Ask Lemmy

It's alright.

I'm glad I can take my laptop and essentially work anywhere with a power outlet and an internet connection.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Oh, yeah, I've been self-employed from home for years. Go to bed when I want, wake up when I want. I usually get my work done before noon, and have the rest of the day. On the day of an event, I might put in 12-15 straight hours of hard work at a job site, but that's only once or twice a week, and it's actually the fun part of the job.

I don't miss office politics at all, and it only sounds like it's gotten far worse.

Totally love WFH. I can hang out with my dog while working, get laundry done on breaks, and no commute leaves way more free time in my life. I would never go back to working in an office unless I was in dire straights.

I work from home for about 75% of my work. Today, I have to drive somewhere this morning, and then again somewhere this evening. I will spend in the realm of 2.5-3 hours in the car today. I do not get paid for travel. I will not be able to get in my daily run today. I probably won't see my kids after I drop them at school. I'll get home around 11pm tonight.

So yeah, I love wfh. But for the case of my job tonight, it's very good money, and not the perfect use case for remote (although certainly doable considering we did for years), and so I eat it, it's whatever. I generally have 7 or so jobs a month that I need to travel. Twice the commute is about 40m each way. The other five are 5-15m commutes so they're fine.

As an engineer, hybrid works best for many of us.

Design phase can be wfh with some in-person idea sessions or important meetings because I have yet to be at an online idea session that was as productive as in-person being able to draw things out and visualize better, and people tend to not speak up or just check out and agree at the end in online meetings.

Testing phase has to be mostly in person for lab tool access and collaboration on physical things.

I have worked with a contractor that did everything from home and had a whole home lab, but it was a big time sink and cost shipping parts back and forth 5 times and you couldn't physically probe behaviors together which leads to slightly different setups and sometimes different results.

Socially I moved to a place where I had no friends so I like getting social contact at work since in Belgium, it is extremely difficult to make new friends after you are done with school because of a culture of not talking to anyone else unless people are obnoxiously drunk lol. I like wfh on overwhelming days and in-person on days where I want more social contact.

That being said, I work 100% in office now because I live a 12 minute bike ride from work, so very easy.

Single father with two school aged kids, mom lives in another state. I’ve turned down a couple higher paying executive roles that have been offered to me the last few years because I don’t know how I could make it work. I get my kids up at 7 and the latest one can’t be to school until 9. I have to start getting them from school at 3:30. I’m sure I could figure it out, plenty of people less fortunate than I am but I guess that I’ve decided that I’m incredibly fortunate that I can always be around and available for my kids and I don’t think I would disrupt that for any amount of money as long as I can provide for them this way. I do miss the social aspects of my colleagues sometimes though which really surprised me.

I love it. No commute, optional shower, no pants. I'm not a very big pants guy, and that's a huge seller.

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

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 used to get overstimulated a lot at office jobs. Turns out I can prevent it just fine from home. For my own mental and physical health I’ll pick working from home any day of the week. Some meetings are more useful in person though, so I do go to the office for those.

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.

I'd be honest. I'd personally love a dedicated WFH day(s) it's truly the best of both worlds

On ocassion yes.
But as you said it feels kinda lonely.
And I get really easily distracted. Last time I had a major side quest I did instead of doing my actual job.

Edit: And I have no office. I value my mental sanity by segregating my home/living space from my working place.

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.

Depends on how busy I am. If I'm just sitting around waiting to hear from people or deal with shit as it occurs. Yea WFH is nice because I have more shit to occupy my downtime. If I'm busy and need to focus it sucks ass. Also it's nice to interact with the coworkers I actually like in person and I think it makes us get along a lot better and work more effectively. I don't know how many of my coworkers would agree though. All of them except one barely come into the office. It's just my opinion though I wouldn't try to force them in more.

Yes. Cat.

Really one day I realized I rather eat lunch with my cats than any of my coworkers and have never looked back

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.

