Working from home...interesting...

Bumblebee

Bumblebee

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There are three people who work from home on my street one of which has a modified schedule (3 days at office, 2 days at home).

All of them are struggling with this....one fellow is a young, single guy in his '30s and he finds it really hard as he has next to no social life...he said at least in an office setting there are women or older women workers with daughters to meet....he said the dating websites are dismal at best....but that aside he finds he can never get away from work or the desire to work, he's one of the odd younger generation that likes his job and wants to do well...he even moved his office to the basement and never goes down there when he's off but it's a real struggle if he knows he has work to get done...and then he takes vacation days and would like to travel but not by himself...

Another one is a lady in her '50s and she hates having to work from home as there are many distractions but her office closed and if she wanted to work to get her pension, she had to work from home...at least her company locks out her computer on non-work hours so she isn't tempted to work....but her husband has retired and sort of drives her nuts so she would have liked an office to go to in order to escape him sometimes....(I laughed at that one).

The other is a lady in her '50s that works 3 days in office and 2 days at home....she both likes and hates this....she likes it so she can stay at home especially in the winter but she hates it because when she goes to the office, there is a crap-ton of work for her to do because for 2 days things have piled up-hard-copy work that is...it's to the point that the three days she is in the office she goes in early and leaves late pretty much all the time...

I know personally I wouldn't like working from home.
 
The first time I worked from home, was when I started by own business. I have a business office part of a big warehouse about 4 miles away.

I can honestly say, I get a lot more done when I am at the business office. Too much temptation here, talking on the forum, going down to the kitchen to get a snack, a quick play fetch with the dogs and no one around to keep me focussed.
 
Bumblebee said:
There are three people who work from home on my street one of which has a modified schedule (3 days at office, 2 days at home).

All of them are struggling with this....one fellow is a young, single guy in his '30s and he finds it really hard as he has next to no social life...he said at least in an office setting there are women or older women workers with daughters to meet....he said the dating websites are dismal at best....but that aside he finds he can never get away from work or the desire to work, he's one of the odd younger generation that likes his job and wants to do well...he even moved his office to the basement and never goes down there when he's off but it's a real struggle if he knows he has work to get done...and then he takes vacation days and would like to travel but not by himself...

Another one is a lady in her '50s and she hates having to work from home as there are many distractions but her office closed and if she wanted to work to get her pension, she had to work from home...at least her company locks out her computer on non-work hours so she isn't tempted to work....but her husband has retired and sort of drives her nuts so she would have liked an office to go to in order to escape him sometimes....(I laughed at that one).

The other is a lady in her '50s that works 3 days in office and 2 days at home....she both likes and hates this....she likes it so she can stay at home especially in the winter but she hates it because when she goes to the office, there is a crap-ton of work for her to do because for 2 days things have piled up-hard-copy work that is...it's to the point that the three days she is in the office she goes in early and leaves late pretty much all the time...

I know personally I wouldn't like working from home.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess you can only shoot at so many people from your garage or back yard...it would get old...

lmao
 
jellyrug said:
The first time I worked from home, was when I started by own business. I have a business office part of a big warehouse about 4 miles away.

I can honestly say, I get a lot more done when I am at the business office. Too much temptation here, talking on the forum, going down to the kitchen to get a snack, a quick play fetch with the dogs and no one around to keep me focussed.
Click to expand...
Motivation and focus is a hard thing to manage...look at all the second hand treadmills for sale and almost all the ads say "bought clothes rack because it took up less room"
 
When the pandemic hit we were sent home and I was fortunate not to have to return. Now our company (a credit union) is hybrid with some remote and some in office.
I think the type of work a person does determines how working from home will work for them. I work all day on a computer with some phone calls coming in and an occasional Zoom meeting but I do my own work and I'm not dependent on "the team" to get me through the day.

I had an 60 minute round trip commute before, now I have none so working from home put an hour back into my off time. Plus I'm not burning through gas like I was.
I also think the work location in the house is important. I work in an upstairs bedroom apart from whatever is going on downstairs. I come down for lunch and take a walk around the block whenever I feel the need.

My company benefitted too because they've since sub-leased out the commercial office space we occupied which has saved thousands of dollars.
And since workers can now be remote in most cases, our company can hire folks in different states who are well qualified.

I love it and wouldn't want to return to the office
 
My career has been in the field. Early days it was 75% in the car. During the pandemic we went mostly virtual. At this time I get out once a week to justify the company car.

I'm a social guy by nature. I do miss hanging out in the body shops shooting the breeze. My wife is 100% virtual and sits across from me in the home office.
 
I know for a while I was working in a cubicle setting and it had it's good and bad points....

The good points were that sometimes when a project is being planned, you have instant collective input which made the project go a lot faster and more efficient. There was also the obvious social aspect where the people you worked with became close which made collaboration on projects better. And it was easier to motivate one another.

Then in our case there was the mentorship aspect that is impossible without being face to face.

The bad point was everyone knew your business especially when you were on the phone.

It will be interesting how long the work from home model survives...I can see some sort of hybrid schedule being more applicable to many corporations.
 
