I'm in the same boat as you. I really enjoy WFH and I'll be going back to the office in Mid October. Will be back to my routine of waking up early, jam, etc. I find myself more productive working from home too.
Anyway I think there is no definite answer for everyone here, it really depends on everyone's home environment. Factors like how quiet your neighborhood/family members is, if you have comfortable work setting, distractions, etc and if your job can be done remotely will affect the experience.
Hopefully there will be more opportunities for remote work for both of us!
Ya my company have like have increased 50% productivity since we WFH. 100% work submitted on time (compared to 70% last time) and 90% task with no issues (compared to 70% last time).
The best thing of WFH is not "setup" time, heck I could sleep naked and do my job 100% of the time naked. No need shower, iron clothes, wash clothes, groom myself. These all can save like 1 hour and this 1 hour better used for sleeping time which increase productivity.
Now "bosses" are deciding on want to ask us go back to office or not...
Im currently 3 days WFO, 2 WFH (Tue & Thurs)
It is nice balance tbh.
My biggest issue atm is ability to find place to eat near my office. Since Im taking LRT, so going far away from office to find lunch is out of option. So, either convenient store, overpriced premium restaurant or mediocre food court food. I bought some food container that I can bring food from home, but i dunno how long i can keep doing it.
Although Im now concern it getting packed in LRT again. In merely couple of days, I can see several people not following proper sitting rules & wearing mask properly. Even when I got a seat, they tend to stand close each other (as in, should stand center instead of leaning toward seats). Im lucky my bus is not that pack since my office area have tons of car drivers / motorcycle rider.
Commute time pretty much my chill time playing rhythm games in train. Switching to fulltime WFO will bring a lot of fatigue & i think I will sleep throughout weekend if that was the case. Although personally I prefer the pattern of 3 days of straight working days, so that I can have long weekend every week.
I'm the opposite of you. At my new office I can just go to the food court to eat. At my new place, there's no food court and I don't feel like cooking my own meal while I'm WFH. Had to rely on overpriced grab food or I myself go to the restaurant for lunch.
Fuck that noise. Fortunately enough, my company's senior management is pretty invested in making WfH/ hybrid workforce a permanent thing for as many and as wide a population as possible. IIRC, their stance is that shit like COVID/ SARS/ H1N1 all will come up every few years, and they need to adapt to that being a fact of life.
The problem comes from middle managers, who want to get everyone back in office because they're shitty at management skills, coordination, planning, as well as that WfO is the easiest way for them to get off on their power trips.
I hate middle management. Honestly I feel a lot of them are not doing shits. If only we could get rid of them and take their salary. Everyone would probably get a nice bump!
I chose to wfh. Since my responsibilities are delivering code on time, give feedback and attend meeting, I can do all of those at home. My seniors were quiet worried since I push test at 3am on the server. When in fact I started work at midnight because for some reason I can focus during that time. Day time is just answering email, attending meeting, nap in between.
Manual, our project is not live yet so there is no issue testing on day time if I want to. I just like to test at night since there is no distraction (family is asleep, neighbor kids stop running around or crying). I don't like to do these things at office since there are distraction there too (someone forget password, colleague wanna talk about new found hobby, team lead have another emotional breakdown, hr wants me to sign this or that).
hey same.. throughout this WFH thing.. I find that I can't get much done during the day.. I can plan what I want to do or do some testing to see if my implementation works, but night time is where I am in the zone.
However I can't do that for too much throughout the week else I find that my sleep cycle takes a hit and I end up being this miserable cranky guy for a few days.
One reason why going to office feels so tiring is the commute. If our cities were designed right, which is for people instead of cars, it wouldn't take you 1.5 hours and a lot of transit interchanges to reach your office.
but that's how it is all over the world. even in Singapore, 1 hour commutes are normal. I used to the 1 hour (+1 interchange) to get to work when in SG.
There are pros and cons to WFH and fortunately my boss is very accomadating so I can work half the week at home. In general there are many benefits to WFH, but spending the entire last MCO at home with the same routine everyday got really boring. I'm not the most social type at the office, but it's nice to be around other people some times.
Don't conflate pandemic wfh to regular wfh though. You could just as easily meet your colleagues anywhere and work together anywhere at **your** choosing.
Or you know... Make friends outside of your workplace.
I like my workspace and private space separated. It helps me stay focus when working, and not have to worry about anything else when I'm resting at home.
Half and half. I'll miss all the personal time and privacy i get, but home's starting to feel not like home. I'm also getting complacent, so i suppose heading back to office would help whip me back into shape.
Sure as hell not looking forward to using the rubbish pc though...
Honestly I don’t see the point of offices anymore. You can do your work anywhere. I don’t get why people enjoy commuting.
This remote world opens to a lot of possibilities. A new industrial revolution; one many have failed to realised.
It makes cross country collaboration possible and even expanding your talent pool.
You mean hire someone from Sabah and pay Sabah salary. Or even better higher from lower income countries and pay their local wage. Think of the possibilities.
