Super read. I can't remember the last time I was in a fixed corporate office space. I think I would come out in a rash. For me, they are clinical, dishonest places stinking of corporate compliance and brown nosing.
My bias is big and heavy.
But, I am a Remote Worker that does not like WFH. I prefer a small coworking space or cafe...my home is for home stuff. Mainly.
I also wrote about the biased media coverage in favour of RTO in urban areas
As much as I like coworking spaces, they’re prohibitively expensive for me, and I love working in cafes but feel too guilty about taking up a valuable seat to make it a regular thing.
Haha! That list! The person who always has a cold is too real. Coming in to work like some kind of martyr, thinking the place can’t run properly if they’re off sick.
I work in an area related to employment, and we've found especially FLINT (female, lesbian, intersex, non-binary and trans) don't want to go back into the office for a couple of reasons:
1. The majority of housework/home-keeping/child-rearing still falls on this segment and working from home allows much greater flexibility and additional time to do these things
2. Going back into the office for most means needing to think about your appearance again because people will see more of you than your head and shoulders, and suddenly that burden of being judged ALL THE TIME feels too exhausting to contemplate.
Personally I've become more aware of how FLINT are judged constantly by others, spoken over, snidely dismissed because of how they present in person. Working from home and Zoom means that people often 'raise their hands' on calls and get to speak without people speaking over them. I've been more effective, productive and confident because my brain isn't constantly second guessing myself into societal adjustments.
That’s so interesting and such a good point. That ceaseless pressure to be this version of yourself that a variety of colleagues – not always friendly – will find palatable.
If you are an efficient worker (like myself, not to toot my own horn here), then WFH is amazing. I start earlier because I am a morning person. I don't have to stand outside the office waiting till the 9am crew trickle in to open the doors. I can start my work and the laundry load, undo the dishes and at lunch? Actually go for a walk somewhere and log those 10K steps the doctor told me I need if I don't want to die by 40. I go into the office once a week to meet with colleagues for meetings and even then, by 4pm, I've checked out. I'm not there. I'm flipping between tabs and doing personal admin.
Nearly everything you had on your list, I've experienced — but the ones that popped up the most...
- the person who always has a cold (go see a doctor and throw your TISSUES IN THE BIN).
- the bipolar air-conditioning (which I'm almost positive is making the person with the cold, more sick)
-the racist/homophobe — I once had a colleague who was very, so deeply catholic and I worked in a office of women. And he, at least once a week, started a argument about feminism/women/ and at one point, brought up sexual promiscuity.
- the toilets — we had an incident known as "shit-gate" in the Women's bathroom.
- wonky chairs!!! I have been tossed out of my chair when I leaned too far back I fell right out of it.
In every office I’ve worked in, there’s been a shit-gate in the women’s loos! Maybe it’s more scandalous because we don’t imagine women being so feral. (Men’s toilets in offices are a permanent war zone.)
I feel seen. I get absolutely no work done in the office as everyone wants an inane chat. I highlighted this and was told if I came in more often I’d be less of a novelty for people (!) so they’d want to chat less. A year later I presume I remain a novelty. And I still get a bollocking over my output on those days.
So they’re basically saying it’s your fault for being too fascinating and mesmerising to your colleagues?! They should be grateful such a celebrity is deigning to grace them with your presence! (They sound awful, hope you get something new soon.)
Oh lord no word of a lie. Because one of the many ways I’m quite tragic is that I only ever worked in one place (2 different buildings on the same street but the same company) I’ve never had a commute (ten minute walk across the park, once I saw a kingfisher!) and I genuinely liked 80% of my colleagues and quite enjoyed my job. However the endless repetition (‘this is me going through the revolving doors, this is me swiping in, this is me choosing a lift’) filled me with a kind of low-level anguish. The idea that any of it is ‘fun’ is so weird, like the idea that *ever* having to do stuff in the evening - even if paid for by the company - is in an way a ‘treat’. When I got made redundant I experienced a similar feeling to the last day at school and have been happily sat on my (ever increasing) arse in my front room ever since. Never in my pyjamas though. Not having to go to meetings is an endless joy, even if I’m poorer as a freelancer.
I’ve had commutes where I’ve walked to work and always really enjoyed them, even if they took nearly an hour or whatever, but then, like you say, the repetition and routine of office work kills all that enthusiasm.
Love the Guardian list (even if it is a bit heavy on he commercial side - but I guess they do need funding). Number 3 caused a few mishaps with my tea (I should have known better than reading and drinking).
This is SO resonating. Our boss would like to see us back in the office and. to motivate us, is changing our offices in open-space and hot-desking areas. Pretty ones, but still.
Super read. I can't remember the last time I was in a fixed corporate office space. I think I would come out in a rash. For me, they are clinical, dishonest places stinking of corporate compliance and brown nosing.
My bias is big and heavy.
But, I am a Remote Worker that does not like WFH. I prefer a small coworking space or cafe...my home is for home stuff. Mainly.
