Anyone else love this new working from home thing?

[jvini]

I hate what's going on out in the world with this Pandemic, but I do love being home. I work from my deck in nice weather, see my family more, eat healthily at home, have more time to workout at home in the morning and no longer have 3 hours a day of commuting into New York City. Not to mention that I see my team more over Zoom and work more efficiently.

I hope we get back to 'normal' but I can't see going back to how things were. It helps that I like what I do for work.

[steve321]

I love working from home,I haven't left the house since the beginning of March and feeling very happy, also the healthy food thing you mention is cool. I now have many meals a day, about a meal every 3 hours, since I workout in my home gym and frequent meals are better for MPS. Also much easier to stay focussed for me as I am not distracted.

[CycloRista]

Nope- I live in a major metropolitan area South of NYC...

I didn't mind going to the office. Bike commuted (~1.5 hours each way and not much different via subway) and ate healthy when in the office as well. I have more time to cook more complex meals for the family during the week while WFH.

I worked more efficiently at the office- not as much with team members (many in other sites); more so with higher-ups who came my way when the boss was unavailable.

[jvini]

I love working from home,I haven't left the house since the beginning of March and feeling very happy

Same! I do wear my 'Introverts unite! Separately, in your own homes' t-shirt, which may explain it.

[jvini]

Nope- I live in a major metropolitan area South of NYC...

I didn't mind going to the office. Bike commuted (~1.5 hours each way and not much different via subway) and ate healthy when in the office as well. I have more time to cook more complex meals for the family during the week while WFH.

I worked more efficiently at the office- not as much with team members (many in other sites); more so with higher-ups who came my way when the boss was unavailable.

I live in a major metropolitan area west of NYC and I don't miss any trains, Paths, or Subways in the City even for a second. Sounds like you had it good. I ate healthy and worked out a lot, but it meant getting up at 5:30 a.m. every morning and getting home at around 8 p.m. with work to do at home. It's a nice change of pace.

[steve321]

I love working from home,I haven't left the house since the beginning of March and feeling very happy

Same! I do wear my 'Introverts unite! Separately, in your own homes' t-shirt, which may explain it.

cool. I listened to a Coursera course yesterday, they said that social interactions and meeting people is very important for one's happiness, but I find the opposite. Glad to hear that there are other people like me

[as9]

I've worked from home for the last 4 years, so it's been business as usual for me. But yes, I love it.

Like you I commuted 90 minutes each way into Manhattan before I worked from home. I figured out after I started working from home that I used to spend around a month of every year commuting.

[core4portfolio]

i too love WFH. On my other end my friend who got 2 kids, not really enjoying WFH
Manage to do yoga otherwise i will be travelling 1.5 hours each way to office
Luckily my kid bothers less.

[runner3081]

Yes, absolutely. I am sure the company does as well, I work many more hours when at home.

Ii did it for another company from 2012 to 2014, at first hated it, then loved it. Went back to 100% office for a new company in 2014 and am now 2-3 days at home and 1-2 in the office.

[arcticpineapplecorp.]

has both pros and cons as with everything in life.

[tim1999]

It's great. I can get what used to take about 40 hours done in 25-30 at home. Plus, I can do it at whichever hour I choose. This frees up early mornings for golf, walking, and hikes. My employer was very old school and resistant to WFH pre-COVID, now they are developing a policy which will allow employees more choice in the matter for once COVID is over, if it ever is over.

The only minor complaint is that my employer won't allow us to hook up non-company owned equipment (printers/scanners) into company laptop computers for security reasons. Sometimes I need to print out lengthy documents to mail out for signatures, or I will need to scan in a lengthy paper document I've received from another party. The company won't buy me a company-approved printer/scanner to use at home, so every few weeks I have to go into the office for less than an hour to do those things. If it's just a one-page letter I'll email it to my personal computer and print it off of that, but since I don't think I'm necessarily overpaid, I'm not about to burn up my own ink or paper printing out 100 page documents on my own dime.

