OT: Working from home / remotely

[PhilaPhans]

For those who don't naturally work from home, or run their own business out of their house.

Who here has the option to work from home or remotely whenever you want (save for in-face meetings, business trips, etc)?

Do you feel you can be as productive from home as from the office?

How often do you work from home?

Do you find your employees (or fellow employees if you aren't a boss) who use that option are as productive as they are at work?

 

[MadRU]

It all comes down to the individual. Some are very productive, others use it as an oppurtunity.

 

[Knight Shift]

For those who don't naturally work from home, or run their own business out of their house.

Who here has the option to work from home or remotely whenever you want (save for in-face meetings, business trips, etc)?
ME.

Do you feel you can be as productive from home as from the office?
SOMETIMES, BUT MOSTLY NO. I SPEND MORE TIME GOOFING OFF, MEETING PEOPLE FOR LUNCH.

How often do you work from home?
ONCE PER MONTH.

Do you find your employees (or fellow employees if you aren't a boss) who use that option are as productive as they are at work?
WE HAVE A FULL TIME PARTNER WHO WORKS OUT OF HER HOME IN ANOTHER STATE. SHE IS VERY PRODUCTIVE.
ANOTHER PARTNER DOES IT FAIRLY REGULARLY AND HE IS VERY PRODUCTIVE.

I like being in the office. I like the separation of home and work, and I enjoy the drive home, listening to Sirius/XM, calling people, etc.

 

[newell138]

I work from home 4-5 days a week and get much more done when I'm home, and my quality of life is 1000x better. I can cut the grass or do other minor chores at lunch instead of at 5 or 6pm when i get home. That frees up more of my day for things I enjoy.

 

[bethlehemfan]

I can work from home. If your home situation is under control like mine you can be very efficient if you have a little discipline. If not, not so much.

 

[rubaseball78_rivals]

One thing you miss is the easier collaboration aspect of working in an office with others. I don't routinely work from home so one negative for me is that when I do I also get a bunch of honeydo projects around the house as well.

 

[koleszar]

My wife works from home and she's able to jump from one meeting right to another. She can also take meetings at 4 pm, so her productivity is much higher. If she had to go into the office for face to face, she couldn't take back to back meetings because many are in different buildings and she would cut out the 4 pm stuff for commuting purposes. Also she works for BMS so many of her co-workers are in Brussels and other locations in the US.

 

[KeithK7624]

I work from home. I'm 100x more productive. Im in sales so not only are my numbers up, my time working has decreased tremendously, and the quality of life is through the roof.

Now I work a solid 5-6 hours a day, but that's solid. 2 hours here, spend an hour watching espn, 2 hours here, hour for house work, 2 hours more, and call it a day. In the office I work 9-12 hour days and get half done.

Less distractions, but you do need self control.

 

[RUfinal4]

a lot depends on the person and company,

Co-locating in an office is more beneficial for collaboration.

Many of older stodgy companies are anti wfh because the older leadership has never adopted it

Considering office space runs anywhere from $30 to over $100 a sq foot it can be a considerable savings for a company to allow staff to work at home regularly. If the average cube is 6 by 6 (36 sq ft) and you are in a $45 a sq ft building that is $1620 a year just to have a cube. if the office is 25,000 sq ft then it costs $1.125 mil a year.

Some companies also use WFH as a way to save on salary costs. since they know employees save on commuting (trains, parking, rail tickets, etc...) they may offer a plan where the raises are smaller for wfh employees or the in office employees get a supplemental salary increase to cover commuting costs.

for the employee it is very nice if they have the make up to stay focused. if your office is only a 15-20 min commute then wfh may not have a big affect but... for those who commute 45 mins or more in N NJ traffic or 60-90 mins into NYC you save a lot of commuting stress.

If you need to be at work at 8am in NYC you may have to be on mass transit at 6:30am. if it is a wfh day you can roll out of bed at 7:30 and be logged in and ready at 8am. The same holds true at the end of the day. The NYC worker may leave at 5pm and not get home until 6:30pm or later. The wfh person may stay logged in until 5:30. They may even put up dinner or do other errand with the laptop on so they can check when they have a free moment in the evening.

for anyone who has a kid in little league you probably prefer a wfh job vs. commuting an hour plus where you miss your kid's games.

 

[SouthJerseyRU]

I work from home 4-5 days a week and get much more done when I'm home, and my quality of life is 1000x better. I can cut the grass or do other minor chores at lunch instead of at 5 or 6pm when i get home. That frees up more of my day for things I enjoy.

