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WFH audit

pal just applied for a job in Gloucestershire assuming remote would be fine and was told "you must attend the office 3 days a week as we find this is necessary to get the best out of our people"

lol

good luck

anyway how bad are things looking for you right now?

Gowlings senior partners obvs getting fed up not having enough micromanagement opportunities

We have a very reasonable being in the office 50% of the time policy which means I tend to do three days then have the odd week where I'm purely working from home.  It's easier than trying to be in the office for two and a half days a week.

3 days a week is fairly standard for a lot of lawyers.  One of my sons just has to go in on 1 day a week however - world is completely different in that respect from when I started in the 1980s....

Expectation is 3 days a week in the office. I usually go in 4 to 5 days a week because I kind of like the "office vibe" to keep me going. Also, I live in a flat (so not the most optimal layout for WFH) and my commute is easy.

I go in once a fortnight (yesterday actually). No actual work gets done, it's just for internal client meetings and the social craic, both of which are important. 

I'm in every day (unless out visiting clients) but I live 10 mins from the office so not a great hardship. 

Average here (firm in north west) seems to be between 3-4 days a week for more senior people and in every day for trainees and junior people. 

I dunno about the solidarity thing, feebz, if I had to go somewhere physically (shudder) I'd prefer everyone who didn't would stay at home and not clog up the trains etc

that would cost a fortune in the south east

it isn't fine, it's needless and stupid

your colleagues are not your friends or your kids or your probation officer

I think that office working is great for younger workers in that it allows for better learning and training.

It is also good for the younglings on the social side - building up friendships in a strange city that can last a lifetime in a way that you don’t get off teams meetings.

if I was still working as a lawyer and still at the firm I used to work at I would probably go in most days as the commute was a short walk and would now be even shorter

Young people socialise very little anyway according to stats. They just scroll tiktok. It's not for them it's so the dying embers of the old hierarchy can feel important by ordering them around.

I do two or three days in the office every couple of months. This suits me fine. Most people I interact with daily are in different timezones so it doesn't add anything to sit at a desk in a less convenient building in the UK.

Which ‘stats’ are those?

The young folk here seem to go out quite a bit.

In fact a couple of them have just got engaged - an unlikely outcome if they never met in person.

Just because you basically hate all people that doesn’t mean everyone feels the same you know.

To be honest, I prefer going in. Home has too many tempting distractions and children in it so not great for concentrating on work. If I lived a long way from the office I might feel differently. 

I think it also helps that everyone here still has actual offices rather than open plan so you can shut the door if you don't want to be disturbed/avoid the lurgie.

Boomers are mostly retired now.

The people who want to go into the office are the younger milennials, and Generation Z, to escape the dreary confines of their poky London flats. 

 

My main beef with work is not having to go into an office to do it (I don’t really have to, but like to do so most of the time). It’s having to do it five days a week. Fvck off fgs it’s 2024.

Oh but Laz but Laz what about all those hungry Indian and Vietnamese workers coming who are much more up and at it than lazy fat Brits like you

yeah whatever, 2011 wants its received wisdom back

but if you don't have to go into work you could have a big fvck off lovely flat not in London

Well yes, I agree. Obviously no-one in their right mind wants to live in London,

But once a week is better than every day. At least you can expand your radius. 

 

We have some rules but I don't enforce them 

I tend to visit an office at least 4 times a week but sometimes only for a few hours before a lunch or meeting or whatever

Most people are either young people living close by so so 4/5 days a week or middle aged people with kids who live far away so do 2/3 days 

I'm guessing as I don't count. I do get sent the stats but I just delete the email. As long as the revenue and margin stays up, I DGAF 

Time was when working in a great office in a nice part of town was a status symbol in itself, made for quality of life quite apart from the job. Oh that was pre internet when relationships were all formed and conducted in person. Look what it made you do.

If I'm not in the mood to work I can find many ways to distract myself in the office as well.

I largely use coming to the office as an excuse to get a few nights away from the oldsters and spend time in London with friends.  At some point in the future I'll probably shift to working rather closer to home.

in for 2 or 3 days a week (usually 3 in term time, 2 in school holidays). More than many in the company manage.

WFH is great for convenience (and when I was in PP i tended to prefer not commuting as meant you had 2 more hours to get the billables in), but it gets really boring and too easy not to leave the house. Commuting i get 45-50 minutes bike ride in each way which is good for physical and mental health.