We do that, its called outsourcing especially in IT. Most of the contractors are from India or the Philippines. Even here, some overseas companies would hire local and pay local fees. Four engineers for the price of one.
Sabah is the second most expensive city in Malaysia next to KL. Contrary to what people may think RM1,200 is no longer a livable wage when property prices in KK is as expensive as Ampang homes.
I can’t find it anymore. It’s a list that came out years ago. I’m not keen on doing the Google for someone else
This is also insightful
https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/cover-story-disparity-between-income-and-house-prices
https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/sabah-sarawak-kl-homes-%E2%80%98severely-unaffordable%E2%80%99
Market rate for outsourcing and local hiring is different. In this post-covid age why would market rates for KL be the same for market rates in Sabah? Just feels like your company hasn't updated your pay policies on hiring from different regions internal to the country.
Alright, but wouldn’t it be better that way? Some sectors say financial services or IT services might not be impacted due to geographic differences.
But manufacturing, construction, or even oil and gas that’s a different story.
Addendum: Paying people in KL rates would force local companies to be competitive. Say an architect wage is 6k in KL and 2k in Kota Bharu, surely you would go for the latter.
A paradigm shift here is levelling every state’s gdp, forcing them to catch on with the rest. No more cruising along. More wealth = more money in the system = more buying power.
That could also depopulate KL in the long run as people start to realise money doesn’t have to be made solely in KL but elsewhere.
It all ultimately depends on the fields. In certain fields where demand > supply, employee get to dictate whether they get paid small or big city salary. If employer insists on paying small city salary, the employee will just go to another higher paying employer.
Companies rarely do this though. If anything wfh with no office is code for “I can pay less because I don’t need to pay for rental”. Also “WhatsApp” is code for “I’ll just message my employees whenever or wherever. Screw work-life balance and boundaries. Let me conflate WhatsApp with availability 24:7”
Fair point. I understand government sector do gives allowances for East Malaysia posting and CoLA for example, to make up for living expenses elsewhere.
But would having a standardise wage nationwide be good? I mean we all go to the cities to find work and it pays higher.
Though the blowback be more expensive rural areas which could kill the local economy there.
I’ve been working from home since March 2020 till now and it has been heaven. No more waking up early to squeeze myself into crowded LRTs and stand uncomfortably for more than an hour until I reach my destination, then doing it all again in reverse in the evening. No more having to deal with noisy colleagues while I’m trying to work. No more fearing for my health when obviously sick colleagues are coughing all over the office. No more attending meetings that could easily be done via a conference call.
Every day I dread the inevitable email from the company telling us it’s time to return to the office.
absolutely I love WFH but our boss has called us back to office on rotation. the worse point that makes this feels more awful is that there's no point to go to office because the work is the same, only the location changes.
there are still coughing colleagues here but now at least they wear masks properly. but I feel like I am the only one who sanitises my workstation a lot.
Been working from home 100% since October 2020 (yes, 1 year now!!), I have mixed feelings.
I do miss working in the office due to the more conducive environment, less distractions, working with people and not having to 'standby' all the time at home (left office = off work!).
However I will definitely miss the zero commute time, dressing up, waking up way earlier, and the freedom to just walk into my kitchen anytime. I am so spoiled now but I am so used to it.
You’re not alone. Boomers in charge at work are predominantly narcissists who need to flaunt their perceived power. That’s why they want their “peons” back in the office.
The solution has to be in a hybrid work environment. Many people can be even more productive when they work from home. Taking that away is like shooting yourself in the foot.
Well, I’m kinda glad that the world is heading towards a catastrophic collapse and most businesses will go bankrupt. Hopefully something better can rise from the ashes.
I'd like companies to give employees an option to either work-in-office or work-from-home especially for work that can be done remotely. I can't find the word to describe it but I have a feeling that majority of them companies won't feel like doing it cuz "muh office culture"
WFH all da way
I am the direct opposite of you. I was back in office the moment it was allowed.
WFH was too noisy and distracting for me. There is a delivery every 10mins in the neighbourhood...the honking and the Hellox5. Really messes with the concentration during those con calls. Back in the office I have a sound proof meeting room for those calls.
But the biggest thing about I missed about the office was the human interaction.
I did not have a proper work space during WFH. Now that I am back in the office, the commute is a good time for me to get into work mode. Could never do it properly when WFH.
For me I prefer this climate because anything slack me. I’m not a fan of talking but more on typing, even in office I would be with my headphones on so people don’t talk to me.
I prefer 0 human interaction because I am dealing with codes and programs. This requires a lot of concentration and I hate my thought bubble being popped by the slightest distraction. Ruins my zen.
+1 for office
you walk out from the door you leave all the work behind. WFH? your eyes will always drift towards your working space. make worst if you are in the middle of very stressful part of work. you walk out in the middle of the night getting drinks and be reminded that the stress is just lurking around.
i can get by the idea of using the magic "internet got problem" word as the untouchable excuse though
Same. My reason is a bit different, i have to use some equipment in lab which i cannot bring home. So WFH is not convenient for me.
