Remote Working, Good or Bad in the Long Run??

[qtlaw]

I could do a great deal of my work remotely but having been trained in an office environment, I don’t do well that way. I also believe there is no substitute for the synergy of working near each other. I just hired a young lawyer and he’s going to be working remotely in Southwest because he moved there to help his grandparents and can’t move back for a couple of years. So it can work.

Your thoughts?

 

[MileHigh]

It's been five years. It works. I go into the office two days a week because that's the policy. It's fine. I have longer meetings over Teams with my boss than I do just dropping into his office. Noted: It's just me and him on our team. I could have done three other meetings I had today via Teams and the same things would have been accomplished.

 

[Bubbler]

Been doing it remote for a few years now. I hate remote working. I get too easily distracted. It makes my home feel less homey. Never feel like I’m off.

In small doses, perfectly fine, but I need separation of church and state.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

It depends on the business. Some definitely benefit from being in person. Some, it very much doesn't matter. It also depends on the person.

I love working at home and I tend to get more done. Also, my commute is pretty crummy.

I guess I don't mind going in a few days a week. It's a first world problem. My preference would be to work at home a bit more than I do now. Maybe 3 days a week at home rather than 2. With office days used strategically for heavy planning days.

But it's not my call. I do enjoy the people I work with. Which helps. It's hard not to think about how much time and money I waste on my commute though.

 

[spikechiquet]

Been working from home since Jan. 2016. I don't miss a newspaper bullpen or office environment at all. My wife got shipped home in March of 2020 and has been mostly remote (sans a few hours one day a week and her commute is 7 minutes) and we each work in a different part of the house and visit each other on our downtime to shoot the ****.
I've probably become more of a hermit, but I also have aged 9 years and am nearing an "old crotchety guy" status regardless of working in an office or at home anyway! LOL

 

[TrooperBari]

My seven-person section is split across four different countries. We went fully remote for about a year starting in late 2020 and, according to management, saw no drop-off in quality. Now that same management is cajoling and threatening us to return to the office as often as possible -- purely in service of collaborating with our colleagues, mind you, and definitely not trying to justify overpaying for prime office space in the world's most expensive property market.
Admittedly, going into the office is the extent of my in-person interaction with other humans most days. Gets me moving around a bit more, too. That said, I enjoy not having to be squished into a subway car with a hundred of my closest friends twice a day, and treating the broom closet that passes for the "second bedroom" as my office helps keep some delineation between workspace and home (to Bubbler's point). As an added extravagance, I might put on a YouTube video or Twitch stream on low volume as background noise -- it's especially nice at times like this, when there's live sumo in short, sharp bursts.

 

[DanOregon]

I'd like to see an idea like WeWork where people could work in an office environment - perhaps in their own community instead of driving into a city, perhaps with childcare available on site. Seems like a no brainer.

 

[Gym Beam]

I have been working "remote" for 10 years, and love it. I can't imagine ever going back into an office environment with all the psychic vampires, time wasters, chitchatters, lunch thieves, foot tappers, throat clearers, and all the other annoyances that come with -- people.

No more commute? Thank you, Lord!

Having time to dash out and take care of errands during the day? Hallelujah!

Switching careers was a blessing because my previous one absolutely required 100% of my time at the workplace. As I get older, that is less and less attractive.

 

[Cosmo]

We're allowed four remote days every two-week period. That's perfect. I don't want to work remote full time, but there are just days where I'd rather roll out of bed at 7:20 and be at my computer at 7:30 than having to get up at 6:15 to shower, get ready and commute to the office.

On-site work is considered office work, so during the busy summer season when I'm covering championships, I might not step into the office for weeks at a time, except to drop by to pick up a company vehicle for road trips. It works fine. We've finally modernized our expense system to where we can just upload receipts to NetSuite, where as before I had to come in and manually code receipts and give them to an accounting person.

But outside of staff meetings, there's literally nothing I can do in the office that can't be done at home. It's nice to have the flexibility to pick either or.

 

[Oggiedoggie]

We worked remotely through Covid. My work often involves moving fairly large graphic and design files, so connection rates were a little bit of a problem. After technical issues were resolved, everything worked smoothly and communication between staff members actually increased because we no longer assumed that everyone knew what they needed.

In March, we were all called back into the office because our ultimate boss has a Trump fixation.

The high-speed connections to servers are no longer available. We connect through the same WiFi secured connection we had from home. I think productivity has decreased because most of the "team building" that occurs from being in physical proximity with others is mainly random chit-chat. Important information still goes via email or Teams messaging. Meetings take much longer because everyone has to drift into the same room and settle down before anything actually happens.

