Where I work we have a lot of employees who live miles away (M4 corridor) and commute into Cambridge Mon-Thurs and WFH Friday. This means that on Friday, there are only about 25% of staff in the building and the whole place is like a ghost town. Our CEO lives in Paris, so does the same.

Seems a very off set up to me, it is very boring / quiet on a Friday.

Anyone else experienced this?

Work from home as well?

I actually prefer being in the office, no distractions and a nice bike ride in the frost to wake me up. Plus I save on heating…..

Our Office empties on a Friday. Flexitime, and quite a few London staff who leave middayish mean by 1 or 2 it’s about 30% full. Not me though, deadline looming…

Same in our place, apart from it being Thurs and Fri…. I’m at home 🙂

Seems a very off set up to me

Why?

If you worked from home you could still have a bike ride.

Seems a very off set up to me

Was supposed to be ‘odd’

I suspect it leads to lower productivity as nothing really happens on a Friday. I might be wrong, maybe the better work life balance thing evens it all out. However, if I want to discuss something with someone, or say, ‘come over here and take a look at this’, I can’t. Obviously you can phone people up or email them, but we don’t have the informal interaction you get in an office.

You have interaction in the office ? Madness… you can’t be in IT then.

I inherited a strong Protestant work ethic, so sloping off on a Friday doesn’t appeal to me, I have to toil at my desk to absolve my sins……

You have interaction in the office ? Madness… you can’t be in IT then.

We have one IT guy and occasionally we unlock the door to the IT cupboard and slide food in. No one has spoken to him for years….

In our agency we work every day to get stuff done well and on time. Sometimes we work from home, sometimes we work in the office on saturday and sunday and don’t sleep. Give and take I guess.

I wouldn’t complain about your company having a grounded but relaxed attitude to working from home. Overworking people does nothing but reduce the quality of their work. The choice of working from home on friday is a nice change for some people.

I suspect if most of our staff were local, we’d have better attendance, but we only seem to recruit from 100miles away – that must be unusual?

When we started the company (13 years ago) pretty much everyone was local and cycled to work, now it’s the polar opposite. So I’ve seen a huge change over the last decade.

So you’ve been there 13 years and everyone who lived local to you left the firm moved on ?

All the remaining people try to stay out of the office as often as possible while you are there ?

Even your CEO who obviously respects your work (been there 13 years) tries to stay away with some vague excuses ? He even accepts the business will be less efficient (and therefore profitable ?) and even flys to Paris rather than spend one more day in the office a week with you ?

Your IT guy refuses to come out of his room to talk to you unless you offer him food ?

hmmm….

Bloody hell and people call Teacher’s lazy.

I work from home,and never go in the office.
Bit lonely..

being at home is just a way of working, if you learn to get more out of skype, lync etc then it can be much more productive than going to the office IME/IMHO

hmmm….

But hey we’re losing money hand over fist, so can’t be all bad 😉

No idea. I don’t work Fridays.

I took my son to the aquarium this morning, that wasn’t very busy…

On the rare occasion I’m not in work and wander into town on a weekday, e.g. to get my hair cut, I’m always amazed at the number of ‘Can of Tenants at 9 o’clock in morning’ brigade I pass. Maybe that’s what people do when they’re working from home?

We had a WFH rule on Fridays. Then for technical reasons the devs had to be in on Fridays. Almost everyone travels.

So now the managers and architects go back home to their families on Thursday afternoon, we have to be away another day. There’s solidarity for you.

“Is already on way home”

Maybe that’s what people do when they’re working from home?

I’m usually out pedalling.

Maybe its a personal hygiene thing, I really need to have my annual bath soon….

This is my office area. Towards the window there is my desk, the only one with the monitor turned on and a hi-viz thing hanging up. There must be 20 empty desks around me…

Untitled by brf, on Flickr

We keep the blinds shut as the IT guy doesn’t like bright light, being nocturnal 😉

It’s a bit dead here today with PCS striking. Usually normal capacity though on a Friday. The older guys around here reminisce about the days when they were out from Friday lunch in the pubs… Progress!

Hi Viz jacket, are you the office H&S rep?

Having worked in an environment where flexible working meant occasionally doing less than 15 hours a day, they struggled with the idea of people working from home. That was a law firm. Employee relations are in the dark ages.

Current place has finally got to grips with the idea that fewer people in buildings means fewer buildings, lower costs and more profit. So it’s finally introducing some useful tools (like lync). This is a technology company, where this sort of thing ought to be obvious!

Hi Viz jacket, are you the office H&S rep?

Honest Gov, not mine, think it’s a fire wardens that’s been left there…

So much communication takes place informally eg bouncing ideas off people or chatting to people in the kitchen, which you miss if people are off site.

So much communication takes place informally eg bouncing ideas off people or chatting to people in the kitchen, which you miss if people are off site.

Is this where you go to push the envelope?

So much communication takes place informally eg bouncing ideas off people or chatting to people in the kitchen, which you miss if people are off site.

Conference calls are ideal for sending emails to one person, while texting another. Or taking another call.

Ignoring people is the new multitasking!

I usually work from home Thursdays and go into the office Fridays which (today included) is usually very quiet. That way I avoid most of my colleagues for two out of 5 days!

I usually work from home Thursdays and go into the office Fridays which (today included) is usually very quiet. That way I avoid most of my colleagues for two out of 5 days!

Depending on how next week’s interview goes (eek!), if I stay where I am that’s pretty much what I’m going to do. Except my two female colleagues don;t work Wednesdays, leaving me two midweek days to re-boost my testosterone levels….

Same in our place, apart from it being Thurs and Fri…. I’m at home

I’ve applied, through the flexible working thingy to work from home Thursday/Friday so i can pick my daughter up after work when my gf is travelling with work.

I’m probably one of about 10 people in the entire company that hasn’t had a pint on Payday Friday lunchtime, plus i’ve been working since 7am.

WFH didnt really work yesterday as i was in Poland 🙁

Conference calls are ideal for sending emails to one person, while texting another. Or taking another call.

Ignoring people is the new multitasking!

I only do informal stuff, meetings and conf calls are just such a huge waste of time (in my experience).

Are you posting about this because you’re lonely, or does it genuinely anger you that people would work from home on a friday if allowed to? :p Who on earth would rather go into an empty office to work, than sit up in bed with a cup of cha and read your emails then work in your pyjamas all day? :p

Are you posting about this because you’re lonely,

I am bored sh*tless to be honest, I need some social interaction at work and these empty desks just aren’t doing it for me!

Come to my office if you want footflaps (Vision park in Histon) loads of people in here as we all work together so very little working from home going on.

Epic ride into today wasn’t it too 🙂

Oh, should have said – we is all IT guys 😈

Surprising number of my colleagues are out on appointments EVERY Friday.

(In my defence I did that today as I need to do the school pick up in 10 mins…)