NFT: Does your employer allow you to work from home?

other than when I travel, 100% of the time for the past 8 years.

I did travel up to 75% of the time a couple of those years, but now it's like 25% of the time max.

There are pros and cons, but the pros far outweigh the cons.

I manage digital marketing content a website, so it's often easy for me to work from home. There's plenty of collaboration with the creative team and other departments that have a stake in the site's performance so it's not always OK. I could probably realistically do so 2 out of 5 days a week. This doesn't mean I do this as my availability in the office is an asset for sure, but if I ever give some notice it's almost always OK.

Your company sucks balls. You should tell them so.

from home most of the time, but I rarely do. Probably work from home 3-4 days a month.

I often do half-days at home if I have meetings elsewhere. Or I can work from home if the weather's bad and the trains suck.

I think it's ridiculous someone in your situation couldn't work from home, though.

In comment 12972661 Randy in CT said:

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Your company sucks balls. You should tell them so.

I'm trying to come up with a nice way to do just that.

I'm finishing up a consulting gig where I worked from home four days per week for six months, and three days per week the four months prior to that.

Such places to work are out there, just got to find one. Even big banks are moving to the Citrix/remote model these days.

working from home in today's world is both a blessing and a curse. Yes, it's OK in most circumstances for me to stay in my underwear and lay in bed and work if I want to, but at the same time, I also have to essentially be available 24/7 if necessary. It's a weird dynamic.

In comment 12972664 BrettNYG10 said:

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I often do half-days at home if I have meetings elsewhere. Or I can work from home if the weather's bad and the trains suck. I think it's ridiculous someone in your situation couldn't work from home, though.

I normally leave my house anywhere between 6:45 and 7:30 am depending on what train I catch, and I am usually not home until around 8:40-9:30 pm.

I have a laptop with VPN, but I only use it once in a while to finish something I am working on if I want it done that night.

But, I can't opt to work from home at my discretion and even during special situations, like the blizzard, working from home was not an option. I had to go to an office, as that was the published rule. Yet, someone in my group with no VPN and in a lesser role but 40 years in stayed home and said he was working from home and he didn't lose a day.

Does not allow to work at home.

experience, older supervisors tend to treat working from home differently. I had a boss who was close to retirement and the Marketing Communications woman wanted to work from home once in awhile. She was perfectly tied into the network and working remotely wouldn't have been an issue, but you'd swear that was completely unacceptable. She ended up leaving and we lost a great employee because of it.

I had a conversation with him that times are changing and his response was pretty much "people need to be here. Period". Weird because other than that, he was a pretty reasonable guy.

In fact it raised a big stink when the CEO of Yahoo insisted that employees com into the office. My own employer seems to encourage working from home. It saves them money on office space in employees work from home often and can share a workspace on the few occasions when they come in. I don't think my employer's attitude is the norm, but at every company I know of, it is expected that you will work from home at least one day a week.

for me personally, no.

Having been a supervisor for 20+ years, I think there are some people who can be almost as productive when working from home, but many can't.

If you're job involves interacting with people, integration, communication etc., all suffer when people work from home.

It is likely most of us work with people in different cities, states and even countries. I think it is one thing to have customers, suppliers etc. off site, and another to have many team members working remotely.

In comment 12972675 FatMan in Charlotte said:

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experience, older supervisors tend to treat working from home differently. I had a boss who was close to retirement and the Marketing Communications woman wanted to work from home once in awhile. She was perfectly tied into the network and working remotely wouldn't have been an issue, but you'd swear that was completely unacceptable. She ended up leaving and we lost a great employee because of it. I had a conversation with him that times are changing and his response was pretty much "people need to be here. Period". Weird because other than that, he was a pretty reasonable guy.

It's just a very ossified way of thinking. I feel like they'd need to lose a couple of people over it before they even thought about doing something.

In comment 12972670 lawguy9801 said:

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In comment 12972664 BrettNYG10 said: Quote: I often do half-days at home if I have meetings elsewhere. Or I can work from home if the weather's bad and the trains suck. I think it's ridiculous someone in your situation couldn't work from home, though. I normally leave my house anywhere between 6:45 and 7:30 am depending on what train I catch, and I am usually not home until around 8:40-9:30 pm.

That's absurd. I have to imagine others within the firm share your position and just haven't spoken up yet.

The company I work for allows us to WFH 1 day a week. I don't usually do it and my boss is not a fan of the WFH deal. He never has an issue with me doing it but he would rather I be in the office. It does allow for more flexibility for bad weather days or doctors appts etc.

go into the office city 1 day. Pros and cons.