I pay more for gas because of the commute and effectively lose more than an hour a day. On the agency's side, building out office space is expensive and there isn't adequate parking, so even bigger costs loom.

I used to be able to easily flex my hours, working later when projects or deadlines required. Although I still have the capability. The smaller MacBook I would use is a poor substitute for the iMac and multiple monitors at my work station. I am reluctant to stay later at work and have become more like a schoolboy, watching the clock in anticipation of scampering away as soon as the bell rings.

We've begun to lose experienced workers with technical skills and institutional knowledge because they're too far from the central office to manage the commute or have found other jobs with companies who still offer remote work.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Been doing it remote for a few years now. I hate remote working. I get too easily distracted. It makes my home feel less homey. Never feel like I'm off.

In small doses, perfectly fine, but I need separation of church and state.

100 percent this!

I can do it and get my work done, but I am so much more effective in person. And it's a "me" problem - I can get sidetracked too easily by a siren outside, or the dogs needing out or in or are barking at something, the doorbell rings because a package gets delivered, whatever.

I'm sure I get too easily distracted in the office, too, but at least 95 percent of those distractions are work-related.

 

[Dyno]

I’m a big introvert but I’m with Bubbler. I am tired of living at work. I also miss the little interactions with my coworkers and other people in our office building. I think my work has suffered in some ways by not being able to talk in person with colleagues. Our Zooms and online chats aren’t the same/enough.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

I’ve been working from home for a newspaper since the beginning of COVID. Only time I go into market is to cover something. It’s an hour-plus drive with good traffic and I don’t miss it. It’s turned into a side hustle for me since I’ve gotten promoted twice with my other job and make more.

 

[BrownScribe]

I've been working remote since the onset of the pandemic. I don't think I could ever go back to an office full-time. I love not having to commute even though mine was always short relatively, I like being able to get a jumpstart on things like starting a load of laundry or getting the crock pot ready, and last but least, having an extra half hour of sleep is lovely.

Here's the thing, I've always worked in open-space offices and breakout rooms meant for employees to get away from noise were always taken up for meetings. So it was always loud, people were always stopping to chit chat -- which took a toll on productivity. I can honestly say I am more productive WFH, and work a more true 8 hours than I ever did in my previous job.

All this said, I wouldn't mind a hybrid approach someday. I am an extrovert and being in marketing miss in-person collaboration. Oh, and the super loaded kitchen and espresso coffee machines. I was so spoiled with bagels and yogurt every morning, as well as catered lunches every day. Saved so much money for those after work happy hours.

 

[Slacker]

I'm a big introvert but I'm with Bubbler. I am tired of living at work. I also miss the little interactions with my coworkers and other people in our office building. I think my work has suffered in some ways by not being able to talk in person with colleagues. Our Zooms and online chats aren't the same/enough.

Same here. Working from home is convenient, so that counts. But it often feels like house arrest. I'd rather be out in the world during my job hours, working and moving about in the dynamic cross-team platforms and functions. For good and bad, it's all much more alive in the exterior setting, and the personal contact is vital for social engagement and team-building in the work environment.

 

[Webster]

I have a crappy commute — from my house to my office is typically 1:30-1:45 each way, assuming no NJ Transit issues. Now, I can shave a little off because I typically walk to the bus or train in the morning (driving would save around 10 each way) and from Port Authority/Penn Station to my office (taking the train would save about 5 minutes each way). And I can also adjust my time in the office to take advantage of direct trains/lower traffic bus times, but the bottom line is that it sucks even if I can get the commute down to 1:15.

So as a result I tend to working in the office 2 full days and one partial day a week. That lets me see everyone and be seen. I also much prefer to have face to face interactions with my subordinates. I grew up where I learned my profession sitting in someone’s office or in a conference room drafting/editing in pen and feel comfortable training people that way. But there is the pull that I can do my early morning work, take a long morning walk and still be at my home desk by 8 a.m. at the latest. While wearing shorts.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

LinkedIn reads us. This was at the top of my recommendations today.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

I hate those all-encompassing, blanket statements. So lazy, self-serving and off the mark.

 

[Slacker]

All mass generalizations suck!

 

[qtlaw]

I certainly understand that in-person is not for everyone and recognize that there are significant life-work balance and financial considerations.

In my profession, that synergy of talking and meeting with older attorneys was where I learned about practicing law, things I could never have learned from law school or on my own. (In fact, after 7 yrs in a firm, I went out on my own and running a 1 man shop is daunting and in many respects lonely, yet another reason I avoid remote work.)

Of course, I see that the costs of commuting and parking are easier for me to digest than my admin assistant and the other support staff who come in every day.