of WFH vs in an office?
What is the net gain/loss of energy consumption if everyone who would normally be sharing heating and a/c in an office are using more energy at home because they are working there? I also don't know if many people move their thermostats when they leave like we do to reduce consumption when we aren't home...
I work from home 3 days a week and it's such a game changer for me.
I'm not sure I would work for another agency if they didn't have such generous telework.
I do miss my dual monitors and my standing desk when I have a project that I really need to dive into. Someday I'll have to look into setting up a better workspace than my laptop on our dining room table.
This is why i'd rather come into the office on the weekend than try to work from home on my laptop. so much more efficient and ergonomic.
I wonder if any of our major environmentalist-minded folks like pixy0stix have any references handy about projected environmental impact of WFH vs in an office?
What is the net gain/loss of energy consumption if everyone who would normally be sharing heating and a/c in an office are using more energy at home because they are working there? I also don't know if many people move their thermostats when they leave like we do to reduce consumption when we aren't home...
This is interesting. It’s been super hard to get our heating and cooling usage down because someone is in and out all day.
I have WFH 100% since 2014. My husband has WFH 100% since 2017 soooo I made him go to a different floor so we aren't together all the time. I have two monitors, he actually has 3 monitors (he works in IT), so our home set up is equivalent to an office setup.
We were living in Northern Virginia and my H got a job opportunity in the midwest near family. My company had a few telecommuting employees so when I said we were moving, they said they wanted me to stay on and allowed me to telecommute.
I love it. I go back sometimes to visit my family and I'll go into the office for the week and it's just such a negative work environment. Morale is low, everyone is sniping at each other and my manager keeps me pretty insulated from all that.
I wonder if any of our major environmentalist-minded folks like pixy0stix have any references handy about projected environmental impact of WFH vs in an office?
What is the net gain/loss of energy consumption if everyone who would normally be sharing heating and a/c in an office are using more energy at home because they are working there? I also don't know if many people move their thermostats when they leave like we do to reduce consumption when we aren't home...
Off the top of my head, office buildings are huge sucks of energy. Heating and cooling large spaces such as a building use a lot of energy, not to mention lights, computers, etc. Add on to that the environmental impact of single occupancy transportation to and from the work site, and staying at home is much better for the environment.
Of course, it all depends on each person and the temperature they keep their house, etc.
I currently WFH 100% and have since 2016. I love it and never want to go back to an office type job. All my coworkers also WFH So I’m not missing much by not going into the office. We chat all day through IM and we try to have quarterly in office meetings- but some of my coworkers don’t even live in this state so I don’t see them ever.
But it’s actually improved my work/life balance. I have more time do things (laundry. Prep dinner). I do have set hours but my boss is flexible. I also have two monitors so I’m not staring at a laptop screen all day. My company is currently being acquired by another company and I’m worried we will lose the WFH opportunity. It’s also saved us money. I very rarely eat out/stop for coffee in the AM. Gas usage has gone down etc. we also used to get our internet reimbursed by my company but not anymore.
I was in the best shape of my life when I WFH regularly. I could squeeze in a run or a workout at lunch and not have to worry about being presentable in an office immediately upon finishing. I get red faced and sweaty when I work out so it’s never been something I can squeeze in during lunch when I’m at the office. It looks like my next project might allow me to become mostly virtual and I’m really looking forward to being able to get back to mid day workouts.
My company, on the whole, is pretty anti-WFH. The attitude is changing slowly, but it's been an uphill battle. We have seen so much attrition because people are leaving for opportunities with better benefits. This is a big one and I'm concerned for our future if we can't fully jump on board.
My boss is very pro-WFH and has been working to make strides within the company. For me though, he has made his opinion clear and that has paved the way to me working from home two days a week (or more if I need to, generally because DH is OOT) and shifting my schedule by an hour so that I am in the office early and leave early. I'm one of very few in my office who gets to do this. I really value this flexibility a lot and it's one of the things that keeps me where I am.
All that said, I agree that there are certain benefits to being in an office. For me, I do want to be in the office a couple days a week. I like the interaction, seeing people, and just being part of the workday with others. Working from home has a lot of benefits, but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that office environments provide benefits as well.
