I prefer Working From Home.
There, I said it.
I prefer working from home...and in this blog post, I'm gonna explain why.
I wonder if the fact I prefer working from home comes as news to anyone.
On the one hand, I've been an advocate for working from home for years, long before the pandemic made it trendy. Speaking of which, I've also worked almost entirely from home since the pandemic - so over five years now. I even wrote a whole blog entry on here about Making Remote Work Work...So maybe it's obvious that I like it.
On the other hand, I'm often slightly outspoken against remote work. I dislike the stereotypical image of the hipster hunched over the macbook in a coffee shop...it just seems awful for your body and productivity. I also feel very sad when I walk through my estate and see individual people locked up in their individual houses all day working away. It all feels very dystopian and....unhealthy. Additionally, I feel like a lot of arguments online conflate working in an office and commuting. And, as the article above makes clear, I believe a lot of companies do remote work very badly.
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| Actual footage of me working from home. This is one of the top results when you search pixabay for "working from home", which I think makes my point about the image problem WFH has. |
Meanwhile, of course, the debate rages on online. Each RTO mandate being met with ever more vigorous applause and condemnation. I read with interest, but I've always held myself back from weighing in to say "WFH is better", or vice versa. I normally just pick on some small aspect of what's being discussed to comment on instead, without really expressing a wider opinion.
Why have I found it so hard to declare my position on working from home?
Firstly, I struggle to express a definitive opinion on anything. I've always been the one to play devil's advocate or use the traditional defences of "it depends" or "it's complicated" to avoid putting myself out there.Secondly, as a manager and business-minded person, I think I've always felt the need to put a "business perspective" on things "the needs of the organisation should come first" etc. So I'd be reticent to be seen supporting something that a lot of people feel is bad for business.
Most fundamentally, though, I can't answer a nonsense question. "Is WFH better than WFO?"
Clearly there's no definitive answer to this. So I've come to realise the better question to ask is "Is WFH better for me, now, than WFO?". Based on my individual preferences. And the requirements of my role. And my time of life. And the culture I enjoy working in. Etc etc.
So that's the question I'm going to try and answer in this post...
Some of this stuff is covered in an old LinkedIn post, but not all.
Lastly, over the last few months, I've often found myself on LinkedIn writing a comments around this topic then deleting them, feeling they're too much as a response in a random thread...so I thought giving myself time and space here to write it out properly would be...cathartic.
So, why do I prefer working from home?
I feel like the answer to this, ultimately, is "it's just easier" - and I don't mean easier for me, I mean easier for all involved.
One of the questions that's been eliciting the aforementioned deleted comments from me is "how do we build offices people want to come to?". And that starts my mental ball rolling.
Kit
Yes, I - like a lot of techies - like to work with good kit (see that LinkedIn post above). My experience says that employers who will pay for kit as good as the kit I buy for myself are few and far between.
So it just feels easier that I be allowed to use the kit I've already got and paid for.
I don't like people touching my things
I guess through lockdown, shielding etc I've become slightly germ-phobic.... but even before this, I didn't really like people touching my stuff. The idea of someone sitting and eating a sandwich over my keyboard and getting it all crumby is...just horrific. What if they touch my mouse with something sticky? Ew! And where did that stain on my chair come from anyway??
So, if I went to an office, I'd want my own desk, where I could leave my precious things and not have anyone mess with them til I go in again.
As companies are increasingly implementing "hybrid models" it feels like a lot of them are moving to hotdesk environments, which just don't work for me. At least without carrying all my stuff to and fro in a backpack - with a healthy supply of antibac wipes!
So it just feels easier that I stay at home where all my stuff is set up and I don't have to worry about people messing with it.
Coffee keeps me productive
I maintain that I'm not a coffee snob...but I feel like the evidence is stacking up against me. I like good coffee and it helps me to work better. So, can I get decent coffee at your office? Is it going to cost me < £1/ cup? Or am I going to have to go for a walk twice a day to find somewhere to get coffee...and probably pay best part of £4/cup?
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| Today's coffee. I reckon this cost about 50p. Your move, Mr Office. |
It just feels easier that I stay at home where I can get good, inexpensive, coffee whenever I want it without wasting time walking back and forth.
