Question/Vent/Rant Working from Home

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I know hourly people should not be working off the clock. Somebody today posted in Teams they had to because of the way calls come in.

I don’t like it, and I don’t intend to make a habit of it. It’s just our policies being you DO NOT go over 40 hours and customers not knowing caring if they call you 5 minutes before your lunch is where the problem is. It’s not the customers duty or responsibility to work around your schedule. The simple answer would be just take your lunch later but HR will not allow lunches to be taken after a certain time. The system needs to be fixed, i agree. The bright side is you’re going to get that commission/bonus for booking the loan.

 

[mikehn]

Your DH was wrong for going off the rails over something so trivial. Working or not working doesn't have anything to do with anything

 

[starry_solo]

Hopefully you will be able to resolve this with good communication

BIL = ew.....

 

[Genie+]

Wow this board really exploded



I’ll see myself out

 

[mousefan73]

I am completely exasperated with my husband right now... He is over his little "temper tantrum", but I am still angry. I guess this is a diet version of a popular discussion type on another very popular website.

Anyway, for those who work from home, I wonder if you share similar frustrations that I have with my husband (and his family).

I am sometimes afforded the luxury of working from home... it is kind of a luxury because I get to sleep later and don't have to worry about dress code etc.. It is a very nice break. However, when I DO work from home, I actually put quite a bit of effort into what I am doing. I probably work harder from home because I am generally more focused.

I worked from home on Friday, and it was a CRAZY day for me. It seemed that EVERYTHING hit me all at once, and it did not let up until the day was over (and then some). I logged in this morning to finish up some emails that I needed to do because I got so mad I just walked away a little after 5. I literally did not take breaks or a real lunch yesterday. I did clock out for like an hour, and during that hour I went and took a shower which took about 15 minutes and TRIED to catch up on stuff that was coming in while I was off the clock and marked away "at lunch" that did not stop people from Teams-ing me, VM, and email while I marked at lunch. I was seriously about to lose it by the end of the day.

My husband seems to think WFH=Vacation day. He comes home and was like "did you get my Walmart order off the porch"? I am like I had no idea there was anything out there. He was like, well I texted you that I had an order coming in and I wanted you to bring it in when it came. I was like I had NO IDEA about this. I haven't had a chance to breathe, let alone look at my phone. SO he was all mad at me and this is MY FAULT that less than $10 worth of stuff that should have been refrigerated had been left sitting out all day because I did not know it was out there. I had not looked at my phone all day, I was swamped from the time I clocked in til the time I clocked out, and even worked through most of my lunch to try to be done by 5, and still did not finish by then. It is hard enough dealing with needy customers all day only to have your husband come home and act worse than they do. It was an unusually busy day for me, and he is mad because I did not know that I was supposed to bring stuff in because he sent a text that I did not see??

I asked him later, well how was your day? He responded "it was great until I got home". I was finally like FINE I'm doing an order tomorrow, I will just add the sour cream and milk to that order. He finally dropped it after that. Am I being unreasonable in being so mad that he got that mad?

Try HO and your DH is retired lol!!!

Your day sounds like the typical HO day... contrary to the current political messiging from Elon and other. people who work from home are working their butss off. and not watching Netflix.. ( now I am sure there are exceptions but heck I knew a guy who from the OFFICE was on the phone with contractors half the day when he was building his house, or people on their phones surfing)

My DH does sometimes forget I am "at work" like he'll ask; did you make the beds? or did you do this.. I then remind him... or he'll get made if he make a fire in our wood burning stove and leaves and the fire goes out.. I do add wood but there are times when I am in call for hours straight and the fire goes out... he then gets mad and I have to remind him I was in call all day...

 

[mousefan73]

Late to the conversation but I can relate to some of this...

Before Covid, I worked from home 2-3 days a week while DH went into the office every single day even though he was allowed to work from home. At that point, he... like so many other people who have never worked from home, falsely assumed it was a blow off nothing kind of day whenever I was working at home. I'd argue that I actually get more done because I'm not faced with the constant distractions of my in-office workspace and haven't been mentally drained by the horrible commute each way. Still, he had this delusional idea that somehow I should also be doing all of these chores and shopping tasks because I wasn't physically present in an office. It boggles my mind to think that some people actually still believe that a productive workday cannot occur unless you've dressed up and headed into this antiquated notion of a proper workspace.

Once Covid hit and DH was forced to work from home, he gradually woke up to reality that working from home is no vacation and that you're more likely to get more done (potentially even work more overtime) because of that low distraction environment. The lack of a commute also helped make him hyper-focused as well, and like me, often put in more time because you weren't wasting your life sitting in traffic.