Tues and Thurs in office

Pointless as it's a shyt office in mid nowhereshire and most of my closest team are remote 

But also full time WFH would be even more depressing and make the job even shytter to settle into than it has been 

I go in about once a month max and that is to go for lunch with my colleagues.  Not much work gets done because I can't concentrate in open plan.  Get there about 11 having missed all traffic, socialise, 2 hr lunch then back on the road about 3 before the evening traffic.

I aim for once a week but usually just about manage once a month. When I do go in it reminds me how much I love London and I resolve to do it more often. We have very nice offices and my colleagues are good craic but I’m old and the commute knackers me out.

Mind you, you thought that exercising outdoors in scotland in winter was literally impossible so there seems to be quite a lot that confuses you.

It isn't compulsory, but some people find it a useful way to incorporate it into their routine - does that make it easier for you?

Where did I say that?

You claimed that it was physically impossible to exercise outdoors in winter in scotland.  This is a different thing.  Please try not to make things up in an attempt to cover up your absurd hyperbole.

@Muto - When is the commute it means you do it even if you're tired, weathers bad, or just not feeling it. Routine/habit etc...

On the (rare) days I homework much easier to bin off exercise before or after work.

So don’t sit still for hours, either at home or at work. Simple really.

Do you have any other points other than that you personally don’t like working in an office caller?

@muto - true, but it's easier for things to get in the way (eg calls / meetings / deadlines) when you're trying to squeeze in a ride at lunchtime, whereas for the commute it's just what I do to get to work and home again at the end of the day. 

 

The window to do some exercise when WFH is actually narrower than you'd think:

super-early morning - doable if can get to bed / up early enough

morning 7.30 - 9 is tricky cos of kids and anyway traffic usually bad at that time

on a school day you need to have got it done before 3pm to avoid school run traffic

then next window isn't till after kids have gone to bed in evening.

I thought I'd do a spot of work from home today. It didn't take long. A couple of cans of Guinness. I'm staring at at a blackbird and a robin. A pigeon has arrived. 

3 days a week is fairly standard for a lot of lawyers.  One of my sons just has to go in on 1 day a week however - world is completely different in that respect from when I started in the 1980s....

----

Fewer immigrants back then too. And the BNP entire a walkabout whilst the police looked the other way. 

O tempora o mores. 

We have a very reasonable policy.  You can work from the office or your can work for somebody else (during normal working hours)

Outside of normal working hours we provide people with the technology to work remotely the rest of the time

 

I am my own boss so I work from home when I have actual work to do and come in for meetings, events and social stuff.   It's delightful.

Open plan is fecking awful for doing actual legal work in.  Law firms have made their offices unpleasant and uncomfortable places to work and are now scratching their heads as to why they are having to force people back into them.  20 years ago as a junior associate I had my own room (occasionally with a parablozzer to boss around in it).  In my last role as partner I was sat in an open plan hellhole that resembled a call centre.

In once a week. It's only weakly enforced, but I enjoy it - not withstanding the huge commute (started out as a remote only consultant).

If they asked us to increase our attendance, they'd probably lose a big chunk of their staff. Remote first has increased ourine recruitment pool hugely.

 

 

I really don't get the hatred for open plan especially in this day and age where I often have the place to myself of there's only one other person in.  There's a do this evening so four us in the room this afternoon but hardly a major issue.

3 days mandatory but usually do 4. 

I don't love working in an office or anything but I haaaate working from home. Also I quite like my commute as it's essentially enforced down time. 

Arranging meetings or meeting friends who work in town is so much easier and more spontaneous if you're already in town most of the working week. 

Different strokes, I guess. 

It's all so dependent on your set up at home.  I would rarely work from home if I still lived in a one bedroom flat just because I wouldn't want a monitor and all my papers sitting on my kitchen table.   It's totally different if you can have you workspace in a separate room that can be looked at the end of the working day so you're not looking at work stuff in your downtime.

Normally in 2 days a week. Sometimes 1. Sometimes 3.

Mondays ideally - line up all external meetings for the beginning of the week. Try and avoid Tues and Weds as it’s an utter scrum with the twot crowd.

It’s difficult for new starters tho. They need and want more F2F in the first few months of the job. 

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