Join Early Retirement Today
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
W*rking From Home; A Bad Deal?
Old 08-04-2020, 09:30 AM   #1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
ExFlyBoy5's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: ATL --> Flyover Country
Posts: 6,649
W*rking From Home; A Bad Deal?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-wor...w_article_pos3

Interesting article from the WSJ today talking about how w*rking from home has changed over the last few months. A couple interesting points highlighted why I think this could be a bad thing in the long run. The biggest issue I see is the longer periods of time people seem to be w*rking. Per the article:

Quote:
Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of Microsoft 365, a division that includes Teams and Office, says Microsoft Teams saw a 15% to 23% increase in usage between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. A similar rise occurred between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. The number of chats happening on weekends increased more than 200%, he adds.
My DW (who has w*rked from home for several years) is noticing that she gets a lot more email in the evenings and the weekends from employees who are now w*rking from home. DW is pretty good about "clocking out" when the day's w*rk is done, but it seems to cause issues when she "clocks back in" the next day and there are 100 extra emails than what used to be.

Also in the article, they mention that many companies are having to think outside the box in how they offer perks. There is a start-up that for around $120 month will provide a desk, chair, extra monitor for w*rk at home employees. Before COVID, they had a waitlist of about 400 companies...it's now over 6,000! Some perks have included sending Peloton bikes out or coffee bean subscriptions.

Anyway, it's an interesting read and makes me pretty happy to be FIREd!
__________________
FIRE'd in 2014 @ 40 Years Old
Professional Retiree
ExFlyBoy5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 08-04-2020, 09:42 AM   #2
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 2,851
The trend to work more isn’t great, but working odd hours isn’t surprising, especially if you have other responsibilities, such as kids. It’s convenient to work a little, deal with errands, stuff around the house, and then do a bit more work and so on.

I’ve been wfh since last March and know that my work schedule isn’t consistent. Even though I should block out work time, the reality is I like the flexibility to do other stuff during the day. And this means that I might occasionally connect for an hour or so in the evening. I figure it all averages out in the end.
__________________
Eat, Drink and Be Merry.
tulak is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2020, 10:30 AM   #3
Recycles dryer sheets
samm's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Bangkok
Posts: 234
Yes, can be bad deal.
Working in office I was expected to respond to emails/calls/requests from 8 am - 5 pm.

In about 2010-2012, my last employer issued blackberries to all employees... and expected employees to reply to requests up to 9 pm.

In 2020, friends that WFH get messaged to do & revise work at all hours so they work more.
samm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2020, 10:42 AM   #4
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
MRG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 11,078
A rare WFH day caused my ER to be moved up a year. Sometimes WFH is a bad thing.
MRG is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2020, 10:50 AM   #5
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Car-Guy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Texas
Posts: 10,836
A little over 10 years ago when we were about to move to our retirement property in the country, I told my management team of my intent to retire... They asked what would it take for me to stay a little longer... Honestly, they were already paying me a lot more than I felt the job was worth. Soooo I said I would consider staying for a year or so if I could work from home since I wasn't about to drive into the office everyday (~150 miles each way). They agreed. I had mixed feelings since I already had my mind set on retiring and working from home was still a new concept and very much uncharted territory for my company.

It went a lot better than I thought... I worked from home during normal office hours since that's when "most" people I would deal with were actually in the office. On line collaboration tools, conference calls and emails seemed to occupy 90% of my time anyway so working from home in my case worked out well. In reality they got more time out of me while I worked from home since I'd tend to be "on-line" earlier/later and if I had a late night (or early morning conference call) it was easy to handle and became to feel "normal".

However, after about two years the novelty wore off and I finally retired...
__________________
20's "something" mind, trapped in a 70's "something" body
Car-Guy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2020, 10:58 AM   #6
Moderator Emeritus
Ronstar's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Northern Illinois
Posts: 16,543
I started working from home around 2000. Gradually increased to the point where I went to the office 1 day a week. For me it was great. My work team was experienced and self starters, so I rarely got phone calls or emails from them. And we all were more productive when I worked from home.

