Do you socialize with your neighbors if you WFH?

[Anonymous]

I sometimes arrange for mid-day walks with neighbors who work from home. The timing is hard though because there’s often a meeting that runs late, etc. Sometimes I run into them while on a walk and we chat a bit.

Most often, that happens as neighbors are walking their kids to the local elementary school in the morning, or around 5pm when people finish work. You might think working from home has nothing to do with socializing before/after work, but it does. The neighbors who commute get home late so they have to cook dinner right away. Those of us who work from home use the time we would be commuting to take our kids to the playground, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does the one poster, or maybe there are more, generalize that because they aren’t productive at home no one else is? Some of us are disciplined enough to work. In the office it is constant chatting, grabbing lunch, and interruptions. Face time doesn’t equal productivity.

There are a handful of trolls who believe (or pretend to) that nobody works unless they're physically flipping burgers or moving boxes. They aren't interested in hearing otherwise, and mostly want to stir people up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Friends and family have always implied it's weird that I don't socialize with my neighbors since I WFH. The thing is, I don't understand the logistics of it? We have a new next door neighbor who's a SAHM, so she's also home, but between her being busy and me, you know, working all day, I don't understand how hanging out would work. Do I just show up with two cups of coffee one day then bail after 15 minutes when I need to get back to work? Am I missing something?

Please don’t listen to your family. I’m a SAMH and if my WFH but childless neighbor showed up to hang out I would be stressed and slightly annoyed. Any time I’m not chasing my toddler I need the alone time to decompress, not “socialize” with a neighbor. I am very friendly to neighbors when we pass in the street but please, this isn’t college anymore, no need to “hang out” just because.

[Anonymous]

I socialize with neighbors a bit and would love to do more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live on a cul de sac and during the solar eclipse the Fed Ex guy happened to show up while 13 adults were standing around in our paper glasses at 3pm on a weekday. Of 9 houses with 16 adults, 2 people work in person regularly and 12 of us work in person 1-3 days a week. The other 4 are fully remote but travel to their company HQ a few times a year.

We all socialize regularly in the evening and on weekends. We pick each others’ kids up from school and help ourselves to herbs from each other’s gardens. But we almost never see each other between school drop off and pick-up unless there is a reason to go outside like the solstice or when a utility truck is messing with the street. The beauty of working from home is that I try to clock my 8 hours of actual work as close to 9 hours of elapsed time as possible - so that I have free time to actually socialize.

Maybe these people who wonder why you don’t socialize during the day are people who had retail or other jobs where you stand around and chat between customers or phone calls and wonder if you are lonely. I “socialize” when I make small talk in the 1-3 minutes at the beginning and end of meetings when I ask about my colleagues’ weekend, their kids, etc.

I was in a building working during the eclipse and so were a lot of people.
You just cemented that wfh is not work.

I'm sorry your job is low social class. My office's workers went outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live on a cul de sac and during the solar eclipse the Fed Ex guy happened to show up while 13 adults were standing around in our paper glasses at 3pm on a weekday. Of 9 houses with 16 adults, 2 people work in person regularly and 12 of us work in person 1-3 days a week. The other 4 are fully remote but travel to their company HQ a few times a year.

We all socialize regularly in the evening and on weekends. We pick each others’ kids up from school and help ourselves to herbs from each other’s gardens. But we almost never see each other between school drop off and pick-up unless there is a reason to go outside like the solstice or when a utility truck is messing with the street. The beauty of working from home is that I try to clock my 8 hours of actual work as close to 9 hours of elapsed time as possible - so that I have free time to actually socialize.

Maybe these people who wonder why you don’t socialize during the day are people who had retail or other jobs where you stand around and chat between customers or phone calls and wonder if you are lonely. I “socialize” when I make small talk in the 1-3 minutes at the beginning and end of meetings when I ask about my colleagues’ weekend, their kids, etc.

I was in a building working during the eclipse and so were a lot of people.
You just cemented that wfh is not work.

I'm sorry your job is low social class. My office's workers went outside.

Seriously. Any salaried person who cared was outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why work location matters. Our neighbors are a mix of in person, hybrid, WFH. We are mostly WFH but go in sometimes. We socialize with the neighbors we are friends with but it’s still evenings or weekends because during the day we are all…working?

When we WFH we are working and not out and about nor are the neighbors. There are some SAHMs of young children and I’ve seen them out on walks during the day but not with any WFH neighbors.

When I work from home, I work much less often because of the distractions, the comfort of home, and access to things. I will resume a home project, bike ride, shop, watch tv.
You do too.

That’s a you problem. Most of us have the ability to pay attention to the meeting we’re in or the document we’re writing instead of being distracted by the television like a dog who can’t resist chasing a ball.

Once that meeting is over, you’re out.

I walk my dog or drive carpool during the meeting.

[Anonymous]

My husband WFH 3 days a week. He works outside on his laptop during nice weather. If he sees a neighbor he likes, he’ll strike up a conversation, but he’s not going anywhere or doing an activity with a neighbor. Now we sometimes will go out and do something during the workday during one of his breaks or lunch time (I’m a SAHM).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does the one poster, or maybe there are more, generalize that because they aren’t productive at home no one else is? Some of us are disciplined enough to work. In the office it is constant chatting, grabbing lunch, and interruptions. Face time doesn’t equal productivity.

There are a handful of trolls who believe (or pretend to) that nobody works unless they're physically flipping burgers or moving boxes. They aren't interested in hearing otherwise, and mostly want to stir people up.

I picture these posters as former biglaw and finance folks who worked 60 plus hours per week in office during their prime youth years, often just waiting around for some stupid deal to close, brown nosed and put in face time, and only got to work from home on the weekends or between the hours of 10PM and 6AM. Now they want everyone to walk barefoot to school in the snow because that's what they did.