WFH is saving you time and money everyday you work by not having to get ready and commute everyday which also cost money to do. Considering the point of a job for 99% of people is the pay going to the office should always be a worse option.
Imagine your boss asking you to come in an hour earlier and stay an hour later each day while also saying he is gonna take an extra $100 a week from you. This is essentially what happens when you’re asked to go into the office after wfh.
Only way this is appealing to you is if your social life and personal life is so terrible you your willing to basically give an extra 10 hours or extra day to work each week for less pay all so what you can see coworkers who don’t even want to be there or see you? Generally there is no benefits to going into the office and making more work for yourself. In no other context would people be ok with more work for less money.
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Hard disagree especially early in your career. My social life was people I worked with. That’s how I met people in a new city. When I took a job in DC, we hung out. We went to happy hours together. We went to each other’s birthday parties. That’s what my friend group came from.
So maybe I could say since you want to stereotype so much that people who love work from home have never left their small town and still hang out with the same people they did in high school and have never really expanded themselves and their lives.
Just as valid and just as stupid.
My drive into the office is 15 min on roads that are fun to drive in my roadster. On the days I go in I often drive in on company time.
Some work is just easier to do in the office. Mentoring interns for example.
I think you’ve projected your own unhappiness too broadly.
Some people enjoy their work atmosphere. Some people actually even enjoy contributing to society. Some of those people even have friends and families outside of work.
You hate work. That’s OK. It’s not for everyone.
WFH is a fantastic way for companies to save money too.
Since you are proving the job can be done from anyplace they can move your job someplace where the pay scale is much lower.
But dont worry, just like the factory workers you can be restrained for a new job.
I don’t work well from home, as evidenced by how poorly I did with online classes. I did significantly better when I was physically at class and at the physical college
I would prefer to work from home, but there’s no way I could
Edit: I’m not supporting return to office mandates, I’m just saying OP is over generalizing people who’d rather work in an office
I ride my bike to work so any time spent commuting saves time in the gym. I also like leaving work at work.
Yeah, we have the option to be hybrid or be in the office and the two people that choose to work in the office 100% of the time are a girl that clearly has no social life. She even calls us her family and the other one is a dude whose wife works from home that he can’t stand. I don’t know why he doesn’t just divorce her but he doesn’t wanna be at his house with his wife all day so he comes in the office. Everyone else has normal lives.
Depends on your job. I’m interviewing for a new job right now that, yeah, I can do from home. And there will be times that I choose to do that. But sometimes, something will be difficult. It will require cooperation. And talking to someone in the office with you where you can both easily look at what’s being worked on is a boon. Yes, there are ways to do that remotely. It’s not always easier.
On a more personal note, said office is less than ten minutes from my house. None of this “two extra hours per day and $100 per week” BS.
I totally get WFH. I certainly am not anti-WFH. I specifically made sure this job was hybrid so that I can do whichever I choose. But saying that WFH is straight up better just isn’t always true
I currently work from home when I feel like it, I like in office because there is a clear defined separation from work and home, so when it hits 16:00 that’s it work done off I go all that shit is tomorrows problem, at home other than putting the computer down there isn’t a break between work and home, and work becomes a home problem or home becomes a work problem.
Commuting fucking sucks but I need a clear boundary between work and home.
First of all, I prefer WFH. However, I do think it’s important to note that socialization through work was one of the primary ways of meeting new people for young adults for several generations, and that wellspring of socialization drying up might also have negative consequences.
That is to say PART of why some people have no social life (and PART of why we have a loneliness epidemic) is because we no longer have work as a reliable way to force us into consistent proximity with other humans.
Pretty much all my friends I either met at work or at a bar. The guy who was the best man at my wedding I met at work.
Hard disagree. I prefer being in the office and have a very fulfilled social life.
However. Your opinion is probably actually popular.