I do a lot of telework and very little on-site work. Like 80% teleworking. I love the telework. I get to sleep 45 minutes later, don't have to get frustrated during my commute, save money on gas, have a discounted auto insurance rate, save on car maintenance, socialize with my coworkers over Teams (which is as much as I need to socialize with them), eat most of my meals with my wife who I enjoy spending time with. All the downtime at my job is now spent doing things like washing dishes, doing laundry, watching TV and movies, and reading, instead of listening to coworkers talk about inane stuff or having admin hover around micro- managing.

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.

I need the home-work separation, or both suffer. I constantly get distracted from work with home stuff, and can't be fully present with family at home because I'm thinking about work.

People who socialize in the office hate wfh

People who socialize outside of the office love wfh

Unquestionably yes. My coffee doesn't taste like shit, and my PJs are far more comfortable than any office attire imaginable.

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.

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 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.

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've been fully remote for 12 years. I've had two jobs during that time and moved five times over three countries.

I'm glad I got into my industry on-site. But I've come to realize that I hate cities. I hate commutes. I'd rather take a pay cut and live somewhere cheap.

My wife works from home, too. We have two dogs. We do our meetings, have time for focused work and grab lunch together.

My previous job was definitely not lonely or isolating. I was the go-to-guy for everything, so people video calling all day long. My current job gives me space to get shit done. I've got two days a week blocked off for just deep code mode. No meetings.

If you don't like the job on-site, then you're not going to like it remote. You've got to do something that feels rewarding.

I have a sick setup at home. Plus all the conveniences others mentioned already.

But really, it's being with the family, seeing your kids during the day. I don't want to just come home when they're already asleep.

I WFH 2 days a week and commute to three different offices according to where they need me. WFH is for concentration, office time is for collaboration.

No. I have ADHD and need external pressure to be productive.
Working from home in my job doesn't signal that pressure.
Most of the tasks that are assigned to me can always wait for another day.
So at home, I mostly just browse Feddit.
At work, I have people around me who can see my screen, and I can hear the issues my colleagues are having.
And since a day of fucking around makes me feel more exhausted at the end than a day working productively, I prefer going to the office.
The bicycle commute that wakes me up in the morning, releases stress in the evening, and keeps me fit, is a bonus.

Your own toilet and good toilet paper instead of the cheapest waxy one-ply 🙏 your own control over the AC/heat instead of freezing/sweating 🙏 never having to smell someone heating up fish in the microwave 🙏

I'm 100% remote and love it

I'd say not having to commute is a huge benefit of WFH, but it has some pitfalls that can negatively impact your work performance depending on what you do.

I've been WFH since 2020, and it's working well for me.

There are some obvious benefits such as not having a commute, being able to do laundry during breaks and always being there when a package arrives.

Some maybe less obvious advantages I personally enjoy is being able to eat whenever, meaning a quick snack but also my lunch, and wearing less appealing but way more comfortable clothes.

Oh, and shitting in my own toilet. While getting paid for it. Definitely that.

I'm not gonna dismiss the potential challenges, though. It works well for me because I don't mind being alone and I'm lucky to have a spare room to use as an office. Without those two factors it could easily enter suck territory.

I like it. I would not go back.

But I have a nice home office, don’t live alone, and found office culture and colleagues to be disruptive.
I have ADHD. My job tends to be wide but not necessarily deep. A “quick question” can cause me to lose my train of thought, cause me to get disordered while trying to figure what the hell I was doing, get shut down by the frustration, and lose hours in ‘wait mode’ for the next interruption because it took me so long to enter a flow state that I’m fearful I’ll get interrupted again.

Being able to shut my office door, silence notifications, and focus with music playing in the background has been incredible for me.

It is lonely and isolating. Especially after my divorce.

Idk. I really don't.

I get paid to be on a computer while sitting at home. regardless of the output or pay, the environment is exquisite.
I did Corp office work for ... years... then worked toward wfh goals toward end of 20-teens. been remote since 2019.

but there's a certain expectation and performance that comes with it. years of Corp work taught me to be punctual and professional, etc. politeness / teamwork /soft skills still come into play, even remotely.