Who wants to go to the office? #2 No-one

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ClaudHopper said:
I'm so glad I found this thread. I much prefer working at home. I don't suffer from isolation at all. On the contrary, I'm far more productive in all aspects of my life. No commute = extra time in bed or a morning walk. I can catch up on light housework during quiet periods. No pointless chit chat. Better lunch options and I eat healthier for dinner as I can put something on during the day as I've no commute. The kids get picked up earlier and my mood is overall better when I'm not rushing around like an ant.
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Summed it up perfectly x
 
I go in oncee a week for 3 weeks of the month. The first week of the month I'm too busy tbh!. I'm lucky that my work are flexible!.

I get so much more done at home plus I get to stay on top of the house, take my delivery in, excersize and eat better!. Plus they get more out of me as I'm happier and there's no 2 hour commute so I usually finished much later than if I was in the office!

One of my team goes in 5 days a week because she doesn't have space at home. We usually try a team day once a week so there's usually a couple of people in.

When I'm in I spend all day chatting because people don't see me often. Also my boss is very "have you got a sec" just because I'm 2 seats away!! But it's ALL day!
 
@Tommyb that it in a nutshell. The interruptions are never ending.

My colleague who is majorly extroverted likes to go in 3-4 times per week. She feels isolated and demotivated at home. I get that, as I see her come to life chatting to various colleagues throughout the day. To me that's mindless interruptions and to her it's relationship building. We do the same job but with different approaches. I see the mindless chatter as holding me back from doing real work. I'll get the collab one way or another, but I don't need to be the office Mum and hear about everyone's woes in the process. I think introverts flourish at home whilst extroverts need the office. I'm interested in different points of view on this.
 
Worked from home 3 days a week pre-pandemic, probably since 2016/17 I think. Loved it.
then the pandemic hit and I was permanently at home, and kind of took it in my stride.
had a bit of a mental health crash and I don’t think the isolation and loneliness helped. Went back to the office 2 days a week (one day mandatory and one day optional) last August after around 30m aT home, and honestly loved it. Started to enjoy my 3 days WfH again.
Recently started a new role and whilst they advertised it as 2 office days a week, they’ve been reluctant to give me a pass to access the building. I’ve been there 6 weeks and my MH is suffering from the isolation. None of my team are based in the office I work in, but I need to be out of the house for my own good.
I eventually, last week, said I was going to raise a grievance against them if they didn’t give me access and now they have.
It’s helping me to focus, and even though I don’t know anyone in the office, it’s the commute, the wander through town, and being around people in an office environment that helps.

Office environment isn’t for everyone anymore, but nor is WfH. For the record, I have friends, a good social life, plenty of interests. I’m not some loner who’s looking for a reason to put normal clothes on and get away from the kids (don’t have any).
 
emm said:
I think a lot of it depends on your living space too, I like wfh for many reasons when I can but I am lucky to have a spare.room with a desk to do so, if I had to work in my bedroom or sitting room it wouldn't be great
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Agree with this, at the start of lockdown I was working at dining table and it felt like I was living at work as I could always see my monitor and work stuff. I moved stuff around the house and now use small bedroom and I can close the door and walk away from work. It makes a difference mentally to me.
 
The last time I was in the office, several people wouldn't STFU. I don't mind a bit of chatter, but literally every time I started to read my mountain of emails, or start some work, someone would interrupt to ask me something or just talk at me (usually ranting about some aspect of their work).

By mid afternoon I was ready to scream "will you please shut up and leave me to it?" 😂
 
Am I the only one still struggling with office life since the joys of our extended break from it in lockdown. I just find office days so stressful and wasteful. Starting with rush from home to office in the morning, dressing up for the day, doing drop offs, rushing for the train, the crush of people. Arriving into the office surrounded by small talk all day, can never just go to the printer or grab a drink but someone will come along and we will have to make some forced interaction about being busy or the weather! Constant interruptions all day and then physical meetings which start ten minutes late cos the room wasn’t available on time and people arrive late from their last physical meeting which over ran. All the while I’m thinking I could be at home in my own comforts getting all my work done, and some chores, get some fresh air, spend time with family, lunchtime gym, chat to neighbours. I just resent the office grind so much as it is unnecessary and honestly feels like 1992 going there now.
 