Editing to clarify I have a fulfilling social life OUTSIDE of work and don’t socialize much with my coworkers
Or maybe you geninuly enjoy your job and are very social with your coworkers? Not everyone hates their job despite how you may feel
>Imagine your boss asking you to come in an hour earlier and stay an hour later each day while also saying he is gonna take an extra $100 a week from you. This is essentially what happens when you’re asked to go into the office after wfh
I assume you factored the cost of the $100 per week commute when you accepted the job in the first place, so you were pocketing that money through COVID.
I’ve worked corporate for about 8 years and I love going into the office. The only time it was a hassle was when I lived in my parent’s house and it was an hour and a half each way which definitely added up since I was in 3-4 days a week.
I’ve made some of my best friends at work. Go drinking and have dinner after work, go play golf, go on trips etc. Tbh, I have the exact opposite opinion to you. I feel like people who like WFM are very introverted and have little to no social life.
Sure sure! You probably are quite privelegde and have a proper home office, with good internet, in a quiet space, dont have children or other people to interrupt you during calls. You do realize not everyone has the same living arrangements as you right?
Some of us need to be in a separate environment from home that caters to the job in order to be productive. It’s the same as how a lot of students struggled with online learning during the COVID lockdown but did better once they were able to be in a real classroom again.
I do hybrid 3 in office and 2 WFH and it’s not as horrible as people make it out to be. I’m likely to be leaving the house to run errands at least 3 times a week anyway, so it’s not hard to do them during commute times. And collaborating with coworkers can typically be a lot more productive in person when they’re not half paying attention while doing laundry or watching tv. Obviously your mileage may vary depending on your industry but it’s a very noticable change in work pattern when certain people work from home, no matter how much they claim otherwise.
Full in-office 5 days a week is definitely excessive though.
Seems you really underestimate how much some people can actually like their job and how some people can actually (shocker!) be friends with their coworkers and enjoy hanging out with them at work. Your generalization doesn’t fit for everyone at all and almost sounds like you’re projecting your personal opinion on work based on your personal experience.
Tbh I think this is a popular opinion. Most people I know love working from home or want to leave their healthcare jobs to work from home.
I have a harder time focusing at home and I feel like work never ends when I work in the same space I live. Also I enjoyed the camaraderie in seeing coworkers, getting lunch together, getting to debrief things irl.
Also frankly, it’s hard meeting people as an adult; I was able to make so many friends in my early 20s.
I get why parents/caretakers prefer remote work tho.
Early in your career it makes a huge difference when people know you and throw your name in the hat for promotions and whatnot.
For me it is easier to get things done in the office largely due to wfh slackers that either don’t respond at all or respond 4 plus hours later.
> WFH folks staying at home 24/7
> “I have a better social life then those guys who say hi to their co-workers!”
I like my nice private office. No noise outside my window during the day, dogs barking etc.
This sounds like a you problem.
Proximity is power. Regardless of what you think of the validity, you will progress further and faster in your career if people like you. It’s easier to form relationships in-person.
You’re not wrong that you can do your job the same remotely. But some people don’t want their current job. They want the next job, and the one after that, and after that. They’re investing in relationships.
When we moved to WFH during Covid, my work hours basically doubled, since everybody got loose with the work/home
Boundary, but didn’t do it consistently.
In office work contains off hours work better, and the commute is time you can use for personal stuff (music/podcasts, checking out stuff in the city rather than around home). Commuting also puts a hard barrier between work time and home tome.
WFH was just an excuse to demand longer hours for the same pay.
What about job offers? I sacrificed wfh to make 190% more each year. WFH was nice but sometimes a sacrifice to build your legacy is needed
This isn’t an opinion, it’s just a weird projection? I love hybrid work because I like the physical separation of my work and home. It gives me a lot more peace to be at home without it being the same place I work most of the time. When COVID hit and I had to fully work remotely I was far more stressed at all times because it felt like I could never escape my work even when I was off the clock.
Most jobs need to be done in person to be effective.
Not necessarily. I work hybrid and I prefer it over working completely remotely because I get the best of both worlds. I’m very social and outgoing, with a good network of friends.
You must be very unhappy to have such a jaded view of the world.
