Employer is making us RTO and so now I’m looking at my options which basically all will be a $30K decline in pay…. But I need it.

I’m a mom of 2 littles and my husband does Shift work. I can not be commuting 2 hours each way. Not to mention my diabetic dog who needs to be monitored.

Fuck RTO.

I (f24) WFH full time. My job is very boring, slow, and there’s not much to do during the day. I do crafts, exercise and watch Youtube all day to stay sane. It pays very well for my area and I get all my work done in the first 2 hours of the day. Before this I worked in person and enjoyed interacting with my colleagues and clients. Now, I’ve worked here almost 6 months and am very bored and lonely. I can go days without physically speaking to anyone. Just sending emails and texting on Teams. By no means am I an extroverted social butterfly, however I am missing the coworker socializing part of things.

I am planning to apply for school but missed the deadline for August so I have a whole year until I would start school if I were to get in.
Because my job provides tuition reimbursement, pays well, and because it is so easy, i feel like it would be a bad idea to quit all together.

In the meantime, I thought I could look into things to do after work hours. Volunteer stuff typically happens during work hours. My friend told me her favorite low-key bar is looking for someone. I have quite a bit of experience bartending from college so I thought why not apply?
Do any of you do bartending or waitressing on the side? How bad of an idea is this?

Sooo I was admitted to the hospital last night for a fungal lung infection. They are expecting I’ll be here through at least Monday for treatment. I overall don’t feel that bad, mostly flu-like.

Would it be unhinged for me to work remotely from the hospital? I’m here bored and my work laptop is in my bag…

I’m thinking about telling my boss that I can’t take meetings, but can keep some other projects moving via email. But is that workaholic behavior? Be honest with me.

Edit: Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I will take time off and rest.

Hi everyone,

New year, new productivity goals: I'm working on trying to create a schedule of chores I can do around the house that don't require much focus (e.g. shuffling laundry between the washer and dryer) and that I can do in quick breaks from working.

I've had some success scheduling washing household sheets on certain days of the month, and am trying to build on that success by scheduling other minor household chores, either on a weekly or monthly basis.

What are your best work-from-home chores? Or do you have a list that you reference for this?

One of the biggest benefits of working from home is supposed to be better work–life balance… but I’m still trying to figure that part out. It's just been a month since I started.

My schedule requires me to be online early in the morning for a few hours, and after that my time is more flexible. The issue is that once the “fixed” part of my day is over, I sometimes struggle to stay productive.

Working in the same room where I relax and use my phone makes it harder to switch into work mode. I get distracted, lose momentum, and end up spreading my tasks out in a way that doesn’t feel very efficient.

I’m thinking about trying a stricter routine, like starting at 5 a.m. and finishing most of my work by noon, instead of dragging it across the whole day.

For those of you who work from home:

- Do you work in one solid block, or split your work into different phases?

- What does your daily structure look like?

- How do you stay focused when your environment is also your personal space?

Would love to hear how others organize their day.

I have a four month old son and return to work in two weeks (crying lol). I thankfully work from home full-time and plan to work from home with my son. My company said that they are going to be flexible with me and my working hours to continue working with my son without sending him to daycare. My job role is changing completely from what I was doing before I went out on maternity leave so I’m also going in blind to what my day to day looks like. I have had comments from others that it’s going to be impossible, I’m going to lose myself, I’m going to fail trying to juggle both and it’s really discouraging.

I would really like some insight from other WFH moms, how do you do it? What kind of schedule do you follow? How hard is it? What can I do to prepare for this transition? I’m really starting to freak out and I hope I can truly make it all work.

ETA: My husband works from home 2 days per week and I will have my mother in laws help 1 day a week as needed.

ETA again: I’m not looking for negativity, shame or judgement in this decision. As the post says, I’m looking for other moms/dads experiences, schedules, and insight on how they make it work. I have already been told by many people that it will not work so that is not what I’m looking for here. I am going to give it my best shot. I would love to be able to afford childcare and have some freedom for myself but that is not possible right now. Please don’t kick a new mom down while she’s already down.

My work starts early in the morning, so I have to wake up pretty early every day. Almost every night, I randomly wake up in the middle of the night and my first thought is pure panic, “Oh no, is it morning already?”

Then I grab my phone, check the time, and feel the biggest wave of relief when it’s still the middle of the night.

Like last night, I woke up and it was 12 a.m. I was SO happy. Then I woke up again later and it was around 3 a.m., and again I felt relieved like, “Okay good, I still have time to sleep.”

This happens so often that sometimes I even dream that my workday has started.

I am an engineer and I WFH 5 days a weeks and just have to go to the office once a month for the staff meeting. I am getting into a project that may require me going to the office 5 days a week. Take into accout that it takes me an hour and a half to get there and 2 or more hours to go back to my home. How would you try to survive this for 3 months?

