Working from home-Hows that going?

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mpaer

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I retired for good before COVID . I was an office rat for close to 40 years. It is fascinating to me to talk to-see-"workers " in office jobs work from home-or Coffee shops.It seeems a great thing for "flexibility" and the dreaded commute time . My "regrets " about the working from home
1. Face to face , say with coworkers or customers seems hard to replicate
2. I have no clue how employers "moniter " work barring osme band of IT folks mustering up a series of reports on work owned home computers being monitored

Have any of you had some indepth "facts based " discussion on this where you work-or are you aware of decent research on this sudden change in workforce "placement" and does it impact productivity?
As a foonote I would add that in my last full time office job I was on a team of less than 10 folks . Our core responsibility was a multiyear Project One employee had a lot of Child Care responsibilities and he was "allowed very flexible hours (smart manager we had ) Some employees were mad-but this employee would work at home at night and outproduced us all-easily
 
On average I would say that high performers are just as productive from home while low performers are nowhere near as productive from home.

If you’re new at your job or not performing well, it’s a lot harder to get up to speed from home where you can’t get onboarded or ask questions as easily. There’s still something to be said for face to face interaction. I also think working from the office helps the company develop & maintain its culture a lot more easily.

Ultimately I think in the long run we will land in a spot where most companies are requiring people to work from the office at least 3-4 days a week. The flexibility of a day or two from home each week is nice and may be something that sticks long-term for many companies, more so because employees demand it though than because employers think it’s best for productivity.

Even if your employees are required to come in 5 days a week now, you better at least give them lots of flexibility to work from home when sick or when needed (contractors at the house, doctors appointments, etc) or else you won’t attract/retain top talent.
 
mpaer said:
I retired for good before COVID . I was an office rat for close to 40 years. It is fascinating to me to talk to-see-"workers " in office jobs work from home-or Coffee shops.It seeems a great thing for "flexibility" and the dreaded commute time . My "regrets " about the working from home
1. Face to face , say with coworkers or customers seems hard to replicate
2. I have no clue how employers "moniter " work barring osme band of IT folks mustering up a series of reports on work owned home computers being monitored

Have any of you had some indepth "facts based " discussion on this where you work-or are you aware of decent research on this sudden change in workforce "placement" and does it impact productivity?
As a foonote I would add that in my last full time office job I was on a team of less than 10 folks . Our core responsibility was a multiyear Project One employee had a lot of Child Care responsibilities and he was "allowed very flexible hours (smart manager we had ) Some employees were mad-but this employee would work at home at night and outproduced us all-easily
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I have no fact based response for you, just anecdotal.

I’m a software trainer. We went from in-person to WebEx classes. We’re just now getting back to in-person classes. for that particular role, I very much prefer in-person to remote.

All other parts of my job: documentation and captivate projects - there’s absolutely no reason to be at the office.

As for productivity tracking, we originally had to document everything on a spreadsheet. But that died after about 6 months. It’s now just based on whether or not you meet your deadlines.
 
I still work from home and am INSANELY more productive from home. I get things done in a couple of hours that used to take all day in person because of the nature of my job - if I was in the office I would be constantly getting interrupted or having people coming into my office and having to answer questions about different things. I am able to focus on task completion much easier and knock things out early in the day. But I know not all jobs are like this.
 
I have been doing it mostly for 10 years now. I love it. Basically the things that I make have to be done by the time they film it. I wouldn't magically get them done quicker in an office. In fact when i had been in the office I found people were very much interrupting.
 
He's Not Here said:
I have no fact based response for you, just anecdotal.

I’m a software trainer. We went from in-person to WebEx classes. We’re just now getting back to in-person classes. for that particular role, I very much prefer in-person to remote.

All other parts of my job: documentation and captivate projects - there’s absolutely no reason to be at the office.

As for productivity tracking, we originally had to document everything on a spreadsheet. But that died after about 6 months. It’s now just based on whether or not you meet your deadlines.
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Thanks
BTW I went to a wedding a few weeks ago in Chapel Hill At the hotel in our little "guest gift bag ' -we each got a new Hes Not Here cup
 
HeelInTheOzarks said:
I still work from home and am INSANELY more productive from home. I get things done in a couple of hours that used to take all day in person because of the nature of my job - if I was in the office I would be constantly getting interrupted or having people coming into my office and having to answer questions about different things. I am able to focus on task completion much easier and knock things out early in the day. But I know not all jobs are like this.
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So who answers those questions now? I think all of us can be more productive at home when working on individual tasks. But some of the most productive and enlightening discussions I ever had in my career were impromptu conversations around the coffee pot or people bringing me ideas when I was just walking around making myself available as a manager.
 
I work for a nonprofit that has been fully remote since before the pandemic, and everyone loves it. So good for my mental health, productivity, and flexibility.
 
farce said:
So who answers those questions now? I think all of us can be more productive at home when working on individual tasks. But some of the most productive and enlightening discussions I ever had in my career were impromptu conversations around the coffee pot or people bringing me ideas when I was just walking around making myself available as a manager.
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I still do, I can just wait to respond to them for a bit on zoom or email until I complete what I'm doing instead of someone in my door who I can't ignore or wave away.
 
