People (Office)

[mik]

I live 5 minutes from the office in the car.

You have an office in your car?

[dinny_g]

I live 5 minutes from the office in the car.

You have an office in your car?

[Steve Jobbs]”Of course I do. I have an iPhone”[/Steve Jobbs]

[Swervin_Mervin]

I would never have guessed that people that work in IT-related industry would prefer to sit at home in their underpants than work in a more sociable office environment

We try to do at least 2 days/week in the office where everyone can be in at the same time. It's nice just to leave the house, not least as my wife's role is 100% wfh. I hate my commute home though - that can gtf.

[dinny_g]

I would never have guessed that people that work in IT-related industry would prefer to sit at home in their underpants than work in a more sociable office environment

Outrageous!!!

I wear boxers...

[duncs500]

I like going into the office. If the pressure is on I get loads done at home (and would rather save the commute time), but if I'm scratching around a bit I get more of the side tasks done in the office. I don't get in our office much though, I'm a couple of days a fortnight at a site in Plymouth, so I feel the need to be present at home when not there (our office is over an hour away so still means I'm less helpful for childcare).

They do a lunch thing and a post work beers in the office thing once a month in the office, if it doesn't clash with my Plymouth week, and my wife also doing one day Mon-Thu in the office (so I need to be home for nursery pick up), I try to go but often it's too much of a challenge.

TL;DR: I'd like to go to the office more, but too much else going on. Would even like to be in the client office in Plymouth more but it's a fucking long way!

[Brannen]

I rarely go into the office, I genuinely see very little benefit from it.

I do make an effort to go in on "Team days", where the idea was to have a day where people would be in, you could see people and catch up. I went to one of these days last week and I was the only person from my team to go into the office. Sat on my own in an office or sat on my own at home? No brainer to me. Commuting is awful.

I know from previous trips in, most of us are busy, so sat on calls a lot of the day. So even if there has been people in, you normally don't get chance to speak to them, or only very briefly.

Could be the role as well, but it's normally "here's your project(s)" and you just get on with it. Outside of asking if anyone else in the team has experience of something, I rarely speak to them.

[scotta]

I'm wfh full time for all my clients. A few have tried to get smaller teams to go into the office on the same day each week, but its never really taken off apart from with 1/2 individuals for whom it really suits - i.e. they live close to the office or have a regular gym class nearby that day. For my Edinburgh one, although the office is only 9 or so miles from the house, it's 60-90 minutes by car or train depending when I leave, so just not worth it.

Shame really.

Where are your offices?

One is Edinburgh, round by the airport - so its the bypass or two trains.

Others are train or plane ride away which I don't mind if its going to be productive.

Hmm yeah. RBS and Tesco bank were gyle so 3 trains from East Lothian or drive and get there quicker.

[DeskJockey]

We've got an eight days/month in the office policy. It isn't too bad a commute, and there is definitely a benefit in terms of being able to have a quick chat. I do prefer working from home, but I knew the terms when I joined.

[Zonda_]

I share an office space with 4 women aged from 24 to 60. Some of the conversations are eye opening…

[Jobbo]

My favourite combination is working from the office (so no cats or dog to annoy me) but without any staff (so no people to continually ask me questions all day long). Alas this doesn't happen often enough

This. The golden hour or two before others arrive is just lovely.

[Simon]

They closed our base office in Surrey back in late 2020 (not Covid related, but rather T+A studies over the years proving that we were using it less and less), so when they closed it they offered everyone either a WFH contract or a London office contract. I think 98% chose WFH as we were spread far and wide across the S/E anyway so London wasn't suitable for most of us.

I much prefer it - I get to see my kids grow up, I can get my head down and concentrate when I need to, I'm not wasting time and money on a commute, and finally as an autistic, offices (especially open-plan ones) are a sensory hell-scape that makes it harder for me to get anything done of any value.

I'll expense a trip into our London office once a quarter or so specifically to meet a client there, or like the next time to meet a PR agency, but the very second that the meeting is over I'm back on the train to come home.

I will never work from an office again.

[Sundayjumper]

…T+A studies over the years…

Wow. Anywhere I’ve worked, studying T+A at work would have got you in front of HR pretty sharpish !

[Simon]

Lol. Time and attendance!

[Explosive Newt]

In terms of my work that is desk based rather than hospital based (hard to do a ward round from home and even if it were possible our IT is so appalling that it's a non starter...)

The main benefit I see working from work is breaks and lunches / after work beers with the team. Thinking up future projects, new ideas and even getting people new jobs all happens here.