What Has WFH Taught You? What Is Your WFH Future?

Parent Cafe
21

I’m curious for those new to WFH and are missing social stuff. Are you alone in the house? I have H and at least 1 S, sometimes 2 here. So having people to talk to isn’t a problem. I just text work peeps and talk to family peeps during the day instead of the usual vice versa. I might get more lonely if I was alone in the house. But then again, I LOVE being alone in the house so maybe not.

I also have been maintaining my normal working hours. And shower/get dressed like always. Most of my work clothes are casual so that helps. But I do understand feeling chained to my desk and always return emails and phone calls ASAP (Within seconds) so it doesn’t look like I’m slacking. But I also make sure to “leave” by 5pm like at the office. I don’t have enough a job that has a lot of emergency overtime. Only in natural disasters and that’s typically only to give hourly workers a break.

22

I and one of my co-workers in my department were chosen last summer for the pilot project to work from home two or three days a week in order to free up some office spaces. I love it. So flexible…no one watch over the shoulder, drop lunch to the kids in school, go grocery shopping during lunchtime. However, now working from home every day I do find it is a bit too much. I need break…with two adults and two kids at home the same time, I felt stressful such as cooking more food and monitoring kids’ screen time.

23

I used to never want to work from home, even though I have what a lot of people around me consider a killer commute (New Yorkers and Londoners just shrug). I wanted the socialisation, I wanted out of the house, out of the village, away from the diapers. And I never minded riding the train.

Now we have moved into a much nicer and much bigger house, in the city, and Covid happened. I love my house, and hate getting on the train. The kids are bigger, everyone is home all the time, and having children does not feel isolating any more. Having my family around fills a surprising amount of my social needs (not all, by all means). And we are all trying to get our work done from the family room - it’s a bit like having co workers. I enjoy seeing more of my husband, without the bickering about who’s got to drive the kids next.

So, working from home was surprisingly good, too, and it has not just been because I say a prayer of thanksgiving for every day I do not have to mask up to get on that train. I still have to go in every other day (I’m on a 4 days a week schedule) though due to health issues it’s been more like one day a week.

However, even the days in have been better! Not having to do any kid chauffeuring in the afternoons, I could stay very long hours, to make the train journey count, and that has made my days more productive, rather shockingly so, actually. (Also, all meetings, training, and reorganising have been cancelled. We actually get work done, and while we carefully distance, no birthday parties, communal coffee breaks etc., we still get to chat from our doorways).

I will soon get proper network access from home, and I will definitely keep at least one day at home and one long day at work. Not sure how I will split up the rest - at some point, I will have to work round everyone else’s schedule again. Having experienced these changes has been one of the good things I have learned during this crisis.

24

@mathmom do you still issue prints? We send PDFs to everyone.

25

My husband is retired and is home, but he is not a social person. He has a lot of projects and things he does, and we do walk the dogs together. He tends to make noise only when I’m on an important call/meeting! :slight_smile:

I forgot to mention my travel. I think I would be better about the WFH if my travel hadn’t been cut off by the virus. I worked with wonderful, fun, smart people around the country- and got some nice trips to conferences. My husband went with me sometimes. I missed 5 or 6 trips this spring. I just feel so trapped right now.

26

I would get together with a friend of mine almost every Tuesday. Walk & chat. Drinks & apps. Movie & drinks.

And, I would hike with the hiking club on Sundays.

I am an introvert, but I REALLY looked forward to those events to get out & socialize.

Both are, of course, on pause.

27

I’ve been working from home since March 1. I like some of it and dislike some. In my job there is a lot of personal information that is hard to get when teleworking. It is hard to gather a lot of information I need from home. i also miss my two big screens and printing capability (due to gov’t restrictions we can’t connect to any home equipment). I miss my coworkers in my office and our interaction. I’m training for a new position and can’t do much without being there.

I like not having to commute (so sleeping a few minutes later). Not having to go out when the weather is awful like today. Being able to stop and do laundry or pick something up during breaks in the day. I like the view out my window and that I can move my office around a little if I want to. I like being with my dogs. I like that some meetings that are a pain in person can be done online and I can work on other things during parts I don’t care about. Much more efficient. I like being able to be home during the first 2 months of my grandson’s life.

I feel that interruptions from my husband and daughter have been frustrating. They seem to not realize I’m working and demand my time or cause loud interruptions when I’m in a meeting.

I would like to telework one day a week or more when we first go back. I’m not sure that will be allowed. We may go back around June 1 but no date has been put out there yet. We are supposed to be giving a two week notice and that hasn’t come yet.

28

@MaineLonghorn I’m a dinosaur. Most of my work is on old 1920s house - kitchens, baths, additions. Everything is one off. I’ve never felt the need to do CAD. (Took an Autocad course in Germany in the 1980s and hated it - but I’m sure it’s easier to work with now.) I’m good with photoshop and use it for standard details and I scan things and make pdfs all the time, but my scanner only handles 8.5x11. I take everything to the printer that needs big pdfs. I’ve hired someone to do CAD drawings for me from time to time, but they make so many ridiculous mistakes and charge so much I’ve given up.