Honestly, I know there are all kinds of people out there who assume work from home is like a nonstop vacation because you have all of the perks at home that you normally use to relax and unwind, but that grossly inaccurate faulty mindset is only held by people who have never had the opportunity and likely lack the discipline themselves to make it work. Oh...and DH, who was dying to get back into the office back at the start of Covid now cherishes his work from home environment.

there are many misconceptions by those who dont WFH and this is based on jealousy which is based on these misconceptions... for one if an employee is productive or not really is not based on WHERE they are working. A blow off day can happen anywhere.. I can spend a day in my HO doing laundry on the side between meetings or I can be in the office and gossip for hours.. Same thing.

my experience with HO: saving the commute times and money.. Our company at one location is now calling back to 2/3 days a week. So many of those colleagues are quitting as they simply cant afford the extra 50 dollars a day for parking/tolls. Which will only make things worse as this branch has issues hiring quality due to its off the path location.
From a mental health and concentration. I am more mental fit and there from not being exhausted or angry from a long commute.. On the other hand I have gained weight and have back issues from sitting all day.. Being in HO you sit more or dont move as much.. Sure disciplined people take that commute time saved and run walk in the mornings or evenings but for me really hard as in HO I tend to work longer hours.. and prefer to sleep in.. Its the durig work time lack of movement taking its toll. I bought a stepper and now every hours do 5 minutes to move... in the office you move to get this, or see this, or bathroom breaks, walk to lunch or break rooms...at home its like 10 steps to everthing....

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I dare say I am more productive at home than in the office. In the office, there are so many distractions. People will stop by your desk and chat... you overhear conversations, you get up and go to other peoples' desks and chat. It has come up in meetings every time....they are like you gotta stop bothering each other. I think the thing is, when you put a bunch of people in a confined space who are naturally talkers (we all seem to be excessive talkers, I think it's the personality type they hire which makes sense) A LOT of talking is going to take place. Being a little older and a little more focused, I am not as bad as most.

If you go to the lounge to grab something from the refrigerator, you will run into somebody wanting to visit. Towards the end of the day you are shutting everything down and hovering over the clock out button ready to make that mad dash to see if you can get off the parking lot in a reasonable amount of time.

Distance too is a thing, at home the bathroom is like 15 feet away, mini-fridge 15 feet away. In office; bathroom you gotta lock your screen, then take a walk, kitchen, same situation.

 

[lovesmurfs]

DH is fully retired, and I WFH (we live in FL, office is in IL). He's actually pretty good about not disturbing me while I'm working. The times he DOES come in, though, seem to be when I'm completely engrossed in a project or an email, and he doesn't seem to get that I can't just drop everything immediately to talk, etc.

I do have French doors that I should probably close during the workday.

 

[PollyannaMom]

...contrary to the current political messiging from Elon and other. people who work from home are working their butss off. and not watching Netflix...

I agree! I think most people are more productive WFH because of better work-life balance, but what the "big businessmen" are really upset about is their corporate buddies losing the business from people eating lunch out near the office, having to repair/replace their cars faster from unnecessary commutes, spending money on conveniences because they're always exhausted, etc.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

there are many misconceptions by those who dont WFH and this is based on jealousy which is based on these misconceptions... for one if an employee is productive or not really is not based on WHERE they are working. A blow off day can happen anywhere.. I can spend a day in my HO doing laundry on the side between meetings or I can be in the office and gossip for hours.. Same thing.

my experience with HO: saving the commute times and money.. Our company at one location is now calling back to 2/3 days a week. So many of those colleagues are quitting as they simply cant afford the extra 50 dollars a day for parking/tolls. Which will only make things worse as this branch has issues hiring quality due to its off the path location.
From a mental health and concentration. I am more mental fit and there from not being exhausted or angry from a long commute.. On the other hand I have gained weight and have back issues from sitting all day.. Being in HO you sit more or dont move as much.. Sure disciplined people take that commute time saved and run walk in the mornings or evenings but for me really hard as in HO I tend to work longer hours.. and prefer to sleep in.. Its the durig work time lack of movement taking its toll. I bought a stepper and now every hours do 5 minutes to move... in the office you move to get this, or see this, or bathroom breaks, walk to lunch or break rooms...at home its like 10 steps to everthing....

I firmly agree that a lot of this is rooted in jealousy. You are so right about a blow off day happening anywhere. The mental health benefits of not having to regularly endure that commute are also huge. I also fell into the trap of not being as mobile as my work from home increased. I am trying to get my fitness back on track as a whole after a 5 year pity party (mixed with some debilitating illness issues). I do walk before work and put in a full workout afterwards. For Christmas, my husband bought me an electronic desk that can be raised and lowered. I got a walking pad so that I could walk and type, but I'm just not that coordinated. Still, I at least stand on and off during the day. I never stand still for long, so those are extra calories burned. We've increased our in-office days to 1x per month but I know other divisions are up to 2-3 days per week. I just don't know where they'd put us all since they've downsized our overall office space. As it is, we have to book desks any time we go in. We shall see, but I'm definitely a more sane person with our current approach.