Just because you can’t fathom prefer going to work in the office doesn’t mean others can’t. For those who need help transitioning from one task to another, keeping work in a physically separate place that you have to commute to helps with that. Work is work and home is home. But when you work from home, there is no transition. Work is home and home is work.
I prefer in office work because I am more productive and able to mentally leave my job at work. Social interaction is actually the least pleasant part of that for my AuDHD brain, but no system of perfect.
I had people who were hired as remote workers leave because it wasn’t hybrid. Some people strive on being around others, some people are fine never being around others. Has nothing to do with their personal life, but more so their personality.
I work from home and have no social life
Why is it so challenging for people who post here to not generalize a specific setting onto millions of people?
Lots of people live an hour away from their work, yes. But lots of people live five minutes away. Lots of people aren’t even driving their own personal car into the workplace, so there is no expense.
Lots of people aren’t as productive at home or as visible in the pursuit of a promotion. And then, yes, lots of people like the social element of seeing coworkers daily.
I would take WFH any day. But this miserable copium you’re using to show anger towards others who have other preferences is just annoying. It isn’t respectful of your peers or reasonable and makes you look bad.
Work from home only applies to jobs that a minority of the population do, by even talking about it’s benefits you are excluding a massive group of people.
One of the pluses of working at home. No sharing a bathroom and being hassled by the boss lol
https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/s/PofHGSIIFM
I’m sorry you had shit jobs
OP hasn’t got any friends at work, so they’re big mad at people who do.
I think people who strongly prefer working from home are either very introverted, or they don’t like their job. Which is fine if that’s the case! But for me, I prefer to have person-to-person connection both at work and outside of it. In other words, I’m happiest when I’m interacting with people during the work day and also evenings/weekends. I do need some alone time though.
who don’t even want to be there or see you?
Don’t want to be there is valid for some, but me personally, and my team, we definitely like seeing each other, we enjoy our team lunches, we sometimes spend time outside of work as well. When we’re in the office, we like having in-person conversations, compared to online being more isolating. I value my WFH days, but still enjoy the hybrid aspect. In a way, yes, that does prove the unfulfilling or no social/personal life, but my coworkers have families, spouses, kids, volunteer at church, and we all still like seeing each other face to face way more than online. Also add, being an engineer, there are jobs that are completely desk work, completely hands on, or a combination, ie design in CAD/FEA then see the component at testing and inspection in person. I’ve done a combination of all 3, for some people, complete remote desk work is fine, but for me that’s not fulfilling whatsoever. I find it fun being with the product, I’m a visual learner, I like touching it to understand among other things, seeing that there are a ton of factors in non-ideal scenarios that aren’t accruately simulated during desk work. I’d say quite a bit of these reasons do not point to unfulfilling or no social/personal life, but I could be having a disconnect.
I like WFH. A LOT.
But this is an obnoxious take.
I’m glad I don’t have to go into the office every day, but I was happy when we started going back into the office a couple of days a week. I was sick of being home all day, every day. It has nothing to do with whether my social/personal life is fulfilling.
And while OP may not be able to grasp the concept, some of us enjoy the casual relationships we have with our coworkers and also have friends/family.
I dont want to socialize with the coworkers i have. I get my social life elsewhere.
100 percent return to office can get a bag of shite but I’m okay with the idea of hybrid. I have a social life but I do like hanging out with my coworkers in person. It is so much better to shoot the shite with them in person than over a teams call or chat.
You do realize you’re saying the vast majority of redditors are unfit for WFH
I don’t like my job invading the finite space in my home. I have an office with big ass monitors and house plants and snacks. My commute is short. I like my coworkers and my bosses. Working in the office every day of the week is fine by me.
Your breakdown of the time and money expense of going into the office kind of implies that attempting to fulfill your apparently unfulfilled social life in this way is dumb. Which I think is silly and flawed.
If the money and time elements are such an issue then couldn’t you just as easily argue that traveling anywhere to meet new friends is a waste? Like if I go to a bar to meet people I’m also spending X amount of time driving and Y amount of money on something I don’t particularly need.