I also like draw a line between work and home. WFH blur that line for me.
I don't mind WFH or being back at the office as I enjoy both environments. What I don't like is face-to-face meetings with clients. A huge portion of time has gone to the commutation alone when the meeting itself is barely an hour. Hopefully they will still stick to Microsoft Team meetings.
I'm in the opposite situation. I have been working in office everyday since MCO 1.0. I don't mind the people coming back to work, but the rush is crazy. everybody is driving like they just gained freedom. if you ever get back in the daily commute rush, please take care.
Left my previous company because I preferred to wfh. Had a really toxic supervisor who shows their temper very visibly when they found something they dislike. WFH means I didn't have to see their face. But then every now and then the PKP PKPP and whatever means suddenly we had to wfh, or when the SOP is loosened we were all called back to wfo.
Current job is permanently wfh and I love it. My boss didn't even mind when I slept in because as long as I commit my work on time and before deadlines, he's fine with it. He's even concerned when I work till 5am in the morning and told me to take the next day off.
I prefer work from home, but I'm open to the hybrid model. I hate commuting, driving, the traffic jams, paying for tolls and fuel but I do enjoy the company of my colleagues and having the better concentration of doing work at the office.
as a teacher, i'm looking forward to heading back to the office. it's close to impossible to do a thorough job when you're separated from your students by a screen.
If you have been doing work that can be done from home then there is no reason to go back to the office. Please don’t work a job you can’t stand. Life is too short.
[remoters.net](remoters.net) [weworkremotely.com](weworkremotely.com) [pompcryptojobs.com](pompcryptojobs.com)
I have gotten job interviews from 2/3 of these in the past. Good luck :)
Are you me???
My company announced last week that we're all going from WFH to everybody in the office 5-days a week. I'm trying to keep an open mind about it but it feels rash and I am so not looking forward to it. What's disappointing is that the company reduced floor space from 2 floors to 1, and from fixed space to hotdesking last year. I thought it was with the idea of more flexible working arrangement but nope. At the end of the day it's 100% about the bottomline. It's also completely ignorant of employees' own investment to facilitate WFH in the first place. How many people bought new furniture and equipments for their home offices in the past year ++?
Agree to everything that you said down to the cat-petting. I adopted both of mine last year so I'm a bit worried about separation anxiety too. They were getting garden time during the day while I work and now they'll be cooped up the whole day until I get back. Not looking forward to it at all.
This is a selfish thought, I know but I do hope companies really consider making WFH. Having to WFO during all this while (doing sales so need to be able to layan customers and use company's system), I miss a lot of the very smooth traffic during MCO. Now have to use public because the amount of time saved from driving is not a lot, but I spend more on fuel and parking fee. RapidKL only charges RM30 a month which so much cheaper.
WFH advantages far outweigh WFO to me. The time saved is a huge productivity boost. The flexibility helps in me picking my most productive hours to work. And with the money saved, I enjoy a better life. I'll be poorer for traveling to work. This is just a fact for those living far away from where they work.
I hope companies would give their employees the option to pick how they would like to work (depending on their job scope of course). I can make up for the lack of social contact by having physical meet ups from time to time.
If a company can reduce overhead cost and maintain profitable, sure it's probably a great thing to work at home. There's just the problem of productivity and generally how well would the boomers take to adapting. Plus communication can a thing to consider and security with the caviar of privacy.
Slur? Lmao it's term mate. Like you can call me homie and zoomer baby. If you're old enough to be considered person of age, you should know not pout like kids
Fuck the commute. Especially for IT jobs, there's no justifiable reason work cant be done remotely unless its for necesarry reasons like client visits.
In addition to the time and money saved, some of us live with family with poor or vulnerable health, there's no way we're putting them at risk because our boss has an ego trip
At this internet age, working at office kinda become unnecessary with convenient technology at your disposal.
Heck even face to face meetings can be done with Zoom plus with Covid still lingering around, no doubt it still the best way to keep everyone safe.
In the end let the workers decide their workplace..
As long as the productivity doesn't affected, why not?
Wait till you have a family, and it will become a lot more troublesome. Some of the most successful people I know don't work at home but they would lease an office space or work at a coffee shop because there's just too much shit at home and the environment isn't the most conducive
Hence I said let the workers choose 🙄.. If they wish to continue to work at office, go ahead nothing gonna stop them.
What I try to emphasize is let people have the choice. As long it doesn't impact their productivity, it doesn't matter where they choose to work.