I retired in 2014, but my team is still intact and they are now working from home. And even more productive than they were before.
Ronstar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2020, 11:17 AM   #7
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Car-Guy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Texas
Posts: 10,836
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronstar View Post
I started working from home around 2000. Gradually increased to the point where I went to the office 1 day a week. For me it was great. My work team was experienced and self starters, so I rarely got phone calls or emails from them. And we all were more productive when I worked from home.

I retired in 2014, but my team is still intact and they are now working from home. And even more productive than they were before.

Seems to be a theme here...
__________________
20's "something" mind, trapped in a 70's "something" body
Car-Guy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2020, 11:37 AM   #8
Moderator Emeritus
aja8888's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Conroe, Texas
Posts: 18,593
Quote:
Originally Posted by Car-Guy View Post
Seems to be a theme here...
Yeah, that's one of the dangers of WFH....when your boss finds out they really don't need you anymore!

Or, better than that...they find a person in India to do your stuff for 1/5 the cost.
__________________
*********Go Astros!*********
aja8888 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2020, 11:40 AM   #9
Moderator Emeritus
aja8888's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Conroe, Texas
Posts: 18,593
My most recent WFH activities were mostly centered around preparing my suitcase for travel to projects in the "field" I was managing.

Or, in an earlier job, at the location of a manufacturing plant with 1,200 employees making copper water tube, non-ferrous sheet products, and other basic metal commodity shapes. No WFH there.

It sounds like most everyone can WFH these days. I guess we don't "make things" much anymore in the USA....or, that's what China is for!
__________________
*********Go Astros!*********
aja8888 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2020, 11:50 AM   #10
Recycles dryer sheets
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 226
I'm retired but my SO is still working and he is much happier working from home. He can get his work done in less time without all the distractions in the office. His work was always flexible with hours but now he can take an hour in the middle of the day and work on a project around the house if he wants.

His office is all WFH for at least another year, but he has said he won't go back to working from the office. If they force it he will retire.
geeky_grrl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2020, 12:14 PM   #11
Recycles dryer sheets
KarlH's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2020
Location: Northern Illinois
Posts: 120
Quote:
Originally Posted by aja8888 View Post
It sounds like most everyone can WFH these days.
I'm in a position (laboratory analysis) where working from home is simply not an option. I don't have the equipment or facility at home to do my basic job. That said, our work has been slow to the point that I have spent the last month coming into the office everyday without any work to do. I contemplate bumping my FIRE date up for lack of anything to do, but kind of hope they might lay me off for lack of work with some sort of package...
KarlH is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2020, 01:30 PM   #12
Recycles dryer sheets
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Grand Junction
Posts: 487
Quote:
Originally Posted by aja8888 View Post
Or, better than that...they find a person in India to do your stuff for 1/5 the cost.
+1. I have seen this one coming for awhile now with WFH. Even last several years of w*rk (say 2010 and on), I started noticing that Megacorp had many more new contractor hires than new employee hires. New step is to just send WFH work overseas.

1/5 of cost is probably being generous. As a friend of mine once told me, " We can send electronic mammogram to India overnight and have it reviewed by 5 different folks to insure we get it right and still lower our cost significantly."
Mark1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2020, 01:55 PM   #13
Recycles dryer sheets
KarlH's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2020
Location: Northern Illinois
Posts: 120
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark1 View Post
New step is to just send WFH work overseas.
My last Megacorp job they put together an R&D site outside of Dehli in India, and duplicated our laboratory down to the bench designs and all of the equipment. This was specifically so they could bring our experts from the US over to train locals in our analyses, which we learned were being performed at a fraction of the cost of our local work. Needless to say, megacorp was soon sending samples to India because the cost after shipping was so much less than running in house. These were not however contractors... just overseas employees.
KarlH is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2020, 02:33 PM   #14
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
pb4uski's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Sarasota, FL & Vermont
Posts: 36,204
I worked from home the last 13 years of my career.... and much of it part-time.

