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.
Depends if you’re an introvert or an extrovert. As an introvert I only see benefits; no commute, a close bathroom at all times, a kitchen with food, not needing to hear annoying coworkers except during meetings etc. If you’re an extrovert then you might enjoy hearing your coworkers all day I guess?
Or if you have a toxic household you need to escape from.
+1 on the bathroom. Few things suck more than having a morning coffee shit at the office, wiping with that ridiculous tissue paper that disintegrates if you get it near water, and then walking around all day with an air of confidence even though you know there is no way you got it all.
Protip for office dwellers: keep a single pack Dude Wipe or similar at the office so you can poop without it being a biological hazard. Just don’t forget it. Asking a random coworker to grab one out of your desk is awkward.
Fully remote for years now and never want an on-site job again. I don’t mind going for a couple of events a year, though.
I can take my “smoke break” to change loads of laundry or do something else around the house. I have no commute time nor expenses. I am always here for deliveries. I regained so much of my time that I can use for study or entertainment. (Assuming a 1-hour commute, even if most of that is on a train, that’s 10 hours a week back from that alone).
For success, your company and you need to have good communication and planning. It’s also not for everyone, especially more social people.
From home since epidemic started and I would want to hug covid if it was a person.
My productivity in office was always low. Too many distractions, too many inconveniences. Then there is an issue with getting to the office - it’s an additional hour of my life they are not paying extra for. And of course - at home I can work while doing simple chores. But the most important is that I can be with my daughters, instead of being just another father that spends half a day at work and the other half sleeping.
There are a multitude of reason why I like it.
The most important is that I am not wasting an hour and change commuting. I don’t need to worry about train schedules. Commuting by car would have been worse: I’d spend hundreds of euros on gas and tolls, never mind parking. I also don’t have a bunch of dead time I cannot really take advantage of. Sure, some of it I could use to read in public transport, or listen to podcasts, but there is a limit. I am prone to motion sickness, so there are limits to when I can do it and for how long. And during peak hours? The experience of getting on a train is, sometimes, not great. Too many people, too hot. As much as I love public mass transport, the experience during peak hours is miserable.
The other thing about WFH, in my current setup, is that… I can just step away? I have gone to a friends house to give them and/or deliver something during work hours because I just have enough time. I have driven parents for appointments because it was quick enough, or I could just take my work laptop with me and work from the car. I have worked from another country entirely, and the biggest difference was the timezone. And if I really want to, I can visit a teammate and work from his house instead!
There are few other reasons why work from home is great, though they are not that important in the grand scheme of things. In the places I have worked, we have had open spaces. This means noise. Others might need to be on a call, or you might need to be on a call. It means that multiple people in the same call is now an exercise in mute discipline so you don’t distract others hearing themselves through your microphone. It also means I cannot just pace around while on a chat, which I sometimes do thanks to the wireless headphones I invested in. Actually, it means I need to use my headphones much more because if I want music, I need them on, whereas at home I can just use speakers instead?
We do get togethers once a month, though I don’t go to all of them. We also are relatively liberal with audio chats for not so serious subjects. I don’t feel lonely for two reasons: I just deal well with calls and other such ways of interacting with people; and I can use the extra time I don’t commute to actually go out with people I like after work.
Feb 16 2020 was the last day I stepped into an office. The first person to die of COVID in the USA was not far from my office and HR sent everyone home.
At the time, I had a 1 year old son and watched his first steps over a small phone screen. Listen to him say his first word though my headset at work. I fucking hated it.
After COVID, I watched my son grow up and experience everything. From the highs and lows. I love it.
The major downside is that WFH jobs are very few and I had to quit multiple jobs because of RTO policies. Today, I opened a business and just work as a contractor. Even though I don’t make as much, I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Yep - I always disliked having to figure out food for the day before heading into the office. I’m not ready to eat breakfast until closer to noon, but once I start eating, I want to snack every hour or two while working.
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.
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
Really one day I realized I rather eat lunch with my cats than any of my coworkers and have never looked back
I know right. Being with my animals, (and I suppose, even my family) is priceless to me.
I’ll have a puddle of cats on my bed whilst the GSD is wedged between my chair and the bed, my lights are off, my room is dark and cool with a silver of light coming through the top shades. I got my tunes playing and I’m not getting interrupted.
I got my computers around me, I’m running multiple processes. If I get tired I can roll onto the bed.
The dog and cats are just happy to hang, we play, do commands and I get to take my dog out for a long lunch time walk.
Sure the cats do talk back a bit but it’s so much nicer to hear them meow then colleagues crapping about crap.
I hate going to work. I’m sitting in my office (forced to come in several days a week) and I realise I do not want to speak to a single person. Sometimes I try to avoid speaking to people for an entire day.
I guess it’s the 20 years I spent running frontline customer service teams that makes you despise humanity. I am in absolutel awe that the vast majority of humans have mastered the skill of inhaling and exhaling. I’m still astounded that people have worked out how to use the buttons on their shirts, or worked out how to pull clothes onto their bodies.
Seriously I used to image customers sitting at the kitchen table with a shirt over their face and various items of clothes half on their limbs alwhilst trying, but missing, to insert a spoon of cereal into their mouths.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had to make sure the goddam fucking computer was turned on (“oh is that why internet didn’t work?”) before going through troubleshooting steps, only to be meet with a “oh wow it’s working”.
