How much working from home do you actually do?

[Princessax]

Been WFH since March and been told we won’t ever be back in the office 8:30-5 again as we’ve proved we can do the work just as good at home. Although I definitely feel much more pressure WFH, we’ve been swamped since the start (key worker industry) and I definitely put in more hours at home. It’s so easy to just nip onto the computer and send some emails after 5 or go on at the weekend - totally feel the guilt when your status turns to orange on teams even though your having lunch / making a coffee. Also find myself sending some pointless emails sometimes so I’m proving I’m busy and not just watching Netflix etc!

Find I have no motivation to get dressed and do my face at home. I miss the office vibe and being able to separate work environment with home

 

[Mememe9]

Depends on the day: I love working from home but find I get more distracted by doing house stuff. Then I end up aldi etc

 

[CatCafe234]

Huge, huge increase in workload, which was already high. It’s not been uncommon for me to start a 6am and still be working at 11pm, with a couple of meal breaks in between. I recently moved roles as I just couldn’t manage the long working hours of my previous role any more and things are slightly better - no overtime but we do get TOIL, but when you start building up many hundreds of hours it all becomes a bit irrelevant. My workplace talks the talk about support and balancing working hours, but in real life it’s just mushroomed.

 

[TheScarletgirl]

Really depends on the day some times i do two days of work in a day some days some days i go around the house and do very little .

 

[bunnyboo]

I've found my workload has been the same since transitioning to working from home and my work performance has increased.

There's a few reasons behind this though:

1. The company I work for is a start-up with quite lax rules for people in my department. We already had generous flexi-time for my team, and I worked from home once or twice a week. So I already had a handle on how to work remotely (as did the rest of my team).
2. My commute to the office was crazy, two buses to the office and two buses home. I'd spend an average of 3 - 4 hours on very crowded public transport, and it was getting quite depressing. To beat rush hour, I'd get my first bus at 6.30am to be in work for 8am. I'd leave the office at 4.45pm, and get home at about 7pm (7.30 on bad days). I wouldn't have any time/energy/willpower to do anything in the evenings... I was so tired from commuting, I'd just fall asleep at 10pm.
3. This is a point I feel I have to make; my role is suited to working from home and I realise this puts me in a place of great privilege. I mentioned above that things are quite lax for my department. We are a team of programmers, and our jobs can be done from anywhere so long as you have a laptop and internet connection. We are treated with great respect by management. The same can NOT be said for my co-workers who work in customer service . They are paid duck all and not given the same respect that I would get. They are on calls with irate clients all day long and doing this from home, only adds to their problems.

When things get back to 'normal', some people/departments will transition back to working from an office but I'll probably only be commuting in and out of the office once a week so we can get all of our big meetings done in person.

 

[Peartree]

I don’t work from home but my colleagues do a couple of times a week. What I’ve noticed is they appear to do more work at home, but they seem to have to be seen to be working, they comment how many calls they make, what they’ve done, how busy they’ve been etc - as if they’re being watched.
Whereas I just go to work and because I’m actually in no one questions what I do.
I prefer being in, I like that separation, I like to see my other colleague/friends, have lunch together etc.

 

[1001 others]

I've been doing some work for a client for the past few weeks using their equipment and software. Weirdly, the guy I'm reporting to remote accesses in several times throughout the day to check what I'm doing (an alert pops up each time) - and this is in addition to a report that he receives at certain times throughout the day showing screenshots of what I've been doing. Whenever I leave my desk for whatever reason (bathroom, lunch, etc.), I have to enter a code in my 'away' status. On day 1 I forgot to remove the code to check back in after going to the bathroom, and he actually messaged me to find out why I took so long! I'm not used to working like this. Most days I start well before my official start time and I'm there far later than I'm being paid for, so this man's behaviour is rather insulting. I did actually make a comment to him about it last week, to which his response was that he doesn't trust anyone to actually do any work from home ... it's a bit sad really.

I only have two weeks to go and then I'll be able to get back to my regular (normal!) clients.

 

[Happy35]

I have been working from home for 4 weeks and it isn’t as bad as I thought (previously only did odd days at home) but I work 10-11 hour days as I am manically busy. I always work long days in the office but get more done at home, at least it stops lockdown boredom

 

[Penelope Strawberry]

Well, this is how I feel at the moment:

Really starting to feel like it's all work, no play.

Because of the nature of my job Covid travel restrictions changing constantly and at the last minute have had a huge knock-on effect on all of my planning and I am constantly shuffling things around.

I feel like a lot of employers also have an expectation now that employees working from home will work around the clock because there isn't much else to do during lockdown.

 

[JodieGreen123]

Well, this is how I feel at the moment:
View attachment 418730

Really starting to feel like it's all work, no play.

Because of the nature of my job Covid travel restrictions changing constantly and at the last minute have had a huge knock-on effect on all of my planning and I am constantly shuffling things around.

I feel like a lot of employers also have an expectation now that employees working from home will work around the clock because there isn't much else to do during lockdown.

