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Yes. Im way more efficient at home. Less offfice bullshit.
No commute or shitty weather.
Roll out of bed and online in seconds, just open the laptop lid, leave it in suspend.
My food and can cook a proper meal.
Also can throw on a wash or whatever during the day.
Being home when my packages get delivered is also a nice bonus too! And where I live, I have to deal with a lot of snow. Normally this would be a pain in the ass, but when you work from home, you get to it when you feel like it.
Through the comments so far the lack of commute would be the biggest plus for me personally. I work in a power plant about 35 mins from my house. So, no matter the weather I absolutely need to be in, sometimes that has meant sleeping there.
People who socialize in the office hate wfh
People who socialize outside of the office love wfh
I love it and I'm never going back.
EDIT to add, because it's an important factor and I read it in the answers:
Your own toilet and good toilet paper instead of the cheapest waxy one-ply 🙏 your own control over the AC/heat instead of freezing/sweating 🙏 never having to smell someone heating up fish in the microwave 🙏
I'm 100% remote and love it
Fully remote for years now and never want an on-site job again. I don't mind going for a couple of events a year, though.
I can take my "smoke break" to change loads of laundry or do something else around the house. I have no commute time nor expenses. I am always here for deliveries. I regained so much of my time that I can use for study or entertainment. (Assuming a 1-hour commute, even if most of that is on a train, that's 10 hours a week back from that alone).
For success, your company and you need to have good communication and planning. It's also not for everyone, especially more social people.
I'd say not having to commute is a huge benefit of WFH, but it has some pitfalls that can negatively impact your work performance depending on what you do.
I've been WFH since 2020, and it's working well for me.
There are some obvious benefits such as not having a commute, being able to do laundry during breaks and always being there when a package arrives.
Some maybe less obvious advantages I personally enjoy is being able to eat whenever, meaning a quick snack but also my lunch, and wearing less appealing but way more comfortable clothes.
Oh, and shitting in my own toilet. While getting paid for it. Definitely that.
I'm not gonna dismiss the potential challenges, though. It works well for me because I don't mind being alone and I'm lucky to have a spare room to use as an office. Without those two factors it could easily enter suck territory.
Depends if you're an introvert or an extrovert. As an introvert I only see benefits; no commute, a close bathroom at all times, a kitchen with food, not needing to hear annoying coworkers except during meetings etc. If you're an extrovert then you might enjoy hearing your coworkers all day I guess?
Or if you have a toxic household you need to escape from.
Unquestionably yes. My coffee doesn't taste like shit, and my PJs are far more comfortable than any office attire imaginable.
From home since epidemic started and I would want to hug covid if it was a person.
My productivity in office was always low. Too many distractions, too many inconveniences. Then there is an issue with getting to the office - it's an additional hour of my life they are not paying extra for. And of course - at home I can work while doing simple chores. But the most important is that I can be with my daughters, instead of being just another father that spends half a day at work and the other half sleeping.
I get paid to be on a computer while sitting at home. regardless of the output or pay, the environment is exquisite.
I did Corp office work for ... years... then worked toward wfh goals toward end of 20-teens. been remote since 2019.
but there's a certain expectation and performance that comes with it. years of Corp work taught me to be punctual and professional, etc. politeness / teamwork /soft skills still come into play, even remotely.
Working from home, no commute, no clothes, no travel time, no car, easy food.
It's so efficient, it's crazy.
There is real value to working not-at-home, but working from home outweighs it in 99% of situations.
The reality is, and has been, and should be:
LISTEN TO AND TRUST PEOPLE WHEN THEY TELL YOU THEY LIKE OR DON'T LIKE SOMETHING.
Yes, been 100% WFH since 2015. I do miss the random chats in hallways, lunch room, etc, but definitely not worth going back to an office. I am far more effective at home.
Yes. Cat.
Really one day I realized I rather eat lunch with my cats than any of my coworkers and have never looked back
Sometimes. There's a lot less office BS at home, but it gets very quiet and isolated, even if you intentionally make a trip out during lunch or whatever.
The commute sucks though. Always.
WFH is awesome.
Can take breaks from work to drop off/pick up kid from school. Saving like 15% of my paycheque that would go to daycare otherwise.
