Almost two years of 90%+ WFH, three different teams and possibly a couple of new kilos and i'm back in my substantive job.
Reading back through all those tips was great - I can certainly agree with a lot of them!
The idea of spending over an hour a day travelling to and from work at very specific times seems utterly archaic now. The jobs were a real mix of experience, which was good and probably gives me some opportunity to move into other things. But what a variation in workload. Some of the most searing boredom at times!
I think the most depressing thing about being back is seeing all the A4 passive aggressive signs in the miserable little kitchenette are exactly the same as they were*. I've made an application to do 1-2 days WFH - but am almost guaranteed to get rejected "because."
*This is new... though I am tempted to bin it! 
Wear a hat for brain cancer?!?! What if you don't want brain cancer?
If you don't have solar panels... get some. Running a laptop or desktop plus the AC will make a noticeable dent in your power bill! I'm currently 2 days office 3 home and have mixed feelings. We are moving back to Perth in Feb and will likely bump up my office time to alternating 3/4 days to get the cycle commute and just generally be a bit more social.
That ^^^^
I'm about 80% WfH (despite being only 20km from the office) and it helps a lot in spring/summer/autumn. On good days, my usage from the grid is effectively zero and the monthly bill something like 300kr.
It would be cheaper, but the NAS and three computers with screens takes up a fair bit of power.
I'm 100% WFH and have been across 3 companies since 2021, the no-social aspect doesn't bother me, I'm not sure if it's because I'm on calls and meetings for at least half of my day everyday anyway or when I was working in offices in my experience I rarely found people I clicked with, it was all superficial small talk. "What you having for tea tonight?" "Did you do much at the weekend?" "See the footy game last night?" and even when there was a mutual common ground interest it always felt like I was being talked at as opposed to talked with. That's just been my experience anyway.
I do prefer it though, no commute is the best thing, but then also being able to wear comfy clothes and my slippers all day as opposed to business casual attire, if I'm comfy, I move less, spend more time at my laptop working and not feeling distracted. I also can't wrap my head around how it was deemed socially acceptable to go use a cubicle and someones curling a stinky one out right next to you with only a 3/4" piece of chipboard separating you both. Gross. It's also nice to get out for an hour and walk my dog on my lunch break, I get more sleep as I don't wake up till 8am, and I get more time to excercise as I can shut my laptop at 5pm go throw my clobber on and go for a run, get back and be showered prepping tea by 6pm.
In terms of bills, since my job roles changed a fair bit over the years and is now more strategic than reactive I've found I don't need multiple monitors anymore and tend to just work from my laptop in various rooms of the house throughout the day which saves some pennies. Current company upgraded me to a macbook which has been great as the battery lasts a solid 10hrs, whereas my old dell I'd be lucky to get more than 2hrs out of a full charge. I definitely notice our energy costs go up by £2-3 a day when my Mrs works from home on the odd occasion as she has her laptop plugged in all the time and refuses to wear thick jumpers in the house so turns the heating up too. I'm comfy in a fleece at 17 degrees during the day.
Not including all the other benefits too, not being forced to rely on UPF meal deals or unhealthy food vans or making the wrong choice when packing lunch because you weren't hungry when packing it at 7am, can just stroll into the kitchen and eat whatever I fancy. Can get washing done throughout the day, don't have to pay for a dog sitter or dog walker, own personal toilet, good coffee, less distractions (software devs with mechanical keyboards and people who just chat shit all day), my mental health skyrocketed when I got into the swing of it and my stress significantly decreased.
I've made an application to do 1-2 days WFH - but am almost guaranteed to get rejected "because."
You know they can't do that, yes? If your request is reasonable then they can only reject it for specific, defined reasons. If it's not feasible to do your job from home - say, you were a bus driver - then that is a valid reason, but if you've doing it quite successfully for the last two years then unless your role has changed that's going to be hard for them to argue against. Just going "well, we don't want you to" isn't good enough.
I had an interview for a job (2024) where they initially said "more than 50% in the office" because they were old school and liked people being in the office, then changed the requirement before the face-to-face interview to "minimum four days in the office".
The office was 1:45hrs away by public transport.
I thanked the headhunter, but told them that this was not going to work out for me. Even he sounded disappointed with the company, which I can understand. But, 20 hours a week commuting? No fricking way.