It’s just weird to me that you’re saying people who want to go into the office have unfulfilled social lives when clearly going into the office is an attempt to rectify that, which you’re also saying is bad and stupid.
I’m guessing if your posting this you have no social life
Imagine having a nice cushy office job, inside a climate controlled space, with no manual labour – and complaining about it.
I mean I have a boring personal life and a non existent social life but I don’t think that’s the reason I prefer hybrid over full work from home? I just don’t like having my problems at work and personal problems converging into a single space that I also happen to sleep and veg out and cultivate my inner life in, 5 days a week 20 days a month 240 days a year. There’s no distance.
Also I work a job that is incredibly timebound which involves coordinating with a lot of different people so it sucks to have to setup calls each and every time just to talk to someone when I could just speak to them face to face in a common work area and get the info I need from them in no time flat. And I’m speaking as someone who never cared much for my coworkers either and never expected friendship out of our relationships. You’re painting with broad strokes here OP
I like the people I work with and we often do work better in person on some things. I’m a software engineer. Yes, we can do everything remotely.
I’ve got young kids at home and if the office wasn’t so far away I would gladly go in more often. The screaming and crying from two kids on the spectrum is rough…
Loneliness is a growing problem in this world, so one of the thoughts that springs to my mind is “No shit”.
The internet and perhaps frequent job hopping is crippling generations. We’re kind of forgetting how to make friends organically and shaming those that try.
From child to early adulthood, friendships are predominantly formed based on proximity. You make friends with people at school and you arrange to do stuff outside of school. You make friends at uni and you arrange to do stuff after class.
When it comes to the work, you have dipsticks who feel a sense of pride over holding the belief that it is a sin to befriend colleagues.
This is the popular opinion, people love WFH. Now if you said this about in-person classes people would be losing their minds.
WFH keeps employees/people isolated. The less they communicate the better. There is no nonverbal communication.
I think it’s a good option for flexibility on limited occasions but it’s not generally a good thing.
I hate working in the office and I love being wfh. I also have no personal life lol so your theaory is off.
I would love to wfh every day but hybrid is honestly better. Obviously not in every industry, and not in every office. But at least in mine, in person meetings are sometimes essential. Theres only so much productivity you can achieve in certain meetings over a camera
I work hybrid an enjoy it. I like my coworkers. I like how easy it is to go swimming on my office days. I like that I can join the work choir.
I’m only in the office two days a week. I wouldn’t complain if it was only one, I’d definitely complain if it was more than two.
I love my life. I have a million hobbies and friends I love. Unfortunately I’m incapable of working from home. Do I wish I could? Absolutely. But I can’t. I do absolutely anything BUT work. It sucks but it’s how it is. My solution is just to live close to work and bike there so my commute is fun and active instead of a stressful waste of time.
Jerk
It’s a bit more nuanced than that. It certainly depends on the job and different people’s work styles. Personally, I’ve found that there are some parts of my job that are much easier to do in person, and some that I prefer to do at home. That’s why I’m glad I’m on a hybrid schedule – 3 days a week in office, 2 at home. I plan out what I want to do each day and when I schedule meetings accordingly.
For many people it’s also going to depend on their wfh setup. I live with my boyfriend, he works from home full time. We each have a separate, comfortable space we can use. If we had kids running around or were squeezed together in a small space all day while we were both working or didn’t have room for desks, I’d be eager to get to an office.
Bots are out today
Any opinion like this that makes a sweeping judgement of people isn’t unpopular, it’s stupid.
My coworkers are great, but I am cool with only seeing a fraction of them maybe once or twice a year for company-paid dinners.
Love working at an organization that went 100% WFH BEFORE COVID.
Yup. It’s literally the people in the office that waste half a day drinking coffees in the lounge.
Posting on reddit 5000 times isn’t a social life bro
I see you don’t have two small kids at home
No lie detected
I would have thought this was a popular opinion, and I’m surprised by all the comments disagreeing with OP. At first I was going to down vote But I find my own assumptions challenged and so I am upvoting.
I like hybrid because my commute is a 15 minute bike ride and I can meet friends for lunch or happy hour right after work easier because friends who live on the opposite side of the city work in the central business district, too.