...Between VPN and WebEx (or other comm system) there's no rationale for doing otherwise. I only take contracts that are remote access.

but I can do 99% of my job from anywhere.

I go to my one of my companies offices in a major city and they're like ghost towns.

Top 10 Pros of working from home in my experience:
1. Commute
2. Dress code, yep I have worked in my boxers and rarely wear shoes
3. Don't need to eat lunch out or make in advance
4. Spend my day how I want other than when I have meetings
5. Can multi-task - like vacuum the pool while on a conference call
6. Company subsidized Internet Service, local phone (still have it) and by default TV (Verizon triple play is cheaper as a bundle)
7. Company provided consumables like printer paper and printer ink
8. Ok, I'll say it, Porn
9. Not having to use a public bathroom
10. Can usually make my kid's school activities

Top 5 Cons (because there aren't more than 5 really)
1. You never leave the office, I'd be working sometimes at midnight or later. My rationalization is I would have left the office and finished up the work at home anyway, but when you work from home you're always at work.
2. It's hard to build co-worker camaraderie. Maybe not a big deal to some, but some of my closest friends began as work colleagues
3. Too many distractions
4. Your significant other asks you to do various household tasks "because you're home"
5. The kitchen is too close

I work for myself and my partners, and we do as we please.

I see reasons to let someone work from home occasionally, but depending on what you do it really matters to be in a central location IMO. At my old firm I had an associate who worked from home every friday with permission after she returned from maternity leave. On her own, she put an end to that after about a year, saying that she wasnt learning as much, didnt have the same open door access to bounce ideas around, and missed the collaboration by being home that day. She ended up doing more stuff on her own, wasting time on things paralegals could be doing. I think she was right.

In comment 12972708 Deej said:

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I work for myself and my partners, and we do as we please. I see reasons to let someone work from home occasionally, but depending on what you do it really matters to be in a central location IMO. At my old firm I had an associate who worked from home every friday with permission after she returned from maternity leave. On her own, she put an end to that after about a year, saying that she wasnt learning as much, didnt have the same open door access to bounce ideas around, and missed the collaboration by being home that day. She ended up doing more stuff on her own, wasting time on things paralegals could be doing. I think she was right.

I am in agreement with you. I would not advocate, and would not want to, work entirely or even primarily from home. I often feel I am more productive at the office than at home. But one or two days a month it would really be handy to have the option, rather than have to waste a personal or vacation day.

pretty much agree with pjcas' list of pros/cons. I'd add to the "pros" list that you don't get annoying co-workers stopping by your cube just to waste time because they don't want to work which allows you to finish your work quicker.

The wife definitely takes advantage of it, but just saving on the commute is an extra hour/day I have to spend with my daughter and/or relax.

It's definitely not for everyone though. You have to be fairly disciplined and self motivated to avoid distractions.

Self employed, baby!

I miss a lot of the legs/heels action in the city during warm weather.

In comment 12972716 lawguy9801 said:

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In comment 12972708 Deej said: Quote: I work for myself and my partners, and we do as we please. I see reasons to let someone work from home occasionally, but depending on what you do it really matters to be in a central location IMO. At my old firm I had an associate who worked from home every friday with permission after she returned from maternity leave. On her own, she put an end to that after about a year, saying that she wasnt learning as much, didnt have the same open door access to bounce ideas around, and missed the collaboration by being home that day. She ended up doing more stuff on her own, wasting time on things paralegals could be doing. I think she was right. I am in agreement with you. I would not advocate, and would not want to, work entirely or even primarily from home. I often feel I am more productive at the office than at home. But one or two days a month it would really be handy to have the option, rather than have to waste a personal or vacation day.

I'll bet people at your company get sick a lot. Especially on Fridays and Tuesdays around three day weekends.

Working from home right now. Daughter not feeling well, so I am working from home. As long as I have my computer I am good to go.

In comment 12972723 JonC said:

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I miss a lot of the legs/heels action in the city during warm weather.

Get a dog. Forces you to get out and take in the "scenery"!

think its crazy for companies to NOT allow their employees to work from home.

I'm an employer and the work-at-home model has not/does not work for us. Definitely not a one size fits all "improvement". Depends on the industry, the job, & the employee.

Used to only go into the office a handful of times a year up until this January. My boss is based in Nashville and his boss is based around my area and we have an office but everyone I deal with is pretty much in other parts of the country. There are no cons to working from home....none. (but FYI I have no kids)

In comment 12972667 JonC said:

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I'm finishing up a consulting gig where I worked from home four days per week for six months, and three days per week the four months prior to that. Such places to work are out there, just got to find one. Even big banks are moving to the Citrix/remote model these days.