I do meet up with the occasional engineer who is unhappy with me, but generally my projects don’t need much engineering. The last one I sent to an engineer was a two-car garage with a basement and he’s planning on putting cars on lifts and doesn’t want any columns. It won’t take long for the engineer to make a CAD drawing from my pdf.

The thing I’m going to miss most is travel. Wondering if going to the cabin in Vermont will be possible this summer. We mostly hang out in the mountains and many of our favorite places to eat have outside dining or take out, but we mostly cook ourselves because it’s a drive down the mountain to get anywhere.

29

I am self-employed and do a lot of my work from home anyway, only going in to my office to meet with clients. So not too much of a change, except that now I do Zoom meetings.
The big change is DH working from home. I am frankly thrilled about that. His normal commute is over an hour each way in heavy traffic and he is getting too old for that! It is very stressful so this is a lovely reprieve. At this point it is looking like WFH through the summer. I am hoping that he might be able to do a hybrid once they go back, and be able to work from home one or two days a week. We’ll see!

30

I have been working from home 1 day/week for a few years now. Before the pandemic, the company I work for was allowing more and more employees WFH 2 days/week. I was planning to ask if I could do that…

As of yesterday, there is no date set for when we will be back in the office. I am thinking it will be awhile and that people will be rotating with WFH. I am reasonably sure 2 days/week will not be an issue.

Pros:
No commute
More time for working out
Doing a few things like throwing in laudry when I take a quick break

Cons:

I miss my co workers
Sometimes certain computer programs/databases are slower at home

I keep the same hours that I do in the office. Unless I am in the middle of something that must be finished (doesn’t happen often), I power down at quitting time. I get up at the same time I always did and shower before work (I almost always work out before work so I really need the shower anyway).

31

I will add that it is entirely necessary for me to have my own space to work when WFH. I do not want to be in a common area with others. That sounds like a living h_ll to me!

Re: interruptions at home. D2 was home for about 6 weeks doing grad school classes, I was WFH, H is retired. We would totally text even if we were in the same house or just across the hall from each other to avoid interrupting. I appreciated that.

I also would text D and H when I was getting ready to go on a call so that they knew I was totally unavailable for that block of time. That was a good standard to have.

32

I should try the texting idea and see if I can get my family to do that. It would help me tremendously.

I’m self employed so have quite a bit of flexibility. I started working from home a day here and there years ago, and it has gradually increased. I was probably about 50/50 going into the office for the last year or 2. Right now I’m going into the office less than once a week. The only reason I normally need to go is for face to face meetings with clients, and that has come to almost a complete stop.

My regular routine is I get up 6-630 to get everyone else roused up, coffees and lunches made, and whatever other misc things need done to get them out the door (that’s my Mr Mom time). D21 gone by 7:30 on the rare morning she doesn’t have early activities before school, W and D25 leave for work/school about 7:50. Then from 8-4 no one is here.

My assistant in my office is great about screening calls and setting up appointments. Usually she texts unless something needs immediate attention. I just don’t get interrupted much at all for 8 hours, and can get more done here than I would if I went into the office, especially with a 50 minute commute each way.

But now W has worked I think 3 days in the last 2 months. S18, S19, D21 and D25 are all here almost all of the time. And S19 is sleeping in my home office.

I love working from home 1/2 time and look forward to getting back to that schedule, provided I can get my house cleared out. It gives me plenty of social time, but also lets me be more productive, and as has been said above I can do those occasional errands without it being such a hassle. A 20 minute Walmart or grocery run on a Tuesday morning takes an hour on Sunday afternoon.

33

I teach adult ESL in two different programs in the continuing education division of our local community college. As an instructor in continuing ed, I don’t have an office of my own. For the tuition-based program, we have a communal work area with lockers for any materials we don’t want to drag home, a computer, printer, photocopiers, and lots of random office supplies. At that location I teach in college classrooms with a computer terminal, projector, overhead projector, nice big whiteboard, etc. The grant-funded program has one central office where we go maybe once a term to exchange textbooks and pick up a terms worth of photocopies. Classes meet in the evening or on weekends in high school or middle school classrooms where we have no access to technology and the whiteboards are covered with the classroom teachers’ things.

WFH means that my longest commute has gone from 40 minutes to 5 seconds. It means that all of my classes are in Zoom. My higher tech classes have taken a step down, but my no-tech classes have taken a definite step up. In the future, I might think about getting a whiteboard and maybe a real webcam instead of just the one on the laptop the college gave me.