I should add one stress that has come up since I've started being in the office a lot more is simply the house is a sty when I get home. We are in such a rush to get out the door in the AM that when I come home I'm often having to do breakfast dishes before I can start dinner... something I used to do when I had a free 5 minutes working from home.
I wonder if any of our major environmentalist-minded folks like pixy0stix have any references handy about projected environmental impact of WFH vs in an office?
What is the net gain/loss of energy consumption if everyone who would normally be sharing heating and a/c in an office are using more energy at home because they are working there? I also don't know if many people move their thermostats when they leave like we do to reduce consumption when we aren't home...
Off the top of my head, office buildings are huge sucks of energy. Heating and cooling large spaces such as a building use a lot of energy, not to mention lights, computers, etc. Add on to that the environmental impact of single occupancy transportation to and from the work site, and staying at home is much better for the environment.
Of course, it all depends on each person and the temperature they keep their house, etc.
I was thinking this is the most likely scenario, but then i also know that most people complain that offices are kept too cool and i am generally still warm and have 2 fans going (I also have a window on the west side of the building with no shade trees and an asphalt parking lot right outside). I keep my house at a lower temperature than I would like in terms of energy usage simply because it is the highest setting i can tolerate, including light to moderate perspiration. :\
I should add one stress that has come up since I've started being in the office a lot more is simply the house is a sty when I get home. We are in such a rush to get out the door in the AM that when I come home I'm often having to do breakfast dishes before I can start dinner... something I used to do when I had a free 5 minutes working from home.
This is why i don't work from home well. Toooooo many projects to tackle.
When i was young and single, i was a beast working from home. I would load the laundry into the machines while actively working at my laptop, and would fold it when on a conference call that didn't require me to sit or be at the computer. I'd use a headset for other conference calls so i could sweep, wipe down counters, etc.
Like another person said about working out - i could go get some exercise and come sweat my tush off the rest of the afternoon and it didn't bother anyone else or me because no one saw me.
I started a strictly WFH job nearly three months ago. Many of my coworkers are also remote. I interviewed for three jobs at the same time - this job, an in-office job, and a job that would’ve let me WFH 2-3 days a week since it was a long commute - and the office job was my #1 choice at the time. I only got this one offer.
So far I’m pretty happy. I only fill my gas tank once a month due to regular errands, rather than once a week when I was commuting 40 miles/day. I’m not spending money on breakfasts/lunches out or new work clothes. So I’m definitely happy to have some more money at my disposal.
I’ve got more quality time in the evenings because I’m able to do some household chores and get dinner done or at least prepped before I quit at 5. I like that I can be home for a service call or I can go help a loved one if I’m suddenly needed, without necessarily having to ask for time off.
Most of this success is because my team seems to communicate very effectively. Emails are answered quickly, we have a team conference call at least once a week, and my manager calls me often just to say hello and ask if I need anything. There wasn’t much work for me to do in the first 2-3 weeks, though, and I felt very detached and also a little paranoid that they were going to pull the rug out from under me and I’d be unemployed again.
The downsides? Honestly I’m not seeing too many. It can be lonely, although I’m a natural introvert so it doesn’t bother me too much. I get a little stir crazy since I don’t leave the house too often unless I run to the store or take my laptop to Whole Foods or something for a working lunch. I’ve also had some disagreements with MH over how much housework I ought to be doing, which has been annoying. And it’s been a bit weird trying to adjust to WFH after working in an office for ~15 years.
At my old job I had one colleague who was 100% remote. Communication between her and our joint manager sucked, and the colleague often called me asking what she’s missed or if the manager was angry with her, because she constantly felt out of the loop. She’s actually about to get another remote job so I hope this one works out better for her. She’s also dealing with mobility issues so I’m sure WFH is good for her to have as an option.
I was able to WFH once in a while at my previous job, which especially came in handy during the past couple of years. The general understanding with my manager was just to get my work done and not take advantage; otherwise she was cool with it. Other managers in our company weren’t as accommodating - there was no companywide policy behind “at your manager’s discretion.”
