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

[Branched]

I've loved working from home so I never thought I'd say this but recently I've been going into the office more and actually enjoying it. I live alone and eventually realised it wasn't healthy for me to hole up inside my tiny flat. I do benefit from the social interaction in the office and the routine of going in.

However, I only enjoy it because I go in on my own terms. What's working for me is 2 or 3 days a week, roughly 10am-4pm. In the morning, this gives me time to go to the gym / for a walk, sit down properly with breakfast and coffee, generally take things a bit slower rather than rushing round trying to get out the door first thing. The commute is way nicer and I can get a seat on the tube to read my book on the way in, rather than being crammed into an overpacked carriage. If I leave at 4pm, I mostly miss rush hour on the way home. Our hours are flexible and work is quiet at the moment so this hasn't been an issue.

We don't have an official company policy but we are being encouraged to go in as much as possible. I won't be surprised if one day they make it mandatory to be in the office x% of the working week. I've been quite vocal in telling seniors that I will not be returning 4-5 days a week and if they try to force me in, I will happily find a new job.

 

[AllSeeingEye123]

HUGH OSMOND: We MUST get back to working in the office

HUGH OSMOND: Vibrant city centres that used to buzz with life and laughter, particularly at lunchtimes and after work, are often echoingly empty these days.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Britons who wfh could pay an extra £209 in energy costs this winter

Working from home could lead to household energy bills being stretched by an extra £209 a month this winter, a new survey has revealed.

www.dailymail.co.uk

There is no end to these ridiculous articles.

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

HUGH OSMOND: We MUST get back to working in the office

HUGH OSMOND: Vibrant city centres that used to buzz with life and laughter, particularly at lunchtimes and after work, are often echoingly empty these days.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Britons who wfh could pay an extra £209 in energy costs this winter

Working from home could lead to household energy bills being stretched by an extra £209 a month this winter, a new survey has revealed.

www.dailymail.co.uk

There is no end to these ridiculous articles.

Boohoo. Wont someone think of the poor landlords

 

[AllSeeingEye123]

Boohoo. Wont someone think of the poor landlords

HUGH OSMOND: We MUST get back to working in the office

HUGH OSMOND: Vibrant city centres that used to buzz with life and laughter, particularly at lunchtimes and after work, are often echoingly empty these days.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Love the comments as they never let you down on these type of articles. He mentions all the empty buildings in London at the highest amount for a decade and a half. Well here is a novel concept. You see all those homeless people on the street? Give them a roof over their heads.

They could easily convert in to decent size flats to help with the lack of property.

 

[RibenaBerry]

HUGH OSMOND: We MUST get back to working in the office

HUGH OSMOND: Vibrant city centres that used to buzz with life and laughter, particularly at lunchtimes and after work, are often echoingly empty these days.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Britons who wfh could pay an extra £209 in energy costs this winter

Working from home could lead to household energy bills being stretched by an extra £209 a month this winter, a new survey has revealed.

www.dailymail.co.uk

There is no end to these ridiculous articles.

Conveniently forgetting that the cost of commuting for some people is even more than the increase in energy prices!

 

[Sheeeet]

I've just been offered a fully remote job - same pay and role as I'm in now but FREE of the crappy office!
I'll be having lunch with my fully WFH husband every day and not dealing with office politics and radio blaring - thrilled

May you all have such good fortune too

 

[Ensay]

HUGH OSMOND: We MUST get back to working in the office

HUGH OSMOND: Vibrant city centres that used to buzz with life and laughter, particularly at lunchtimes and after work, are often echoingly empty these days.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Britons who wfh could pay an extra £209 in energy costs this winter

Working from home could lead to household energy bills being stretched by an extra £209 a month this winter, a new survey has revealed.

www.dailymail.co.uk

There is no end to these ridiculous articles.

The DM is always tit stirring for clicks. The headline is designed to be inflammatory - by saying "we MUST get back to work", they mean that everyone works hard in the office and dosses when working from home.

It amuses me more than it angers me as it shows how out of touch they are. Most employers are as comfortable with hybrid working as employees are. They need to accept hybrid working is here to stay.

 

[AllSeeingEye123]

Nearly 1,300 NYTimes employees pledge NOT to return to the office

The employees have stated they will not return to the newsroom after the New York Times expected workers to be in the office for a minimum of three days starting this week.

www.dailymail.co.uk

That's how it's done. Writing journalism pieces can always be done from home.

 

[Ontherunrun]

Anyone else still really struggling with the office return? I just can’t get my head around it. We are back up to 3 days per week and it’s all so dumb and wasteful… yet everyone seems to love it! I work in a professional office where there is literally nothing that couldn’t be done remotely but everyone is back going for coffees, canteen lunches of cheap carvery style food and popping round for quick Qs, not even for decent chat but just to talk more about corporate bullsh*t so it’s like having informal meetings to waste more of your day. Needless to say I’m a millennial drowning in an office of boomers who would do anything to avoid being home. Make it make sense.

