Homeworking

[Krill]

Point came up in the Civ6 PBEM21 tech thread, and I was wondering: who on RB is working from home, who is not, and what are peoples thoughts and estrategias for the future to get what you want?

[Tarkeel]

My employer is set to ease back into the office during september, but will be offering the opportunity to work from home at least part of the time.

[Brian Shanahan]

Point came up in the Civ6 PBEM21 tech thread, and I was wondering: who on RB is working from home, who is not, and what are peoples thoughts and estrategias for the future to get what you want?

I was working from home part time until mid-January (full time around christmas), and once I was let back in permanently I much preferred it. My strategy for maintaining this is just to keep pointing out, if needed, that my job really does need me in the office.

[Charriu]

I work as a software developer, which lends itself better to working from home.

I'm working from home since the pandemic start and only was in the office twice. Before that I never worked from home and thought less about it. But since it started I made a 280° on the topic. One reason is that me and my employer were already well prepared for that. I already have a good desktop for my height and we were already using software that lends itself to working from home.
Most of my work colleagues want to continue that way and we already got rid of some office space. For me the big advantages are:

- more time because of a short 15 second commute to my work place. (The office is 30 minutes away from me.
- more quiet time for when I have to focus on coding
- meetings are better online as the noise from all the people is gone and presentations are better readable
- did I mention that we record meetings and I can watch them back later
- more flexibility when I have to do stuff like going to the doctor etc.

[Amicalola]

I have been working from home on-and-off, with Australia's sporadic lockdowns. I personally find working at home a lot nicer time-wise (I also save a surprising amount on food), but I don't work as hard. Which means I probably end up working as many or more hours, to make up for it. I think it's just a lot harder to motivate myself to get things done, without both having people around me working, and being in my 'work place.' I should look online for tips on being more productive at home...

[Bobchillingworth]

I've been back in my office fulltime for a while now, but was working from home a year ago. I prefer the office; not because I particularly missed the personal contact and certainly not for my commute, but because there were way too many distractions at home, plus my house is my relaxation space, and I don't care to associate it with work which isn't self-directed and at my own discretion.

[suboptimal]

I supervise a lab and was never 100% working from home, mainly becuase I can't do most of my job over the internet. First 6-8 weeks of the pandemic my technician and I were on a daily rotation - one was home, one was in the lab. After that period the smaller lab (mine, which is two people in a large lab) went to 100% full time with masks and social distancing while the more cramped labs maintained a rotation at a 75% staffing level. We went back to 100% lab personnel around July last year. Office people were on a one-per-department in the office rotation until July, then went to 50% provided their office space was large enough.

My wife has been 100% work from home since mid March 2020 and her office is starting a slow return-to-office process in September. By November they'll be operating at their "new normal" of 3 days in the office per week (as opposed to always in the office).

[Cyneheard]

So I’ve got an office job that is about 50% coding/analysis and 50% meetings/qualitative work. We’ve been working from home since March 2020, and I was one of the early ones to come back at a hybrid level, currently up to 2 days a week. I’m anticipating that they will start bringing more of us back but at least on our team most of us will become hybrid; they will not be allowing us to remain 100% work from home.

1) Having a defined work space at home; my personal desktop is not where I work, so when I’m done for the day I leave the work machine and the room it’s in.
2) Making lunch >>> having leftovers or buying something.
3) The lack of commute is a nice benefit but I also didn’t mind the regular hour a day for podcast listening. My evenings are a lot more open when I’m done with work at 4:30 instead of leaving the office at 5:00 and getting home at 5:30-5:45.

[Krill]

I was working in an A&E department at the start of Covid, plus on hospital wards, but in November I started a new job. Because of the November lockdown, I started work on a Monday and by the Thursday I was working from home, only going into the office once on the way to see a patient and then to hand back my equipment in March when I finished. Same deal with my new job, everything since March has been done at home via Teams, email and phone unless it jad to be done face to face with a patient.

During all this time my wife has been working from home and has never gone out for work purposes.

We've saved over around 25000 miles worth of travel, and probably over a 1,000 hours of commuting (not including the Business travel, that would be over 2500 hours extra). We have actual lunch breaks, which were never paid, and we are both far more productive.

Neither of us see any point in going back to the office when we can work from home, but we have benefitted from previous decisions as we both have home office setups with good desks, chairs and triple monitors in separate rooms. My wife has gone so far to get a new job, and has agreement ro work from home so I'm asking for that to be included in the contract for business mileage purposes and to stop them reneging on the deal. I am wondering if I should use my right to request flexible working to work from home, but I have to wait until October to do that. I'm wondering if this is wise, given my current job is probably describable as a dream job (everyone else I know views it as a nightmare job though) and I don't want to piss off directors, or feel aggrieved if they said no (but there would be no lawful reason to decline it as I will have worked from home for 6 months without being in the office).

I thought there would be more people in a similar position to me on RB TBH.

[Zalson]

I’m working from home until September. Then we are back on a flex schedule, likely 2 days in office per week.

Honestly I don’t know how it is going to work. I have a teammate who is remote 100%. I went in to the office for an event one day and everyone else was on remote. That makes coming into the office feel very stupid. That plus the hour and a half commute total was not my favorite.

So we will see. I really value seeing with and collaborating with my colleagues in person but because many are remote, it seems like a weird choice for our company to make this mandate. That being said, they have committed to working with us to set this up properly. So we will give feedback that will likely reduce the required days in the office per week.

I think thrawn’s point is well taken. As long as your request is respectful and in good faith, no reasonable manager would turn you down. I am all for increasing my employees well-being and finances. Having employees who feel empowered means employees who stay.