Argh.
The other thing about work from home is that 10 years ago when I started my job I might have taken 8 hours to do a particular job.
Now I’m able to do it in 1 hour (ok fine, 5 mins via scripting and shit). I don’t need to explain or justify to my boss what I’m doing in the 7 hours as long as the job he pays me to do is getting done (I do time sensitive shit so it’s also being available at a moments notice to jump into action).
Most jobs come down to attitude. Now yes I’m doing my own stuff, picking the kids up at 3pm, walking my dog at lunch, but when the shit hits the fan I’m up at 2am, getting stuff back up and running and hitting/beating deadlines. I don’t mind the messy complex fucked up job and I don’t whinge/give my boss grief (unlike most of the staff I work with). He knows he can give me shit and it’ll get done, properly (not half assed), returned with even a bow tied across it and ready to present to his bosses without any further handling.
Otherwise WFH is just so superior to WFO, from a cost, time and sheer efficiency point of view.
You know those times at the office where things are slow so you walk the hallway or bullshit with colleagues or make a coffee run or spin in your chair?
You know what I’m doing during those times? Petting my dog. Making a sandwich. Pooping on my own toilet with three ply TP.
Different people like different things, I suppose. I don’t miss the commute or the bullshit, but I do miss interacting with colleagues. And I’m pretty sure I haven’t been promoted because I don’t have enough face time with the bosses. All that to say I am mixed on it.
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
Free the boys free the boys free the boys!
Yes. I have worked at both and I feel much more comfortable at home. It gives you a level of flexibility that is hard to describe. I can start my day early, take a break for an hour, and resume it when I feel I can give it the proper level of attention. When I was in office, there was a pressure to look like you’re working all the time. It felt hard to concentrate when the expectation was on dedicating the expected time to work rather than getting something done. With WFH, it’s more about getting your tasks done and generally no one cares when you do it. And I can slouch and prop my feet up and have videos/music/audiobooks playing and whatever else I want without anyone knowing, let alone caring. I don’t need to worry about a commute, and all my food and comforts are available when I want them. I can easily handle things like being at home for a package delivery or a technician repairing something or walking the dog or just doing laundry.
That being said, I will admit it is considerably harder to get help with a task in office. You can’t just have someone pop by to look at something for example. You can still do a call or message, but it’s a bigger barrier to overcome. With WFH, collusion for a group more often needs to be scheduled, and you don’t have an analogue for water cooler talk.
Many places that offer work from home also have an office somewhere, so I would recommend new employees go in while learning the ropes, then switch as they become more independent. And some people like having different locations to help switch between work and relaxation mentalities. And it can be nice to get out of the house too. But overall, WFH is much better for me.
Is it a specific field you’re in or can anyone apply, how do you go about finding a WFH job? I live in a very rural area, I have a job been at it 10 years but I’m ready too move on, there’s just nothing else around I want to do. I actually have fiber internet so that’s not a problem.
I’m a software developer, so there’s a lot of WFH positions at least compared to other fields. But unless you have particularly good connections you would probably need to get a related degree if you wanted a job at most places. I’ve also heard it’s not a good time to be applying unfortunately. You might be able to try for some WFH consulting work related to your current job. Big software companies will hire contractors for temporary work too I guess, but they would probably still want experienced candidates. For me, this was just a position I applied to a few years ago and was lucky enough to get an offer. I don’t think there’s a secret to it, sorry.
Ok. No i graduated highschool in 96. Farmed for 20 years after, got hurt. Now I’m just a parts manager at a small business. Just bored with it. I want change but at the same time I get off at 5 and am able to be with my family.
The downside is my boss, and pay even though he gives me vacation days, I am hardly ever allowed to use them in the summer time To begining of September . He homeschools his kid because he’s a dumbass maga clown. So he thinks it’s ok for my kids to miss School in September. if I want to go on a trip for a week. No. Which makes going on a family vacation hard.
That’s rough. I hope you are able to find something more flexible.
Have done wfh full time for about 6 years now (since the rona), I would never go back to a full time or even hybrid role unless forced. I would sooner quit my job if they forced me into a hybrid position.
The freedom is so much greater and I get so much more done than when I do occasionally have to go into an office for meetups or workshops (maybe 5-6 times a year).
The style of working is different to that of being in office, you have to be self motivating, semi-solo problem solving and you need a reasonably quiet workspace. This can be hard to get in some situations so I feel very lucky to be able to do it.
The company also needs to be setup to promote and support remote working, so having regular check ins with people and making sure people have support in place should they need it. Plus policies that work for remote workers as opposed to in office workers.
13/10 would recommend.
I’m 100% remote and while I miss hybrid I wouldn’t change anything. Less wear and tear on my vehicle and significant less money being spent on gas is great. But most of all not having to commute.
I work part time from home and part time in office
Pros
- I can concentrate better at home (Open space in office)
- Save time driving to and from work
- My own toilet
- Family cat can hang out with me (if I deserve his attention)
- Can chill out on the couch/bed when taking a break
- My own internet connection
Cons
- Harder to get in touch with collegues
- When I work from home for a longer time period, I feel sometimes isolated.
- Various household tasks trhoughout the day, which breaks my concentration