I cannot work remotely.
I know a lot of people love working from home. But small rant here. Honestly, straight out of college I thought I would do too. But no, I absolutely do not. Why? 1. No personality development. It's honestly like an online college all over again (1/2 of my college "life" was online). I talk to a screen, waste a lot of time otherwise. 2. I don't have a room to call my own. I know this is going to make me sound like a privileged brat but I need my privacy to feel my full confident self. My family members are always on top of my head and spy on me during work. No they really do. 3. I hate, absolutely LOATHE approaching people on teams. I'm more social, confident and comfortable working in an offline setting be it presenting something or talking to senior folks in general. 4. I have NO life outside of the computer/home. My hobbies, interests everything are inside the tiny room I share with my parents. I still have 2 different desks (which are literally next to each other) for work and personal stuff respectively. When I had offline semesters, it was really awesome as I had balance. I graduated in 2023 and of course I have a lot to learn, but I'm seriously thinking about searching for another job that's not WFH. I'm still early career and I think I should not be working remote. Am I stupid?
Work from home is hellish for extroverts. There is no alternative. I've tried co-working spaces. But nothing beats the actual office experience.
If you're young, go to office and build your network.
I am NOT an extrovert. In fact I'm an introvert. But I'm talking from a career POV
Brother, you don't know that but you are an extrovert. But there is nothing wrong in being one..
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Don’t say this if you do not have WFO experience, do have both of at-least (6M-1Y) and then compare.
There is lot of money saving, its waste of money if you can do the same work from home and lot of time saving that can contribute to your productivity.
For development, you are only physically present at home, mentally you are at your workplace.
Have a separate room at home, do lock it so that no one can look into without your permission.
On weekends you can go anywhere, why are you feeling stuck and since you are saving lot of money in WFH you have a great freedom of spending on experience.
At last, I would suggest do have experience of both and then decide.
majboormajdoor
Stealth
8 months ago
I agree with you 3000!!!
Remote working is traumatic for new joiners, especially new graduates. I have 10yoe but recently when I started new at a job, I just cannot put in the 8hr work.
Most people will hate us both for saying this,
But Workplace is where people come together and work together, chill together, solve issues together, combat boredom together,do office politics together etc.
There might be Very few jobs where working independently without any company can be productive in a sustainable way. People left alone to work on tasks will feel burnout and productivity slacking sooner.
NearOrchid8
Student
8 months ago
I exactly feel you man, I am 22 grad and doing wfh for past 1.5 years.
The only thing is whenever I think of doing wfo job my family kinda emotionally blackmails me and it kinda becomes a lot more scarier to jump to another job without family support
It's a fair point.
I have experienced both WFH and WFO. But I'd suggest WFO, especially if you're less than 4 yrs of experienced person. Because that's how you build a network, you build a habit of interacting with leadership.
Money saving is another point. But Personality Development has other advantages.
IceCreamLover
Stealth
8 months ago
100%, I had a choice of WFH or moving out of state to office and took the latter and have no regrets. Office culture is nice and people are pleasant, the fact that I can just ask someone anything instead of scheduling a call is worth it.
-Fellow 2023 batch pass out.
The fact that we can ask just someone and not wait for a scheduled call or them to come back online, is a game changer for me!
That doesn’t work if you have external vendor associates as part of your team. You have teams messaging as the only option
Idk
Stealth
8 months ago
everything comes at a cost.
do WFO, gain social skills, networking but lose money and time with family in process
do WFH, save money and family time but lose out on office experiences.
Both has its pros and cons, both model should be work together for the betterment of employee and employer.
But for recent grads it's good to gain office experience if you have a healthy family
Ugnrga748
Stealth
8 months ago
1. Go outside in personal time. Meet friends, attend events or ask to meet your colleagues in person to hang out.
2. Discuss with your parents seriously on this matter and figure out the solution. If no space at home then, rent out a co-working.
3. This you will have to learn as most people feel the opposite way in this situation.
4. Having a separate room as office should fix this. It will prevent your work life from overflowing in your personal time. Then, in your personal time you can start by helping out in house chores. You can also join some local sports clubs, etc.
PS:
1. Remote jobs are good for people with discipline. Most people lack discipline and blame their environment.
2. In this economy, it's a privilege to have a Remote job. You will remember this when you are working in a city far away from your home and family. WFO= less personal time and more expenses.
Thank you. Sounds like a good plan for the next few months as I try to find my place.
You are feeling that way because WFH is more exploitative than WFO where it is possible to work for 8 houra, while WFH can take it to 10+ hours on any given day, and while you save on commute, extra 2 hours daily is mixing up professional and personal time space.
True
Stealth
8 months ago
I feel the biggest issue with WFH is the lack of actual connections which you can make by being to office everyday. This is specially worse for young folks who need to get the different types of experiences imo.