EDIT: I'll add that in the case of my team consisting of individual contributors reporting to a middle-management supervisor, this WFH forced experiment has proven to me that our immediate supervisor's position is not necessary and we could just as easily and effectively report to their boss. Which makes sense to me as why some of the biggest opponents of WFH seem to be middle management and front-line supervisor types.

[Ramjet]

everyone loves it. Companies sitting on commercial real estate that may not be as valuable as they thought!

[Normchad]

I really don’t like it at all. I have a short commute though.

As a Boss, I’ve never endorsed WFH, for various reasons. But now we are stuck in the middle of this unplanned experiment, and I have to admit, everything is working out just fine. (80% of the staff is full time remote right now). Much better than I ever expected it could. So that’s good news.

I’ve been at home the last week in quarantine. I still just don’t like it. But I think that’s just me.

I think WFH is 100% here to stay. You can’t put that genie back in the bottle. And it does have significant and compelling advantages for the workers, which is also great. Just a lot of positives all around.

[jebmke]

I think WFH is 100% here to stay. You can’t put that genie back in the bottle.

Could be. Or it could be just a transition to automation replacement for these workers. Hardware automation (of jobs where people actually have to do things on site) is likely going to accelerate now with higher cost of labor (distancing, safety protocols) and zero cost of capital. The same could end up being the case as AI becomes more prevalent. I think the initial large wave will be on the hardware side. Food processors are already going full bore on trying to engineer out a lot of jobs in food processing plants.

[PhillyPhan]

Work from home is great. I am the type of person who works best in complete silence which is impossible to achieve in the open office environment. A few other nice perks, less money spent on clothing, city wage tax is gone, and you can customize your work space with what works best for you (stand up desk, etc).

The only thing I miss is the on site gym. Gym equipment prices are crazy right now.

[Normchad]

I think WFH is 100% here to stay. You can’t put that genie back in the bottle.

Could be. Or it could be just a transition to automation replacement for these workers. Hardware automation (of jobs where people actually have to do things on site) is likely going to accelerate now with higher cost of labor (distancing, safety protocols) and zero cost of capital. The same could end up being the case as AI becomes more prevalent. I think the initial large wave will be on the hardware side. Food processors are already going full bore on trying to engineer out a lot of jobs in food processing plants.

That is also True. I’m all for automation. I think in 1900, 50% of all Americans worked in Agriculture. Now that number is 2%. And the upside is that more people can be involved in other things. It’s amazing that we can feed everybody with so little labor. Economic expansion is largely tied to productivity gains, so we need to embrace these things.

Now people are asking about WFW, work from wherever. I think that’s likely too. But the flip side is also true, Companies can start hiring from a much larger pool than they could before, and probably save some money. I can find remote engineers in Kansas City, right? Or Des Moines? I am *relieved* that I am nearing retirement. These possibilities should terrify people.

[LadyGeek]

This thread is now in the Personal Consumer Issues forum (how you spend your money and your time).

[PhillyPhan]

I think WFH is 100% here to stay. You can’t put that genie back in the bottle.

Could be. Or it could be just a transition to automation replacement for these workers. Hardware automation (of jobs where people actually have to do things on site) is likely going to accelerate now with higher cost of labor (distancing, safety protocols) and zero cost of capital. The same could end up being the case as AI becomes more prevalent. I think the initial large wave will be on the hardware side. Food processors are already going full bore on trying to engineer out a lot of jobs in food processing plants.

That is also True. I’m all for automation. I think in 1900, 50% of all Americans worked in Agriculture. Now that number is 2%. And the upside is that more people can be involved in other things. It’s amazing that we can feed everybody with so little labor. Economic expansion is largely tied to productivity gains, so we need to embrace these things.

Now people are asking about WFW, work from wherever. I think that’s likely too. But the flip side is also true, Companies can start hiring from a much larger pool than they could before, and probably save some money. I can find remote engineers in Kansas City, right? Or Des Moines? I am *relieved* that I am nearing retirement. These possibilities should terrify people.