I have worked fully from home since Covid and I love it. At first, I didn’t think I’d be as productive, but I am. The difficult part is to stop working. It’s tempting to keep checking emails and such after the work day ends. You just have to tell yourself, “That’s it. I’m done for the day.” We have the option of going into the office, but I have no desire to do that. I’m a bit introverted, so the need to see people doesn’t exist with me.
 
farce said:
So who answers those questions now? I think all of us can be more productive at home when working on individual tasks. But some of the most productive and enlightening discussions I ever had in my career were impromptu conversations around the coffee pot or people bringing me ideas when I was just walking around making myself available as a manager.
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This was my experience -But hell I use to pile up files on a table and pour through them and now "files" are some software platform generic icck LOL
 
HeelInTheOzarks said:
I still work from home and am INSANELY more productive from home. I get things done in a couple of hours that used to take all day in person because of the nature of my job - if I was in the office I would be constantly getting interrupted or having people coming into my office and having to answer questions about different things. I am able to focus on task completion much easier and knock things out early in the day. But I know not all jobs are like this.
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I was going to ask the same question as @farce already asked about who answers those questions now. It sounds like you still answer them based on your reply, but just not as timely as you would if you were in the office.

So now the question is, what’s better for the organization - 1) you plowing through your work at home without being bothered but your team having to wait a bit to get answers on their questions, or 2) you getting distracted at work with your team’s questions which harms your individual productivity but helps your team’s productivity.

Interesting debate for sure.
 
Technically I “work from home/remotely” full-time but my job has me on the road virtually every week for anywhere between 1-4 nights, depending on the week. But for the days when I’m not traveling, the ability to work from home is just incredible. I love the flexibility to be able to work out during the day, take doctors or dentist appointments whenever I need them instead of working them around a traditional M-F 9-5, get my car serviced during the day whenever I need, take a longer lunch if I want to, etc. I have found that my productivity working from home has skyrocketed compared to before the pandemic when I was in the office full-time on days on which I was not traveling. I get so much more uninterrupted work time, because when I’m in an office I can’t help but be social.
 
My company requires three days in the office per week, and I’m usually there for 4.75 of them (usually leave around 2pm on Friday).
There are many reasons I choose to go in, but the main reason is collaboration with the leadership in other areas that we work closely (and no so closely) with.
 
I’m a teacher. Before the pandemic I had taught an ‘experimental’ class in which 14 students from 7 campuses around the country (3 time zones), in pairs did local history projects. Digital was a major focus and we met via Zoom and they created websites that showcased their work. It was a great experience.

When things went sideways I was better prepared than most of my colleagues to teach online. I’ve managed - my preference - to continue with distance learning though it is always a negotiation semester by semester. My department supports me 100% but administration isn’t always as flexible.

Thus set-up has resulted in my teaching face-to-face in the Fall and hybrid/online in the Spring. My wife and daughter live in NYC and when I’m not with them I’m in Asheville.

I’ve been pretty creative with Zoom and students tend to respond. Some are checked out to be sure but frankly some are also that way about in-person school. There are things that can be done online much more easily or at least as effectively in different ways than in a brick and mortar classroom.

I think hybrid is probably my favorite mode these days - 25 to 50% of classes in-person - though full online works fine too. If there was one thing I’d change about distance learning is would be requiring cameras to be on. To get around that somewhat I give tiny amounts of extra credit when students make their screen icon image reflect the subject of the day. That’s somewhat better than blank screens.

WFH has permitted me to live with my wife and daughter in NYC about 9 months a year all told. I’m grateful for that.
 
I drove from CH area to Butner or Raleigh about 25 years of my work It got to be really bad........and not cheap
 
donbosco said:
And I do miss the hallway conversations with my colleagues. I think if I were new that I’d want to be in the building more.
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I bet awkward Office romances are down. I mean they use to seriously get in the way I am not trying to be funny
 
mpaer said:
I drove from CH area to Butner or Raleigh about 25 years of my work It got to be really bad........and not cheap
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My wife supervises workers that live in New Jersey but work on her midtown campus. For them WFH means laying aside 5 days a week of 4 to 5 hours of commute (20 hours minimum of travel).
 
HeelYeah2012 said:
I was going to ask the same question as @farce already asked about who answers those questions now. It sounds like you still answer them based on your reply, but just not as timely as you would if you were in the office.

So now the question is, what’s better for the organization - 1) you plowing through your work at home without being bothered but your team having to wait a bit to get answers on their questions, or 2) you getting distracted at work with your team’s questions which harms your individual productivity but helps your team’s productivity.

Interesting debate for sure.
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I would argue that I am able to get my “must do” stuff complete much faster and therefore make myself MORE available for team discussion and problem solving time through the rest of the day.

My team is implementing a new information system for our state university system (13 different institutions). So we have questions/tickets etc flying at us from all sides. The best way for me to stay ahead of the flow is to focus on the must do items and then make myself available the rest of the time to answer the other questions as they come. My whole team being remote people who work all across the state (and even a few now outside the state) forces us to schedule time for the bigger issues rather than just pop into each other’s offices - and that structure helps me a ton.
 
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