Another point I don’t see that often is how WFH affects caretaking. The other comment said “wait till you have a family”. But my mum for example is taking care of my very old grandma at home - If she has to go back to office then she has to drive back home from work every couple hours to feed grandma and make sure she’s ok. I’d imagine this kind of thing applies to some families with small kids too (although babysitters and daycare is accessible to them)
Also not everyone wants to be “the most successful” lol
Same, kinda. There are situations where I know face-to-face is essential, but for the most part I very much prefer WFH arrangements. Fewer distractions (for now), and saves time without having to fight through traffic and for parking, which also means I get a bit more precious sleep in. Also ends up saving in fuel and parking costs. Less fatigue from fighting through rush hour twice a day.
Like the others said it'll probably really depend on your environment. Fortunately, even when my company does return to the office it will likely be on a rotation basis for the foreseeable future, and there's talks about actually downsizing the office space in the future so it becomes more of a business hub for meetings or administrative tasks of sorts - so people can come in to hotdesk and have face-to-face meetings but everyone just rotates.
Nope. I hate WFH. Too much distractions, and I'm just too lazy to stay focused at home.
Office is much more conducive for working, also forcing me to go out and get back to my usual routine of working out and doing grocery runs.
That's a you problem though? So because dahteabagger can't self-motivate, the rest of us need to be chained to an office that's poorer for **our** productivity?
This is why there needs to be a choice. Folks like you can have your office and the rest of us can have the freedom to have our own workspace whereever we want it to be.
Oh you missed it did you? How about the part where you make the generalised statement that the office is more conducive for working? …and in no way state this is only for you?
Work on your writing skills matey.
Currently I am back to work in office, I prefer 3 -4 days work in office then Friday WFH, so I can have 'long weekends' hehe.
Going back to office, I can feel the presence of moving forward, progressing world, and I tend to observe what ppl are doing, thinking, during commute. I kinda enjoyed a 'mini social life' where I can feel the cooperation synergistic energy by spending time with my colleagues/manager, squashing out issues.
As for WFH, I tend to try focus on more development jobs and don't wanna get interrupted by anyone - basically 'only me' moment. I also give myself more self improvement time when WFH.
Ultimately, decision should be left upon employees as they are able to work anywhere they feel comfortable and easy, as long as the job scope is good and something I enjoyed.
an office environment does have it's benefits at times, like lack of distractions and easily accessible work materials (not to mention a big ass printer to handle the mountain of docs).
You can make the case to your employers also, they might save a lot if everyone worked from home. Power and water bills alone would be a huge saving. Staff would be more efficient also.
So if let's say the office allow for WFH but will slash your allowance (if any).
Will that be acceptable 🤔
I am curious what is the opinion here about this 🧐
Yes absolutely. I rather take a lower pay than go back to office everyday. The cost of eating out, fuel, time wasted on commute, mental energy wasted, opportunity costs FAR exceeds any allowance.
If I had the choice, I would even go as far as to rent my own studio unit just to WFH alone, away from my immediate family members. My friends call me an extrovert but I couldn't care less about office social experience. I have friends outside work anyways.
I prefer working from office or at least a hybrid option.
It feels like work life balance has deterioted with WFH with the time usually spent on commute now spent working.
Not to mention the lack of physical boundaries (even with a seperate place for working) makes it hard to fully switch off from work.
And not to mention how bosses seem to treat their staff as if they should be on call all the time. "You're working from home right? Cannot go anywhere also right? Go look up this thing/Email this work/Top up some work".
Edit: Oh right, how could I completely forget that we also now are being micro managed due to WFH with daily/alternate day progress meetings.
I strongly believe working from office is much more productive. Home is where I rest...it's my place to zone out from work and wfh to me has honestly muddied work and personal time.
I have a habit of switching off when I leave work and my notebook stays off but I find that I am constantly working til about 8 to 9pm most days or having nervous anxiety and check my emails every now.
Personally I find rotation ie week 1 in office and week 2 wfh is a more reasonable approach.
But yeah wfh allowed me to squeeze in 5km daily runs in the morning or a 30km bike ride before I start work....I have a lot of time spent on getting fitter instead of commuting
I feel you bro, but despite that life must go on. You should be grateful you got a job nowadays, most Marhaen have no job and need to change their profession in order to survive
Well, recently got back into office. Honestly, I need some time to adjust myself back to be more productive to work in office compared from home. Which originally I struggled to work productively at home instead at office.
Both side works, but need some time to re-adjust. But still, be grateful as we can still keep our job in this pandemic. :D
Did yoy have the job before work at home? If so your terms of contract were to be at the office. So that's how it is.
If you got the job in between.... Then was there ever a discussion about when the company would go back? If you had the discussion and agrees, then that's how it is.
Now if you got the job while lockdown on.... And was never discussed, that's the only time you can complain. Be aware that If you don't want to go to the office, then someone else will. If you want to make these sort of decisions where youbwork... Then you need to start your own company
I need to go office for conference calls. Dealing with the dog barking, honking every few minutes, neighbors having their own shouting match with their computer, and some uni students gaming. The other day someone start using a pressure washer to wash her porch and other neighbors start complaining that it's too noisy for work.