I work for a large software company, work from home almost 100% of the time and agree with everything posted by newell128. At the office I get distracted by speaker phone meeting guy, walks down the hall and talks on their cell phone guy, overly friendly person who wants to know about your life, etc. At home no one talks to me unless we have a meeting scheduled and then we can have video chats if collaboration is needed.

Another huge benefit for me is the ability to be able to drop off and pick up the kids as needed.

There are times when it is slow at work when I'll spend a few hours wasting time browsing or doing something else, but that doesn't happen that often.

Now if you'll excuse me it's time for my daily after lunch nap.

 

[Upstream]

I've found that when I've been in jobs where I work from home less frequently (i.e., once per week or less), then I am less productive at home than I would be in the office. But when I've been in jobs where I work from home multiple days per week, I am as productive at home. I think if you work from home a lot, you are productive because you have to be, otherwise you can't get your work done.

 

[RUfinal4]

just saw this:

IBM is eliminating a lot of its wfh program
http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/19/technology/ibm-work-at-home/index.html?iid=ob_article_footer_adblock

 

[RUChoppin]

I work from home 2 days/week.

Most of the people I work directly with at work are in other offices, so working from home on calls and web meetings is no different than working in the office.

I find I'm slightly less efficient at home, but work slightly longer with no time lost due to commute.

 

[RUBigFrank]

I find I'm slightly less efficient at home, but work slightly longer with no time lost due to commute.

Work from home once a week - same as above.

Do find the collaboration and stimulation of the office useful - not sure how productive folks can be without the experience of spending some time in the office for cross pollination of ideas and other useful information.

 

[koleszar]

just saw this:

IBM is eliminating a lot of its wfh program
http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/19/technology/ibm-work-at-home/index.html?iid=ob_article_footer_adblock

I bet you it has nothing to do with the changing nature of the work and requiring new work methods. It's those 60% who can't work from home bitching like 5 yr. old girls to their bosses, why does Suzy get that but I can't. Same thing is happening at BMS, they're changing wfh policies for this very reason. Corporate america office politics are like a bunch of 5 yr. old's on a play ground.

 

[RUfinal4]

I bet you it has nothing to do with the changing nature of the work and requiring new work methods. It's those 60% who can't work from home bitching like 5 yr. old girls to their bosses, why does Suzy get that but I can't. Same thing is happening at BMS, they're changing wfh policies for this very reason. Corporate america office politics are like a bunch of 5 yr. old's on a play ground.

some of it is control as well. If someone is at home you can't walk to their desk to see what they are working on. Companies like control to know where employees are.
Now there is a different model as well.
1 - colocating in a central office (ie. NYC office building with multiple floors)
2 - work remote so you can get the best employees regardless of location
3 - smaller satellite offices

For the 3rd option:
Maybe HQ is in NYC but there are satellite offices in the suburbs of NJ, LI, Westchester, and other locations. This way employees can have an easier commute, will only have 1 state tax return, are colocated in an office for collaboration, offer real estate savings since suburban office space is cheaper than the city, and can extend the geographic reach for obtaining employees vs. 1 office. etc... In this situation if there is a satellite office in Parsippany then workers right over the border in PA may be interested since it may be a 1 hr drive vs. 2+ hours going to NYC. An office in North Brunswick may allow those from the Cherry Hill area to commute. In addition, if someone travels 30 mins to a satellite office by car they can potentially leave at 4:30 on a day when their kid has a 5 pm ball game.

 

[RUChoppin]

Work from home once a week - same as above.

Do find the collaboration and stimulation of the office useful - not sure how productive folks can be without the experience of spending some time in the office for cross pollination of ideas and other useful information.

My team is far flung, so I don't really get much opportunity to talk to people about anything relevant enough to get cross pollination of ideas. It's more standard office banter/chit chat, which is usually more distracting than helpful.

If my team were in my building, it'd be different. As it is, most calls have representation from four states and India... so my interaction is all by phone or web.

I could work from home for two weeks straight, and it's unlikely anyone would even notice.

 

[newell138]

Nothing like a lunch time nap on a cold January afternoon when you work from home. Wake up, have some coffee and you are just as refreshed as the when the day began.

 

[Sect120]

I am probably one of the few that had a hard time transitioning to working from home. I was getting a ton of work done, but for some reason I didn't feel any sense of accomplishment. It was almost as if I felt guilty, but for no reason.

If you can do what you have to do, it's great. Errands/gym in the middle of the day opposed to at 5PM is definitely a perk. My commute sucked too, so I don't miss that at all.

 

[RUBigFrank]

How do recent grads learn a skill or task in this environment

 

[beaced_rivals]

Remotely? You bet. Especially if you live out in the woods with no neighbors in view.