Working from home is like anything else, it has it's pro's and con's. It's certainly not for everyone. For me, I think the pro's out weigh the cons. I like my job, I like what I do so it doesn't take huge amounts of discipline to get things done. It's so much more efficient. Even a short 20 minute commute adds up in gas but most importantly time. The biggest con is the fridge is very close to me and I love to eat. That's takes more dicipline then getting my work done at home. LOL. When I went into the office, I only had what I brought for lunch.

I feel bad for the really young folks though. A big part of my early success were the people around me and having access to experienced folks and all that knowledge was HUGE for me. It's just not the same over a DM's or video chat's. One of the things I miss the most in one of my old offices were the random chat's and interactions with co-workers (related to work). We had white boards all over the office and it was so easy to collaborate or help some of the younger folks now that I'm on the opposite end of that stick.
 
I found the commute back and forth to work helped me unwind...especially if I was on the bike...sometimes I'd go out of my way and have an adventure on the way home...


And..........getting time off work meant a lot more to me when I wouldn't have to go to work....it was a little more special somehow.
 
Bumblebee said:
I found the commute back and forth to work helped me unwind...especially if I was on the bike...sometimes I'd go out of my way and have an adventure on the way home...


And..........getting time off work meant a lot more to me when I wouldn't have to go to work....it was a little more special somehow.
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I can understand both those points. Another working from home con I have found is if you like your job and what you do it can be hard to stop working sometimes. I have gotten stingy with my time in my older age (not that I'm old) but I sacrificed a lot when I was young (before all this work from home crap), only a couple people know how much, my wife and father in-law really, anyway, it can be bad for sure.
 
MonkeyButtRides said:
I can understand both those points. Another working from home con I have found is if you like your job and what you do it can be hard to stop working sometimes. I have gotten stingy with my time in my older age (not that I'm old) but I sacrificed a lot when I was young (before all this work from home crap), only a couple people know how much, my wife and father in-law really, anyway, it can be bad for sure.
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As a retired guy I work from home and I'll tell you, my boss is a real ball-buster.....she expects me to do whatever I want all day....the audacity of it all...

Seriously though, my former job was rather intense at times......when I retired, I found it hard to dial down the intensity, I woke up at 0 dark hundred (still do) every day and used to go right at my self-directed tasks...I can pick and choose what I do....I've taken on the role as "house husband" as I couldn't justify my wife working all day and having to come home and do work here...I taught myself how to cook and other household tasks...

I have it down to a science now and can complete my daily tasks pretty quickly...in the summer this is great because I can go out and tear up the streets on the Bumblebee....
 
LC4CARL said:
I have some friends that work in a global envrironment. The idea that work gets done 24 hrs a day seems to be false. In realty, the guy in one time zone asks for input from the guy in another, and gets a response the following day. Weird.
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Even scheduling meetings from the east coast to the west coast can be a challenge let alone around the globe!
 
One con for me is that my bedroom is also my office with my work laptop, two big screens, cheat sheets and important printed emails laying there in plain view on the desk whenever I walk by on nights and weekends.
Sorta feels like I can’t get away from work with the constant visual reminders.

Regardless, being forced to work from home proved that it can be done. The old model of everyone trudging to work every day is obsolete.
Workers now can live where they want instead of being forced to stay close to their employer. No more relocating to take a new job in a lot of cases.
And employers have no geographic restrictions when it comes to hiring good people. The entire world is a potential hiring base depending on the job type.
Employers also don’t have to maintain big buildings anymore with the costs of insurance, utilities and upkeep if their workers are at home.
And carbon emissions are lowered if fewer people commute in their cars.
 
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Gen3lover said:
One con for me is that my bedroom is also my office with my work laptop, two big screens, cheat sheets and important printed emails laying there in plain view on the desk whenever I walk by on nights and weekends.
Sorta feels like I can’t get away from work with the constant visual reminders.

Regardless, being forced to work from home proved that it can be done. The old model of everyone trudging to work every day is obsolete.
Workers now can live where they want instead of being forced to stay close to their employer. No more relocating to take a new job in a lot of cases.
And employers have no geographic restrictions when it comes to hiring good people. The entire world is a potential hiring base depending on the job type.
Employers also don’t have to maintain big buildings anymore with the costs of insurance, utilities and upkeep if their workers are at home.
And carbon emissions are lowered if fewer people commute in their cars.
Click to expand...
It makes sense the work model changes over time...

There was a time when people worked only in the same community they lived in and in many cases if not all they were able to walk to work...time changed and subdivisions changed this model....it makes sense that subdivisions would continue to change the work model.

There have been a few instances recently in this area where people who were working from home and moved to a remote located far from their former workplace have been recalled to the workplace and instead of doing so, quit their 6 figure job.....what they didn't take into account is there are very few 6 figure jobs out there these days so now they are struggling.

But I think these people are the exception and not the rule.
 
For you working 100% remote would make a lot of sense. I too have a job where I'm fully trained and pretty much self-contained. I don't interact with the public, only internal folks so there's no need for me to be in an office.
That's the one blessing I can see that came out of the Pandemic.
 
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