3 ms·

I think this is forgotten a little by the advocates of WFH vs in-office. I live alone in an apartment with 2 bedrooms, of which one I converted into an office

by carlio 6y ago

I think this is forgotten a little by the advocates of WFH vs in-office. I live alone in an apartment with 2 bedrooms, of which one I converted into an office space. It's easy for me to "commute" and have a separate area for work and switch off when I go into the lounge. It's not so easy for people who are in shared accommodation or in studio flats and so on, or young families in small apartments. Similarly, lots of people move to work and don't have a social circle yet, so their job is their social circle at the beginning. Of course, you don't necessarily need to move for that job any more, but at the same time if you have, then you lose your only social contact if you have by working from home. It's not as simple as people make out, there are benefits and disadvantages to everyone. I'm a big fan but I can only talk from my position which is quite fortunate in terms of circumstances.

johnghanks 6y ago
This is why it shouldn't be required either way. People who want to work from home should be able to work from home. People who would prefer to come into the office should be able to do so. It disappoints me to read comments here about people proclaiming absolutes in either direction. To be clear - I'm an advocate for full-WFH: I am fortunate enough to have a space for working and a space for other. ... but I recognize that some people have different situations at home.
- carlio 6y ago
  The downside of the mixed approach is, as an earlier commenter said, that you can end up with an "us vs them" mentality, where the people who see each other every day and get to have small-talk and get to know each other grow closer and then the people who work from home are somewhat on the periphery. I've seen this before, I've been working remotely for a lot of the last 7 years and there's a distinct difference in social dynamics. Even if the people in the office need to use Slack or whatever for communicating, they have their in jokes that they sprinkle in and you can feel a bit alienated or ostracised if you're in a minority of work-from-home employees. Equally, if some people are not able to work from home, that can build resentment or envy. So the company culture can be affected by different amounts of in-office vs home-office, every company will have their own sweet spot, but I agree with you, there is no simple one size fits all solution.

by carlio 6y ago

johnghanks 6y ago

This is why it shouldn't be required either way. People who want to work from home should be able to work from home. People who would prefer to come into the office should be able to do so. It disappoints me to read comments here about people proclaiming absolutes in either direction. To be clear - I'm an advocate for full-WFH: I am fortunate enough to have a space for working and a space for other. ... but I recognize that some people have different situations at home.

carlio 6y ago
The downside of the mixed approach is, as an earlier commenter said, that you can end up with an "us vs them" mentality, where the people who see each other every day and get to have small-talk and get to know each other grow closer and then the people who work from home are somewhat on the periphery. I've seen this before, I've been working remotely for a lot of the last 7 years and there's a distinct difference in social dynamics. Even if the people in the office need to use Slack or whatever for communicating, they have their in jokes that they sprinkle in and you can feel a bit alienated or ostracised if you're in a minority of work-from-home employees. Equally, if some people are not able to work from home, that can build resentment or envy. So the company culture can be affected by different amounts of in-office vs home-office, every company will have their own sweet spot, but I agree with you, there is no simple one size fits all solution.