 

[lovesmurfs]

I just don't know where they'd put us all since they've downsized our overall office space.

That is part of the problem -- In 2019, our office signed a 10-year lease for 4 floors of a downtown Chicago office building (Michigan and Wacker). While they haven't required us to go back into the office, it is a lot of wasted space.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

That is part of the problem -- In 2019, our office signed a 10-year lease for 4 floors of a downtown Chicago office building (Michigan and Wacker). While they haven't required us to go back into the office, it is a lot of wasted space.

We were sort of the opposite. In 2019, they were trying to convert as many departments as possible to hoteling stations for desk space since so many teams were working from home a substantial part of the week. I know we cut our leasing space by quite a few floors as a result. Of course, over the last 5 years, we have expanded teams in other offices/cities within our division while reducing head count in our city. So, it's possible there is now enough space for everyone if they called us all back in to work in the physical office.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I do have French doors that I should probably close during the workday.

People who don't really have a built in office in their house where they close the doors and that is their workspace seemed in many cases to struggle with the work/life balance. Many people figured it out in the end what works best but it was a real struggle to begin with, people's "offices" were the kitchen table, and what space you were using wasn't feeling like an actual office location hence other distractions could come about.

Some of that is access to someone if they are also at home so instead of texting, messaging or calling you just pop in. Some of that is outside noises and distractions (people often complained about dogs barking and lawncare going on when it had probably been going on before they just weren't home to hear it).

The days that my husband is working from home he goes in the office and the door is closed. This is technically a bedroom on the main level but in home building plans labeled "flex space" where most turned it into an office. There's a custom built desk in there (we built it ourselves and stained it ourselves) and the bathroom is on the other side of the wall. It's very ideal for work from home life. Not everyone has that (not even by a long shot).

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

for one if an employee is productive or not really is not based on WHERE they are working. A blow off day can happen anywhere.. I can spend a day in my HO doing laundry on the side between meetings or I can be in the office and gossip for hours.. Same thing.

Eh I'll disagree with you there. I agree with the overall thing that you can have bad days regardless, ones where you just can't focus.

But WHERE you are working can have a huge impact on your productivity. Mental health is fairly big reason just as the remainder of your comment was about you feel better and thus can focus more. But for someone else working from home doesn't provide them that focus the office environment does (that was actually my husband especially in the first 6 months he was working from home back in 2020).

For some they need to have a work/life separation in the form of different locations, actually that has been a complaint of many who were forced to work from home that they felt like they never got to turn off work. Now the OP's job seems to fall into a different track but for employees who could clock out and then be done and not think about work til the next workday that could become a lot harder if they were at home with work surrounding them readily available and within arms reach 24/7. It's a lot easier to say "I'll just answer this e-mail real quick" when maybe you wouldn't have if your work computer was well at the office and you didn't have access to it. One time well after dinnertime my husband was just checking something on his work computer that he brings home nearly every day (even though he's not working from home vast majority of the time), so and so saw he was logged into Teams and then messaged him if he could answer some questions. Had he not had his work readily accessible that e-mail would have waited til the next work day.

Pre-pandemic there was a huge corporate culture that work from home was reserved for very few people, it was just the expectation that you came into the office and there ya go. During the pandemic many people were able to work from home meaning their occupation and their roles could technically be done remotely, in other words "could this meeting have been an e-mail" could be translated to "could this job have been remote the whole time". That still doesn't mean every person is able to be productive at home. And by productive I think I would qualify that not based on corporate metrics but based on how the person is able to complete and handle their job and how they are dealing physically, mentally and emotionally. If you hate being in the office you might find remote work allows you to be better in your work. If you miss being in the office then working from home could make you struggle.

It's more IMO just about recognizing and tailoring what occupations and positions can truly be available to work from home/remote work rather than holding a previous rigid understanding of both corporate life and work from home/remote life. Not everyone is able to do work from home just as not everyone is able to do office. Recognize that rather than assuming work from home means you're more productive OR working from the office means you're more productive.

 

[tinkerjo]

I work for a managed care insurance company (aka Medicaid) our company has gone almost fully remote with no plans to return to the office. In our state they actually sold off most all of the office spaces or didn’t extend the lease. It has opened up a lot more opportunities for me since I live too far from an office to actually work there. Pre pandemic I visited people in their homes which we don’t do anymore (thankfully, it was actually dangerous looking back at it) it is challenging to work from home, and not a cakewalk like everyone thinks. I also don’t enjoy spending my lunch doing laundry, cleaning house, etc. but it does free time up later in the evening. It is nice if I want to travel, I can take my work with me. (But I would rather use PTO)