I also can kind of set my own schedule so I leave for work the same time I’d start working from home on my WFH days anyway, so I’m not losing any time.
I don’t know why WFH people seem to think everyone has like 1 hour one way commutes.
The average commute is 26 minutes. Thats less than an hour round trip
You and your suburbanite friends just have high powered corporate jobs “in the city”
Also I would argue having to actually be around people who you don’t choose is good for society. As 100% of your life’s interactions bring curated by you is kinda bad
Jokes on you, my commute is like 15 minutes by bike – I might as well get some exercise.
I hate working in the office as well. I am a contractor and 100% of my clients are spread throughtout the country. None are actually in my hometown or even within 200 miles of me. One hour I am working for a NYC client and then the next minute its the state of California. So logistically it makes no sense for me either.
That being said, It does not take 2 hours a day to go to and from work. The average commute is only 26 minutes and if you hate commuting, work closer. My SO works 1.5 miles from our house and that was by choice. It takes 3 minutes to get to work. If you’re driving an hour each way, you’re in the minority and making the choice.
I share my business with my wife. We enjoy going to a workshare office, and working at home. It gives a nice mix of socializing with others in different businesses during day, while also being able to do chores at home. On weekends friends, family, day trips, or just chill with dogs and cats. Most people spend most of their waking time at work, and social isolation is a proven way to acquire depression. Hybrid is a great way to balance both.
I prefer WFH and also have not social life so checkmate I guess?
I much prefer going to the office, and would refuse to do my current job WFH. I work far too many hours when having a physical separation of work and home. If I worked from home I would absolutely lose what little social life I do have.
Also, from my experience, when people WFH in my department the people working at the office always end up having to do extra work. When my counterpart moved to WFH my workload probably increased by at minimum 25% because now I was the only one of us capable of doing tasks that need to be done at the office (equipment inventory and maintenance, face-to-face time with staff, responding to issues before certain hours because they changed time zones, etc.). Plus, everyone else in our department then had an extra task added to their workload because every document that before could’ve just been handed to them now needed to be scanned and sent to them. When their role involves a lot of paperwork review, that time adds up for the people who need that paperwork review done.
I have a 10 minute commute, I like my coworkers, my flat is small, I like to keep personal and work stuff seperate, having to get out of my house is good for my mental health, … so why again should I stay home? I actively avoid home office jobs, just as I actively avoid jobs with a long commute.
OP forgot that children, roommates, and loud neighbors exist.
I go into the office by choice a few times a week:
My house is small, and my wife is already working from home. My office downtown is actually a much bigger, quieter and all around nicer work space.
My work commute involves a fair amount of walking, I get my steps in without having to make a point of it.
The coffee and food options near my office are better than they are in my neighborhood.
Yes. I generally like my work colleagues. I’m not lacking a social life, but it’s not bad to add to it.
I’m more productive at the office, and I have a better technical setup there. The social aspect is also true, I like my colleagues, I like eating lunch with them. My commute is also 15-20 minutes by bike.
If it’s a paper work job yeah go ahead and be a goblin.
If it’s engineering you need to come in be in the lab, bounce ideas off your coworkers. So much of R&D and V&V is critical thinking and idea generation through trial and error. You can’t do that from your home office. We get soooooo many young engineers who come in 2 days a week and flounder out because it’s too hard to run the tests or they don’t know where the equipment is or how it works. Like you actually have to come in and set up and figure it out yourself.
Im hybrid but here’s why I don’t mind going on-site when I do:
I really value my wfh days though too because these are a chance to work on certain types of tasks and to be a little more physically comfortable so personally I like the hybrid model. If I had more than a 10 minute drive I might feel differently.
Imagine enjoying your work and the people you work with.
Some people are extraverts. Some people do better with the structure and routine.
I worked for a true “hybrid” company. Meaning there was an office, you had a key and could use it literally whenever you want, but there are no expected in-office hours.
Most people worked from home almost all the time.
