I’ve had a lot of kickback from my team about returning because the CEO won’t give an actual reason why everyone has to be back min 4 days a week, other than ‘cUlTuRe’ which is crap. It was then conveyed to me that apparently you cannot manage a team working from home, you have to be in the office for that.
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Yeah, it does depend on industries, and also on individual roles within industries and even the status of individual teams. Some people need to be client-facing, sometimes you have new people on board and it’s easier for them to learn the ropes in person, etc etc. But in my situation, none of these apply.
My workplace talks about Agile Methodology all the damn time, and among the fundamental tenets of that philosophy of work is that your teams should be self-organising and independent and set their own processes at a low, coalface level, and that you should prioritise getting working product out the door over adhering to unnecessary bureaucratic rituals. So when the big boss in the USA makes a top-down dictum that imposes a single work from office requirement on all teams regardless of fit, and when we’ve spent two years proving that being in the office is not necessary to do our jobs, but we’re told we have to come in anyway - that ■■■■■■ me off. Fkg hypocrites.
I get that sometimes the office is a necessity. I’ve done a LOT of huge long round-table project analysis and design meetings, weird diagrams on whiteboards all over the place. You can’t do that online, and for that, a in-person requirement is reasonable and understandable. It’s the office requirement in the 90%+ of the rest of my job, for no good reason whatsoever, that has me browing LinkedIn.
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I am fine with returning only 1 day a week. But that’s because in my job I mostly work with interstate people. It’s nice to get dressed up and get coffees, lunch and strolls down the mall. I couldn’t imagine ever doing it full time again.
I still maintain like someone pointed out above that WFH is great for established employees but for newbies or graduates it might be strange. I don’t think we’ll know full extent of how this all pans out for years to come. It is definitely never going back to how it used to be though. Which I think is wonderful. Team hybrid over here.
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Internal meetings aren’t too much of a problem.
Face to face we could do 1 per consultant group in a week and have enough time to get the work in time for the next meeting.
But these have doubled in length and doubled in number for us.
Clients are demanding we do things quicker without any additional fees associated.
All whilst we are struggling to attract good quality workers to help with workload and people isolating from covid.
We had one client say they don’t care that they have covid they must attend a meeting (online) even if in a hospital.
The frantic pace has been set now. Our fees have also been set. So there is very little we can do.
We are going to lose clients the way we are going, but if they aren’t willing to pay for our services, that’s probably better than operating at a continual loss (or severely reduced profits).
For me, I prefer working from home. I get through my tasks with very little distraction. I get a good lunch break whereas I don’t when in the office. In the office, it’s too easy for another staff member to distract me to help them out with their problem. I don’t mind helping, but it inevitably becomes doing it for them which just takes away from the time I need to finish my tasks. I have no problem doing that if we’re working on the same project, but that isn’t the case.
WFH does have its downfalls. Training for younger staff is downright terrible. Simply because the oldies prefer doing stuff face to face rather than do things electronically. Good offices will heavily train their staff on how to work remotely and electronically so that you don’t have the ‘I have a hand markup on my desk at work, next time you’re in just grab it’ kind of thing.
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“Woof-ha”, surely.
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WFH is the Gen x/ Millennial version of Boomers and their cheap houses and free uni.
You’ve hit a point in your career where a promotion isn’t on the cards and your not looking for one. Where you can comfortably cruise with the status quo, getting paid well to do what you know how to do. So screw it let me wfh. Just ignoring all the one on one and face to face interactions that enabled your own career.
Gen z thinking F you selfish bastards how am I supposed to get to where you got to in your career. Actually they probably aren’t thinking this yet, they are probably just happy not having to deal with the normies for 10 hours a day. But it’s coming…
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I’ve just returned to the office 3 days per week - I have 2 days at home. This is basically the maximum allowed at the moment, unless there are significant circumstances.
Was in there today, thinking “there is absolutely no need for me to be here!”
I work in a national team, and there’s no-one else in my team in the Vic office. My team leader is in Hobart, director is in Canberra. So I’m commuting two hours a day to sit at a desk on my own, working on documents and conducting meetings online - which can be done just as well at home! if anything, better from home - there are less distractions at home - no-one walking past, stopping for some gossip etc.
Plus I’ve just demonstrated I was just as productive if not more productive WFH for the past two years!!
When I’m at home, I can do things like use my morning break to hang washing out, can head out for a grocery shop at lunchtime, and I get an extra two hours a day to do other stuff as I’m not having to commute! I’m pretty strict with the separation between work time and home time, and once the computer is off, it’s off!
I also had heaps less sick leave during the two years WFH - wasn’t being exposed to the usual colds etc that come with traveling on public transport.
And don’t get me started on the “gotta get back into the CBD and buying coffee to support the economy” thing. What about the little coffee shop around the corner from home, they don’t need supporting as well?!
I get there are industries where WFH doesn’t work as well, but for me, there is really no reason to have to go into the office. Our remote working policy is currently being updated - I’m hoping they consider allowing more days at home 
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You need to take a photo of the office in the background as seen from your desk and then upload it to your cumputer and make it the virtual background when you do meetings. Nobody will ever guess! 
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My favourite is the on site team meeting where someone forgot to book a meeting room, so entire team sits at their desks and holds the meeting virtually anyway 
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What the Fark Homie?
That was happening at my work long before covid. I couldn’t believe it as at my previous job, that was a big no-no.
Your 2nd paragraph is spot on. I have to constantly remind many peers that they wouldn’t be in the roles they are in today if they hadn’t been working with others for many years beforehand. I say this for myself too.
I also pointed out very early in the pandemic, I am not sure how office romances will work in the future. This is a way many people have met their short term or life long partners.
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Yep I reckon I’ve learnt about 5% of stuff by sitting at a computer screen vs 95% interacting with other people. You can still get some of that happening remotely but no way can it compare.
There were 6 couples in my office (at last count in 2019 as it was a christmas party trivia question) who met through work!
In an office of ~100 people.
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Alternatively there’s less divorce as old men aren’t running off with their secretaries
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You won’t be the only one that wants to continue WFH.
When things settle out, companies wanting people to come into the office will end up having to pay more to get it or lose staff to more flexible companies.
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The challenge for businesses is having solid enough metrics to work out what work their people are actually getting done day to day, without needing to literally watch people.
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what? no.
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last year was sjust a collection of vaguely waves hand in the air