I also wrote about the biased media coverage in favour of RTO in urban areas
https://open.substack.com/pub/digitalnomadstories/p/why-the-biased-media-rhetoric-against?r=q3ksf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I will be post-edit to add a link to this piece, ya legend ya!
As much as I like coworking spaces, they’re prohibitively expensive for me, and I love working in cafes but feel too guilty about taking up a valuable seat to make it a regular thing.
Thanks for reading!
Surely having employees who don't take a whole day off when they have to wait in for the plumber is a Good Thing?
Every single word of this. I am so much happier AND more productive wfh, and my work life balance is the best it’s ever been.
Haha! That list! The person who always has a cold is too real. Coming in to work like some kind of martyr, thinking the place can’t run properly if they’re off sick.
I work in an area related to employment, and we've found especially FLINT (female, lesbian, intersex, non-binary and trans) don't want to go back into the office for a couple of reasons:
1. The majority of housework/home-keeping/child-rearing still falls on this segment and working from home allows much greater flexibility and additional time to do these things
2. Going back into the office for most means needing to think about your appearance again because people will see more of you than your head and shoulders, and suddenly that burden of being judged ALL THE TIME feels too exhausting to contemplate.
Personally I've become more aware of how FLINT are judged constantly by others, spoken over, snidely dismissed because of how they present in person. Working from home and Zoom means that people often 'raise their hands' on calls and get to speak without people speaking over them. I've been more effective, productive and confident because my brain isn't constantly second guessing myself into societal adjustments.
That’s so interesting and such a good point. That ceaseless pressure to be this version of yourself that a variety of colleagues – not always friendly – will find palatable.
If you are an efficient worker (like myself, not to toot my own horn here), then WFH is amazing. I start earlier because I am a morning person. I don't have to stand outside the office waiting till the 9am crew trickle in to open the doors. I can start my work and the laundry load, undo the dishes and at lunch? Actually go for a walk somewhere and log those 10K steps the doctor told me I need if I don't want to die by 40. I go into the office once a week to meet with colleagues for meetings and even then, by 4pm, I've checked out. I'm not there. I'm flipping between tabs and doing personal admin.
Nearly everything you had on your list, I've experienced — but the ones that popped up the most...
- the person who always has a cold (go see a doctor and throw your TISSUES IN THE BIN).
- the bipolar air-conditioning (which I'm almost positive is making the person with the cold, more sick)
-the racist/homophobe — I once had a colleague who was very, so deeply catholic and I worked in a office of women. And he, at least once a week, started a argument about feminism/women/ and at one point, brought up sexual promiscuity.
- the toilets — we had an incident known as "shit-gate" in the Women's bathroom.
- wonky chairs!!! I have been tossed out of my chair when I leaned too far back I fell right out of it.
In every office I’ve worked in, there’s been a shit-gate in the women’s loos! Maybe it’s more scandalous because we don’t imagine women being so feral. (Men’s toilets in offices are a permanent war zone.)
I feel seen. I get absolutely no work done in the office as everyone wants an inane chat. I highlighted this and was told if I came in more often I’d be less of a novelty for people (!) so they’d want to chat less. A year later I presume I remain a novelty. And I still get a bollocking over my output on those days.
So they’re basically saying it’s your fault for being too fascinating and mesmerising to your colleagues?! They should be grateful such a celebrity is deigning to grace them with your presence! (They sound awful, hope you get something new soon.)
Oh lord no word of a lie. Because one of the many ways I’m quite tragic is that I only ever worked in one place (2 different buildings on the same street but the same company) I’ve never had a commute (ten minute walk across the park, once I saw a kingfisher!) and I genuinely liked 80% of my colleagues and quite enjoyed my job. However the endless repetition (‘this is me going through the revolving doors, this is me swiping in, this is me choosing a lift’) filled me with a kind of low-level anguish. The idea that any of it is ‘fun’ is so weird, like the idea that *ever* having to do stuff in the evening - even if paid for by the company - is in an way a ‘treat’. When I got made redundant I experienced a similar feeling to the last day at school and have been happily sat on my (ever increasing) arse in my front room ever since. Never in my pyjamas though. Not having to go to meetings is an endless joy, even if I’m poorer as a freelancer.
I’ve had commutes where I’ve walked to work and always really enjoyed them, even if they took nearly an hour or whatever, but then, like you say, the repetition and routine of office work kills all that enthusiasm.
Love the Guardian list (even if it is a bit heavy on he commercial side - but I guess they do need funding). Number 3 caused a few mishaps with my tea (I should have known better than reading and drinking).
This is SO resonating. Our boss would like to see us back in the office and. to motivate us, is changing our offices in open-space and hot-desking areas. Pretty ones, but still.
Hot-desking is the true enemy of creativity – it’s a constant source of low-level anxiety!
Great article, congratulations on the ‘Centennial’ onwards to your ‘bicentennial’... shortcake better than muffins made by their children...
All true! By the way, I’m going to start calling my son’s disgusting room the Wankpit in honour of your mum
Hahaha. My sympathies to your son.