Car insurance is cheaper, because no matter how much I drive I'm not commuting to work so the insurance company counts me as "occasional driver".
I can loudly and violently swear at bullshit emails.
I can listen to my own music on speakers while working.
Minor cons though:
I'm getting weirder due to the lack of minor social interactions that otherwise I'd get on the bus, sidewalk, office, cafe, so on.
Some cabin fever from being in the same space all day. I live in an apartment so I don't have a separate room for my work computer. Turn off work computer, turn on personal computer, and it's the same screens while I sit in the same chair. On the other hand this does motivate me to get outside after work to exercise or do errands.
No. I have ADHD and need external pressure to be productive.
Working from home in my job doesn't signal that pressure.
Most of the tasks that are assigned to me can always wait for another day.
So at home, I mostly just browse Feddit.
At work, I have people around me who can see my screen, and I can hear the issues my colleagues are having.
And since a day of fucking around makes me feel more exhausted at the end than a day working productively, I prefer going to the office.
The bicycle commute that wakes me up in the morning, releases stress in the evening, and keeps me fit, is a bonus.
This sounds like my experience before I burned out. And while I was in the process of burning out, I still would have preferred to work from the office because home was, and is, my safe space. I don't want work intruding there.
This does not mean that I haven't worked from home - I was the on-call tech more than once, nor does it mean that I think WFH is a bad idea. In fact I'm all for it for those who can handle it.
I like the idea of unnecessary layers of manglement sweating because they can't justify their existence through pointless micromanagement.
One reason that’s in favour is that people who cannot WFH benefit because there’s fewer people clogging up the commute. I always bring this up with people who say “must be nice but I can’t build a house/save patients/etc. from home”. Some people like that feel that because they need to be somewhere, office dwellers should too. But it actively makes their life more difficult!
Yep - I always disliked having to figure out food for the day before heading into the office. I'm not ready to eat breakfast until closer to noon, but once I start eating, I want to snack every hour or two while working.
I love it. No commute, optional shower, no pants. I'm not a very big pants guy, and that's a huge seller.
As others have said, working from home has many benefits
The commute alone is pretty big. If your commute is like an hour, that's changing your salary from like $x / 10 hours to $x / 8 hours. That's a big bump. If your daily pay was $1000, that's like going from $100/hour to $125/hour.
A little. I like 1 or 2 days at home. I tried total WFH and I got very lonely. I am an extrovert, so being in an office fits me.
However my current role is 100% in office. I also don't like that. I don't have the flexibility to schedule people to work on my house, it's expensive to commute, I miss my dog.
I'd love a hybrid 2/3 schedule.
Feb 16 2020 was the last day I stepped into an office. The first person to die of COVID in the USA was not far from my office and HR sent everyone home.
At the time, I had a 1 year old son and watched his first steps over a small phone screen. Listen to him say his first word though my headset at work. I fucking hated it.
After COVID, I watched my son grow up and experience everything. From the highs and lows. I love it.
The major downside is that WFH jobs are very few and I had to quit multiple jobs because of RTO policies. Today, I opened a business and just work as a contractor. Even though I don't make as much, I wouldn't change it for the world.
It is lonely and isolating. Especially after my divorce.
Idk. I really don't.
I absolutely prefer working from home.
I'm a programmer; my ability to work is heavily dependent on my ability to focus and think.
At home:
My office, by comparison:
Throw in the time it takes to commute back and forth and... why the hell would I want to work in the office? Sure, throw an occasional event (quarterly meetings, occasional dinner parties of the various teams, whatever) to build personal relations but I am easily far, far less productive in the office than at home.
Yes. I have worked at both and I feel much more comfortable at home. It gives you a level of flexibility that is hard to describe. I can start my day early, take a break for an hour, and resume it when I feel I can give it the proper level of attention. When I was in office, there was a pressure to look like you're working all the time. It felt hard to concentrate when the expectation was on dedicating the expected time to work rather than getting something done. With WFH, it's more about getting your tasks done and generally no one cares when you do it. And I can slouch and prop my feet up and have videos/music/audiobooks playing and whatever else I want without anyone knowing, let alone caring. I don't need to worry about a commute, and all my food and comforts are available when I want them. I can easily handle things like being at home for a package delivery or a technician repairing something or walking the dog or just doing laundry.
