Before COVID I worked from home about one day a week. Now I've been home all but seven days since March 13, 2020, and I don't plan to ever go back.

I think people's answers depend a lot on (1) the age of the their children, (2) their home office set up, and (3) the nature of their job.

My kids are in school full-time and have been since August 2021, so being at home has been easy and uninterrupted (minus the dogs barking when deliveries come). My day does start to wind up earlier when they get home from school (our nanny brings them home around 4) and I will help with homework or play with them now if I can but they also understand that sometimes I'm on calls until dinner. Now that I can sit down and start working at 7:30 when they walk out the door for school, it's easier to stop working earlier.

We built an office in our house for my husband who has always planned to work at home and was doing so before COVID, but we have an extra room that we were able to convert into a fully functional second office, so we have two rooms that are dedicated workspaces with doors and full desks, multiple monitors, etc. That has made a HUGE difference. Before when I worked from home just on my laptop I was never as productive as I was with my full spread. Now I have recreated my work office at home and I have everything I need, including a printer, scanner, and fax.

Finally, my job requires me to work with people in all of our offices across the country, so my physical presence in the local office was never really needed. My time is spent on calls with people and if I need to do something face-to-face then I will travel to where I need to be or go into my office here. I also don't have anyone who works underneath me, and my boss is in a different city from me anyway. At my previous job I think it would have been a huge loss, mostly for the new attorneys, to not be in the office because so much learning happens there. But now that I'm more senior and in a national office type job, I could move to Alaska and it wouldn't matter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a baby during the pandemic and have been wfh for months. I can’t imagine being away from my baby 9 consecutive hours for 5 days now. If I am forced to go back 5 days, I will likely quit, but may reconsider if there’s wfh at least a couple of days a week.

Yeah I don’t know how we are going to put this genie back in the bottle for a micro-generation of moms who didn’t have to send their 12 week olds to daycare or pay for a nanny. It’s clear to me that as a practical matter this can’t become the status quo (“work from home” with no infant care) but I have to assume a lot of these moms will drop out of the workforce.

+1

I mean surely this subset of pandemic moms either a. Didn't have a very demanding job to begin with or b. Were not performing at 100%/for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. We all KNOW one cannot work with an infant, 1 year old or 2 year old at home en toe.

Agreed. I had my baby last November. His daycare spot was ready for him in February, but they were nice enough to hold it for him until May. My husband (also WFH 100%) and I decided to send him to daycare in April because it just wasn’t tenable anymore between the baby’s needs and our work responsibilities. It’s one thing when the baby is younger and still has relatively short periods of being awake. Once they’re awake for longer periods of time, it’s just not fair - to the baby or your employer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a baby during the pandemic and have been wfh for months. I can’t imagine being away from my baby 9 consecutive hours for 5 days now. If I am forced to go back 5 days, I will likely quit, but may reconsider if there’s wfh at least a couple of days a week.

Yeah I don’t know how we are going to put this genie back in the bottle for a micro-generation of moms who didn’t have to send their 12 week olds to daycare or pay for a nanny. It’s clear to me that as a practical matter this can’t become the status quo (“work from home” with no infant care) but I have to assume a lot of these moms will drop out of the workforce.

+1

I mean surely this subset of pandemic moms either a. Didn't have a very demanding job to begin with or b. Were not performing at 100%/for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. We all KNOW one cannot work with an infant, 1 year old or 2 year old at home en toe.

Prefer WFH. If our new telework policy requires more than 2 days in person I will look for a new job.

I hate my job and many of my colleagues so prefer WFH because I don't have to pretend as much and can just do what I have to do.

Anonymous wrote:I had a baby during the pandemic and have been wfh for months. I can’t imagine being away from my baby 9 consecutive hours for 5 days now. If I am forced to go back 5 days, I will likely quit, but may reconsider if there’s wfh at least a couple of days a week.

Yeah I don’t know how we are going to put this genie back in the bottle for a micro-generation of moms who didn’t have to send their 12 week olds to daycare or pay for a nanny. It’s clear to me that as a practical matter this can’t become the status quo (“work from home” with no infant care) but I have to assume a lot of these moms will drop out of the workforce.

My DH is supposed to start ramping up in-person work this month. He never had any WFH at all prior to Covid, but has been home 100% of the time since last March. Once he's back, it looks like he'll have the flexibility to WFH at least 2 days a week, possibly more.

He always struggles with change so I now he's anxious about this. But I actually think he'll prefer it once he's back. He'll get to keep some of the things he likes about WFH on those days (being able to go for a bike ride on his lunch hour, sleeping in a bit, more time with our DC) but I am hoping he'll realize that he missed some stuff and it won't be too painful. Surely his work space was more conducive to getting work done than our kitchen table? Surely he misses his train commute at least a little -- all that quiet time to read or listen to music? I don't want the transition to be too painful.

I have WFH for years and am really looking forward to getting my workspace back. It will be nice to have him home more and I think at first I'll miss him a bit. But he and our DC have been home FT for the last year and wow has my work suffered. I find myself working in the middle of the night a lot because I just really struggle to get work done with people around me all the time. I don't complain about it out loud because (1) it's not their fault at all that they've been home, and (2) no one wants to hear from the person who has always WFH about how they wish their family would leave the house so they can work. But it's true. I had my work life arranged pretty perfectly pre-pandemic and I can't wait to get back to it. I can feel my blood pressure going down just thinking about it!

Anonymous wrote:I think I would love to wfh 4 days a week going forward. I'm loving no longer having to commute and being able to spend more time with my kids.

Yes, this. I have a teen at home and this time has been wonderful for both of us.

I think I would love to wfh 4 days a week going forward. I'm loving no longer having to commute and being able to spend more time with my kids.

WFH one day a week pre covid. would probably like WFH 3 days a week once my office open up again. DH loves it that I'm home full time now. My commute was a beast and easily took up 2 hrs a day. Now he comes home at 5 when I'm done too. I then play with the kids while he cooks, or vice versa. It's just a lot easier with those extra 2 hrs a day.

I do miss my colleagues and the comradery. I also do presentations fairly often and those are best done in person.

I don't mind either way. Ideally I'd like a 50-50 mix.

I want to work from home every day, but will come in 1-2 days a week for meetings that must be in person. I am so much more productive at home and I miss my kids too much to add my commute back in. I also have 3 kids with 3 dropoffs. It just cannot work if I need to be in the office by 930. I will quit if I have to go back 4 times a week (our schedule pre-pandemic)

I had a baby during the pandemic and have been wfh for months. I can’t imagine being away from my baby 9 consecutive hours for 5 days now. If I am forced to go back 5 days, I will likely quit, but may reconsider if there’s wfh at least a couple of days a week.

Prefer working from home 100%

It’s been a game changer for my family. I have a little harder time “shutting down” when there’s a big project due but overall this has been such an ideal set up for me.

Pre-pandemic, I WFH one day a week and do not want to go back to having a commute or dealing with most of the people I work with in person. I don't miss the office drive-bys that are a total time sink or piling into a meeting room for another meeting. I will likely end up with some kind of compromise, but will take an option that offers the most telework.