For those of you who miss the office, what does your life look like outside it? Do you have an active social circle? Do you have regular, sustained, positive interaction with your neighbors (i.e. do you do more than say hello in passing)? Kids who do sports? A long commute or a short one? A house or an apartment? Do you do your own housework or do you hire it out? When you're in the office, where do you work (e.g. private office, cubicle, open plan)?
Prior to working from home (since late 2018), my social circle was limited to the office. After nine years in the same neighborhood, I knew two neighbors (three before the ones next door moved away) and only one who I knew well enough to ask to pet-sit. Work and commuting consumed all of my time. I had a boat I visited once a month (mostly to make sure it still floated), hobbies that sat unnoticed for weeks or months at a time, and a house and garden that were decaying around me; all because I never had time for them. I paid a housekeeper to clean and a lawn service to cut the grass. I never liked the commute, but I did enjoy the office. Lunch with coworkers, happy hour at the bar next to the office, hanging out in the cafeteria or someone's office were all enjoyable activities.
I would never trade a single benefit of working from home to get them back. Double my salary and a short commute (or a chauffeur) might tempt me back for a while (if only because I could then pay people to do a lot of the projects I'd otherwise put off), but it wouldn't keep me.
Work from home has allowed me to:
- not be distracted if I don't want to be. No one is on a speakerphone; there aren't conversations in the hallway; if the espresso machine makes noise, it's because I'm using it. Even having a private office with a solid, lockable door didn't insulate me from office noise the way working from home does (yes, there are more dogs barking, children playing, and lawns being mowed ... but unless I'm in a meeting those noises aren't distracting the way people talking is)
- meet many of my neighbors (helps that they're mostly all working from home too)
- spend more time at the marina. Used to be, I could only do that on weekends
- work on my house. Used to be, I was too tired when I got home, so again limited to weekends
- take a break from work during the day and still be productive on something else (housework, hobbies, etc). Before, taking a break from work meant a visit to the cafeteria or a chat with a coworker. Weeding a garden, washing my car, folding clothes, organizing my tools; all of these are fantastic activities for thinking up solutions to work problems
- go racing every Wednesday night. Before, if I wanted to be at the dock at 5:00, I'd have to leave the office by 3:00. That really wasn't possible. Now I leave my house at 4:45 to be there on time. This, by far has been the biggest impact ... new friends at 36, who knew!
- reclaim two hours of my life from commuting ... sure I could have moved closer to the office, but I tried that once and my next job just took me that much farther from home
- reclaim my evenings because I'm not exhausted from commuting
- work on my schedule. Aside from meetings, I can mostly work when I know I'll be most productive ... either early in the morning or late in the evening. And noone cares if I take a nap at 2:00 every day