One guy had 5 kids, and a wife, and lived in a townhouse. He was always in the office. Nothing to do with a lack of social life, but he practically couldn’t work at home.
I had a wife, a kid, and a dedicated office. I found myself at home most days, but when I really needed to put my head down and get something done, no distractions, I’d go to the office.
Point is people have different situations I guess.
You assume a lot. I prefer going into the office for many reasons, such as not having a designated work space, having schedule conflicts with my husband that make working at home frustrating, So I prefer distinct spaces, it perpetuated my existing depression and eating disorders. So yes, I have some existing issues, but they aren’t about having no social life or being unfulfilled. I don’t even care if my coworkers are actually there or not, though I really like most and some are friends outside of work.
It doesn’t save me very much money at all. I need a transit pass whether I go to work or not, and car or gas payments aren’t an issue for me. It’s also cost me more in electricity for ac or gas for heat to be comfortable wfh full- time. During the first year of covid, my summer electricity increased $200 per month and so did the gas in winter. Admittedly, it saved me time, but time doesn’t pay my mortgage.
There is benefit. It’s called networking. I wouldn’t be where I’m at if I didn’t build the relationships with management. You can’t do that well if you all work from home. Especially when part of my job is improving processes for people who can’t work from home due to nature of their job. So I have to be in person to observe and interact with them to continue to provide process improvement.
WFH sticks you in a bubble and honestly makes you socially awkward. I used to be socially awkward but being forced to socialize at work has helped my personal life immensely. And building relationships has made it easier to be promoted and have people think of me when looking to promote.
I have an unfulfilling social life and I still prefer to work from home. Being around colleagues isn’t going to help anything.
Working hybrid ais pretty much mandatory in my engineering job to not be a total detriment. You will fuck over your team if you work from home all the time.
I’m a doctor
Also, people dress lazily when they WFH (sweatpants, t shirts, etc). Dressing up in professional clothes and looking sharp makes a huge difference in the way you see yourself and the work you provide.
Nope I just work and go home
Preach , couldn’t have said it better myself
I think it depends on the profession. I’ve worked in hotels most of my career and there are some really interesting personalities that also work in hotels. Plus, there are some really cool networking events that help bridge the gap between work and social. It’s helped me big time with my social life.
That said, it’s a very stressful industry and I now work a remote position in a different field and am very happy with it. I’ll eventually get back into hotels but I love the convenience of my current role.
I enjoy hybrid because I’m newer to my profession. It’s far easier for me to just pop my head up and see which of the experienced folks on my team is available for a quick question. Messaging them from home feels like so much for a quick one off question and I never can be sure who is busy vs could be available for a quick moment.
It also forces me to meet new people which I kinda need
This is some of the craziest projection I’ve seen on reddit
In my 20’s going in was great. Food, people, stuff to do after work. Now that I’m older I’d prefer remote or hybrid
I work so much better at home. No one to distract me, I can have music on in the background. I can actually try healthier meals in, walks during the day with dogs, and I have the ability to log on later at night if something needs to be done or even get in much earlier than my normal start time.
It’s not for everyone, but I think for the right kind of individual it is perfect.
You are projecting big time.
Extremely Reddit moment
Believe it or not, many people make new connections and become friends with coworkers which seems like the opposite of having an unsatisfying social life. Enjoying being around the people you work with makes the workday less of a grind too. But maybe that’s just me.
And that’s not to mention, you included hybrid. Sure, the person who likes WFH 5 days a week has a fulfilling social life, but the person who is hybrid and likes to go in 2 days a week doesn’t. Sitting alone for 8 hours a day 5 days a week is perfectly fine, but being able to chit chat and go out to lunch with people a couple times a week is fine too. This seems like bait.
I work fine from home, but I actually like my colleagues and so I enjoy the workplace social life, and I experience that only if I’m actually at work. Meetings also work better in-person in my opinion.
Also I don’t get to play ping-pong after lunch if I work from home.
I can either:
Is the math simple enough to understand?
Based on the number of people who regularly post about how much they hate people and that is why they like wfh, I think your premise is flawed.