Yeah I totally agree. My employer are very vocal with the 'get some time away from the screen' and telling us there is no expectation to work 'after hours' in communications from HR but that's not what senior management buy into, they really do want you working around the clock!

We've also got people opting to work late into the night so they can homeschool during the day which also sets the expectation that we can all be doing that!

 

[Penelope Strawberry]

Yeah I totally agree. My employer are very vocal with the 'get some time away from the screen' and telling us there is no expectation to work 'after hours' in communications from HR but that's not what senior management buy into, they really do want you working around the clock!

We've also got people opting to work late into the night so they can homeschool during the day which also sets the expectation that we can all be doing that!

Yeah, I've had comments like "I thought that it might be good for you to join that meeting at 8pm on Friday - I realise it's your evening, but you're in lockdown so it's not like you have anything else to do anyway!"

Uhm excuse me, I actually have a whole Married At First Sight Australia boxset that's not going to watch itself!

 

[ElektraWintour]

Erm not a lot at the moment as my work laptop has died and all I’m getting from IT is try turning it off and on again

 

[JodieGreen123]

Yeah, I've had comments like "I thought that it might be good for you to join that meeting at 8pm on Friday - I realise it's your evening, but you're in lockdown so it's not like you have anything else to do anyway!"

Uhm excuse me, I actually have a whole Married At First Sight Australia boxset that's not going to watch itself!

Oh my god! That’s so bad. Do you join the meetings or do you tell them that you do actually have a personal life?

 

[Penelope Strawberry]

Oh my god! That’s so bad. Do you join the meetings or do you tell them that you do actually have a personal life?

I refuse to join, or if it is a genuinely important meeting I attend but take the time back by logging off early on another day.

My company has given up our office and told us that we'll all remain home-based, so I really need to enforce boundaries about my work-home life now so that they don't get into the habit of assuming that I'm fine to work 24/7 because I have the luxury of not having to commute and being able to wear lounge wear.

 

[fxckmanet]

Sorry I know this thread has been inactive for a while, but today I found out I've got a new job (woop woop)
First couple of months I'll be in the main office doing induction and training, then I'll be working from home.
I've not had to work from home (I'm currently in the NHS so never had so much of a sniff of even a Zoom meeting) so I'm just wondering if anybody has any tips or anything? I'm turning our spare bedroom into a little office so I've got somewhere dedicated to work.
TY in advance!

 

[Peaches_xox]

Sorry I know this thread has been inactive for a while, but today I found out I've got a new job (woop woop)
First couple of months I'll be in the main office doing induction and training, then I'll be working from home.
I've not had to work from home (I'm currently in the NHS so never had so much of a sniff of even a Zoom meeting) so I'm just wondering if anybody has any tips or anything? I'm turning our spare bedroom into a little office so I've got somewhere dedicated to work.
TY in advance!

I’ve been working from home since March 2020. Prior to that I did two days a week. Having a space to work is a good idea cos it feels more like ‘work’
I have a desk. It’s easy to get caught up in not taking your breaks and stuff so always try to remember that just because you’re at home you’re still working and entitled to your breaks! I always make sure I always get up showered and dressed cos I just feel a bit more productive then sitting in my pjs. I’m sure you’ll settle into it just fine and never look back!

 

[JodieGreen123]

Sorry I know this thread has been inactive for a while, but today I found out I've got a new job (woop woop)
First couple of months I'll be in the main office doing induction and training, then I'll be working from home.
I've not had to work from home (I'm currently in the NHS so never had so much of a sniff of even a Zoom meeting) so I'm just wondering if anybody has any tips or anything? I'm turning our spare bedroom into a little office so I've got somewhere dedicated to work.
TY in advance!

Congrats on the new job!

 

[fxckmanet]

Congrats on the new job!

Thank you! So excited to start.

I’ve been working from home since March 2020. Prior to that I did two days a week. Having a space to work is a good idea cos it feels more like ‘work’
I have a desk. It’s easy to get caught up in not taking your breaks and stuff so always try to remember that just because you’re at home you’re still working and entitled to your breaks! I always make sure I always get up showered and dressed cos I just feel a bit more productive then sitting in my pjs. I’m sure you’ll settle into it just fine and never look back!

Thank you! Definatley gonna take it on board about taking my breaks, I can't say I've ever taken a full dinner break where I am so I'm used to working through it

 

[HelloStereo]

I used to work normal hours and I was quite productive. Got told last week I'm being made redundant and they will wind down marketing (which is what I do). I've done some stuff but there doesn't seem to be much point as it's not acknowledged and they're stopping lead generation anyway. Now I just sit on Reddit during office hours haha.

 

[Forallthoseasking]

Rekindling this thread as I work in tech so WFH pretty much permanently from now on as the company decided to downsize the pricey city centre offices.

I do a lot of work at home but annoyingly I've found that due to my partner and I always being home (he also works in tech so similar situation) we have become the bloody parcel drop off for the estate!

People I don't even know are putting "if not in leave at No X" on their delivery instructions and it's getting on my nerves!

I have ADHD so it takes forever to get back in the zone once I've had to run to the door