That’s fair - but, to play devil’s advocate, plenty of people don’t drink alcohol or have a long commute, so wouldn’t want to go to a pub after work (for example). Working from home, in fact, would give those people more time to socialise.
I suppose there’s no perfect setup that suits everybody!
Maybe, but a well set up “virtual office” of Slack channels and Teams groups can also make this sort of thing easier.
I think this is a very subjective view. I’ve learned more from my colleagues since WFH than I ever did in the office.
I’m not sure I feel the same way. I think if a company wants to outsource they’re going to do it, regardless of whether you’re in an office or remote. Companies have been off shoring work long before WFH became common.
I’ve worked on a few projects which were outsourced and then brought back into the UK. The quality was poorer, the time difference made management of the project more difficult. Of course this is also subjective but outsourcing often causes more issues than it solves from my experience.
I’m fairly sure that my department at my employer will be staying WFH for the foreseeable future now.
I work in the IT department at a University and before Covid the campus was bulging at the seams anyway. They’d already started renting managed offices from companies like Regus in the nearby business park to move the IT department out to there.
So, they’ve now cancelled those contracts and are even eyeing up the offices we had back on campus to convert into more teaching and research space so they only IT staff with a presence on campus will be those who need to be there - such as the desktop support engineers.
Generally, I think the University is looking at all the admin staff and are being much more flexible with WFH home. Before Covid the general rule was that staff could request to WFH for 2 days a week and it was at your manager’s discretion. Now, it’s been reversed and the default (at the moment) is admin staff work from home and they can request to work on campus if they need it (for example, if they don’t have a suitable home environment to have a desk setup).
However, the ‘tone’ of emails sent out about it all recently seem to have changed slightly and they’re talking much more openly about finalising plans for people to return to work from campus - but it’s not been confirmed if that’s making everyone come back, including admin staff, or just finalising the details for those who want to go back to campus.
I’ve been thinking of moving home - but until we get more clarity, I can’t make any plans just in case they do say we need to come back at least for part of the week (although I do know some other people who have moved to the other side of the country, and one guy has even moved to Spain with his (spanish) wife so if they did bring in that rule, I suspect they’ll have exceptions agreed).
I’m a complete WFH convert. Until March 2020 I’d never done it. I didn’t think I’d be disciplined enough and I thought I’d just end up on the xbox all day. It turns out that you can’t really do that when people expect work from you and when you’re set up to work, you are actually productive.
The flexibility for me in invaluable. If I need to go out during work hours I can, no worrying about parcels or appointments and with selling/buying a property (did I mention this? :D), being able to go to a viewing, let an agent come round at anytime etc etc is great.
I’ve got rid of 3 hours a day of commuting. I went into the office last week, I got up an hour earlier and got to work an hour after I would have started at home. Actually took a lunch. Then left earlier than I usually stop working. So the company loses out time wise, but I think there’s a huge gain from a collaborative point of view. There’s definitely the “silos” appearing, where you don’t speak to other teams, maybe that’s just our company and our bad communication, but I think it happens if you don’t fight it when you’re WFH.
I now only really speak to someone in another department if I or they want something, aside from my work friends (oooh friends). The people that I’d see in the kitchen or walk by their desk, mention the football, their kids, the weather or whatever, it brings you closer together. But if feels a bit weird to message them on teams or send an email to ask those things.
The flow of information is also a lot worse WFH, again, maybe that’s just our terrible business skills, but things get missed and instead of walking to see someone, 5 min chat, follow up email (cover your own arse) and done, it’s now send an email and you don’t get the answer when you need it. Tone and explaining what you mean is so much easier in person and a lot of that has been lost with WFH.
I’ve negotiated mine down to once a week in the office and that’s mainly to help with the above more than anything else. Remind people I exist, build that rapport back up and when everyone starts doing the same, maybe it will feel more “normal” again.
I’ll need to get used to using teams in the office though, it’s effectively using your phone on speaker phone, which just seems obnoxious. Might have to get a headset.
I’ve done exactly the same!
I agree that some meetings are better done in person where you can look at printouts, you can see a good point to interject and as you said it’s just nice to see people in person sometimes.
I now have one day a week where I schedule all my meetings and tell anyone that if they need me for anything big or important that’s the time to grab me. Generally it’s just the morning though and I return home at lunchtime.