They should terrify the cities that rely on their tax base or maybe commercial real estate or those who work in that industry, but the shift to wfh should not result less net workers so its tough to see how it would result in less jobs.

[Clever_Username]

I'm a teacher, and I don't find I get the same satisfaction from teaching that I did in person. I also think most students don't get anywhere near the same quality of education. My commute, at least for the 2019-20 school year portions that were pre-Covid, wasn't bad at all, and if anything, I probably waste more time in the mornings at home than I did when I had to get up and go to an office.

[youngpleb]

Haven’t worked a single day from home in all of this

[onourway]

It has been tough as a family of 5 with 3 younger kids with both parents working at home in a house that was only marginally big enough for pre-covid life. That said, other than the challenge of keeping the kids on task and occupied, I am finding I like WFH much more than I ever anticipated. I have a short (sub-10 minute) commute to the office, and like my office and co-workers, and miss a bit of the interactions with them - but overall I find that I am getting just as much or more work done at home and really enjoy eliminating all the rush of getting kids out the door to school or camps in the morning, running errands if possible during the day, and picking everyone up in the evening then trying to fit dinner in.

If the kids get to go back to school at least half time in the fall, I’ll consider this just about perfect - and a lifestyle that I would not have previously considered possible.

[Texanbybirth]

Yes, I love it for many reasons. We even decided to add another kid to our brood! There are so many jobs that can't WFH, so I really hope those people are able to find/keep gainful employment soon.

(Does anyone have any insightful articles/essays about this huge shift to WFH? I'm guessing at this point there are some really insightful reflections/research on it.)

It has been tough as a family of 5 with 3 younger kids with both parents working at home in a house that was only marginally big enough for pre-covid life. That said, other than the challenge of keeping the kids on task and occupied, I am finding I like WFH much more than I ever anticipated. I have a short (sub-10 minute) commute to the office, and like my office and co-workers, and miss a bit of the interactions with them - but overall I find that I am getting just as much or more work done at home and really enjoy eliminating all the rush of getting kids out the door to school or camps in the morning, running errands if possible during the day, and picking everyone up in the evening then trying to fit dinner in.

If the kids get to go back to school at least half time in the fall, I’ll consider this just about perfect - and a lifestyle that I would not have previously considered possible.

We've got 3 little ones (5, 3, 1, another due at Christmas), and I can't imagine us both trying to WFH right now. Hope things get easier!

[jabberwockOG]

Before I retired in 2016, I worked from home for almost the last 20 years. Managing a consulting business for a F100 corp, I essentially made my living talking on the phone and emailing, with sporadic self selected/directed travel to visit teams/clients/projects - just for novelty most of the time. During the last 10 years or so, I would schedule my calls around a daily after lunch nap. Did not miss going into an office for a second.

[AerialWombat]

I’ve worked from home for a full decade. It’s the best thing since pre-shredded cheese.

I won’t say that I “wouldn’t trade it for anything” — I’d probably accept an invitation to be Secretary of the Treasury or a multi-million dollar per year C-suite job at a company I admire — but since that will never happen, I will always work from home.

[tiburblium]

WFH isn’t new to me, regular, flexible WFH has been a norm at every company Ive worked for in the past 12 years. That said, I had never worked 100% remote before as we are doing now.

We live in the outer Atlanta suburbs, so I really don’t miss the commute which was about 1hr each way. More importantly, to be honest, the office itself is just a counter productive work envoirnment. At home I have a large private office with a comfortable egronomic setup , dual 30” displays, etc. At work, it was an open office environment with subpar gear, despite wearing noise canceling headphones it was hard to really focus there, I would always plan my weeks and do the meaningful focused work durinf WFH days, other staff shared my thoughts on this, needless to say it’s been a huge prodicitivy boost. Also, it’s actually easier to collaborate while WFH because everyone has a private office and can video chat at anytime. At the office, everyone communicated with slack even if they sat nearby, because everyone had to wear noise cancelling headphones to attempt to concentrate.

