SwirlyPickle
SwirlyPickle

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?

14mo ago
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9 min AI interview5 questions
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BubblyDonut
BubblyDonut

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.

SwirlyPickle
SwirlyPickle
Google14mo

I am NOT an extrovert. In fact I'm an introvert. But I'm talking from a career POV

DizzyPotato
DizzyPotato

Brother, you don't know that but you are an extrovert. But there is nothing wrong in being one..

WigglySushi
WigglySushi

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.

SleepyKoala
SleepyKoala

WFO will be great if your house is near the office.

SwirlyPickle
SwirlyPickle
Google14mo

That's the thing. I cannot, do not have a separate room that I can keep locked.

ZoomyMuffin
ZoomyMuffin

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.

FluffyNugget
FluffyNugget

+1

TwirlyJellybean
TwirlyJellybean

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

SwirlyPickle
SwirlyPickle
Google14mo

This. My parents are super happy that I'm staying at home but at what cost?

ZoomyPretzel
ZoomyPretzel

To balance both i go to office in 3-6 months gap for a month every year

MagicalNarwhal
MagicalNarwhal

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.

TwirlyWalrus
TwirlyWalrus
TCS14mo

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!

GigglyWalrus
GigglyWalrus

That doesn’t work if you have external vendor associates as part of your team. You have teams messaging as the only option

FloatingPanda
FloatingPanda

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.

SwirlyPenguin
SwirlyPenguin

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

WigglyPenguin
WigglyPenguin
  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.
SwirlyPickle
SwirlyPickle
Google14mo

Thank you. Sounds like a good plan for the next few months as I try to find my place.

ZoomyJellybean
ZoomyJellybean

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.

QuirkyDumpling
QuirkyDumpling
MSCI14mo

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.

SwirlyPickle
SwirlyPickle
Google14mo

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.

ZoomyBiscuit
ZoomyBiscuit

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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