When working from home is toxic

Every single problem listed with working from home also applies to at least some subset of office environments.

At least with a home office I can attempt to make my environment better instead of just accepting whatever my employer provides.

As someone with narcolepsy, the pandemic is the single most wonderful-terrible thing that could have happened. When the black plague struck Europe, the survivors found themselves inheriting immense wealth. I feel sort of similarly, because for the first time I can participate normally in a traditional office environment -- because the tradition is now to use Zoom and not to have your ass in a seat from 9 to 5. I wake up each day not quite believing my luck.

I really empathize from the other angle too, where people who are used to a normal environment don't want to WFH. But a lot of their hatred may be due to their awful environment they put up with. (A lot of it might not be, either! Different people like different things.)

As I said elsewhere, a lot of people seem to feel they can't change it, or they put up with distractions, or they don't worry about setting boundaries, or the equipment is subpar compared to the office.

One day my wife and I set a trap for my father in law. I nudged her to keep working, since she had unconsciously started fooling around online because of the inevitable story that FIL was going to walk in and tell, like clockwork. The moment he came in to tell his story without asking, I said "Heyo! So, I didn't understand until a few days ago, but it's best that, before you do this, mentally teleport yourself into her office and imagine you're standing next to her coworkers."

It made all the difference, and I haven't seen him do it since. He was super understanding too. I'd been guilty of the same thing; it's easy to forget that WFH means "you need office boundaries at home."

These articles are so low quality. Some ppl WFH better, some ppl prefer an office. This isn't ground breaking philosophy and the endless articles repeating the same basic idea is just boring now. /rant

Many of the things the article mentions are also an issue if working from an office (clearly author has never had the office next door undergoing noisy renovations).

Some others are due to an improper setup: no door/ private space can also be an issue in an open-plan office and at home, if faced with the prospect of long-term wfh, one can and should condition a proper, closeable space to work in. This mitigates most of the distraction-oriented complaints.

As to “i’m always working” - what’s needed here is the discipline of closing your computer at X time. Having a separate space really helps with that, otherwise just close the computer and chuck it in a drawer.

I fully understand wfh is not for everyone. However, one must realize when the main benefit of an office is imposing on you the discipline you’d need to have on your own if working at home.

It is really hard to enforce office boundaries on two year olds. He doesn't seem to care no matter how many times I sit him down to tell him I need to work.