How do you feel about telecommuting?

[joober jones]

From the very first time I heard of it, it was something I always thought would be the greatest thing in the world. Going to work with all the comforts of home - how could that not be ideal? 4 weeks in and I'm finding I absolutely hate it. It was nice for maybe 3 days, but now I can't wait to get back to the office. Don't get me wrong, I love the extra time with my wife, kids, niece, nephew, and pets, but the work side of it has serious drawbacks. Everything is far more stressful, it's tougher to concentrate, and you never really feel like the work day is over.

Is working from home losing its luster for anyone else?

 

[RichZ]

Retired now, but loved working from home when I was self employed. Did most of my serious work late at night when the house was quiet, and reserved a few daytime hours a week for phone calls, etc.

 

[UConnRock]

My wife is set up in the office. I am in the dining room. We extracted our son from college and he is finishing up the semester remotely. Daughter is finishing up her junior year in HS remotely also. Having all 4 working from home is a challenge. There was a novelty the first week or so, but that has worn off. I truly enjoy the separation of work and home and like the transition time of the 20-30 minute ride home. I find weekends less relaxing as it is just another day at home. Going from 5 days in the office to 5 days at home has been tough, especially from a management standpoint. That being said, I think a 3 days in office and 2 at home is something I will consider when things calm down

 

[Vancat]

It is hard to focus on work. But I'm glad I'm still on the payroll!

 

[8893]

I am thankful to not have to do it. Coming into the office every week day is giving me some sense of routine to help keep me sane. I am the only one here today and I love it. I usually listen to music all day when it's business as usual here because it helps me not get distracted by everything else going on in the office, but I am sitting in silence right now because there is nothing to distract me.

Except the internet, of course.

 

[Deepster]

From the very first time I heard of it, it was something I always thought would be the greatest thing in the world. Going to work with all the comforts of home - how could that not be ideal? 4 weeks in and I'm finding I absolutely hate it. It was nice for maybe 3 days, but now I can't wait to get back to the office. Don't get me wrong, I love the extra time with my wife, kids, niece, nephew, and pets, but the work side of it has serious drawbacks. Everything is far more stressful, it's tougher to concentrate, and you never really feel like the work day is over.

Is working from home losing its luster for anyone else?

There's your problem. I'm home either solo or with my daughter. Nice and peaceful. I haven't been this stress free in years. Working out. Going for walks. Making good lunches. I hope I never have to go back.

 

[phillionaire]

I hate doing meetings over Zoom/BlueJeans.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I've telecommuted a fair amount in the past. I've discovered it's impossible to do if my wife and kids are home with me. I don't care what helpful suggestions you may have - I will not be left alone to get anything done.

When I'm by myself, I can be moderately productive. There will be times in the day when I won't be instantly responding to IM or email. I don't know where that expectation came from, but your need for instant gratification doesn't move me.

I have a buddy who is a commercial loan manager. He has to log in at 9am right down to the minute, and everything he does on the pc is tracked. There is no way in he'll I'd ever accept such a position. Different strokes I guess.

 

[mauconnfan]

We already had separate offices set up in the house although I try to stay out of mine when things are as they should be. She is probably 60% office and 40% customer visits and I'm about 85-15%. We both have New England based territories so kind of used to being home for catch up days, webinars, Zooms and Skypes but never have I really put together 2-3 days in a row without getting out to work with my team or customers on the personal level. This blows I'm a "sales" guy live to provide solutions on the day to day manufacturers we deal with. I never was a "report" guy but now more than ever senior management and our area VP are making us dive deeper into time wasting crap. Fed up, yep! When things are normal and I'm in traffic I bitch and rage LOL (imagine that from me?), but I can say now I'd be happy to sit in traffic and smile at people cutting me off, or people texting while driving, anything to not be in this office staring at these screens and putting together reports for my guys to break down, training and product webinars.

I mean isolation is a must and I'm really good with that. But 3 weeks now, ouch. I have a couple sales guys with OCD you should hear them LOL. I need to talk to them just to feel better about every day. Heck I'm not even golfing in CT not worth the chances. My son just bought a house but was working an extra week or so calling on customers in a ripe area for the virus so we can only speak to him on the phone and FaceTime which really sucks. Last weekend they wanted us over for a cookout had to explain why we really shouldn't and he totally understood.

Good luck to everyone, stay safe and take good care of your mental health get out and walk as much as you can!

 

[joober jones]

I hate doing meetings over Zoom/BlueJeans.

Don't get me started on Zoom.

 

[CL82]

They’re kind of stupid to mention, but the two things I find myself missing is getting a haircut and taking my shirts to the cleaners. I typically keep my hair pretty short but for whatever reason I hadn’t had a chance to go for a haircut before the travel moratorium. So though it’s not that bad, I’m feeling a little bit like Billy Ray Cyrus. Business in the front, party in the back.

I’m still going into work, but there are far less meetings.

 

[CL82]

Don't get me started on Zoom.

Please go ahead, I’ve got my first one coming up next week.

 

[Robertelamin]

First world problems. Anyways, if you hate it you better get used to it since employers are realizing they don’t need that office space any longer

 

[superjohn]

Love it, hated going to an office and open-plan offices are the worst thing ever created.