Ontherunrun said:
Arriving into the office surrounded by small talk all day, can never just go to the printer or grab a drink but someone will come along and we will have to make some forced interaction about being busy or the weather! .
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I agree with all of your post, but this part made me so glad it’s not just me!
I was questioning myself in the early hours, thinking that I don’t interact as well as others that I work with 😂 I sometimes avoid going to make my lunch at work if the kitchen is crowded 😳
But honestly; I have a certain amount of time to get a shed load of work done, and I feel so stressed sometimes when people don’t stop chatting.
Am trying to rack my brains to think of a job where I can freelance from home, because I genuinely like working but I’m rubbish at making small talk and conversation 😂
 
mee43 said:
I agree with all of your post, but this part made me so glad it’s not just me!
I was questioning myself in the early hours, thinking that I don’t interact as well as others that I work with 😂 I sometimes avoid going to make my lunch at work if the kitchen is crowded 😳
But honestly; I have a certain amount of time to get a shed load of work done, and I feel so stressed sometimes when people don’t stop chatting.
Am trying to rack my brains to think of a job where I can freelance from home, because I genuinely like working but I’m rubbish at making small talk and conversation 😂
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I rarely go to canteen anymore, the noise is unbearable I seem to work with people who dont have indoor voices and scream at each other even when they are a foot apart.
We are being moved around too and am going to be in a smaller office with more people. The idea of it is making me so anxious.
Office days are the worst of my week.
 
Samf2020 said:
I rarely go to canteen anymore, the noise is unbearable I seem to work with people who dont have indoor voices and scream at each other even when they are a foot apart.
We are being moved around too and am going to be in a smaller office with more people. The idea of it is making me so anxious.
Office days are the worst of my week.
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There’s a couple of people I work with who sit in two different rooms and insist on conversing by yelling down the corridor to each other. Actually makes me feel so rattled that it distracts me from my work!
I feel your pain. In my last job, we all more or less sat on top of each other in a big open plan office, with as many people crammed in as possible.
I hated it and ended up leaving.
Giving people a bit of personal space should be law when planning an office layout.
 
Sunflower91 said:
I’ve heard that some businesses enforcing return to work are doing it to make people leave as opposed to making redundancies/ having a restructure. It’s really crappy, especially after COVID when it didn’t matter where you lived anymore and they would hire people up and down the country.
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Can confirm this is true.
I’ve WFH since covid and have a small child due to start school in September. I do 1 day a week in the office, a 20 mile commute. I applied for flexible working - I wanted to go term time only, a huge request but to my shock, they agreed. We had the meeting to confirm contracts ahead of September and they said they were agreeing as long as I returned to the office full time.

I have since left and have finally found a fully remote job! Change can happen guys, hang in there and don’t settle for their corporate tit. A good company understands and appreciates hard work.
 
Can’t stand more than one day a week in the office. I feel like I get absolutely sod all done because people are constantly asking me questions and the noise is just ridiculous - people talking about boring stuff too. I don’t care about your wedding, or your house 🤣🙄.

We recently had a survey circulated around the team for us to complete based on our preferences and I’ve said the that the two days a week we are in are counterproductive and I want to go back to the one day week we used to do or ideally not at all considering we do our team meeting on a non-office day.

Sick of spending up to £40 a month on parking because of the city parking costs where I work as that would help towards my savings fund and/or holidays.

My balance of life is so much better when I’m WFH (I sleep better, I can go to the gym and still do my 7.5hr days) and I’m still delivering on my objectives.

For everyone who has mentioned control, it absolutely is that. I get a bit twitchy when leads in my team mention in our leads meeting the people who they don’t think are working - I feel like it comes from a guilty conscious.
 
petitspois said:
I think the very senior managers could be convinced wfh works but it threatens the middle men - after all, checking in on others (by virtue of catch up meetings, reports and so on) is basically all they do so they push for office days to keep control.
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This is quite literally all my ex managers did, check in on us via teams and hold weekly meetings which seemed pointless. Our team would have still ran smoothly without them.
 
I echo what you have all said. I work in finance and I do one day a week (over an hour in the car commute). I get so overstimulated in the office now. People talking constantly but I actually do have work to do!.
Also I like to avoid over sharing and quite frankly I don't need to know all the details of people's lives!.
Thank god my employer is so flexible. He's just grateful anyone makes the effort for the one day tbh!. He lives over an hour away too so doesn't want to come in either.
I sleep better, able to do exercise in the day, healthier lunch and way more productive at home. They probably do get more out of me too as I'm not logging off on time to make it home for a decent time!
 
I work a hybrid style, one week in the office, following week at home. I never get the Sunday night blues when I'm WFH the next day, I love being at home. I'm in a call centre environment so every second of my working day is monitored and scored, even loo breaks. Our WFH aftercall is being closely watched and several colleagues have to be permanently in the office as they are spending too long in aftercall. The office lights are awful and it's freezing cold, jumpers in summer freezing cold. I'd love to wfh permanently but they won't allow it.
 
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