What's that, 900 hours of your life a year?
Running a laptop or desktop plus the AC will make a noticeable dent in your power bill!
Really? Air conditioning and heating might add up a bit depending on where you are and how well insulated your home is.
But computer and screen? not really. The power supply for our 15" MacBook is only 35w and it won't draw anything like that most of the time it's in use. Even if it was 100w constant for 8 hours a day for 225 working days it would only be c£50 a year.
I've made an application to do 1-2 days WFH - but am almost guaranteed to get rejected "because."
You know they can't do that, yes? If your request is reasonable then they can only reject it for specific, defined reasons. If it's not feasible to do your job from home - say, you were a bus driver - then that is a valid reason, but if you've doing it quite successfully for the last two years then unless your role has changed that's going to be hard for them to argue against. Just going "well, we don't want you to" isn't good enough.
possibly different legislation here, but it’s a bit of a grey area as the unit I work in technically does need to have boots on the ground. My argument is that I’m not one of those people. Will see what happens but I’m on a pretty good wicket otherwise so will tread carefully.
You know they can't do that, yes? If your request is reasonable then they can only reject it for specific, defined reasons. If it's not feasible to do your job from home - say, you were a bus driver - then that is a valid reason, but if you've doing it quite successfully for the last two years then unless your role has changed that's going to be hard for them to argue against. Just going "well, we don't want you to" isn't good enough.
Weeeeell, they can. They can refuse it for any of the following reasons:
- extra costs that will damage the business
- the work cannot be reorganised among other staff
- people cannot be recruited to do the work
- flexible working will affect quality
- flexible working will affect performance
- the business will not be able to meet customer demand
- there’s a lack of work to do during the proposed working times
- the business is planning changes to the workforce
The ones that the employer is likely to apply are the quality/performance ones. If it's a new role he's in (and it sounds like it is), he can't really say "I've been doing the job from home successfully for the last two years" cos he wasn't, he was doing a different job. And if the rest of the team are in the office and he's the only one at home, it's not hard for them to say that it'll create obstacles to communication/teamwork etc.
I'm not saying it's right, and a more flexible employer may well grant the request, but if the employer wants to refuse it they can do so on demonstrable reasonable grounds.
Yeah… I’ve done the role for ten years. Been away two doing something else kind of related but wfh. So that’s part of my argument.
Ah back when you originally posted this I was doing 2 a day at home, now down to 1, different company, different role and a physical device to work on (well my team do, I don't).
I miss being at home more and miss spending more time with my dog napping behind me in the 'office'/adapted spare room. But my wife's job has changed and is 3 days at home so we share the desk/office.
I still do Friday's at home each week and try to not have meetings so I can do a small percentage of my todo list in the afternoon.
*This is new... though I am tempted to bin it!
What. On. Earth....😂
That would be filed under D, for don't be ****ing stupid......
*This is new... though I am tempted to bin it!
What. On. Earth....😂
That would be filed under D, for don't be ****ing stupid......
I would report that to HR and ask what pro-actiove steps they are taking to cope withthe mental heath of their staff as this is a clear example of it failing.
Well, seems my pessimism wasn't justified*. I've been approved for a 3-month trial of 1 day per week WFH, with some not at all arduous conditions.
I'm happy with that for now.
*Don't worry I know that's not an excuse to stop being pessimistic about everything else that relates to work.
As said above, a dedicated space helps. I am lucky and we were able to have a small porch built on front of house in 2024 and I specced it to be super insulated and with Morley integral blinds in all the windows (including the sliding door to enter from the house). Its effectively a tiny space I can completely shut myself off from the house to work in. A decent USB hub and monitors help and are not expensive. I have an HP powered hub that was about £100 and two £60 17 inch monitors and its a brilliant set up.
I have lots of plants in the porch too, basically making it a “nice place to be”.
I find having a strict start time helps me, I tend to be on early and finish early. MrsHB has started walking into her work (3 miles each way) so ofteb on a morning I will do the first mile with her then loop back to get some steps in.
Overall I prefer being in the actual office for the real people side of things, but mostly my team and colleagues are scattered all over UK and London so the people I speak to are rarely in Leeds anyway.