On September 24, video conferencing company Owl Labs released their State of Remote Work 2019 report. They surveyed 1202 full-time U.S. workers from the ages of 22 to 65, and discovered that 62 percent of respondents worked remotely at least some of the time and 38 percent worked onsite. Of the remote workers, 49 percent worked remotely full-time.
As it turns out, working remotely—or the idea of it—makes people happy. Eighty-three percent of survey respondents “agree that the ability to work remotely would make them happier,” and 71 percent of workers who do get to work remotely said their job makes them happy, compared with 55 percent of office-only workers.
My last job was 100% WFH. I did have several client meetings every month that ranged from 15 min to 3.5 hrs away. I also had to go in to the office one day a month, but since it was a 5hr drive, it meant driving out the night before and staying over. I don't mind driving, so for me, it wasn't a big deal. I actually really, really enjoyed working from home. The one down side was that we weren't allowed to set our own hours, so I was expected to be online from 8:30am-5pm, and I did really miss having that daytime flexibility. My job now I have 1 set wfh day and am in the office the other 4. BUT my schedule is much more flexible, and I can always wfh other days if needed (like last week when I was sick). I much prefer the mix with the flexibility that I have now than when I wfh full time with no flexibility.
I guess I did it the wrong way--I WFT in a HCOL city. But it's still awesome. I don't have to commute, so I avoid traffic, and I still get all the benefits of a big city. I have no interest in moving out of the city, even though housing prices here are crazy.
I am here. I WAH and pay HCOL housing and I live living in the city. Unless DH switches careers we're city people anyway.
While there are a upsides to WAH there are downsides too. I do feel like the day stretches on forever sometimes and isolation is very real.
I'm a "solopreneur" or whatever the trendy word is right now, so I've worked exclusively from home for a while. I'm definitely more productive, but that has required some fairly significant changes to my time management on my part; it's really easy to fall into the trap of blurring the lines on my workday because I can work anywhere and anytime. I'm strict about setting expectations with clients when it comes to my availability (they've learned I'm not going to respond to them between 5 pm and 8 am), and there was some education required with my husband ("Just because I'm at home doesn't mean I'm suddenly available to do an outsized share of the housework.") It's working pretty well overall, but I can feel myself slowly becoming more antisocial, so I make an effort to get out more - lunch with friends, breakfast with my husband on his way into work, etc. - and am considering a part-time tenancy in a co-working space to force myself out of the house. And I periodically schedule face-to-face meetings with local clients to keep me top of mind; I consider it a marketing expense because I end up getting more work from the clients I have better personal relationships with.
It seems WFH a few days/week works well for a lot of professional jobs. I don't see huge real estate displacements in housing happening any time soon b/c as you can see from this thread, most folks still value time in office a few days/week. I feel pretty disconnected when I don't see my reports and clients regularly. But the uptick in WFH is definitely having an impact on commercial real estate w/hoteling and office sharing, as well as mass transit.
We are currently in the midst of leaving the city for the burbs and we decided to do it ONLY because I can work largely remotely. I plan to go into the office 1-2 days a week, but if I had to commute everyday, there is no way we would leave the city, where we live within walking distance of my office.
I went from never working remotely to working remotely 100% for 3 years when I moved to PA from CA.
My last job was very anti-remote work. Correction: the COO, who was my boss, was very anti-remote work. Long ago, I also worked for someone who thought the whole internet was a waste of time (and maybe he wasn't wrong), so there are still hurdles to be cleared with those types of roadblocks. I work in digital marketing. I can do my job from home, though office communication is a big deal, as is client communication. As long as those two things are noted and taken care of, it's all good.
My current job is good about remote work. Only one salesperson works 100% remotely, but we're free to work from home if we're sick (or we can use sick time if we can't or don't want to work), if there is a snow day, if we have a doctor's appointment, a contractor coming... we don't have to give a reason, we just tell the production manager we're working from home that day. My husband's job is basically the same. It will be nice around Christmas because we're planning to visit both his parents for a few days and then mine for a few days, and we'll be able to work remotely a bit and not burn through all our vacation.
In the future, it seems like we really might be able to take our jobs with us, which will be nice from a cost-of-living perspective, a snow-bird perspective, or a partial "retirement" perspective (I plan to work longer than my H because he's 8 years older than me).