It is easy to get sucked into working too much... it takes discipline to have hours where the lights are off.
__________________
If something cannot endure laughter.... it cannot endure.
Patience is the art of concealing your impatience.
Slow and steady wins the race.

Retired Jan 2012 at age 56
pb4uski is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2020, 02:59 PM   #15
Full time employment: Posting here.
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: SoCal
Posts: 564
Quote:
Originally Posted by geeky_grrl View Post
I'm retired but my SO is still working and he is much happier working from home. He can get his work done in less time without all the distractions in the office. His work was always flexible with hours but now he can take an hour in the middle of the day and work on a project around the house if he wants.

His office is all WFH for at least another year, but he has said he won't go back to working from the office. If they force it he will retire.
Similar for me, except I didn't have flex hours. Losing the commute and office distractions lets me get through my work in less time, and given that my FIRE plan has me able to retire in March 2022 I am not 'volunteering' for more work, but rather using the extra time for personal stuff or exercise. I feel a lot more relaxed now than when I was commuting to the office 5 days/week.

Although no decisions have been made, it seems unlikely that my megacorp will have everyone return to the office 5 days/week when this is over, but rather have people in office 1-2/days a week or something similar to be able to reduce expenses related to office rent. Haven't decided if this will push my FIRE date as my main gripes were the commute and stupid office politics.
caninelover is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-05-2020, 12:32 PM   #16
Full time employment: Posting here.
Retch The Grate's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 858
My company has always been very supportive of work from home whenever you are not in the office (I was able to do major work in the middle of the night over xmas holiday last year from a recliner in the cabin at the fishing resort on Clear Lake that we were at) for your core 9 hours. :P

WFH we are all actually working less. Still have the ability to hop on in the middle of the night for Grits, but in general I'm logging on to my computer between 10:20-10:30 to get on for my scrum at 10:30 and sometime between 6:30-7:30 I call it quits for the day and generally don't look at my work computer again until the next morning, unless I'm actively checking an issue. I feel like most other people are less responsive after hours than they used to be, so it feels like a lot of people are doing a good job of creating more distinct barriers. But clearly we were pretty far on the all time is possibly work time side of the spectrum (upside is my pay is enough beyond what other companies in our industry want to pay that mentioning the salary they need to beat generally stops recruitment conversations).

I love no commute, I love waking up right before a meeting I can do in bed, I haven't actually gotten up and gotten dressed yet. I love taking 1-2 hours off in the middle of the day for lunch and walking my dog. I do miss my chair, the ergonomics at home suck and I don't have the space for a good office setup yet, and I miss the social connection with my coworkers a lot, zoom with friends helps but that's 40-60 hours a week of hanging out with folks that isn't there in the same way at all. And I really miss our awesome gym, the monthly massage (the massage rooms are going away if we ever go back to the office), and most of all the ridiculously good meals that they fed us every day.

Overall we already had the bad deal part of work from home before this happened, so I'd say the change has been mostly good, with some bad. Net I'd like to keep doing WFH part time when it is safe to work in the office again, but I do want in office days again as well...
Retch The Grate is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Did Anyone Keep W*rking for the Kids? Tekward Life after FIRE 37 10-15-2017 08:21 PM
Only 87 More W*rking Days! ExFlyBoy5 Hi, I am... 5 07-08-2014 09:01 AM
iPhone 5 = i Can't Afford to Stop W&*rking? kevink Other topics 123 10-18-2012 09:29 AM
W*rking part-time to get health benefits firewhen FIRE and Money 17 03-05-2010 06:31 PM
Measuring progress to FIRE while w*rking jIMOh Young Dreamers 12 02-22-2010 12:45 PM

» Quick Links

 
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 09:36 PM.
 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.