I work from home or my wife's apartment in Boston using Citrix around 25% of the time. I'm guessing about 50% of the people I work with (same company) work from home full time.

The cost that some companies incur for leasing/owning real estate is incredible. Some shared space for client-facing activities is needed but otherwise its as if some companies are in the real estate business rather than whatever they purport their main operations to be.

I'm a consultant, and it's a condition that I don't negotiate - if a gig won't allow a fair amount of remote work, it's off the table unless there is a compelling reason to consider them. With three kids, just hard to imagine not being able to be remote, especially when the day to day responsibilities don't require you to be there.

My team and my clients are located all over the US. Going into the office doesn't benefit me, and the commute eats up valuable time

In times where employers are under pressure to limit costs and are reluctant to increase wages, allowing employees the ability to work remotely serves as an easy(ish) concession.

My wife was nearly successfully recruited to leave her employer for another that promised her the ability to work from home a few days a week. The child-care savings alone would have represented almost $10k/year assuming that she could've effectively managed both.

But it's just not feasible for many reasons.

In comment 12972764 RC02XX said:

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But it's just not feasible for many reasons.

Pretty hard to burn huts from home, unless you have a couple of drones. Then, I could see it being the best of all worlds.

In comment 12972799 BMac said:

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Pretty hard to burn huts from home, unless you have a couple of drones. Then, I could see it being the best of all worlds.

Who said I don't have access to drones? You underestimate me, sir.

My team is widely dispersed, from NJ to DC to FLA to WA, so being in the office doesn't make a difference most of the time. Of course you need a high speed internet connection.

The way I would discuss this with a boss is that you are looking for a better life-work balance. There are a lot of studies that show when life and work are out of balance, most individuals burn out or are actually less productive. A happy workforce is a productive workforce.

it would be much easier to hangout on BBI all day. ;)

In comment 12972809 RC02XX said:

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In comment 12972799 BMac said: Quote: Pretty hard to burn huts from home, unless you have a couple of drones. Then, I could see it being the best of all worlds. Who said I don't have access to drones? You underestimate me, sir.

I have a drone mission request. Could you oblige me by sending one by with a couple of bottles of Scotch?

In comment 12972817 BMac said:

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I have a drone mission request. Could you oblige me by sending one by with a couple of bottles of Scotch?

Yeah...that would be a negative. We have important mission. There are a lot of huts that need burning.

I should become a webcam model or something.

In comment 12972825 RC02XX said:

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In comment 12972817 BMac said: Quote: I have a drone mission request. Could you oblige me by sending one by with a couple of bottles of Scotch? Yeah...that would be a negative. We have important mission. There are a lot of huts that need burning.

Fucker! I knew I shouldn't have trusted you to follow through! Well, OK, how about burning down Greg's hut for me?

Despite living in NJ and my company having offices in NYC and Philly I am considered a "remote" employee. I live in Mercer County and didn't want to commute so I only looked for remote jobs when my last company imploded last year (yeah startups!). I do go into the NYC office for a week around once per quarter (or less). I can either stay in NY for the week or commute (I've done both).

It is great to WFH. Especially with young kids. I get to participate in alot more kids activities then if I was commuting everyday. Plus if the kids sick (or school is closed) I can watch them and work.

It really depends on the company though. The company has to be remote friendly. Otherwise working remotely full time you wind up getting sidelined. Fortunately my company is very remote friendly. We use google hangouts multiple times a day and use Slack for company communications. It also helped that another person on my team is fully remote and he started the same time I did.

It is like pulling teeth in order to WFO. I usually lie and say I have a doctors appointment and it gets approved. I usually WFO about once a month. Before I was hired, the present director abolished most work from home. He feels if you can work, you should be able to come in. Before he was hired, people were allowed to work 3 days a week from home. Morale has dropped off significantly.

Been 100% home office for almost 10 years now; before that it was a mix depending on circumstances but mostly limited to 5 - 6 days per month. The pros and cons already brought up are valid; imo the quality of life is markedly better by working from home. The biggest for me is not having to commute, the amount of stress that has removed from my life is considerable.

I'm found acceptance of working from home has to do with management having trust in employees. While on conference calls, I cringe when I hear a baby or little kid crying in the background or someone forgets to go a mute and has a conversation with their spouse. I've even been on calls when the talker excuses themselves for a few minutes to answer their door !!! Its these types of behavior that feed management's concerns abt working from home.

and our GC does not set expected working hours or where we need to work from. as long as we are serving our internal clients, meeting deadlines, reachable and attend required meetings we are treated like adults we can balance our work with personal commitments.

i would love to work from home permanently