Working From Home Again

[Banchory Buddha]

Anyone else come in to such a joyous email this morning?

Happy Friday!!

 

[Neilds]

Been working from home since all this started so no change to me. Wife was also mainly WFH for years prior so nothing new for her

 

[BiMGuy]

I’ve been predominantly working from home since last March. With just the occasional visit to the office or site.

I’ve no intention of going back to working full time in an office.

 

[Banchory Buddha]

I’ve been predominantly working from home since last March. With just the occasional visit to the office or site.

I’ve no intention of going back to working full time in an office.

We went back week in week out around 2 months ago, it's really not necessary, and if I was able to control it, I would be in your boat.

 

[Orikoru]

I already work from home three days a week, which I've done since January/February this year. In fact I've just used up my annual leave so I only have one more day in the office before Christmas now anyway.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I'm in work every day, have been throughout. That suits me to be honest, I'd struggle working from home. For those that do, how do you find separating home from work, switching off? Are you able to have a separate room for work, an office in effect, or are you on the kitchen table or equivalent.

Does the dislike for working in an office / building partly come from a pain of a commute?

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Ah the joys of the "working from home" staff.
Please remember that those who have to do work in your house cannot all come "between 10.30 and 11" because you have zoom meetings or whatever it is.
As much as I enjoy the less traffic around, the working from home has made it so much harder to make appointments and get things done that are wanted done.

 

[Slab]

Anyone else come in to such a joyous email this morning?

Happy Friday!!

Whatever keeps you off the roads

 

[BiMGuy]

I'm in work every day, have been throughout. That suits me to be honest, I'd struggle working from home. For those that do, how do you find separating home from work, switching off? Are you able to have a separate room for work, an office in effect, or are you on the kitchen table or equivalent.

Does the dislike for working in an office / building partly come from a pain of a commute?

We’ve got a separate space and I’ve learned to switch off. Laptop gets shut down and phone gets switched off.

It does help when I need to work later that I don’t then have to drive home.

My role covers looking after projects and teams from Manchester to the south coast. Meaning I often spent a working day in the car to attend an hour long meeting.

Now I can do a lot of that via Teams, I can deal with a lot more work. WFH has freed up a lot of personal time as well as a staggering amount of time previously wasted during working hours.

I appreciate its not for everyone.

 

[Blue in Munich]

I'm in work every day, have been throughout. That suits me to be honest, I'd struggle working from home. For those that do, how do you find separating home from work, switching off? Are you able to have a separate room for work, an office in effect, or are you on the kitchen table or equivalent.

Does the dislike for working in an office / building partly come from a pain of a commute?

Short answer to the separation in our case is with great difficulty. Home was never set up with an office, so one of us working from the kitchen table and the other one off the dressing table in the bedroom. It’s like you never leave the “office”. I’m convinced the elbow problems I now have are due to the change in set up with the laptop, as that is the only change that has been made (kitchen table much higher and chairs much lower than the office desk set up).

I’m actually quite envious of those who have been able to “go into work”. I’m now having to go in to cover the building for a few days pre Christmas but sitting on your own in an office designed for 30 isn’t a lot of fun either.

And before anyone starts, yes I know I’m fortunate that I still have a job, but the current set up isn’t without its own issues.

 

[Imurg]

Kinda hard for me to work from home....

 

[Orikoru]

I'm in work every day, have been throughout. That suits me to be honest, I'd struggle working from home. For those that do, how do you find separating home from work, switching off? Are you able to have a separate room for work, an office in effect, or are you on the kitchen table or equivalent.

Does the dislike for working in an office / building partly come from a pain of a commute?

Our conservatory is my office, my desk is essentially a dining table so plenty of space, have a monitor that was couriered to me from the office in the first lockdown last year, so the set-up is all good. Avoiding commuting is certainly the best part - when it was peak pandemic, I was not that concerned about catching it in the office, but more worried about the sheer number of people on the tubes. I don't have a problem separating really, I'm quite happy to shut down the laptop at 5pm and leave it there.

The other upsides include much better work/life balance - you can finish your work late if you need to since you're already home and there's no travelling to worry about, or if you finish on time you have a whole extra hour+ to play with. Last summer I got back into playing tennis since I had that time between 5pm and 6:30pm to play. Also I feel way less jaded at the end of the week now when I've only travelled in on two days instead of every day.

On the downside, when I was working from home every day (last year), it was a bit rubbish never seeing any of your colleagues. It's easier to work with people when you get to know them properly, and have those casual incidental conversations that always seem to reveal more than any meeting or phone call does. Because of that I really enjoy the balance I have now of 2 days in and 3 days at home.

 

[Neilds]

I'm in work every day, have been throughout. That suits me to be honest, I'd struggle working from home. For those that do, how do you find separating home from work, switching off? Are you able to have a separate room for work, an office in effect, or are you on the kitchen table or equivalent.

Does the dislike for working in an office / building partly come from a pain of a commute?

We are really lucky in that we have plenty of room for a separate office for Mrs S in the small single bedroom - means she can shut the door after work and not worry. I have to set up the 2nd bedroom (dressing room!) but have a proper desk and chair. Only slight downside is I have to pack up the laptop and monitor each day but nothing too arduous. I do know of work colleagues who are still trying to work on tables or worse, their lap, don't think I could put up with that. Work did provide a lot of equipment but I bought my own as Mrs S wanted a desk that was more like a dressing table and didn't look like work stuff

 

[Beezerk]

Whoop quieter roads, get in!

 

[Banchory Buddha]

I'm in work every day, have been throughout. That suits me to be honest, I'd struggle working from home. For those that do, how do you find separating home from work, switching off? Are you able to have a separate room for work, an office in effect, or are you on the kitchen table or equivalent.

Does the dislike for working in an office / building partly come from a pain of a commute?

I'm divorced and have a spare bedroom that is set up with a desk, double monitors, and duplicate copies of any paperwork I need as reference from work. I need to be in the office half a day every 3 weeks, wouldn't quite be possible to ever be fully from home, but certainly moreso than the 50/50 we were offered.

Yes it's mainly the commute, which also feeds into cost savings, and time back for yourself lost to commute and getting ready to commute. Also lack of forced socialising is a massive boon, the world is built for extroverts, now covid has balanced things and been a positive for the rest of us in that area at least, so there's the mental health upside that folks seem only too keen to ignore

 

[Hobbit]

I worked from home for over 20 years. Always got up, breakfasted then showered and smart casual to set a routine/tone. Always had a desk set up, and in later years a separate ‘office.’ Always used my voice mail out of hours to filter call, ringing back if urgent, and a personal phone even though we were allowed free calls on the company phone. Always switched the laptop off at 6pm apart from specific occasions when there was a rush on.

Short version; be disciplined about separation between work and home.

 

[Rooter]

Been working from home since 2007. I was ahead of the game!

 

[Dando]

I've only been into the office a handful of times since the first lockdown and they've all ended up with being in the pub by 1pm!

i have been working in the summerhouse so I get to lock everything away plus I get to have a nap on the sofa bed

 

[RichA]

I can work from home a couple of days per week but often go in anyway.
The struggle for me at home is switching into work mode for 8 hours in the first place, rather than mentally switching off at the end of the day. Too many interesting things to do at home that impact on my productivity.

 

[Rooter]

There is a new hybrid model of working. Many are deciding to work from home on a Monday and Friday.

Commuting to an office on a Tuesday, Wednesday And a Thursday is becoming more common. There is even a name for this model, ***'s around the country are utilizing using this model of flexible working.

Are you a ***? or do you know any ***'s?