Working from home-Hows that going?

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CRHeel94 said:
Not a problem if you disclose it and its approved. If you're supposed to be working for a company 9-5, the company has a fair expectation that you're working for them during that time frame (or at least giving them XX amount of hours per week).

I know a case or two of one of the companies finding out and terminating the employee.
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Yep. I am doing a little bit of 1099 “consulting” work on the side, totally separate from my job and company, and I had to do disclosure and get approval- and l had to agree that I was only going to do it during evenings, weekends, or time off (which I would do anyway even without the agreement).
 
Lot of folks not thinking, or caring, about those small sandwich shops that lived off of workers stopping by before work, during lunch, after work, etc., to buy something. WFH is great and all, but it can destroy local/small economies by taking away foot traffic.
 
stankeylegjones said:
Lot of folks not thinking, or caring, about those small sandwich shops that lived off of workers stopping by before work, during lunch, after work, etc., to buy something. WFH is great and all, but it can destroy local/small economies by taking away foot traffic.
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Oh it stinks
 
From what I can tell, I think that may be true in certain big city downtown areas where a lot of companies are still WFH or hybrid-WFH but when I’m out in suburban places, coffee shops, delis, bakeries, etc. are slam packed throughout the day.
 
CFordUNC said:
From what I can tell, I think that may be true in certain big city downtown areas where a lot of companies are still WFH or hybrid-WFH but when I’m out in suburban places, coffee shops, delis, bakeries, etc. are slam packed throughout the day.
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My daugter has a coffee shop with a big patio full of tables outside Business booming-lots of it is "workers" Now its "suburban" . She also has a restaurant-its good now-but a "Mighty " tough couple of years
 
I worked from home for a few months in the first spring of COVID. While I appreciate our company's newfound flexibility since then, work from home is just not for me. I'm an introvert and feel like I need the social interaction. And I work with people I generally enjoy being around, which helps.

I can't do long commutes so we were very intentional about where we live. I'm about three miles to the office and usually bike unless the weather doesn't allow for it. My wife works a couple blocks from our house and walks to work. We have one car and have to fill up about once every 6-8 weeks.

I know that style isn't for everyone but I feel like the work force will naturally sort itself out over the next decade. WFH fans will land in WFH jobs and in-office companies will land the people like me.
 
Blue Horn Lounge said:
I worked from home for a few months in the first spring of COVID. While I appreciate our company's newfound flexibility since then, work from home is just not for me. I'm an introvert and feel like I need the social interaction. And I work with people I generally enjoy being around, which helps.

I can't do long commutes so we were very intentional about where we live. I'm about three miles to the office and usually bike unless the weather doesn't allow for it. My wife works a couple blocks from our house and walks to work. We have one car and have to fill up about once every 6-8 weeks.

I know that style isn't for everyone but I feel like the work force will naturally sort itself out over the next decade. WFH fans will land in WFH jobs and in-office companies will land the people like me.
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I’m not convinced WFH will exist at the numbers to support all those that want it. I plan to hold on to mine with everything in my power.
 
HeelInTheOzarks said:
I’m not convinced WFH will exist at the numbers to support all those that want it. I plan to hold on to mine with everything in my power.
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Good point. You're probably right.

The biggest pain in the ass with office life is generally the commutes. How can we fix that?

More affordable and different types of housing in city centers? Better public transit? Walkable neighborhoods? Stagggered work schedules?

Most of that feels like a pipe dream in a lot of places.
 
First time posting on the new board!

My wife and I have a 4 person architectural firm. She and I battle a bit about working from home for employees. One employee prefers to be in the office. He lives nearby and likes keeping work separate from home. Last year our first hire (he had been with us for 5 years), left to go to a firm that allowed primarily work from home. Although their office requires a ferry ride on the days he has to go to the office. He had worked from home during the pandemic and had wanted to continue working from home since. The problem was he has a 3 year old at home and would end up "working" and watching the kid some days. It also started to feel like he was simply checking tasks off the list and really wasn't a "team" member.

We are in a colloborative field and talking back and forth about issues, revisions, etc constantly. We managed during COVID, but it was not great. Him leaving was somewhat inevitable as we were trying to give him more responsibility, but I don't think he saw it (he seemed to want more responsbility and we talked about that, but given the opportunity didn't really seize it). It was probably time for him to move on.