I doubt our company will ever ask us to come back to the office at this point, but they are stuck with the lease for years

[TonyDAntonio]

I loved working from home right up until IBM said, "Hey, why are we paying this guy in CA so much when we can get two guys in Brazil to do (roughly) the same thing. " They must have gotten a good deal because they even declined my offer to work for 50% less. If you can do your job from home someone can do it from some far away place for much less. Be great at your job and keep your head on a swivel when you work from home.

[KlangFool]

I loved working from home right up until IBM said, "Hey, why are we paying this guy in CA so much when we can get two guys in Brazil to do (roughly) the same thing. " They must have gotten a good deal because they even declined my offer to work for 50% less. If you can do your job from home someone can do it from some far away place for much less. Be great at your job and keep your head on a swivel when you work from home.

TonyDAntonio,

FYI. I telecommute from Asia for my US job and getting paid US salary for many years.

KlangFool

[quantAndHold]

A few weeks ago, Facebook surveyed their employees and found that over half of them prefer to work in the office.

I like to work at home a couple of days a week to avoid the commute and get some individual work done, but the people parts of my job were always much easier and more fun in person. I always thought I was an introvert until COVID came along. It turns out, I’m not.

A 90 minute each way commute sounds like a life choice problem, not a problem with the job itself.

[mnsportsgeek]

Not me. I like leaving my house.

[brianH]

Yep, but I'm used to it. Been doing anywhere from 100% to 3/5 days from home for the majority of my career (software engineer.) I've always been a huge proponent of WFH, and one positive to this pandemic is that many other workers (and employers) have had their eyes opened to its benefits.

My work recently did a survey, and the vast majority of employees liked or loved WFH. Only a few people had issues with it. This is on top of the CEO remarking that he was very pleased with the output and smoothness of the transition. I don't know how anyone in a position of power can look at those types of answers/results and not realize the game has changed, forever.

I can see a future where companies maintain a small office with only meeting spaces and minimal floating desks. Those that need to meet in person (or with guests) can commute in for a few hours of meetings and head back home.

[simplesimon]

I miss interacting with coworkers face to face. Working with good people is one of the best things about my job.

[cockersx3]

I think it depends on your own personal situation and work style. I personally love it - get about 2 hrs / day back in commuting time, plus more time with my wife and family which is great. The one thing I hated most of all about my job was the level of business travel, but thanks to COVID that has dropped off to zero. Still thinking seriously about retiring early next year (at 48) once bonuses come out, but for now this situation is definitely better,

My team's reaction has been mixed. For example, I have several staff members that live alone and are bored to death at home - they have regularly asked me when the office is opening back up again so they can get back to the office and see other people. There are also staff members with young children at home that are not doing well with WFH, since most of the daycare centers are still closed. So like I said, it depends.

[Mudpuppy]

I miss the socialization aspects of the office. Zoom social hours are just not quite the same thing. That said, I am more efficient at my job since there are fewer socialization interruptions.

[atikovi]

I hope we get back to 'normal' but I can't see going back to how things were. It helps that I like what I do for work.

I could do another 6 months of this easy, but I worked from home most days before this anyway.

[Pigeon]

I love it. Zoom meetings are odd, but I find they tend to be shorter and fewer. I do miss socializing with a handful of people, but we do zoom lunch every few weeks. If I never saw some of them again it would be too soon.

[knightrider]

I am not a fan of WFM. Out of sight and out of mind. Co-workers don't reach out to me and when they do it is via impersonal and inefficient email or chatting. Nobody seems to want to get on the phone to discuss issues.

In the office co-workers would stop by my office to chat face to face about issues. It is much easier to collaborate that way when I can read their non-verbal cues.

People are using this WFM as an excuse to take a vacation from work. As they say, when the cats away the mice will play.

I am sure my opinion is going to offend some , but the this has been my reality.