I still hate it 
I got up earlier than normal, spent 30 minutes defrosting the car last week in the freezing cold, nearly an hours commute, fuel cost, just to sit in a meeting for a couple of hours to say very little.
I used to love Charlie’s Angels when I was growing up. Never thought when I was working I’d end up, just like them, taking orders from my boss as a disembodied voice on speakerphone… It’s not quite as exciting…
I (conveniently as it turned out) took a new 100pc remote role just before things kicked off, I’d probably struggle to go back to the office grind now in honestly.
For me, while I’m still fully remote in the new firm, I’d probably keep it as that - too many benefits and to be honest there’s no impact in output so it’s a win-win. I can see that this might not be the case for all individuals, firms and roles though.
Just to add to this…
Another advantage of being in a video call is that I can have them in the background while still continuing to work. Because I’m technically still “at my desk”.
Rather than going to the office to sit in a boardroom and fiddle with a pen while everyone discusses bits that are not relevant to me or argues between them.
Basically 90% of a meeting then 
this is the biggest bonus really
as others have said WFH has brought that level of flexability and dare i say it ‘work life ballance’ that every one needs , pre covid i did a monday and friday from home and 3 days in , ive fliped that around to 4 long days at home and a friday off so basically a 4 day week , I no longer have to rush home and make dinner , or have it in the slow cooker and hope it didnt catch fire whilst im out lol
my commute used to be at least 1 hr each way by car as long as there were no accidents on the motorway
my ‘office’ covers from dundee in the north to dumfries in the borders and all points east and west so at times did have a fair ammount of travel , which of course was convered by my expenses
now i cant prove it but i am sure others used to take the piss with this and add on a fair few miles every week/ month
all of that i dont miss at all , and wiould actually feel quite stressed going back to the office full time
well it will be interesting to see what happens here in the frozern north now that the big mama aka nicola ‘wee jimmy krankie’ sturgeon has said that people can return to the office from monday and hybrid working should be looked at
That really sounds like a contradictory message?
Looking at hybrid working implies that people wouldn’t necessarily be expected to be in offices all the time, yet removing work for home advice at the same time surely results in an office “default”?
exactly nothing supprises me any more from the scottish govt
" New guidance on working from home will come into effect on Monday 31 January .
This will recommend that employers consider a hybrid working system, with staff spending some time in the office and some time at home.
Businesses had previously been asked to enable staff to work from home where possible."
As someone living in England, I think that the Scottish government have got some things right at times when we haven’t - but equally some policies made no sense at all in either place!
It’s a difficult balance for any government to strike, and it can’t be easy to balance the competing interests of the economy and public health.
yeah for sure they have got a lot of things right and i for one will continue to wear a mask where i need to , i would have prefered WFH to be the default ( im doing it any ways ) and perhaps over time made into law … if they could
and your right no one could have forecast what a shit show the last 2 years have been , i bet a lot of polticians in any govt now wish they had another job 
I agree with you, and personally I am continuing to wear a mask and be careful as well.
Partly that’s just my nature anyway, as a cautious and risk-averse person, and partly that’s because I do also think it’s not that difficult a measure (and therefore the trade-off, in terms of hassle compared to potential benefit) is worth it to me. I also think similarly about working from home advice - it’s not something that’s a dramatic change, yet it does reduce contacts substantially, so it makes sense. I think it’s far better to impose working from home, for example, than close schools - as that has far more impact and makes things very difficult for children - with major disruption to teaching.
My office has come up with some slightly fluffy policies that result in “60% of the time you should be in an office”.
Could be split over the month or year though.
I could ideally do 4 days WFH, I have a way better set up at home and fewer distractions. I do get the need for some face to face time, just to a differing level.
We have hot desking in my office so I go from my 3 massive screens everythign where I left it, have a nice keyboard and mouse… To well the exact polar opposite and it has a huge knock on in my efficiency / thought processes.
We’ve also just had an email being “our new 60% policy starts on Monday”, which frankly feels a bit irresponsible given when the Megatron variant is right now 
Just like the English government though. I wonder if we pinky-swear promise to order Pret sandwiches via Deliveroo could we carry on working from home and not have to face the commute into the city centre…
Having been involved in many outsourcing projects it does not make a lick of difference where someone sits, who they are and so on.
Once the C-level decides that is it.
