I am not loving WFH, but likely that is because we can’t get out of the house during non-work hours. I like not commuting, but being in my house 23/7 (an hour or so to get out and exercise) is not my idea of a nice life. My very introverted son is very happy but my other son and I are itchy. I am close to retirement and there is some possibility that the small company I work for may not make it out the other end of this, and if that happens I probably would not get another similar job but do something very different. I know I need structure and activities to go along with house projects. Hard to believe it has been a month already and at least one more to go…
I think potentially that viewpoints on this thread literally can change from week to week for people.
Sometimes it feels like we are in a very awkward holding pattern. 
I have WFH since 1985. My office has evolved as technology evolved. I consider myself on a retirement flight path, gliding in. As my retainer clients leave I am not replacing them. No new clients. Projects only for those that have been clients. I am not sure about giving up completely. I turn 68 this summer and it is on my mind more now. I am not sure I am ready to give up income completely no matter what our planner says we can do. It It is nice to keep up a little consulting. DH has been retired for 18 years.
ShawWife is a painter and we built a studio next to our house 25 years ago. We just bought a new house (a failure to upsize) and will be converting a 3.5 bay garage into a studio next month. She loves what she does. It has its frustrations. She had a show that was supposed to open in a couple of days at a museum in the West that is not going to happen probably for a year and dealing with the museum types who kept thinking the show was going to happen was frustrating. She will never stop making art (and doing so would just be substituted for with therapy anyway). She does go to art residencies (she had one lined up late spring/early summer in the Canadian Rockies, but it was cancelled). Those are very stimulating for her and she would miss not having them.
I have an office at a company that I co-founded and run but over the last five years, I have transitioned to working at home whenever I am in town. It is a consulting firm and I travel 50% of the time. So, being at home for me is like the 50% of the time I don’t travel. [I like a lot of my business traveling. Talking with new people, nice restaurants, new countries, etc.]. My goal is never to retire but to taper travel down over the years. I’m getting more of a taste of that, but I have to say that 6+ hours of Zoom calls can be pretty trying.
The things that are missing: Our active social life is replace by nightly Zoom cocktails or dinner. No traveling for vacation (we were supposed to have gone on a hike in the Middle East a few weeks ago). Exercise is more limited (we are hiking but not on some of our favorite places which are now full of people). We haven’t started biking yet. Hopefully in the new normal that follows the discovery of a vaccine, even if we never shake hands again, we will get to have dinner with friends and travel on vacations and be able to hike without crowds.
One thing we will love when we work at home. Our new house is right on the bank of a river with conservation land or farms around us. The room that is going to become my home office has a 270 degree view of the river. It is so relaxing just to sit there. My wife’s studio will have a wall of glass facing the river (pretty much the only windows). When the river gets a little lower, we will put our kayaks in right from our yard.
Basically, our time with full-time WFH is nice and it will encourage us to go in the direction we are planning.
@shawbridge, until very recently I worked at a well known (in the art world) graduate art school. A few of our faculty members “retired” during my time there, but none of them plan to ever retire from doing their art. It’s who they are. I definitely understand where your wife is coming from!
@kelsmom, I suspect that they will retire to do their art. My wife’s mentor at her well-known art school is looking forward to doing that.
My FIL was chairman of the art department at the university he retired from many years ago. His medium is bronze casting, but he also paints and has done a drawing a day for the past 25 years. One of my BILs has been scanning and cataloging FILs drawings for the past two years and he’s still not through the 9,000+ pile. My in-laws retired to LA in the late 80s for the weather and museums. They turned their garage into a studio where FIL spends almost all of his time. He’s 85 and will never retire from his art.
I think I will have a hard time going back to work in the office. I do miss going to lunch with my coworker. But it will be hard getting up early, get showered, get dressed, hair, etc… the whole ritual took me 30-45 mins, then 20 min drive to work. I could use that extra hour to sleep in working from home.
I think I’m one of the only one in my office (on a hospital campus) who hasn’t been physically in the office since mid March. I haven’t had the need and have continued working so why??? I think some people just feel really out of their element on a different computer, office set up, etc.
