Yep - I always disliked having to figure out food for the day before heading into the office. I’m not ready to eat breakfast until closer to noon, but once I start eating, I want to snack every hour or two while working.

Depends if you’re an introvert or an extrovert. As an introvert I only see benefits; no commute, a close bathroom at all times, a kitchen with food, not needing to hear annoying coworkers except during meetings etc. If you’re an extrovert then you might enjoy hearing your coworkers all day I guess?

Or if you have a toxic household you need to escape from.

From home since epidemic started and I would want to hug covid if it was a person.

My productivity in office was always low. Too many distractions, too many inconveniences. Then there is an issue with getting to the office - it’s an additional hour of my life they are not paying extra for. And of course - at home I can work while doing simple chores. But the most important is that I can be with my daughters, instead of being just another father that spends half a day at work and the other half sleeping.

I work remotely from a different country so I don’t really have a choice but I’d show up to work 1-2 times per week because they offer free food and see the people I’ve been working with the past 4 years.

That being said, I love the fact I don’t have to commute, chats and calls always have a main agenda but we also chat about games, movies etc. occasionally. I can work uninterrupted most of the day

Fully remote for years now and never want an on-site job again. I don’t mind going for a couple of events a year, though.

I can take my “smoke break” to change loads of laundry or do something else around the house. I have no commute time nor expenses. I am always here for deliveries. I regained so much of my time that I can use for study or entertainment. (Assuming a 1-hour commute, even if most of that is on a train, that’s 10 hours a week back from that alone).

For success, your company and you need to have good communication and planning. It’s also not for everyone, especially more social people.

It’s alright.

I’m glad I can take my laptop and essentially work anywhere with a power outlet and an internet connection.

Yes. I have worked at both and I feel much more comfortable at home. It gives you a level of flexibility that is hard to describe. I can start my day early, take a break for an hour, and resume it when I feel I can give it the proper level of attention. When I was in office, there was a pressure to look like you’re working all the time. It felt hard to concentrate when the expectation was on dedicating the expected time to work rather than getting something done. With WFH, it’s more about getting your tasks done and generally no one cares when you do it. And I can slouch and prop my feet up and have videos/music/audiobooks playing and whatever else I want without anyone knowing, let alone caring. I don’t need to worry about a commute, and all my food and comforts are available when I want them. I can easily handle things like being at home for a package delivery or a technician repairing something or walking the dog or just doing laundry.

That being said, I will admit it is considerably harder to get help with a task in office. You can’t just have someone pop by to look at something for example. You can still do a call or message, but it’s a bigger barrier to overcome. With WFH, collusion for a group more often needs to be scheduled, and you don’t have an analogue for water cooler talk.

Many places that offer work from home also have an office somewhere, so I would recommend new employees go in while learning the ropes, then switch as they become more independent. And some people like having different locations to help switch between work and relaxation mentalities. And it can be nice to get out of the house too. But overall, WFH is much better for me.

Have done wfh full time for about 6 years now (since the rona), I would never go back to a full time or even hybrid role unless forced. I would sooner quit my job if they forced me into a hybrid position.

The freedom is so much greater and I get so much more done than when I do occasionally have to go into an office for meetups or workshops (maybe 5-6 times a year).

The style of working is different to that of being in office, you have to be self motivating, semi-solo problem solving and you need a reasonably quiet workspace. This can be hard to get in some situations so I feel very lucky to be able to do it.

The company also needs to be setup to promote and support remote working, so having regular check ins with people and making sure people have support in place should they need it. Plus policies that work for remote workers as opposed to in office workers.

13/10 would recommend.

Totally love WFH. I can hang out with my dog while working, get laundry done on breaks, and no commute leaves way more free time in my life. I would never go back to working in an office unless I was in dire straights.

WFH is awesome.

Can take breaks from work to drop off/pick up kid from school. Saving like 15% of my paycheque that would go to daycare otherwise.

Car insurance is cheaper, because no matter how much I drive I’m not commuting to work so the insurance company counts me as “occasional driver”.

I can loudly and violently swear at bullshit emails.

I can listen to my own music on speakers while working.

Minor cons though:

I’m getting weirder due to the lack of minor social interactions that otherwise I’d get on the bus, sidewalk, office, cafe, so on.

Some cabin fever from being in the same space all day. I live in an apartment so I don’t have a separate room for my work computer. Turn off work computer, turn on personal computer, and it’s the same screens while I sit in the same chair. On the other hand this does motivate me to get outside after work to exercise or do errands.

Oh, yeah, I’ve been self-employed from home for years. Go to bed when I want, wake up when I want. I usually get my work done before noon, and have the rest of the day. On the day of an event, I might put in 12-15 straight hours of hard work at a job site, but that’s only once or twice a week, and it’s actually the fun part of the job.

I don’t miss office politics at all, and it only sounds like it’s gotten far worse.

I work from home for about 75% of my work. Today, I have to drive somewhere this morning, and then again somewhere this evening. I will spend in the realm of 2.5-3 hours in the car today. I do not get paid for travel. I will not be able to get in my daily run today. I probably won’t see my kids after I drop them at school. I’ll get home around 11pm tonight.

So yeah, I love wfh. But for the case of my job tonight, it’s very good money, and not the perfect use case for remote (although certainly doable considering we did for years), and so I eat it, it’s whatever. I generally have 7 or so jobs a month that I need to travel. Twice the commute is about 40m each way. The other five are 5-15m commutes so they’re fine.

As an engineer, hybrid works best for many of us.

Design phase can be wfh with some in-person idea sessions or important meetings because I have yet to be at an online idea session that was as productive as in-person being able to draw things out and visualize better, and people tend to not speak up or just check out and agree at the end in online meetings.

Testing phase has to be mostly in person for lab tool access and collaboration on physical things.

I have worked with a contractor that did everything from home and had a whole home lab, but it was a big time sink and cost shipping parts back and forth 5 times and you couldn’t physically probe behaviors together which leads to slightly different setups and sometimes different results.

Socially I moved to a place where I had no friends so I like getting social contact at work since in Belgium, it is extremely difficult to make new friends after you are done with school because of a culture of not talking to anyone else unless people are obnoxiously drunk lol. I like wfh on overwhelming days and in-person on days where I want more social contact.

That being said, I work 100% in office now because I live a 12 minute bike ride from work, so very easy.

I work part time from home and part time in office

Pros

• I can concentrate better at home (Open space in office)
• Save time driving to and from work
• My own toilet
• Family cat can hang out with me (if I deserve his attention)
• Can chill out on the couch/bed when taking a break
• My own internet connection

Cons

• Harder to get in touch with collegues
• When I work from home for a longer time period, I feel sometimes isolated.
• Various household tasks trhoughout the day, which breaks my concentration

Single father with two school aged kids, mom lives in another state. I’ve turned down a couple higher paying executive roles that have been offered to me the last few years because I don’t know how I could make it work. I get my kids up at 7 and the latest one can’t be to school until 9. I have to start getting them from school at 3:30. I’m sure I could figure it out, plenty of people less fortunate than I am but I guess that I’ve decided that I’m incredibly fortunate that I can always be around and available for my kids and I don’t think I would disrupt that for any amount of money as long as I can provide for them this way. I do miss the social aspects of my colleagues sometimes though which really surprised me.