I'm on calls, a lot
As a manager, I spend a lot of my time on calls, or in meetings. With heavily distributed workforces these days, most hybrid models don't succeed in getting everyone into the office at the same time, meaning that I'm still likely to spend a lot of time on calls, even if I go to an office.
When I was an engineer, the last thing I would have wanted was someone sat next to me jabbering away on calls for 60-70% of the week. So if I'm going to an office, I'm going to have to figure out some way of leaving people on maker schedules to focus...maybe find a meeting room etc to take my calls...
A decent proportion of calls (121s etc) should be made in private anyway.
..and if I'm always off in meeting rooms, or in trendy "phone pods" or whatever, doesn't that somewhat defeat the purpose of me being in the office in the first place?
I'd also, of course, likely have to put up with making calls from the laptop, with it's rubbish little up-facing webcam, dodgy sound, teeny keyboard etc...which would probably make me anxious and uncomfortable.
So it just feels easier that I stay at home where I can make calls whenever I want, in comfort and confidence, without irritating those around me.
I don't believe in breaking flow state
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| I'll be honest, it just seemed like this post could do with one more picture. And I kinda wondered what ChatGPT would do for this one... |
As an engineer, it drove me crazy when I was "juggling eggs" - deep into thinking about a particular problem - and someone would wander over to my desk and interrupt me. Why couldn't they just send me a message that I could respond to when I took a break from focus?
Consequently, as a manager, I'd always rather send someone a message about something than suddenly turn up and sit on their desk to ask them a question which can most often wait.
So if I'm not going to walk up and bother people in person anyway, it feels easier that we just stay at home and chat async.
This is somewhat related to:
I'd like to be involved...passively
I'm not a natural micromanager, so my preference is to get out of the way as much as possible...but as a manager I do, somewhat, need to know what's going on.
When people are chatting async on Slack or whatever, I can just keep an eye on it, make a note of anything I want to follow up, interject with the occasional dad joke... but my team can, hopefully, forget I'm there for the most part.
Going back to an office environment where I'd have to sit there like a lemon in the corner of meetings in order to be kept in the loop just feels like a huge step backward.
I guess some people would relish the opportunity to hold court in more meetings, but not me, because:
I hate feeling like David Brent
This feels like an inescapable slide...I find myself often uttering things that could totally be Brentisms. But one of the things I hate most is feeling like I'm trying to make everything about me. I believe a lot of managers enjoy in-office working because they can stride confidently through an office in the morning and say "Good morning everyone! How are we all!? Did everyone catch the game last night? Boy, what a humdinger!" and engage everyone in quality face to face banter. Ugh.
Was everyone else just sat at their desks waiting to be entertained? Or were they actually doing things? Things they've had to stop doing while they listen to their manager's morning monologue? Which they feel they have to do because, afterall, they're the boss.
This kind of thing just doesn't sit with my management style at all, probably because:
I'm an introvert
The older I get, the more I push myself, so I wonder now if people would identify me as an introvert if they didn't know me. I'm often the person to break a silence, I'm often proactive in chatting about what's going on in my life, or asking questions. I make a lot of daft jokes. But it's something I have to force myself to do, and it's tiring.
I really like being able to be "on" when I need to be in meetings etc, then be back in my quiet little space by myself to recharge before the next one.
In an office, I'd likely have to take a walk to recharge, or stick my headphones in and appear antisocial.
Increasingly, I also schedule a lot of social and off topic comms...when I'm feeling like I have social energy to spare, I can write some things out and schedule them to deploy over the course of a week etc. In an office it's much harder to manage the ebbs and flows of social energy.
So it feels easier that I work in a space where I'm continually recharged, not in a space where I'm continually drained...
Better work/life balance
Whilst I believe that my working from home is in the interest of both myself and the people I work with, there's undoubtedly a more selfish element to this as well.
It's convenient to be around to receive a delivery, or when someone comes to service the boiler, or clean the oven. We've just completed a major project on our house...and had I worked in an office, the number of days holiday (or "please sir, can I work from home tomorrow?" conversations) I would have needed to have in order to cover the various trades and deliveries would have been totally prohibitive. Whereas working from home I could totter downstairs to open the door, or answer the odd question from the sparky etc.