[megabad]

There have been a couple of posts on this, but I will just say that I am not the biggest fan, but I totally get why some folks love it. Its just that my team does work that is best done in a collaborative environment. I have noticed employee output has dropped and two way communication with some of my team has declined quite a bit. The end result is forcing tons of calls on people which everyone dislikes and further decreases efficiency. Much easier to walk 10 steps to someone's desk in the office and ask them a question.

This was touched on re:IBM above, but I would also reinforce that if your job can be done from home, you might want to worry about becoming unemployed in the future. These folks are pretty common targets for layoffs or outsourcing in my experience.

[Superleaf444]

delete

[Elsebet]

For me there are pros and cons. I like not having to rush out the door every morning to commute and being home is certainly more convenient.

I relocated to a new city/company in April 2020. Apart from my initial interview in February 2020, I have not been into my office. I don't even have a badge to get in yet. It feels very fake to be honest and sometimes I wonder if I would be let go first due to never actually interacting with most of my teammates in person even though I am a high performer. Luckily my company is doing well so that's more mild paranoia than reality (I hope). We had a team member retire last month and we all said goodbye via MS teams instead of having a retirement party. A lot of people commented that they felt very sad about not being able to say goodbye in person.

It's very socially isolating for me to not have a workplace to meet people in. Most of my friends originated from work or hobby gatherings, neither of which is going on much at the moment. I miss going out for lunches and just having someplace to go socialize a bit. At my last company we telecommuted 2 days a week and had 3 days in the office, I thought this was a perfect arrangement.

I find myself trying to reach out to my team members for collaboration but since it has to be scheduled it feels forced.

Honestly I really miss just seeing people, at least a few days a week.

[THY4373]

I am an introvert here so I am loving it. I already worked three days a week from home so going to five wasn't a major change. My commute was only about 10-15 mins so far from awful. I manage a team of 12 folks of which only two are located in the same physical location as me so honestly not much difference if I am in the office or not with who I interact with physically. My org is looking at expanding their telework policy mostly to remove some geographical limitations (full time was already an option). That is going to help me as I approach retirement as it may allow to me to relocate to my retirement destination prior to retirement.

[black jack]

I like it. But my child is grown; I have colleagues with small children and I can't imagine what they're going through now, trying to work and take care of their children.

Nope- I live in a major metropolitan area South of NYC...

I didn't mind going to the office. Bike commuted (~1.5 hours each way and not much different via subway) and ate healthy when in the office as well. I have more time to cook more complex meals for the family during the week while WFH.

That's something I miss. I bike commuted also, 1 hour + each way year-round. I enjoy biking, but I'm a bit lazy, and the commute provided structure for me to exercise regularly. I also worked out at the gym at the office. I don't bike anywhere near that much now, and feel I'm getting out of shape, especially strengthwise (easy to put off doing those pushups). Got to find a new structure for exercising.

[CycloRista]

Nope- I live in a major metropolitan area South of NYC...

I didn't mind going to the office. Bike commuted (~1.5 hours each way and not much different via subway) and ate healthy when in the office as well. I have more time to cook more complex meals for the family during the week while WFH.

I worked more efficiently at the office- not as much with team members (many in other sites); more so with higher-ups who came my way when the boss was unavailable.

I live in a major metropolitan area west of NYC and I don't miss any trains, Paths, or Subways in the City even for a second. Sounds like you had it good. I ate healthy and worked out a lot, but it meant getting up at 5:30 a.m. every morning and getting home at around 8 p.m. with work to do at home. It's a nice change of pace.

Yes- generally quite good. I had a job in the past for more than a decade that was <3 miles from home. I'd make a 10-15 bike commute out of it most days that I pedaled into the office. New job is going to be ~6 miles from home which is "just about right" for extreme hot or cold weather commutes.