We hired a very smart, capable young lady right out of college to take the other person's position. Her first job (while in college) was fully remote, so she was very used to that arrangement. We have allowed her to work from home when she has family/ friends in town. We have also allowed some work while traveling. She'll be leaving the state next week to attend a wedding and visit family and asked to work some while away. We have also allowed her to make up time 2 weeks before or after these trips in order to not use vacation time. But there is a very fine line between being flexible and being taken advantage of.

We will likely hire again in the next year and I think we will be challenged to find someone willing to work 4 or 5 days in the office. But I really don't see how Jr staff are going to develop and rise through the ranks if they're not in the office for at least 50% of the time (at least in our field). If not in a management position, they just become tasks masters, checking off the task list day after day which some people might be perfectly happy to do.

My brother in law is pretty high up at Converse and they recently brought everyone back to the office 4 days a week. Sounds like it is pretty strict as well. I think it is really dependent on the field and the persons position, but ultimately, I think you'll see most companies get back to 3 days at least a week in the office. There are definitely fields where companies divested in real estate/ office space and employees are never coming back.
 
stankeylegjones said:
Lot of folks not thinking, or caring, about those small sandwich shops that lived off of workers stopping by before work, during lunch, after work, etc., to buy something. WFH is great and all, but it can destroy local/small economies by taking away foot traffic.
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Good point.
Blue Horn Lounge said:
I worked from home for a few months in the first spring of COVID. While I appreciate our company's newfound flexibility since then, work from home is just not for me. I'm an introvert and feel like I need the social interaction. And I work with people I generally enjoy being around, which helps.

I can't do long commutes so we were very intentional about where we live. I'm about three miles to the office and usually bike unless the weather doesn't allow for it. My wife works a couple blocks from our house and walks to work. We have one car and have to fill up about once every 6-8 weeks.

I know that style isn't for everyone but I feel like the work force will naturally sort itself out over the next decade. WFH fans will land in WFH jobs and in-office companies will land the people like me.
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I remember living 2 miles from the office. I so miss that.
 
UNCatTech said:
Good point.

I remember living 2 miles from the office. I so miss that.
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I understand circumstances don't always allow for it, but often folks deliberately choose a long commute. We've hired a few employees recently who've moved here for the job and they choose to live about 1.5 hours away from the office. When they tell me that, I start planning on posting the job opening again in about a year because that's about as long as they can last.
 
stankeylegjones said:
Lot of folks not thinking, or caring, about those small sandwich shops that lived off of workers stopping by before work, during lunch, after work, etc., to buy something. WFH is great and all, but it can destroy local/small economies by taking away foot traffic.
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Reids in downtown Charlotte charges $13 for a sandwich now - $20 if you add chips, drink, and tip.
 
Blue Horn Lounge said:
I understand circumstances don't always allow for it, but often folks deliberately choose a long commute. We've hired a few employees recently who've moved here for the job and they choose to live about 1.5 hours away from the office. When they tell me that, I start planning on posting the job opening again in about a year because that's about as long as they can last.
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90 minutes one way is brutal...if I ever go back to commuting I think 15 minutes would be my max.
 
HeelInTheOzarks said:
I’m not convinced WFH will exist at the numbers to support all those that want it. I plan to hold on to mine with everything in my power.
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Depends on the industry. Small tech, absolutely will be leaders in remote-first opportunities. Some other industries obviously will have less opportunity.

It is pretty rare these days to find a software company that's under say 500 people that does not have at least a massive chunk of the workforce remote. They arent even starting with office space. Why would you, when everything is virtual, including your servers?
 
Blue Horn Lounge said:
Good point. You're probably right.

The biggest pain in the ass with office life is generally the commutes. How can we fix that?

More affordable and different types of housing in city centers? Better public transit? Walkable neighborhoods? Stagggered work schedules?

Most of that feels like a pipe dream in a lot of places.
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Stop laying off people for one. Then people could make better work/life decisions.

If I had to work in an office (ugh), I would choose companies based on my house, not my house based on a company. Reason? You can be let go at any moment...especially in tech. So why get a home based on a job that very well wont last for 5 years?
 
So for some reason three shows are filming in Nova Scotia at once. Usually the productions up here are reality tv or period pieces, things that don't need my line of work. Not the case now. I am the only one in the province that can do what I can do so all three productions are trying to book me for various dates. I went from not showing up on a set in like seven years to now booking 1-2 days a week for the foreseeable future. this is on top of my full time work from home job.

Sounds like I need to find someone to train so I can go back to sitting on my couch full time.
 
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