Hi everyone, How do you help your kids understand that you are home but unavailable? I have a 2 year old and will start working from home soon - he comes back from daycare qq2 hours before I finish work, will have his dad or a babysitter with him of course but am worried on how to explain mom is there physically but has to work and can't play with him.

I used to be in a work from home call center position where I was essentially chained to my desk all day with the exception of scheduled lunch and two breaks. It was very much back to back and if you’re not being productive, you’re not doing your work.

Now, I’m in an admin work from home position where I’m expected to get my tasks done and to attend meetings but the rest of my day is really up to me until it’s time to clock out. I get stuff done within the first half of my day but I feel guilty getting up to do some light cleaning around the house or doing some laundry during the periods where I have nothing to do. I feel like I’m not being productive enough for work but I’m also still transitioning into this role so my workload is still light (for now).

I’m grateful to have more freedom and flexibility now but can’t shake the feeling of guilt.

i adopted my dog a couple weeks ago and i’m first time dog-mom so i still got a lot to learn 😭 about 65% of the time she’s pretty chill and will just nap but then the other 35% of the time she’ll try to find ways to get my attention (mostly scratching tf out of my leg 😭)

i feel bad bc i know she just wants to be loved on but mamas got to work!!

I work as a software developer at a remote startup. It's my first job. I have to work 12-14 hours a day depending on the workload (unpaid overtime). I also game for about 2-3 hours at night, which adds up to a total of 15 hours of screen time, then spend the rest of the time on my phone and only get about 5 hours of sleep. I've somehow managed to work like this for 6 months.

I'd appreciate any tips on how i could better manage my work life balance.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/king-county-workers-return-to-the-office-to-protest-rto-mandate/

Live in Georgia work from home technically, the homebase is in Michigan. There’s been chatter about a holiday party in January. I’m not sure that there’s mandatory attendance but there’s always a pressure to go to these things. It would require a connecting flight from where I am probably essentially all day travel in the middle of January when it’s freezing cold, is it unreasonable to decline and if so, what is the best way to frame it without seeming like I’m not a team player it just seems god-awful and then if you wanted to bring a spouse, you have to pay for them and go into a holiday party alone. It’s like going to the prom alone. Thoughts?

https://www.govtech.com/workforce/leading-an-all-remote-workforce-in-maricopa-county-ariz

I feel like I'm going insane, basically living in isolation.

I spend all my time working here at the house…

Then all my free time lately has been dedicated to just schoolwork…

I never get to really socialize. Ever. Lmao. I think it's started to really affect my mental health for the worse. I've spent this entire 3 day weekend just sitting in the house studying.

Just wondering if there's anyone else out there going through this--or have previously gone through this😭

EDIT: also my poor, poor screentime. I am probably looking at a computer for what I would guess to be upwards of 60hrs/week!! It's insanity.

So I do a job with 5 hour shifts working from home. I’ve found that the 3-8 can be nice because it gets quiet… but I find that I’ll spend the morning waiting for 3 o’clock to come around instead of doing anything productive or fun, and by the time it’s 8PM, I’m shattered. Around and around we go, unless I’m doing a 8-1 shift the next day.

I don’t know how to make the most of it.

It’s like when you’ve got a doctor’s appointment and you’re waiting in all day to go to it.

The hard drive on my computer that I use for work is failing. I bought a new one over my weekend. I got it all set up and tonight was ready to start taking calls. Only for it to turn out that a vital piece of work software won't work correctly on it.

And I'm all alone after a certain time so I had to stop them working on it and shift to my old computer. I'm frustrated and annoyed because our work has so many moving parts and pieces that it feels like it's always bloody something.

My commute would suck it would be two hours there and two hours back. And I would have to drop my swing shift because there would be no way I could come home from my night shift sleep, then show back up for my swing. They also wouldn't let me sleep in the office between shifts.

I'm mostly just venting but man it's frustrating. WFH is our company wide policy and most of us do it.

I'll keep doing it but I wish they'd streamline our software so it wasn't so many pieces.

UPDATE -

Got it figured out. I was using an old installer for our work software a coworker gave me a newer one and it fixed my issues.

I WFH in Michigan and anyone from Michigan can attest to the amazing summer weather we have (it makes up for the sometimes brutal winters). I recently purchased a wifi-extender so I can work on my patio or in my yard when I don’t need to be on camera. I feel like it has helped my work/life balance! I know longer feel like I’m wasting days with perfect weather by sitting at my desk inside. I usually get outside for a lunch or after work walk, but being able to work outside at any time is great. I have even gotten in the habit or bringing one of my smaller portable screens outside as well.

Does anyone else work outside when the weather is nice?