 

[beaced_rivals]

I am probably one of the few that had a hard time transitioning to working from home. I was getting a ton of work done, but for some reason I didn't feel any sense of accomplishment. It was almost as if I felt guilty, but for no reason.

If you can do what you have to do, it's great. Errands/gym in the middle of the day opposed to at 5PM is definitely a perk. My commute sucked too, so I don't miss that at all

 

[RUHills]

Been a remote worker for most of the past 20 years. Most days, works great. I probably start my day too early, just roll out of bed and start working. I get more work done here than commuting to an office for sure. Not sure all folks or jobs are perfect for this but the flexibility is a huge plus.

 

[LC-88]

just saw this:

IBM is eliminating a lot of its wfh program
http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/19/technology/ibm-work-at-home/index.html?iid=ob_article_footer_adblock

I can tell you with 100% certainty that IBM is doing this to get people to quit, so they won't have to lay them off. IBM is circling the bowl right now.

 

[RU206]

When I work from home I am more productive and I work more hours. I also feel better because I am not sitting in NJ traffic. When I go into the office I spend most of my day in my office on Skype calls with people in other states so I don't really interact with too many people in the building.

I am not as productive if my wife or kids are home.

 

[rags]

I can tell you with 100% certainty that IBM is doing this to get people to quit, so they won't have to lay them off. IBM is circling the bowl right now.

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner.

A month or So back at AT&T they gave notice to a bunch of people in Atlanta they had to move to Dallas or El Seguno, CA to collocate with their Buisness partners or leave the company.

Its a new way to get older high salaried employees to leave the company without having formal lay offs.

Told my co workers to brace for the upcoming cut to WFH, so it was no shock to then hear about IBM doing this.

I currently work 3 days a week from home and am way more productive here than the office - I do application development and there are too many distractions in the office.

 

[fischy5000]

I believe our policy is you can work up to two days/week from home based on prior approval from your boss. Many people do once/week and some do stretch it to two (feel like it's often those with younger kids.
Most bosses are pretty cool with people working from home on one-off occasions without making them take vacation days which is nice. We will also usually be able to get unofficial comp days because many in our team have to work Sundays or travel for fights across a weekend. But usually people are too busy to even take the comp....or it really becomes just a working from home day anyway.

 

[rurichdog]

I only work from home when it snows. At my twisted employer, upper management sees people "working from home" and sees jobs that can be done by someone at home...in India instead of the U.S.

 

[RUChoppin]

I only work from home when it snows. At my twisted employer, upper management sees people "working from home" and sees jobs that can be done by someone at home...in India instead of the U.S.

If they thought my job could be done by someone in India, it'd already be sourced to India. My work location wouldn't really factor into it.

 

[RUschool]

I only work from home when it snows. At my twisted employer, upper management sees people "working from home" and sees jobs that can be done by someone at home...in India instead of the U.S.

It's a test run before they move it to India.

 

[robcac26]

I don't have the option to work from home instead of going into work, but am in the process of having a work-issued laptop set up for remote access so that I can still get work done when I'm not physically there. On the surface it probably sounds bad but I already spend a good chunk of my time getting stuck doing work when I'm not actually there anyway, and being able to access my computer off-site should make this a lot easier and also put an end to to the times that I've had to show up on my days off.

 

[RU848789]

I work from home maybe 1/2 day to 1 day every couple of weeks, when I have no major meetings. With a group of ~25 people, who are all at our work location, since many of them do work in the laboratory and/or pilot plant (so remote work for them is generally not possible), I need to be at work most of the time to manage the group effectively. I also have a short commute (15 min each way), so I'm not wasting a lot of time in the car - and I do enjoy that time, listening to music.

When I work from home, I'm generally less efficient than when I'm at work, unless I have a pressing deadline - just way too easy to get distracted, for me. I also work at home quite a bit after hours and on weekends (making a 50 hour week on site into at least a 60 hour week overall) - it's kind of the culture.

However, since most people are working a lot more than 40 hours a week, most have the flexibility to work from home, on occasion, especially if they have childcare or other reasons to need that flexibility. I have at least 3 people in my group with formal flextime arrangements (1-2 days a week at home) and they are quite productive.