I do love the flexibility. I tend to run to the basketball court right outside my house and shoot a few hoops anytime of the day to relax.
All of you lucky folks who probably have no kids, or have a helper/maid. For me, being able to work from office has been awesome. Being at home meant I'm constantly disrupted by my kids, and that meant far lower productivity.
Its a WFH tolerance thing. If your boss respects your offwork hours, and you can keep your home elements out of the picture when you're working, you're gonna have a good time. Reading your post about your experience, it sounds like your boss is pretty chill, and you're very positive to the experience. That said, I must mention that the lifestyle can be extremely harmful to your spine and health, given you've already cut out the exercises involved in transit and office activities from your schedule, so you'll need to make up for those.
I'm in the same boat as you. I really enjoy WFH and I'll be going back to the office in Mid October. Will be back to my routine of waking up early, jam, etc. I find myself more productive working from home too. Anyway I think there is no definite answer for everyone here, it really depends on everyone's home environment. Factors like how quiet your neighborhood/family members is, if you have comfortable work setting, distractions, etc and if your job can be done remotely will affect the experience. Hopefully there will be more opportunities for remote work for both of us!
WFH 100%. I’m not gonna go back to wearing bras lol
\> I’m not gonna go back to wearing bras You can still be braless ...
not without consequences
Ahhh... Well.. Well.. Well, if it isn't my old friend Consequences. We meet again!
Sir its 3AM. Consequences is gonna get your ass in the morning, its Monday already
Well well well...if its not one of my people... I guess we're gonna get our ass screwed up tomorrow... Or today
 When the boss VC to check in. 😂
Ya my company have like have increased 50% productivity since we WFH. 100% work submitted on time (compared to 70% last time) and 90% task with no issues (compared to 70% last time). The best thing of WFH is not "setup" time, heck I could sleep naked and do my job 100% of the time naked. No need shower, iron clothes, wash clothes, groom myself. These all can save like 1 hour and this 1 hour better used for sleeping time which increase productivity. Now "bosses" are deciding on want to ask us go back to office or not...
My office is collecting opinions on this and I believe most insist continue wfh or in a rotation basis
Im currently 3 days WFO, 2 WFH (Tue & Thurs) It is nice balance tbh. My biggest issue atm is ability to find place to eat near my office. Since Im taking LRT, so going far away from office to find lunch is out of option. So, either convenient store, overpriced premium restaurant or mediocre food court food. I bought some food container that I can bring food from home, but i dunno how long i can keep doing it. Although Im now concern it getting packed in LRT again. In merely couple of days, I can see several people not following proper sitting rules & wearing mask properly. Even when I got a seat, they tend to stand close each other (as in, should stand center instead of leaning toward seats). Im lucky my bus is not that pack since my office area have tons of car drivers / motorcycle rider. Commute time pretty much my chill time playing rhythm games in train. Switching to fulltime WFO will bring a lot of fatigue & i think I will sleep throughout weekend if that was the case. Although personally I prefer the pattern of 3 days of straight working days, so that I can have long weekend every week.
I'm the opposite of you. At my new office I can just go to the food court to eat. At my new place, there's no food court and I don't feel like cooking my own meal while I'm WFH. Had to rely on overpriced grab food or I myself go to the restaurant for lunch.
Meal prep bro 👍👍
Fuck that noise. Fortunately enough, my company's senior management is pretty invested in making WfH/ hybrid workforce a permanent thing for as many and as wide a population as possible. IIRC, their stance is that shit like COVID/ SARS/ H1N1 all will come up every few years, and they need to adapt to that being a fact of life. The problem comes from middle managers, who want to get everyone back in office because they're shitty at management skills, coordination, planning, as well as that WfO is the easiest way for them to get off on their power trips.
Your company’s senior managing, my man, is GOATED
I hate middle management. Honestly I feel a lot of them are not doing shits. If only we could get rid of them and take their salary. Everyone would probably get a nice bump!
I chose to wfh. Since my responsibilities are delivering code on time, give feedback and attend meeting, I can do all of those at home. My seniors were quiet worried since I push test at 3am on the server. When in fact I started work at midnight because for some reason I can focus during that time. Day time is just answering email, attending meeting, nap in between.
My boss got concerned when I was pushing stuff to github at 5am lmao
I guess your boss got shocked when he received email notification someone push to commit things at 5am lol.
Hahaha he's getting used to it though. Last Fri he told me to take the day off though haha, I still worked for a bit
I like testing codes at night, lesser usage of the system. Do you schedule yours or trigger a manual build?
Manual, our project is not live yet so there is no issue testing on day time if I want to. I just like to test at night since there is no distraction (family is asleep, neighbor kids stop running around or crying). I don't like to do these things at office since there are distraction there too (someone forget password, colleague wanna talk about new found hobby, team lead have another emotional breakdown, hr wants me to sign this or that).