Direct Line, the worst insurance company in the world, cancelled a repair to our roof so many times, and simply didn't show up so many times... It would have been really awful if every one of those instances also had the added stress of trying to figure out how one of us could be at home for the day.
Working from home also affords me some flexibility with childcare - I can collect my children in good time, being local to them. And whilst I don't really believe you can do "parenting" and "working" at the same time, you can do "plonking your kid in front of a telly" for the odd hour when you're in a pinch.
So, WFH makes my life easier, for sure.
...but it works both ways.
Because I work from home, the office is only ever steps away... so if I need to do some extra hours in the evening, or try and catch someone from a different geography, or flex my time a little one day...I'm able to do that.
It's easier for me to be flexible on things for the company, as needed.
What don't I like?
I honestly don't experience many downsides of working from home... but I feel like I should try, for balance...
You have to set clear boundaries
I'm fortunate that this has rarely been an issue for me, but there's a definite need for everyone to remember that working from home is still, very much, working.
In a busy family house, there's always something going on...and whilst rare, there have been occasions where I've felt my being around all the time is taken for granted a bit and I've needed to say "yeah, I'm home, but I'm actually working, so we'll need to do that another time..."
And sometimes I'll have to remind myself, too...when there's family in the house looking after the kids, it's easy to pop down and make a cuppa...and find yourself still there 5 minutes later chatting. No worse than the watercooler in the office, but you still have to stay disciplined.
Maybe it's because the kids have grown up with me working from home - so they understand what "daddy's working" means - but I don't get interrupted by the kids much. The occasional grouchy little face when they're upset about something, but it's pretty rare.
I miss the commute
I know, I know...not commuting is supposed to be the best thing about WFH...but I never really minded commuting, because I never really went far...I think the most I ever commuted was about 45 minutes each way...and for most of my career it's been rather less than that.
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| Having said I never minded commuting, I did write this poem once...so I guess it bothered me a bit... |
But while the actual time spent commuting was never massive, it did work as a natural break in the day, a chance to mentally pack away the working day and a reset ahead of the evening.
Working from home, it's quite common that I'll finish a call at 5 or 5:30, then go straight to collect my daughter from nursery and immediately be in "dad mode". Or head downstairs and have both daughters immediately demanding things from me. I find the lack of "decompression" after work tricky sometimes.
I tend to arrange most of my meetings in what I'd call "core hours", finishing at 4pm...so more often than not I'll just be at my desk working at the end of the day... but often rushing to catch up on things or worrying about the events of the day etc... so I really should make more effort to take a walk around the block or give myself some kind of other "fake commute".
Being on the wrong side of hybrid can suck
Ever been the only person WFH on a call, when everyone else is in the office? Nuff said.
I'd rather be drinking coffee
As I said above, I'm not a micromanager. I'm also not a very formal person. My preference would be to have small, informal conversations with people, to continually adjust course and amplify messaging. Let's chat about the vision for the next quarter while we walk to the sandwich shop. I'll give you feedback on that meeting on the walk out to the car. We can chat over coffee instead of scheduling a 121.
When you're working remote, most of these things have to be diarised, and I find that frustratingly formal sometimes.
Lastly: I'm not nuts about my privilege...
All of the above is only really true because I'm very fortunate. I'm fortunate to be able to afford the best kit at home, including a good coffee machine. I'm fortunate that I have a dedicated office to work from, so I can shut the world out and shut myself in. I'm fortunate to be able to afford air conditioning, so I can work in a comfortable temperature year-round. I'm fortunate that I have family and friends locally...so if I ever feel lonely, there's someone to grab a coffee with. I'm fortunate to work in organisations that understand and thrive with remote workers...etc etc.
...and there's a bit of me that feels guilty relishing something that only really works because I'm so fortunate.
A concluding paragraph....
...And that's enough.
I mean, at least enough, right? As always, if you've made it this far, you are a rock star and I appreciate the heck out of you! Til next time...