I think a hybrid solution works best for me. I like the benefits and reduced commuting that comes from WFH. But I work better with my colleagues that I see in person and I found myself being mentally l worse off when I worked from home for more than a few days.
Also I got a kid, socializing isn’t the same as it was in my 20’s lol
I love how this is written as if office jobs are the only jobs.
I can WFH if no one is in the house.
Hard to WFH when I got shit to do and my toddler is screaming bloody murder and just being a toddler. Makes me feel bad that I’m not assisting my wife.
Also I do enjoy having alone time to myself, with no support, it just me the kid and my wife 24/7. The time I get at work that’s slow I enjoy thoroughly and my commute… It’s me time that guiltless.
Not really unpopular and a dumb take too. WFH is such a boost for employees. You don’t like it? Fine. But it’s beyond me why you’d rant against it and take the side of the employers.
Capitalism sucks and the most successful ideology is to follow the ideas of what’s apparently “normal” to working life.
Ice cold take. So no one had lives in the past while working in office formats?
As someone who never has and never will be able to work from home I absolutely love seeing people cry about having to go to work. So many posts about how everyone should be able to work from home. Like they don’t realize 80 percent of jobs are more than just emails and spreadsheets.
My current set up is perfect. I work from home up to 4 days a week and in the office a minimum of one day a week. I have standing meetings scheduled for half the day on the one day I consistently go in, and I try to schedule in person meetings and collaborative work on that day as much as possible. When I do have in person things scheduled on other days, I try to move more meetings to that day.
I don’t like doing desk work from the office and I absolutely hate taking virtual meetings from the office. So if my day is mostly desk work and Teams meetings, I will choose to work from home every time.
But I much prefer to have group meetings (3 or more people) in person and find being in the same room is much more effective for collaborative work.
For meetings with one or two people I have no real preference between in person or online. I’ll choose online if it’s my only potential in person meeting that day so I don’t have to go into the office for no reason, but if it’s a day I’m already in the office I prefer to make it in person.
What I absolutely refuse to do is hybrid meetings though. Either everyone is online or everyone is in person. Hybrid meetings are the absolute worst.
I do like going in once or twice a week, but I don’t think I could ever go back to being in an office five days a week. I always hated it. The constant distractions, noise, annoying little habits.. ugh.
I don’t need to go to the office to be socially fulfilled – I have friends and family outside of work. But I do find that seeing each other in person on a regular basis is good for team cohesion. I genuinely like my co-workers and I think it’s healthy to spend time together in person.
I took a new job at one point during the pandemic that was fully remote and it was so weird working with the same people for like 6 months before I ever saw any of them in person. We got along fine but we didn’t really gel or develop any sort of team culture the way my current team has at the job I’m in now. I feel like the setup I have now is the perfect balance.
If your job is interacting, socializing, group hugs… sure. I know a significant amount of people in my tech industry that need social reassurance.
If you are a thinker, creative, inventor, researcher, academic, and essential knowledge worker – then no. Socializing is a distraction and less to less productivity.
Look I know some people need the human contact like sales folks, but your blanket statement is absolutely not true.
Ever heard of having a family and valuing time together with them?
The workplace used to be the most popular place for Americans to make friends and talk to people. When white collar work was becoming increasingly commonplace, people were just spending more and more time in the workplace. Naturally humans tend to make friends when they see each other so often.
In America, we’ve been experiencing increased isolation and loneliness. There are many reasons why this is the case. I have no doubt that working from home is one of the reasons. It is nice to be able to meet people your age in your company.
I can name other benefits too:
– If your office serves lunch at a discounted for free rate
– You want to separate work life from home life
– Your setup at work is better than your setup at home
– You struggle maintaining correct work hours when working from home (too little or often too much)
– You’re a junior and you benefit from learning more from learning from the seniors in person
– You genuinely like your coworkers
I think your main issue is not the “working from the office” part, but the commute part. It just takes people far too long to commute to work.