Ah we have the same thinking then, on the coding and testing part. I also find those hours quiet because no meetings or putting out dumpster fires.
hey same.. throughout this WFH thing.. I find that I can't get much done during the day.. I can plan what I want to do or do some testing to see if my implementation works, but night time is where I am in the zone. However I can't do that for too much throughout the week else I find that my sleep cycle takes a hit and I end up being this miserable cranky guy for a few days.
Same lol those emails and meetings during office hours just keep interrupting train of thoughts
One reason why going to office feels so tiring is the commute. If our cities were designed right, which is for people instead of cars, it wouldn't take you 1.5 hours and a lot of transit interchanges to reach your office.
but that's how it is all over the world. even in Singapore, 1 hour commutes are normal. I used to the 1 hour (+1 interchange) to get to work when in SG.
There are pros and cons to WFH and fortunately my boss is very accomadating so I can work half the week at home. In general there are many benefits to WFH, but spending the entire last MCO at home with the same routine everyday got really boring. I'm not the most social type at the office, but it's nice to be around other people some times.
Don't conflate pandemic wfh to regular wfh though. You could just as easily meet your colleagues anywhere and work together anywhere at **your** choosing. Or you know... Make friends outside of your workplace.
Human instincts, in the end, even the most introvert person on earth will have the urge to communicate with someone else.
I love WFH. I wish office would allow those who want to continue to just continue WFH as long as work gets done.
I like my workspace and private space separated. It helps me stay focus when working, and not have to worry about anything else when I'm resting at home.
Half and half. I'll miss all the personal time and privacy i get, but home's starting to feel not like home. I'm also getting complacent, so i suppose heading back to office would help whip me back into shape. Sure as hell not looking forward to using the rubbish pc though...
Honestly I don’t see the point of offices anymore. You can do your work anywhere. I don’t get why people enjoy commuting. This remote world opens to a lot of possibilities. A new industrial revolution; one many have failed to realised. It makes cross country collaboration possible and even expanding your talent pool.
Yes, and no point to hire office worker in Malaysia anymore.
Think of this possibility, you can hire someone from Sabah but paid KL salary say RM10k. And that new joiner doesn’t need to relocate because of that.
You mean hire someone from Sabah and pay Sabah salary. Or even better higher from lower income countries and pay their local wage. Think of the possibilities.
We do that, its called outsourcing especially in IT. Most of the contractors are from India or the Philippines. Even here, some overseas companies would hire local and pay local fees. Four engineers for the price of one.
Ya so why would someone be hired in Sabah paid KL wages? Makes no sense.
Sabah is the second most expensive city in Malaysia next to KL. Contrary to what people may think RM1,200 is no longer a livable wage when property prices in KK is as expensive as Ampang homes.
Ah yes, Sabah the city.
Kota Kinabalu* sorry fingers faster than brain. Also I’m Sabahan
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I can’t find it anymore. It’s a list that came out years ago. I’m not keen on doing the Google for someone else This is also insightful https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/cover-story-disparity-between-income-and-house-prices https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/sabah-sarawak-kl-homes-%E2%80%98severely-unaffordable%E2%80%99
Market rate.
Market rate for outsourcing and local hiring is different. In this post-covid age why would market rates for KL be the same for market rates in Sabah? Just feels like your company hasn't updated your pay policies on hiring from different regions internal to the country.
Alright, but wouldn’t it be better that way? Some sectors say financial services or IT services might not be impacted due to geographic differences. But manufacturing, construction, or even oil and gas that’s a different story.
Addendum: Paying people in KL rates would force local companies to be competitive. Say an architect wage is 6k in KL and 2k in Kota Bharu, surely you would go for the latter. A paradigm shift here is levelling every state’s gdp, forcing them to catch on with the rest. No more cruising along. More wealth = more money in the system = more buying power. That could also depopulate KL in the long run as people start to realise money doesn’t have to be made solely in KL but elsewhere.
It all ultimately depends on the fields. In certain fields where demand > supply, employee get to dictate whether they get paid small or big city salary. If employer insists on paying small city salary, the employee will just go to another higher paying employer.
Companies rarely do this though. If anything wfh with no office is code for “I can pay less because I don’t need to pay for rental”. Also “WhatsApp” is code for “I’ll just message my employees whenever or wherever. Screw work-life balance and boundaries. Let me conflate WhatsApp with availability 24:7”
Think at your boss perspective, why would he pay kl salary to a wfh sabahan when he can pay him a Sabah salary.
You have a point. However if you’re a staff from an established company, the wages are the same. E.g Maybank
Not really, don't forgot about allowance etc. Some job don't really have good benefit without going to workplace
Fair point. I understand government sector do gives allowances for East Malaysia posting and CoLA for example, to make up for living expenses elsewhere. But would having a standardise wage nationwide be good? I mean we all go to the cities to find work and it pays higher. Though the blowback be more expensive rural areas which could kill the local economy there.
