I’ve never had a WFH job and I generally don’t think I’d personally want/be successful with one. My sister is fully remote and she actually hates it, but I think its more the job she doesn’t like than the WFH aspect. She says its lonely and isolating on top of disliking her daily tasks. I’m not anti WFH for others at all, to absolutely clear.
WFH is awesome.
Can take breaks from work to drop off/pick up kid from school. Saving like 15% of my paycheque that would go to daycare otherwise.
Car insurance is cheaper, because no matter how much I drive I’m not commuting to work so the insurance company counts me as “occasional driver”.
I can loudly and violently swear at bullshit emails.
I can listen to my own music on speakers while working.
Minor cons though:
I’m getting weirder due to the lack of minor social interactions that otherwise I’d get on the bus, sidewalk, office, cafe, so on.
Some cabin fever from being in the same space all day. I live in an apartment so I don’t have a separate room for my work computer. Turn off work computer, turn on personal computer, and it’s the same screens while I sit in the same chair. On the other hand this does motivate me to get outside after work to exercise or do errands.
I dont. My appartment is small. And i cant focus. I dont have a “hey i am at work” mindset. Because of that i take the way 1 ½ hours to work
I’d be honest. I’d personally love a dedicated WFH day(s) it’s truly the best of both worlds
I love it. No commute, optional shower, no pants. I’m not a very big pants guy, and that’s a huge seller.
Trousers are a government conspiracy
Love it! Clients have better accessibility; lose less of their days in commute, they are now able to see a niche professional state / nation wide, and I can charge 40% less in not having an office.
At the moment it seems like market forces are pushing me back to an office. I will pass the increased costs to consumers.
I’m liking it, in moderation. Just rolling out of bed, turning on my computer and making coffee on company time right away is very time efficient. It’s also nice that I can work in peace and ignore coworkers whenever I need to.
The downside is that it’s pretty annoying to collaborate on things, especially if it’s with more than one person at a time. Gotta schedule a meeting, even if in person it would just be a thing of walking over and talking to them for 5mins.
My ideal mix is 4 days wfh : 1 day in-office. I get all the talking out of the way on that one day (plus it’s enough socialization for the whole week) and the rest I just exist in peace.
I was working from home for a couple of years and had a mixed appreciation for it. While I was still driving my wife to her job in the morning, it was nice to come home and start my day. Less gas and all that. But not having coworkers around, and not enough separation from the home space sent me stir-crazy often. My wife had a ride home from work since my schedule went past hers, and I would be trying to go places or something after work and she just wanted to chill after her retail management day. But since I was laid off and had to re-enter retail management myself, I wouldn’t mind a hybrid situation if I had the choice.
Working from home, no commute, no clothes, no travel time, no car, easy food.
It’s so efficient, it’s crazy.
There is real value to working not-at-home, but working from home outweighs it in 99% of situations.
The reality is, and has been, and should be:
LISTEN TO AND TRUST PEOPLE WHEN THEY TELL YOU THEY LIKE OR DON’T LIKE SOMETHING.
Yes. Cat.
Really one day I realized I rather eat lunch with my cats than any of my coworkers and have never looked back
I thought I’d hate working from home, it wasn’t too bad. Then they made us hybrid, I thought oh no, worst of both worlds, it wasn’t that bad either. I went back to the office full time because I don’t have a home office and wanted to reclaim that space.
It’s pretty much the same job but teams meetings suck even more than in person meetings, and training new people too, worse.
What I do not like is a commute. I live about one mile from work so don’t even have to drive most days, if it was farther the calculation would be different.
My family loved me working from home because I did more of the cooking and housework, it kind of intensifies that inequality I think.
So I think personally I didn’t get much benefit from working from home but it was not nearly as bad as I thought it might be, if I had to I would.
Yes. Im way more efficient at home. Less offfice bullshit.
No commute or shitty weather.
Roll out of bed and online in seconds, just open the laptop lid, leave it in suspend.
My food and can cook a proper meal.
Also can throw on a wash or whatever during the day.
Being home when my packages get delivered is also a nice bonus too! And where I live, I have to deal with a lot of snow. Normally this would be a pain in the ass, but when you work from home, you get to it when you feel like it.
Through the comments so far the lack of commute would be the biggest plus for me personally. I work in a power plant about 35 mins from my house. So, no matter the weather I absolutely need to be in, sometimes that has meant sleeping there.
Yes, been 100% WFH since 2015. I do miss the random chats in hallways, lunch room, etc, but definitely not worth going back to an office. I am far more effective at home.
People who socialize in the office hate wfh
People who socialize outside of the office love wfh
People who don’t socialise at all also love wfh
Thats pretty fair.
I love it because I bought everything I need to feel good in my office : a dock to switch easily between work and personal computers, a standup desk, many things to reduce back, neck and shoulder pain too. I have a wall painted that I can look at when I need to have a break. I don’t have transport, so I wake up 15mn before work starts. There is no noise. When I feel I can work less without feeling tracked : as long as I get my work done in time, there’s no issue. I can take breaks to do some house-related tasks (tho I don’t take breaks lately, but I could do it).
I could not go back to any job requiring me to go to the office.
I love it and I’m never going back.
- I save myself the commute (time, gas).
- In closer to my son’s daycare, so it’s easier to pick him up of something spontaneously comes up.
- I’m near my dog throughout the day.
- I have the fridge close to me. ;-)
- I can do the laundry or start the vacuum robot at convenient times.
- I have less interruptions by blergh people.
- I don’t have to sit with my back towards the office door, which in turn was adjacent to the men’s room.
- I can wear casual legwear.
- Better coffee.
- My three person office at work is empty anyway, because my colleagues commuted from further apart and are happy about WFH as well. So my options are a) sit alone in my office at home or b) sit alone in my office at work.
- I’m here for deliveries throughout the day.
- I don’t have that loneliness/isolation issue going, but I do see that it’s wildly different among people; some are made for WFH and some need the office to be happy.
EDIT to add, because it’s an important factor and I read it in the answers:
- shitting on your own toilet, with proper toilet tissue, even through remote meetings.
I never thought of the toilet thing but thats so fucking true!
I would add the ability to use a bidet. Travel bidets exist, but the ideal just feels gross and embarrassing.