 

[Homebird44]

Anyone else still really struggling with the office return? I just can’t get my head around it. We are back up to 3 days per week and it’s all so dumb and wasteful… yet everyone seems to love it! I work in a professional office where there is literally nothing that couldn’t be done remotely but everyone is back going for coffees, canteen lunches of cheap carvery style food and popping round for quick Qs, not even for decent chat but just to talk more about corporate bullsh*t so it’s like having informal meetings to waste more of your day. Needless to say I’m a millennial drowning in an office of boomers who would do anything to avoid being home. Make it make sense.

I've been working hybrid for over a year. Week in the office then a week at home. Any system or WiFi issues I have to go to the office. I had an hour of my shift left a few weeks ago and my WiFi went down. I had to go in and work the last hour. By the time I had go changed, driven and parked at the office is was 40 minutes. Crazy bunch at my place.

 

[Samf2020]

Anyone else still really struggling with the office return? I just can’t get my head around it. We are back up to 3 days per week and it’s all so dumb and wasteful… yet everyone seems to love it! I work in a professional office where there is literally nothing that couldn’t be done remotely but everyone is back going for coffees, canteen lunches of cheap carvery style food and popping round for quick Qs, not even for decent chat but just to talk more about corporate bullsh*t so it’s like having informal meetings to waste more of your day. Needless to say I’m a millennial drowning in an office of boomers who would do anything to avoid being home. Make it make sense.

I thought I was the only one still struggling to adapt. I hate it I do 2 days at home, 3 in office and dont see the point. I watch the clock constantly in office as I need to get out on dot to avoid traffic. At home I can work later if I need to.
Everyone else just loves being in office and all the constant chats get on my nerves.

 

[witchofwestbyfleet]

Yeah, I don't think it fair to force everyone to go back to the office just because people want to "chat" about nonsense

In general, I don't think it's right to try and push people to be sociable with each other. At my workplace their excuse is "clients want to see team cohesion!" which is absolute bullshit - the company just wants to justify the cost of hiring an office. You should not be expected to speak to people or be physically present with them if it does not affect your job. And yes this includes faux-concerns that working remotely will lead to people being passed over for promotion. That is a problem with discrimination, not remote working

 

[Sheeeet]

Yep, feel just the same - thanking my lucky stars I just passed the probabation period on a fully remote job. NHS, and the same type of post so no pay change but it's such an improvement to my mental health not having to deal with office politics, backbiting and bullshit. You get so much more time back not having to commute or prepare to go into an office (packed lunches, ironing, making sure you have fuel, etc).

Everyone having to return to the office who doesn't want to has my full sympathy.

 

[TheGlossy]

My manager is ridiculous.

We have a requirement to go into the office a few times a week. Every single time I’m there, she’s like ‘make sure the department head sees you and say hello to them so they know you’re in the office’.

I’m in the office. I’m fulfilling my requirement. That should be enough. I’m not on top of this go out of my way to walk past someone so they see me in the middle of a large open floor. Sure, if I run into them I’ll say hi and all, but I won’t go out of my way to run into them every time I’m in the office!

 

[emm]

Yeah, I don't think it fair to force everyone to go back to the office just because people want to "chat" about nonsense

In general, I don't think it's right to try and push people to be sociable with each other. At my workplace their excuse is "clients want to see team cohesion!" which is absolute bullshit - the company just wants to justify the cost of hiring an office. You should not be expected to speak to people or be physically present with them if it does not affect your job. And yes this includes faux-concerns that working remotely will lead to people being passed over for promotion. That is a problem with discrimination, not remote working

The reason offices want people to get on is so you pick up the slack if someone is away/Ill. This is someone I have only realised this year but it is only this, you feel bad about letting the "team" down so you accept extra work to help out

 

[MsGilmore]

I hate having to go into the office. We were told it’s for ‘collaboration and working as a team’, but we spend most of the day on the phone and there isn’t a day when every member of the team is in the office.
But I work in the civil service and we have been continuously vilified for it despite being contracted to work from home 2 days a week. There seems to be a lot of NHS jobs that are now fully remote yet nobody is vilifying them. It’s still public money that they are being paid. I earn the living wage, but I’m expected to save the economy by going to Pret! I can’t bleeping afford it!

 

[HockyRorror]

Feeling quite glad (but sympathetic to others) reading some of this thread, as I only have to go into the office for one day every 3 months, as I specifically went for a remote job rather than hybrid or anything that sounded like hybrid. A lot of daily Zoom meetings to make up for it though!

 

[Pesky Tarian]

OK OK I'll go in

Gross model reveals what remote-workers will look like in 2100

Furniture At Work has revealed what home-workers will look like by the year 2100 - and it's not a pretty sight.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[emm]

OK OK I'll go in

Gross model reveals what remote-workers will look like in 2100

Furniture At Work has revealed what home-workers will look like by the year 2100 - and it's not a pretty sight.

www.dailymail.co.uk

I don't get how wfh in an office role would have any other side effects than being in the office

 

[Sheeeet]

If wfh stays for good, this is what the DM's office block owning friends will look like. Boo hoo, tiny violin.