Also, I feel some of the WFO advocates would jump at the first instance their org offers them an onsite opportunity in the US/SNG/EUR.
Very valid and natural feelings, given the circumstances. I, too, prefer the hybrid model.
Hope things turn out better for you in future :)
Even I graduated in 2023 and recently got placed. It’s a WFO job but one day in a week we have WFH. I can see why WFO office is great.
I can connect with my teammates and get my doubts cleared must faster and easier when I'm in the office than home. Plus I get distracted easily at home.
ShallowEngineer
Stealth
8 months ago
I can relate with you. But the difference between our situation is that I have 3+ years experience in this field whereas you are a beginner.
In the initial phases of my career I desperately wanted to go to office and get that exposure of working with colleagues in an open environment. This helped me grow professionally in my career, but what I didn't like was the gossips and office politics. That did effect my mental health and I used to get angry on the smallest of things. That's one reason I later on wanted to move to remote setup.
One thing I knew about me in the past 3 years was that I know how to get things done one time. Had the ability to take ownership and communicate with members from same team or different teams with ease. But these abilities were inculcated over the period of 3 years, so I am thankful for that too.
So one thing I would suggest to you from my experience is that since you are new to this world, try going to office. Request your managers or team lead to let you come to office for 2-3 days a week. If there's no office setup in India then do let them know about your situation and tell them you would be ready to go to co-working space and work from there. Even co-working spaces are a great way to meet new people from different companies and grow your network.
So all things said, Whatever you are feeling right now is normal, so take some chill pill and do what the situation demands for.
Bro/Sis, trust me you don't know what you are wishing from, my previous job had this rule of visiting office daily and after a point this is the reason for being toxic. Right now, its your family members spying on you or looking at your screen, then it will be your manager and he will come and ask stupid questions and give useless work if he sees you free.
Right now you can do so much other stuff and learn new things online using resources.
I can bet that you would want wfh once you work on the wfo setup for few months or a year max.
I guess you're right, in a way. I hate toxic people, and I'll thank my stars if I get into a workplace that's not WFH and doesn't have office politics and stuff. I suppose grass is always greener on the other side.
You also need to learn how to deal with toxic people and great people at work. Isolationism will keep you far behind. WFH folks will largely promote it because it can make you immune to people issues at work (and saving money etc). But what they miss is that your personality develops much more slowly and erratically in a WFH environment
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It seems you are relatively new in your career and definitely for a new job, it sucks big time. You don't get to know culture, you don't know where the stuff is in folders, sharing screens and screenshots is the way of sharing and kind of sometime it feels like you are working like a headless chicken. Also, you never get any feedback about your work or your personality as in normal life most of the communication happens through non verbal cues. But after you have settled which takes atleast an year, you start to get the hang of culture, company and work and you get used to it. Also, there is one sense of loneliness which never goes away unless you get yourself in love with the work.
May 6 or so month ago, I also started similar thread and got some interesting feedback. One very rude but interesting comment mentioned something on lines of if you are struggling with loneliness in wfh, you need to go see a shrink. Becoz if you know your job then you should be comfortable working in safe space and should not have any worry. But the problem is our emotional insecurities of companionship, part of social order kicks in.
My advice, plan, engage and be proactive in reaching out is the only way to survive n grow in wfh
Demon
Stealth
8 months ago
Lol.. grass is always greener on the other side. WFO people want WFH and vice versa.
You really think you get a room to call your own in office and no one disturbs you there ?
The ability to focus on work despite being in office or home is the real deal. Learn to cut the distraction now. If you cannot say no to your family members, you will not be able to say no to colleagues too.
Demon
Stealth
8 months ago
Because this is your first manager and you hardly have seen even 5% of your professional life ? Pray you don't get a manager like my first manager. It's not too cool getting a DM at 2 AM at night saying hey I need those 4 tests pushed before 8 AM.
It's much easier creating a boundary with parents. Work from a co-working space, goto CCD. 🤷♂️
As I said, anywhere you work, cutting the noise is a skill.
PastaChef
Stealth
8 months ago
The issue here is not about WFO or WFH. The issues here are:
1) Privacy - Having your own spacious room may make you feel better about WFH.
2) Hobbies - Gym or Football or Hanging out with friends etc might make you feel much better.
3) Space - If you don't get your own space, it'll become too invasive. I get it.
Once these three are sorted, trust me, you'll love WFH!
SharpNetball
Stealth
8 months ago
No you're not wrong. I have been WFH since 2 years and it is my first job. Other than what you've mentioned, Plus point is you save almost your entire salary other than what you decide to support family expenses, minus point it will slowly affect your mental health due to isolation if you don't have a friends to talk to and visit frequently.
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