That being said, I will admit it is considerably harder to get help with a task in office. You can't just have someone pop by to look at something for example. You can still do a call or message, but it's a bigger barrier to overcome. With WFH, collusion for a group more often needs to be scheduled, and you don't have an analogue for water cooler talk.
Many places that offer work from home also have an office somewhere, so I would recommend new employees go in while learning the ropes, then switch as they become more independent. And some people like having different locations to help switch between work and relaxation mentalities. And it can be nice to get out of the house too. But overall, WFH is much better for me.
I dream of being able to WFH. But I am just a high school graduate. The only kind of job I really could get that would allow for remote work is certain aspects of IT, reception/call service, or sales. And I don't wanna do sales. It's not that I can't do other jobs, I just very likely won't even get an interview when I have no degree in anything.
I do a lot of telework and very little on-site work. Like 80% teleworking. I love the telework. I get to sleep 45 minutes later, don't have to get frustrated during my commute, save money on gas, have a discounted auto insurance rate, save on car maintenance, socialize with my coworkers over Teams (which is as much as I need to socialize with them), eat most of my meals with my wife who I enjoy spending time with. All the downtime at my job is now spent doing things like washing dishes, doing laundry, watching TV and movies, and reading, instead of listening to coworkers talk about inane stuff or having admin hover around micro- managing.
I work part time from home and part time in office
Pros
Cons
Have done wfh full time for about 6 years now (since the rona), I would never go back to a full time or even hybrid role unless forced. I would sooner quit my job if they forced me into a hybrid position.
The freedom is so much greater and I get so much more done than when I do occasionally have to go into an office for meetups or workshops (maybe 5-6 times a year).
The style of working is different to that of being in office, you have to be self motivating, semi-solo problem solving and you need a reasonably quiet workspace. This can be hard to get in some situations so I feel very lucky to be able to do it.
The company also needs to be setup to promote and support remote working, so having regular check ins with people and making sure people have support in place should they need it. Plus policies that work for remote workers as opposed to in office workers.
13/10 would recommend.
No, not really.
I have quite different desk setups and it just feels strange working on my home setup. It's fine for the odd weekend fix under an hour, but for proper work I'd rather go to the office. Also less distractions (cats) in the office.
Even during covid I was pretty much at the office every day. Someone had to be there to receive mail and such, so I volunteered.
There are a multitude of reason why I like it.
The most important is that I am not wasting an hour and change commuting. I don't need to worry about train schedules. Commuting by car would have been worse: I'd spend hundreds of euros on gas and tolls, never mind parking. I also don't have a bunch of dead time I cannot really take advantage of. Sure, some of it I could use to read in public transport, or listen to podcasts, but there is a limit. I am prone to motion sickness, so there are limits to when I can do it and for how long. And during peak hours? The experience of getting on a train is, sometimes, not great. Too many people, too hot. As much as I love public mass transport, the experience during peak hours is miserable.
The other thing about WFH, in my current setup, is that... I can just step away? I have gone to a friends house to give them and/or deliver something during work hours because I just have enough time. I have driven parents for appointments because it was quick enough, or I could just take my work laptop with me and work from the car. I have worked from another country entirely, and the biggest difference was the timezone. And if I really want to, I can visit a teammate and work from his house instead!
There are few other reasons why work from home is great, though they are not that important in the grand scheme of things. In the places I have worked, we have had open spaces. This means noise. Others might need to be on a call, or you might need to be on a call. It means that multiple people in the same call is now an exercise in mute discipline so you don't distract others hearing themselves through your microphone. It also means I cannot just pace around while on a chat, which I sometimes do thanks to the wireless headphones I invested in. Actually, it means I need to use my headphones much more because if I want music, I need them on, whereas at home I can just use speakers instead?
We do get togethers once a month, though I don't go to all of them. We also are relatively liberal with audio chats for not so serious subjects. I don't feel lonely for two reasons: I just deal well with calls and other such ways of interacting with people; and I can use the extra time I don't commute to actually go out with people I like after work.
