Working from home vs. commuting to work during and after the pandemic

[Undead]

That hasn’t been my experience anywhere I have ever worked.

Other than the tremendous waste. I do have to attend a huge number of meetings that seem to be completely unnecessary, but that’s even worse when working from home, since you can‘t just go to someone’s desk and solve your problems by chatting for 2 minutes.

Interesting, but for what it's worth, I'm glad it worked out better for you than me. I've encountered the same issues at all my jobs and I've bounced around a lot because of that. Maybe I'm the common factor? But many of my friends and family report the same issues in their work, so hopefully I'm not crazy LOL

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Other than the tremendous waste. I do have to attend a huge number of meetings that seem to be completely unnecessary, but that’s even worse when working from home, since you can‘t just go to someone’s desk and solve your problems by chatting for 2 minutes.

This is my number one complaint about WFH - sometimes simple issues that can be resolved by a quick conversation in person became email-tag - especially problematical when an issue is time-sensitive.

AoD

 

[p_xavier]

This is my number one complaint about WFH - sometimes simple issues that can be resolved by a quick conversation in person became email-tag - especially problematical when an issue is time-sensitive.

AoD

Chat is way quicker. That's what we did in the office too. Plus you don't bother your other colleagues nearby. We signed for 0-2 days at the office per week in our new union agreement. Most people will choose 0.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Chat is way quicker. That's what we did in the office too. Plus you don't bother your other colleagues nearby.

Certain things does not well on chat - plus you still have an element of that broken telephone problem, which wastes everyone's time.

AoD

 

[tripwire]

There's a mandate for hybrid (2-3 days in the office per week) in January, but I, and I think most of my team will continue to WFH as much as possible. Maybe 1 day in the office a week? I'm quite happy WFH 100% - I find my productivity has gone up - mostly as people don't come to my desk to bug me about questions and requiring immediate answers. Now they email or message me which gives me flex time to respond depending on the priority/severity of the problem. But I'm also more senior and mature in the role, and so I can see the advantages of going back into the offices for those that we recently hired. I'd said I'd be going back to the office mostly to see colleagues and the new people more so than to do "work work".

However, there are quite a lot of people in the company chomping at the bit to go back in the office, and so hopefully they can do > 3 days a week. They have their own legitimate reasons for wanting to go back, I'm just glad they aren't in my team as I'd then be dragged back too.

 

[Napalm Frog]

Our small company was ready to go 3 office days a week - until the cases spike around Labour Day. As a result we've been in the office 2 days a week for sales/operations/marketing/management. Our sales team has been performing better with work from home, and prefers it strongly, but management isn't convinced, plus the sunk cost of moving into our new place literally the first weekend the pandemic started.

For me personally, I prefer the work from home. About 1/3rd of my customers are west coast or overseas. I have my laptop plugged in near the couch and check it occasionally late night or early morning when I'm bored of the TV shows I'm watching and want to multitask. Our domestic sales have flattened over the pandemic, but overseas have increased, if not in part that they have been getting faster responses which they appreciate. If I was to be in the office 5 days a week, I'm leaving my work laptop and VOIP phone at work and not touching it outside of my 9-5. I have actually got into a nice work from home rhythm where I know when domestic inquiries are low (3pm-5pm) and run errands during this time, and make up the 2 hours servicing different time zones in bursts of my personal downtime.

 

[Bayer]

I've been home since March 11, 2020, and so has my business partner; we have been working together for decades and he is also my best friend, so at first it was sad not being together in the same office; now I'm just annoyed because all the money we have been wasting on the rent!

 

[gabe]

I did work from home last year. I hated it. This year i swapped job roles with someone else, who has kids and doing work from home works for her. I've been back at the office since the summer.

All the meetings and conferences are done online. I hate that too. I miss face to face contact as well as the business lunches and dinners. i really miss business travel and exploring new cites. I think those days are gone sadly.

My neighbour went back to the office in September, that lasted about a month and the office had a Covid outbreak. So he's back working at home until further notice.

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

I think working at home should always be optional wherever applicable. I get that some things are not always applicable though (ie. driving truck, surgery, dog walking services, waitering, etc...).

 

[Admiral Beez]

I’ve been working from home now since we closed the office to all but ops and production staff in March 2020. I’m not missing the drives to/from Dufferin and Supertest.

 

[Bayer]

I complained above about the office rent I have been paying for nothing, but on the other hand, I have saved approximately $2,600 I would have spent otherwise for the privilege of being crammed for the equivalent of 7 hours a day for 3 weeks in a tin can with a bunch of disease vectors formerly known as "people" just to get to work and back.

 

[Jonny5]

A Bloomberg article today with some hard dates for return to the office:

After languishing for months while Wall Street, by comparison, charged back to the office, Toronto’s financial district is finally starting to stir.

• Bank of Nova Scotia has said it will begin a phased return-to-office plan on Jan. 17
• Manulife Financial Corp. will reopen its Canadian offices Jan. 24.
• CI Financial Corp. is planning to bring its Canadian employees back in January as well.

Looks like things are picking up. I have noticed not only more people in the financial district each time I pass through, but more people in formal business attire too.

 

[Admiral Beez]

A Bloomberg article today with some hard dates for return to the office:


Looks like things are picking up. I have noticed not only more people in the financial district each time I pass through, but more people in formal business attire too.

I walk my dog over the DVP pedestrian bridge each afternoon around 4:30 pm and the rush hour traffic is increasingly heavier. Clearly people are back in the office. As an aside, every time I see that traffic I think to myself I’ll never commute to work again.

 

[afransen]

This is my number one complaint about WFH - sometimes simple issues that can be resolved by a quick conversation in person became email-tag - especially problematical when an issue is time-sensitive.

AoD

Don't you have MS Teams--just ping them by IM and ask them if they have a minute. Or just call them.

 

[evandyk]

So much easier to just go to their desk.