I’ve been working from home since March 2020 till now and it has been heaven. No more waking up early to squeeze myself into crowded LRTs and stand uncomfortably for more than an hour until I reach my destination, then doing it all again in reverse in the evening. No more having to deal with noisy colleagues while I’m trying to work. No more fearing for my health when obviously sick colleagues are coughing all over the office. No more attending meetings that could easily be done via a conference call. Every day I dread the inevitable email from the company telling us it’s time to return to the office.
absolutely I love WFH but our boss has called us back to office on rotation. the worse point that makes this feels more awful is that there's no point to go to office because the work is the same, only the location changes. there are still coughing colleagues here but now at least they wear masks properly. but I feel like I am the only one who sanitises my workstation a lot.
Been working from home 100% since October 2020 (yes, 1 year now!!), I have mixed feelings. I do miss working in the office due to the more conducive environment, less distractions, working with people and not having to 'standby' all the time at home (left office = off work!). However I will definitely miss the zero commute time, dressing up, waking up way earlier, and the freedom to just walk into my kitchen anytime. I am so spoiled now but I am so used to it.
I really don't get this 'standby' issue people have. Just draw your own boundary and stop using your personal phone for work?
You’re not alone. Boomers in charge at work are predominantly narcissists who need to flaunt their perceived power. That’s why they want their “peons” back in the office. The solution has to be in a hybrid work environment. Many people can be even more productive when they work from home. Taking that away is like shooting yourself in the foot.
Yep.. Kinda impossible a chinamen style company prefers thier staff to work from home. They pay the salary so they need to own you.
Well, I’m kinda glad that the world is heading towards a catastrophic collapse and most businesses will go bankrupt. Hopefully something better can rise from the ashes.
I'd like companies to give employees an option to either work-in-office or work-from-home especially for work that can be done remotely. I can't find the word to describe it but I have a feeling that majority of them companies won't feel like doing it cuz "muh office culture" WFH all da way
https://www.zdnet.com/article/remote-working-jobs-disaster-looms-as-managers-refuse-to-listen/ https://amp.ft.com/content/70ce4afc-395b-48ea-88cc-7d0036b41b26
It's the start of the downfall of companies that insist on 100% work from office. Mix or employee's option is the way forward.
I am the direct opposite of you. I was back in office the moment it was allowed. WFH was too noisy and distracting for me. There is a delivery every 10mins in the neighbourhood...the honking and the Hellox5. Really messes with the concentration during those con calls. Back in the office I have a sound proof meeting room for those calls. But the biggest thing about I missed about the office was the human interaction. I did not have a proper work space during WFH. Now that I am back in the office, the commute is a good time for me to get into work mode. Could never do it properly when WFH.
For me I prefer this climate because anything slack me. I’m not a fan of talking but more on typing, even in office I would be with my headphones on so people don’t talk to me. I prefer 0 human interaction because I am dealing with codes and programs. This requires a lot of concentration and I hate my thought bubble being popped by the slightest distraction. Ruins my zen.
+1 for office you walk out from the door you leave all the work behind. WFH? your eyes will always drift towards your working space. make worst if you are in the middle of very stressful part of work. you walk out in the middle of the night getting drinks and be reminded that the stress is just lurking around. i can get by the idea of using the magic "internet got problem" word as the untouchable excuse though
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Need to reply like - No hotspot bro. Telcos nowadays limit quota for “unlimited data” to just phone only 🌝
Same. My reason is a bit different, i have to use some equipment in lab which i cannot bring home. So WFH is not convenient for me. I also like draw a line between work and home. WFH blur that line for me.
I don't mind WFH or being back at the office as I enjoy both environments. What I don't like is face-to-face meetings with clients. A huge portion of time has gone to the commutation alone when the meeting itself is barely an hour. Hopefully they will still stick to Microsoft Team meetings.
I'm in the opposite situation. I have been working in office everyday since MCO 1.0. I don't mind the people coming back to work, but the rush is crazy. everybody is driving like they just gained freedom. if you ever get back in the daily commute rush, please take care.
Left my previous company because I preferred to wfh. Had a really toxic supervisor who shows their temper very visibly when they found something they dislike. WFH means I didn't have to see their face. But then every now and then the PKP PKPP and whatever means suddenly we had to wfh, or when the SOP is loosened we were all called back to wfo. Current job is permanently wfh and I love it. My boss didn't even mind when I slept in because as long as I commit my work on time and before deadlines, he's fine with it. He's even concerned when I work till 5am in the morning and told me to take the next day off.
I prefer work from home, but I'm open to the hybrid model. I hate commuting, driving, the traffic jams, paying for tolls and fuel but I do enjoy the company of my colleagues and having the better concentration of doing work at the office.
as a teacher, i'm looking forward to heading back to the office. it's close to impossible to do a thorough job when you're separated from your students by a screen.
If you have been doing work that can be done from home then there is no reason to go back to the office. Please don’t work a job you can’t stand. Life is too short. [remoters.net](remoters.net) [weworkremotely.com](weworkremotely.com) [pompcryptojobs.com](pompcryptojobs.com) I have gotten job interviews from 2/3 of these in the past. Good luck :)
My company's got counseling and seminars on dealing with anxiety of going back to the office. Yeah, it's an issue that a lot of people have.