Somebody crying they have to go to work or they won’t pay you
I’m not expected in every day, but I do choose to go in most days. I can walk to work in 5-10 minutes. I get coffee and cereal when I start, some noodles for lunch, and drinks and snacks throughout the day, all free. I have access to some tools I can’t get at home and I do enjoy seeing friendly faces while I’m there. Then I go out or go home and have a great rest of the day. I feel fortunate I do work I enjoy in comfortable surroundings, and I’m grateful I’m not a miserable zero-sum thinker.
I prefer working from home but I’m more productive when I go in and remove distractions. So that’s a possible reason to prefer it.
These are so often the OP simply not realizing that other people have different lives and preferences. I personally prefer working from the office as I have young children and no dedicated office space at home. My job also needs me to physically put my hands on various devices from time to time. More than this I also have a very short commute on my bike. There are other members of my team who have preferences for remote work for various reasons and it works great for them.
These gross generalizations are simply obnoxious. Let people work in the ways that they can be most effective, and even better let them decide what this looks like.
This is not an unpopular oppinion but rather a dumb presumptios statement of a very bitter person who has obviously never made a friendship with an office coworker.
So so many things wrong about this statement.
The exact opposite of this is true lol. You are clearly an introvert in general. Which is fine. But extroverts like people like billionaires like wealth. There’s no such thing as too much.
This is a stupid fucking take. People who pretend you can’t be friends with coworkers tend to be the most miserable, antisocial people I’ve ever met. Why can I not enjoy hanging out with people during the day AND enjoy my personal time and friendships outside of work too?
Take my upvote.
I don’t wfh and my job can’t really be done wfh but I could never wfh a company would need to pay an office rental for me to go to. I don’t have a place to work at home and I’m not making space for them in my home.
I’m as anti-work as they get, but you’re not really taking into account people who love their jobs and have co-workers who also love their jobs.
For a lot of people, their work gives their life meaning. I can’t relate, and I’m jealous asf because I’ve never had a job I truly enjoyed, but just because I haven’t experienced it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
I have plenty of friends who love their work.
I like having the separation of work and home space. I tend to be a bit more motivated when I’m around co-workers too, though for some work tasks I definitely prefer to WFH. Also, not everyone has the right environment at home for a WFH space.
Having a good, friendly relationship with your work colleagues is good, actually. Being able to get lunch with work friends… having work friends… can help you perform better, makes the work team stronger, and likely will make the job more fulfilling. If you have to do something 40 hours a week, best to not hate it.
Nuts to assume the only reason anyone would choose to go into the office is to socialize. Also wild to assume everyone has a 2h round trip commute costing them $100 a week wtf.
I’m very pro wfh and I still think this is a wildly unpopular take, well done.
Y’know, some people have jobs working with or designing physical systems that they’d like to actually get their hands on from time to time. Not everyone is in some corporate role.
I much prefer working from an office and I definitely have a social life. I like the definition between “work time” and “off time” because otherwise I’d work all the time or else not get anything done.
An hour each way is bizarre.
15 minute bike ride to get free snacks is fine by me
Also: working from home is like your boss coming into your home and saying “this space here will be used by your employer”
Or you work a career that actually requires a solid team? Some people do more than just data entry lol, I can’t run any of my projects if my team is working from their sofa at home lmfao
Also my desk at home is not nearly as nice as my work station in the office, plus the other rooms, like our copy room, which is more of a massive work station with every kind of office machine you’d need. Then our “hands on” rooms for plans and fabrication, just can’t do that shit from home.
I have an unfulfilling social and still prefer WFH.
I like having the option to go in. I have a 10 minute commute with a great cafeteria. Lunch on average costs me 3.95 a day and breakfast is 1.50. that’s two meals a day for under 6 dollars that are delicious, and I put 0 thought into. I also like going in because I waste about 2 hours a day socializing and still get paid for that time.
I have a personal and social life…. But also I am a little agorophobic and have anxiety…. So I like hybrid because I get to move and make myself go out of my confort zone… also remember not everyone hates their job
Jokes on you I’ve been remote for almost a decade and still have no social life!
My depression would eat me alive if I worked from home. I would never see anyone otherwise.
Bad take is bad.