I'm hard wired to get up early ~98% of the time these days (in the last ~5-10 years of my career). I sort of like the morning work commute routine in spite of being a less routinized sort of person in general- especially as compared to my very detail oriented wife

[novolog]

DW and I have been working remotely at the family lake-side camp. We have the benefits of many activities that don't require a lot of human interaction (fishing, waterskiing, boating, swimming). Before COVID we worked in an office in a HCOL city, and we spent 3 hours in the car on Friday driving up to camp. Now we can step out on the dock in the morning with coffee in hand.

I have mixed feelings because this situation is ideal for us, and our jobs seem secure (for now...), but we are very aware that much of the country is struggling.

[Maverick3320]

I hate what's going on out in the world with this Pandemic, but I do love being home. I work from my deck in nice weather, see my family more, eat healthily at home, have more time to workout at home in the morning and no longer have 3 hours a day of commuting into New York City. Not to mention that I see my team more over Zoom and work more efficiently.

I hope we get back to 'normal' but I can't see going back to how things were. It helps that I like what I do for work.

On the whole I like working from home, but since I'm only 50 feet from the goodies in the pantry, I actually find it a bit harder to eat healthy

[Maverick3320]

I am not a fan of WFM. Out of sight and out of mind. Co-workers don't reach out to me and when they do it is via impersonal and inefficient email or chatting. Nobody seems to want to get on the phone to discuss issues.

In the office co-workers would stop by my office to chat face to face about issues. It is much easier to collaborate that way when I can read their non-verbal cues.

People are using this WFM as an excuse to take a vacation from work. As they say, when the cats away the mice will play.

I am sure my opinion is going to offend some , but the this has been my reality.

I'm not offended by your opinion at all. What we found in our office here was that those that tended to slack off in the office were the same people that tended to slack off at home.

Personally, I prefer a mix of work and office: Knock out all the in-person meetings and collaborations on Mondays, and then work a flex schedule the rest of the week.

[TomatoTomahto]

It seems to me that it’s really convenient for those whose day consists mostly of meetings with a global workforce. Many meetings were virtual regardless of current events. DW used to take business trips to various locations, and those are (happily) curtailed, but the weekly meetings with the workers there were virtual (cue Talking Heads Same As It Ever Was). A good manager can build strong teams even without bi-annual physical get together.

[Jags4186]

I liked it for a while but, as a sales person not really wanting to get back out onto the road, in an industry that has taken a beating, I’m extremely nervous about my position. I have been working 10-15 hours/wk for 2 months or so now. This isn’t sustainable and I’m unsure how to move forward.

I talk to people on my team but no one is willing to admit they aren’t that busy. Maybe they are busy and I’m the outlier. And if that’s the case, I wish someone could give a little direction.

[megabad]

It seems to me that it’s really convenient for those whose day consists mostly of meetings with a global workforce. Many meetings were virtual regardless of current events. DW used to take business trips to various locations, and those are (happily) curtailed, but the weekly meetings with the workers there were virtual (cue Talking Heads Same As It Ever Was). A good manager can build strong teams even without bi-annual physical get together.

I think this is the view of a lot of our younger employees have. I do think you can still build a strong team, but I don’t think people realize how much work it is and how much is lost without the in person interaction. I would say all the time my team has saved on commuting is now added to my workday scheduling calls with them “building a strong team”. It really is silly that I have to schedule a call with someone just to do a check in that would have been a quick office walk by.

I am grateful to have a few team members now that are in different time zones just so I can extend my workday to 10 or 11 hours to make time for everyone. Usually lunch time is blocked too. Add that to the additional hundred emails I am getting per day and WFH seems pretty inefficient to me. My team is pretty considerate of my time and pretty hard working too. I would hate to imagine if I had problems. Unfortunately it is turning me into a person that just has meetings and never does any real work or planning. I always said I would never become that. I am just hoping for maybe a middle ground, at least a few days per week in the office once things return to normal.

Edit: since i got a message about it...I’m currently on vacation on a lake not working lol.

[tainted-meat]

I've worked from home / traveled for a decade. I don't think I could go back to an office job.

[New Providence]

Working From Home is great.