Those who started working from home last year......

San Antonio Gal · ‎05-18-2017

Are you still working from home or does your employer have plans for you to go back to the office? Do you work better at home or from the office?

I've been working from home since March 2020. My employer plans on "releasing" us back to the office September 1st. However, it has worked so well that most of us will continue to WFM and go into the office maybe one day a week.

Personally, not having to get ready every morning and drive to downtown Memphis everyday has saved a lot of time (and gas). I've been able to get a lot more work accomplished. It's been a blessing for me.

What are your plans?

CelticCrafter · ‎03-09-2010

I could never do it, there are too many other things in the house that would be calling my name to distract me.

My son-in-law works from home a few days a week and lets nothing distract him when he's working.

Kachina624 · ‎03-10-2010

@San Antonio Gal All this time, I thought you were from San Antonio? Maybe that's where your heart is.

New Mexico☀️Land Of Enchantment

ThinkingOutLoud · ‎05-01-2020

@Kachina624 wrote:
@San Antonio Gal All this time, I thought you were from San Antonio? Maybe that's where your heart is.

I was thinking the same thing!

SurferWife · ‎12-12-2010

@San Antonio Gal

And all this time I thought you lived in San Antonio...LOL! ❤️❤️ that city!

I was working from home full-time 5 years before the pandemic & will continue even as people start trickling back into the office, which, currently, our organization isn't doing yet. Only those who HAVE to be in the office to do their job, i.e., data center people, are there. It took the pandemic for our company to realize how well WFH works.

Prior to the pandemic I felt like a "red-headed stepchild" working from home. Those in the office wouldn't use technology to collaborate/interact with those of us who WFH. Often times when I called in for a conference call, the ones in the office would stick a cell phone on the table & expect me to hear & participate. I would complain about it all the freaking time to my boss, but she can't really control how others run their meetings, I suppose. The pandemic resulted in beefing up technology even more, so now WFH is a superior experience. Our company is big on surveys so when I responded to the WFH survey I gave them feedback about the before/after pandemic experience. At least when people go back into the office, they will appreciate the need for online collaboration tools. If anyone ever pulls the cellphone on the meeting table with me again, I will happily drop. I won't put up with it anymore; whereas, before if I had an important meeting I would go into the office, which defeated the whole purpose of WFH.

Time is just a drop in the bucket compared to eternity. It isn’t how long you live that matters; it is how well you are prepared to die. ~~Colonel Robert B. Thieme, Jr.

Sooner · ‎03-10-2010

I think about the time we are thinking it may be more or less "normal" it will be back to the old grind of the last year or two. It's shaping up that way.

Caaareful Shopper · ‎10-09-2012

@San Antonio Gal Five years prior to 2020, I worked from home 2 days a week. Then March 2020 began the 100% WAH schedule. Only a few employees are back in the office because of workload that absolutely requires in-office business process.

Rumor has it that we'll all be called back into the office sometime this September. However, the agenda for our long-standing weekly meetings have a semi-permanent bullet that still states "No Date on Return to the Office Yet."

Our internal reporting has shown that work has actually improved during the 100% telework. If given a choice, I would work telework until I retire [many years from now]. I love it. I'm much more productive. I turned my guest bedroom into my home gym and lost 23 pounds during the pandemic alone (I loathe gyms, so I never went to them). I'm saving money on gas, and the costly monthly garage parking (saving $100/mo. to park so I could work, is nothing to sneeze at).

If/when we do go back, it'll probably feel like starting a new job.

Goodie2shoes · ‎04-30-2012

Before I retired in 2016 I worked from home for 4 years as a work comp nurse for an insurance company and loved it ! When it snowed, I could sit in my office working and look out the window at the snow and not worry about having to drive to the office. My daughter works from home now due to the pandemic and she loves it although she has a 5 yo and is home schooling which is a job in itself ! She does not want to return to the office, they are not strick about wearing masks so I don't blame her.

skatting44 · ‎07-26-2019

My daughter was anticipating back in the office, however now with all this talk of possible mask mandates and If the schools will be open , she hopes she can continue to work from home .

Snowpuppy · ‎03-09-2010

We're still on WFH, too.

No plans to bring us back, yet. The cost savings to employees and the employer has so far outweighed any benefit to returning.

A few people have volunteered to go in 1 or 2 days a week by position. Those with school age children are still having a hard time finding day care or after school care. Many who used to provide licensed, in home care no longer do.

I work far better at home, fewer interruptions! A few tech glitches and work arounds slow everyone down but the opportunity has been a blessing.