We will never go back to only FTF teaching. Now that the instructors and the students have learned that we can teach and learn online, even if/when it is possible to offer FTF instruction many of our classes will continue to be offered in online format. Some of my colleagues have learned that they prefer remote teaching and won’t be returning to a live classroom at all. I hope that eventually we can get back into physical classrooms for those students who want to be there and who learn best in that environment.

I miss the ready camaraderie of the on-campus office, and the break time conversations with my colleagues in the night school classes. When it is possible to do so, I do look forward to physical visits to campus and true FTF conversations with the program leader and office staff.

34

@happymomof1, my son is an expat overseas and the first year he was there, he taught English at a school FTF, but with a lot of modules that used tech to simulate scenes and conversations. He learned to deal with the tech, and it made it VERY easy for him to start running classes and doing individual conversational tutoring online.

Despite the pandemic, he has picked up new clients because native English speakers who are tech savvy are hard to find in his corner of the world. Some of his FTF classes will remain online as his city starts to open very slowly.

DH has a 2.5 hour daily commute and 10-12 hour workdays. WFH has been a revelation to him. His productivity is better than he expected, but the biggest difference is that gaining back those 2.5 hours has been life-changing. He’s not nearly so stressed, takes the dog for walks and has energy to have conversations in the evenings. We have dinner at 7:30 instead of 9.

He has claimed our joint office and at one point went into the office in the evening to get his work printer and monitor. He doesn’t have to get up at 4:45 am for a 7 am conference call. I’m sure he’ll head back to the office when things reopen, but I’m hoping he’ll take advantage of the telework provisions 1-2 days/week.

35

When H needs quiet to tape a lesson, he just yells through the house for how long he wants it. That sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t…

36

I’m loving WFH. Most of my patients have adjusted to phone sessions. I’m not getting the last minute cancellations because of childcare issues, car problems, etc. Yesterday I attended a conference on Zoom that began at 8:00 a.m. I attended an HOA meeting earlier in the week at 7:00 PM, which I wouldn’t have done if not on Zoom.

My puppy arrived 2 weeks prior to the shut down. We walk a lot and meet neighbors whom I never knew. I’ve actually lost those last few pounds.

I miss my gym buddies and colleagues, but not as much as I thought I would.

Oh, my front yard needed a make over, so I hired a landscape architect. That’s fun

37

I’ve been teaching four composition classes FH – just finished the semester. What I liked was not commuting, Not the insanely long class days (they were spread out form 8:30 to 6:45 this semester), not dressing up. I did not mostly teach synchronously, so was able to spread out the work more.

What I didn’t like is missing the students, the classroom camaraderie and discussion which is where some of my best teaching happens. And knowing that my students were not all happy with it (though some loved it.)

I am hoping we will be online in the fall, as our class sizes have been increased by a third, so I don’t know who we can safely fit in classrooms. I know I can teach effectively like that, and hope that students will buy in.

If I could afford to, I would retire now, and work at writing from home, as I am an introvert and don’t at all mind being by myself, but I am not in that position yet.

38

Apparently, some employers do not trust their employees to do their work from home…

https://www.npr.org/2020/05/13/854014403/your-boss-is-watching-you-work-from-home-boom-leads-to-more-surveillance

39

The one good part of having to bill ones time ( as an attorney) is that no one gives a darn about monitoring you in the office or out. I’ve worked at home about 80 percent of my time for over 20 years.

40

Before Covid I go to the office 4 days a week and wfh on Fridays, but I didn’t really have to go to to the office, I wanted to. Everyone I work with aren’t in the same physical location as me, and many are in different time zones, and my boss is in Europe. So no reason to go in but I have old colleagues who work in the same location that I hang out with, go out to lunch. So I really miss that. I also like myself/my image better when I get up, shower, dress up, and go to work like a professional.

Now with wfh, I feel like a slob sometime. Although I love the freedom of not having to wake up early and I could just get on the computer after I roll out of my bed. That’s the only pro with wfh for me. I work the same amount of time, if not more from home. I don’t “go to lunch” when it’s noon time. I don’t eat any thing until 3 pm or after, it’s very strange my body doesn’t feel hungry or thirsty. When I work in the office, by noon time I couldn’t wait to eat. At home I don’t get up and take a walk. In the office my coworkers and I would ping each other let’s take a walk, when we don’t have meetings scheduled. We would also take “coffee break” even though I don’t drink coffee. Drinks and snacks are always around and free at the office. We would meet and vent and complain about whatever it is going on. Now I just sit in front of my computer most of the time. My kids are self sufficient I have no reason to get up and make lunch for them even. Hubby makes his own lunch.

I work for the same company for 23 years, first real job out of college. Had I work from home since I startedd, I would never had made so many wonderful friends. I also have coworkers from all over the world, some are like family to me. When they are in the US for my project or others, they always make sure to stop by my office and we have lunch/dinner, and they came to my home to see my family. I do the same when I travel to their country. I do miss that a lot now, too.

Looks like i won’t be back to the office until the vaccine is available.