I could see people not liking it if they have annoying wives/big families.

 

[Kitaman]

I lack discipline, it doesn't do well for me when I am working from home., Hell I lacked discipline in the office as well. But home has many more distractions, and friends/family don't seem to understand that you are 'supposed to be' working.

 

[SoFla Steve]

My only problem with working at home is overcoming the company's data security measures implemented over the last two years. It always seems that data security trumps employee productivity every time. Frankly, our data isn't all that valuable to people outside of the company.

 

[joober jones]

I've telecommuted a fair amount in the past. I've discovered it's impossible to do if my wife and kids are home with me. I don't care what helpful suggestions you may have - I will not be left alone to get anything done.

When I'm by myself, I can be moderately productive. There will be times in the day when I won't be instantly responding to IM or email. I don't know where that expectation came from, but your need for instant gratification doesn't move me.

I have a buddy who is a commercial loan manager. He has to log in at 9am right down to the minute, and everything he does on the pc is tracked. There is no way in he'll I'd ever accept such a position. Different strokes I guess.

This.

 

[joober jones]

Love it, hated going to an office and open-plan offices are the worst thing ever created.

I could see people not liking it if they have annoying wives/big families.

I wouldn't say my family is annoying, but it's large. Counting myself, there are 8 people, 7 cats, and 2 dogs about the house. Needless to say there are many noise distractions/situations around the house to handle as I'm trying to work.

 

[87Xfer]

I've telecommuted since 2005. I'd say having a dedicated office space, ideally with a door that you can close, has a pretty big impact on productivity.

When we lived in CT, my wife and I both worked from home. But we both had dedicated offices at opposite ends of the house and on different floors. So we'd basically only bump into each other in the kitchen during the day. Worked out well. The biggest issues I had were (1) it was easy to find myself working 12 hour days, and (2) it was also easy to go whole days without leaving the house or even taking a shower etc.

Since moving to Colorado, our house doesn't really give us 2 office locations. So I've rented a small office in town, which forces me to get up, shower and head to the office every day. I actually like this scenario better. But for the last 3 weeks I've been working mainly from our kitchen or dining room. Not ideal.

 

[Lefty2one]

This seems like a case by case basis, just like with everything else in life. It's not bad for some, sucks for others, or is a dream for others.

My wife and I don't have kids and I have my own office downstairs so telecommuting is great. I don't have to be on Zoom meetings with tons of other people; I'm mainly on phone calls or 1-on-1 Zoom calls. If I had kids running around all day I'd absolutely hate it, or if I was on 50+ person Zoom calls all day. Work is still busy so I don't have to worry about discipline.

That being said, if telecommuting becomes a huge thing in the future, we're still currently in a unique situation where children are home with their parents. In the future, if say half the workforce is telecommuting fulltime, they'll be by themselves at home while the kids are at school for most of the day. That should help with productivity.

The other interesting thing this may have an impact on is real estate and if families start budgeting one extra bedroom that they can use as an office, or if they make sure there's existing office space in the basement.

 

[businesslawyer]

From the very first time I heard of it, it was something I always thought would be the greatest thing in the world. Going to work with all the comforts of home - how could that not be ideal? 4 weeks in and I'm finding I absolutely hate it. It was nice for maybe 3 days, but now I can't wait to get back to the office. Don't get me wrong, I love the extra time with my wife, kids, niece, nephew, and pets, but the work side of it has serious drawbacks. Everything is far more stressful, it's tougher to concentrate, and you never really feel like the work day is over.

Is working from home losing its luster for anyone else?

Yes. My wife used to like it when I came home from work. Now she's sick of me, and even my dog will be sick of me if this goes on much longer. And it's much harder to stay focused unless work is requiring full attention, and as the economy slows down that will be a lower and lower percentage of the time.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

As a special ed teacher, this is a goshdarn nightmare. Kids don’t have tech, parents are non responsive and district/department/school can not give us a common vision and the expectations are all over the place. On top of that, we have to deal with gen ed teachers and related service who are just as confused as us. I can assure you I am not on vacation by any stretch.

 

[CTBasketball]

Love it, hated going to an office and open-plan offices are the worst thing ever created.

I could see people not liking it if they have annoying wives/big families.

Agree about open floor plans 1000%

 

[JMick]

I like it, but a lot of my coworkers can't handle it and are annoying because of it. I swear, it's like some people went home and then completely forgot how to do their job/what their responsibilities are.

 

[Lefty2one]

As a special ed teacher, this is a goshdarn nightmare. Kids don’t have tech, parents are non responsive and district/department/school can not give us a common vision and the expectations are all over the place. On top of that, we have to deal with gen ed teachers and related service who are just as confused as us. I can assure you I am not on vacation by any stretch.

You guys have one hell of a challenge. I really feel for you.

My wife teaches 3rd and 4th grade behaviorally challenged kids. It's hopeless. Hell, it's nearly impossible to teach these kids in a normal classroom setting; there is virtually no hope for remote learning. She's so frustrated. Some of her students come from such poor backgrounds that they don't have internet access at home or a device to use. Others have absentee parents, even mid-pandemic. Two of her students have been completely off the radar since the quarantine started. Even the emergency contact on file isn't answering their phone. Sad stuff.