I have a sick setup at home. Plus all the conveniences others mentioned already.
But really, it's being with the family, seeing your kids during the day. I don't want to just come home when they're already asleep.
Yes, I regain 3 hours of my day that would normally be wasted that I don't get paid for.
Single father with two school aged kids, mom lives in another state. I’ve turned down a couple higher paying executive roles that have been offered to me the last few years because I don’t know how I could make it work. I get my kids up at 7 and the latest one can’t be to school until 9. I have to start getting them from school at 3:30. I’m sure I could figure it out, plenty of people less fortunate than I am but I guess that I’ve decided that I’m incredibly fortunate that I can always be around and available for my kids and I don’t think I would disrupt that for any amount of money as long as I can provide for them this way. I do miss the social aspects of my colleagues sometimes though which really surprised me.
Yes: I don't have to waste time on the commute, and get to spend more time with family
No: When at the office, I am more easily focused; with WFH, it takes some effort. Commute means I get some walking "exercise" in (living in a walkable EU city). Being in the office is somewhat better for collaboration with colleagues.
It's for sure not all "rainbows and sunshines", but in the end, I by far prefer to save the commute time and invest it into other aspects of life.
80% wfh, 1 day at the office. I'd prefer 100% wfh, I just cannot deal with these open plan offices and sales people not taking their calls into a booth, or having the room pling-plong from whatsapp notifications. Drives me up the wall, even with my NC headphones on.
As an engineer, hybrid works best for many of us.
Design phase can be wfh with some in-person idea sessions or important meetings because I have yet to be at an online idea session that was as productive as in-person being able to draw things out and visualize better, and people tend to not speak up or just check out and agree at the end in online meetings.
Testing phase has to be mostly in person for lab tool access and collaboration on physical things.
I have worked with a contractor that did everything from home and had a whole home lab, but it was a big time sink and cost shipping parts back and forth 5 times and you couldn't physically probe behaviors together which leads to slightly different setups and sometimes different results.
Socially I moved to a place where I had no friends so I like getting social contact at work since in Belgium, it is extremely difficult to make new friends after you are done with school because of a culture of not talking to anyone else unless people are obnoxiously drunk lol. I like wfh on overwhelming days and in-person on days where I want more social contact.
That being said, I work 100% in office now because I live a 12 minute bike ride from work, so very easy.
Totally love WFH. I can hang out with my dog while working, get laundry done on breaks, and no commute leaves way more free time in my life. I would never go back to working in an office unless I was in dire straights.
I work remote 100%. All the replies cover a lot of things that I love about it already. One important thing that I think helps to WFH is to make the spot you work, devoted only to work. I have a small desk set up that I use for work. When I’m done I’m never at the desk again until I’m working again. I think there’s a negative effect if you make your workspace also your play space.
I never really hated my job or anything, and before COVID we even had an option to work from home one day a week, but I never bothered with it. But when I went to working from home full time, my quality of life improved significantly. Just driving to work used to be the most stressful part of my day, and eliminating that makes me so much happier. Not having to constantly "look busy" is also huge. As long as I get my work done my boss is happy. I also used to have bad neck and back pain which went away when I started work from home. Even though we have supposedly "ergonomic" setups at work, I guess something about it wasn't working for my body. I love working from home so much now that I would more readily accept a pay cut than to have to go back to the office.
Been 100% WFH for 4ish years now, absolutely do not want to go back. It's no different than working in the office during covid really, and this way I don't have a commute longer than it takes me to walk up a flight of stairs
I've been fully remote for 12 years. I've had two jobs during that time and moved five times over three countries.
I'm glad I got into my industry on-site. But I've come to realize that I hate cities. I hate commutes. I'd rather take a pay cut and live somewhere cheap.
My wife works from home, too. We have two dogs. We do our meetings, have time for focused work and grab lunch together.
My previous job was definitely not lonely or isolating. I was the go-to-guy for everything, so people video calling all day long. My current job gives me space to get shit done. I've got two days a week blocked off for just deep code mode. No meetings.
If you don't like the job on-site, then you're not going to like it remote. You've got to do something that feels rewarding.