All departments in our University have been asked to cut budgets 20% for FY 21. That’s a good bit! We are a small department. My program is grant funded so they can’t mess with my grant $$$ but sometimes if my grants don’t cover all costs the department picks up the slack. If it wasn’t for health insurance, I would consider reducing hours to maybe 30 week. Once this is “over” I may check and see how many hours I have to work (36? 35?) to be considered full time to get full time health insurance rates.
I am one of the few people in my office who has been in . There is one small part of my job that cannot be done from home. So I’m in 1x week for a few hours. There is only one other non-management employee who has to come in ( situation similar to mine).
I would love to work 30 hours/ week but I will lose my health care if I go under 40. My health care benefits are awesome.
I’m generally managing pretty well WFH, but this morning my husband started using the dust buster in another room during my touch base TEAMS call with my boss! Geez! Also, I haven’t bothered to get IT permission to hook up to my home printer (will have to load some drivers) so if I do have to print and mail something it’s a bit of a production- email it to my personal email or to my husband to print- then I sign it and hand address an envelope (I had the foresight to bring home some letterhead and envelopes with the company logo) and put a stamp on it. I have some staff going in (staggered) every day, but it’s easier to just do it myself and not have them signing my name and dealing with the mailing.
If I had to permanently WFH or if it truly lasts more than another month, I’ll have to move myself out of the kitchen and into a more private space. I have an office here at the house, but I’ve enjoyed the brightness and convenience of the kitchen island. Not sure my husband has enjoyed it as much. I’ve found my counter height stool to be very comfortable (it has a back).
I could not mentally function in a main area of the house that was open to other people! Not for more than a brief time! I like my space (still has lots of windows) where I can SHUT.THE.DOOR!!! 
I admit to checking out the space that others are using on video calls. Lots of people out there using the dining room.
We still have not killed each other and only had one little disagreement during these several weeks of forced homestay. Mr. is temporarily retired (until next Monday), I am WFH. It definitely helps that I go to my “C-suite” aka makeshift basement office every morning. My cats visit me and check on the birds outside the windows. I too cannot add my home printers to the work computer I am using, and have only one monitor. If we have to sit at home through May, I will have to petition to be allowed to add these things.
Same on the printer! Don’t have to print a lot but now and then - doing the email it to myself then print from my phone which is extra steps but is working.
I’m thinking now of looking for some contraption to make my desk a stand up desk part of the day. Might have to take a look in the attic and see what I can find. Milk crate??? Large plastic container flipped?
My stand up desk is set in “permanent” stand up mode — made of bricks & wood boards. Solid!
When I want to sit, I grab my laptop & plop down on the couch or kitchen bar.
Not for everyone!
^^Just make sure you have a rubber mat or some softer surface on which to stand.
My issue with holing up in my office (would seriously have to rearrange things, too, since my home computer occupies the desk) is that I have to be available by email/TEAMS app pretty much all day and evening, and I feel much less isolated if all my stuff is right on the kitchen island (one corner of it) and I can roam around and be in the bright center of the house. I can always relocate for a call or even move the computer for a meeting if I need to do so. It’s not ideal, but it’s mainly worked. Easy access to the refrigerator, too!
I have a temporary standing desk! First 1/2 hour of work done and it’s the right height and stable. Really just a sturdy plastic bin that when flipped (and put a little weight inside so it doesn’t move) is good. The bin actually has a raised lip around the edge which allows room for my laptop and trusty notebook that I keep my me religiously through the day and the lip gives my wrists/forearm a comfortable place to rest and not be stressed. Just a nice option!
I don’t get the comparison to retirement because I’m still working now even though it’s at home…and really inefficiently because I don’t have a good home office set up and I have two kids at home, one of which who needs help with home schooling. So here I am putting in 10-12 hour days to try and get done what I normally did in 8. My house is a mess because we’re all here all the time and I’m tired at the end of the day. I’m enjoying home much less than I was when I’d go to the office every day. I’m seriously thinking of burning some vacation time here soon even though I can’t go anywhere just so I can catch up on housework and maybe get my garden in.
^^^ I like you have thought “why would I take a vacation day just to be at home” - but I realize that a mental health day is just as needed if not more right now and on an excellent weather day would provide me a lot of mental boost to have a whole day or weekend + a day to get some stuff done.
My biggest issue is Zoom sessions. I tell my family, quite emphatically, to not bother me when I’m in a video meeting, but they don’t seem to get it! DH will wander into the office, or people will hold a conversation right outside our office. Argh.