 

[RC1991]

I worked in NYC at Pfizer for a number of years and worked from home frequently both as an individual contributor and later as the head of a team. I worked from home anywhere from 2-4 days per week and it was very productive and efficient. Since only 2 of 8 people on my team were co-located in NY I scheduled 1:1 with them when I was in the office. I would periodically meet F2F with my team members in NJ (2 different offices) and had a webex/tcon with my direct reports who were in Connecticut and in the UK. I had a boss in PA and one in India for a while and we were all very successful. One of my bosses there said I don't care where you do you work as long as you get it done and do a good job. I do get that sometimes it helps to be in the office but since so many of the people we worked with were at other sites anyway every one of our meetings and an associated webex and people we adept at managing those meetings. I now work at a smaller biotech in the Seattle area and there is no formal remote work policy. They have been flexible with new hires since recruiting in the area is difficult which doesn't play well with others who have been with the company for a while and have hellacious commutes with all of the development and traffic. I am pretty flexible as a department head and allow people to work remotely 1-2 days per week as long as they ensure they are available in case someone needs to speak with them and there are no major F2F meetings. I think the company as a whole is coming around which is a good thing.

 

[RUfromSoCal?]

FWIW... one of the first and the largest adopters of WAH, IBM... is changing their minds...


http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/19/technology/ibm-work-at-home/index.html

 

[RUaMoose_rivals]

I work from home as needed (doctors appointment, snow, etc). Maybe once or twice a month. I get distracted at home with cooking, cutting the grass, doing laundry, etc. Not that it's not nice to get those things done during the day I just find I'm more productive at work. I'd rather walk over to someone's desk and ask a question rather than IM

 

[RUBigFrank]

month. I get distracted at home with cooking, cutting the grass, doing laundry, etc. Not that it's not nice to get those things done during the day I just find I'm more productive at work. I'd rather walk over to someone's desk and ask a question rather than IM

this! Folks may feel that working from home they get more done however I find its harder to or takes more time accomplishing stuff with not having direct contact with colleagues who are out of the office.

 

[newell138]

One thing you miss is the easier collaboration aspect of working in an office with others. I don't routinely work from home so one negative for me is that when I do I also get a bunch of honeydo projects around the house as well.

It depends on the job you have. 90% of my job is staring at a screen. The days I do go in I barely speak to anyone anyway.

 

[yesrutgers01]

Actually, this is quite the interesting OT for a change.
I think that many have hit it on the head about how often you work from home. If it is once a week, it is much easier to get distracted. If it is full time or 3-4 times per week, then it tends to be much more productive. But keep in mind, many companies will be a bit more selective when hiring or allowing someone to WFH on a full time bases.
I commute into NYC and it is usually 1.5 to 2 hrs each way. With the recent problems, tack an extra hour onto it. My current company prefers that everyone, even AE's work from the office place unless at meetings. With the recent NJ Transit issues, they have become more lenient(if you have your numbers) So, now I take 2-3 days as WFH.
For me, it has always been a mix of quality of life mixed with working better and harder when I WFH in sales. First of all, I roll out of bed at 5:30-6am every day anyway. So, if working in the office, that is a 8:30-9am start. WFH- I put on coffee and start hitting emails and proposals by 6-6:30. But while doing that, instead of racing to the train and dealing with that BS, I can also check our SN, my fantasy teams, news, etc...By the time office staff that I may need to work with reach the office at 9am, they have my emails already and they are usually the first being handled. Since a big part of my life at work is on the phone, this also allows me to run to the store, do some things in the yard, etc and still be able to make calls.
The next benefit to my employer is that when working from home, there doesn't seem to be a boundary on my end of day either. Placed on myself or my employer. If I'm in the office, I grab my bag at 5-5:30, say good night and race for the train. My boss and staff now know that I am done for the day and they tend to write me off at that point. By the time I get home at 7-7:30, hit the gym etc, there is nothing else done. WFH- I never say goodnite so they still feel free and I always answer, to call, email me at 6pm, 7pm etc...
The good thing is that with some really big "wins" I have created a situation where we are hiring a good number of help desk and engineers who will have to sit in the HQ offices. This is creating a situation where they need to find space. The first suggestion is to create a large cubicle with 4 hoteling stations for AE's/AM's give our spaces to the new people and allow for more WFH.
On, the other hand, there are also some AE's more than happy to skate by with the bare minimum to keep their jobs, no way in hell are they going to be more productive from home.

 

[PhilaPhans]

Let me expand the thread now that we've had a lot of good responses. One of the benefits from working at the office are all the supplies at your disposal (large copier, easier IT support, etc). Do your companies make sure you are properly set up with supplies and stuff to make the WFH experience seemless, or if it's your choice to WFH, do you find yourself coming up with a lot of the equipment (computer, printer, scanners, etc. that people may not naturally have in their house)?

 

[Knight Shift]

It depends on the job you have. 90% of my job is staring at a screen. The days I do go in I barely speak to anyone anyway.

Do you listen to the radio at a reasonable volume while collating too?

Our work is much the same way, but I like to stop in people's offices to do some informal brainstorming and chatting about approaches to different aspects of projects I am currently working on. When at home, I feel less inclined to pick up the phone.