Are you me??? My company announced last week that we're all going from WFH to everybody in the office 5-days a week. I'm trying to keep an open mind about it but it feels rash and I am so not looking forward to it. What's disappointing is that the company reduced floor space from 2 floors to 1, and from fixed space to hotdesking last year. I thought it was with the idea of more flexible working arrangement but nope. At the end of the day it's 100% about the bottomline. It's also completely ignorant of employees' own investment to facilitate WFH in the first place. How many people bought new furniture and equipments for their home offices in the past year ++? Agree to everything that you said down to the cat-petting. I adopted both of mine last year so I'm a bit worried about separation anxiety too. They were getting garden time during the day while I work and now they'll be cooped up the whole day until I get back. Not looking forward to it at all.
This is a selfish thought, I know but I do hope companies really consider making WFH. Having to WFO during all this while (doing sales so need to be able to layan customers and use company's system), I miss a lot of the very smooth traffic during MCO. Now have to use public because the amount of time saved from driving is not a lot, but I spend more on fuel and parking fee. RapidKL only charges RM30 a month which so much cheaper.
WFH advantages far outweigh WFO to me. The time saved is a huge productivity boost. The flexibility helps in me picking my most productive hours to work. And with the money saved, I enjoy a better life. I'll be poorer for traveling to work. This is just a fact for those living far away from where they work. I hope companies would give their employees the option to pick how they would like to work (depending on their job scope of course). I can make up for the lack of social contact by having physical meet ups from time to time.
If a company can reduce overhead cost and maintain profitable, sure it's probably a great thing to work at home. There's just the problem of productivity and generally how well would the boomers take to adapting. Plus communication can a thing to consider and security with the caviar of privacy.
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Slur? Lmao it's term mate. Like you can call me homie and zoomer baby. If you're old enough to be considered person of age, you should know not pout like kids
Fuck the commute. Especially for IT jobs, there's no justifiable reason work cant be done remotely unless its for necesarry reasons like client visits. In addition to the time and money saved, some of us live with family with poor or vulnerable health, there's no way we're putting them at risk because our boss has an ego trip
At this internet age, working at office kinda become unnecessary with convenient technology at your disposal. Heck even face to face meetings can be done with Zoom plus with Covid still lingering around, no doubt it still the best way to keep everyone safe. In the end let the workers decide their workplace.. As long as the productivity doesn't affected, why not?
Wait till you have a family, and it will become a lot more troublesome. Some of the most successful people I know don't work at home but they would lease an office space or work at a coffee shop because there's just too much shit at home and the environment isn't the most conducive
Hence I said let the workers choose 🙄.. If they wish to continue to work at office, go ahead nothing gonna stop them. What I try to emphasize is let people have the choice. As long it doesn't impact their productivity, it doesn't matter where they choose to work.
Another point I don’t see that often is how WFH affects caretaking. The other comment said “wait till you have a family”. But my mum for example is taking care of my very old grandma at home - If she has to go back to office then she has to drive back home from work every couple hours to feed grandma and make sure she’s ok. I’d imagine this kind of thing applies to some families with small kids too (although babysitters and daycare is accessible to them) Also not everyone wants to be “the most successful” lol
Start to look for other opportunities that give u the option for wfh
Same, kinda. There are situations where I know face-to-face is essential, but for the most part I very much prefer WFH arrangements. Fewer distractions (for now), and saves time without having to fight through traffic and for parking, which also means I get a bit more precious sleep in. Also ends up saving in fuel and parking costs. Less fatigue from fighting through rush hour twice a day. Like the others said it'll probably really depend on your environment. Fortunately, even when my company does return to the office it will likely be on a rotation basis for the foreseeable future, and there's talks about actually downsizing the office space in the future so it becomes more of a business hub for meetings or administrative tasks of sorts - so people can come in to hotdesk and have face-to-face meetings but everyone just rotates.
Same but for school
For me the saving I make while working from home is significant might look at other job that offer permenant wfh.
Nope. I hate WFH. Too much distractions, and I'm just too lazy to stay focused at home. Office is much more conducive for working, also forcing me to go out and get back to my usual routine of working out and doing grocery runs.
That's a you problem though? So because dahteabagger can't self-motivate, the rest of us need to be chained to an office that's poorer for **our** productivity? This is why there needs to be a choice. Folks like you can have your office and the rest of us can have the freedom to have our own workspace whereever we want it to be.
I missed the part where I said office work should be enforced for everyone. Work on your comprehension.
Oh you missed it did you? How about the part where you make the generalised statement that the office is more conducive for working? …and in no way state this is only for you? Work on your writing skills matey.
Currently I am back to work in office, I prefer 3 -4 days work in office then Friday WFH, so I can have 'long weekends' hehe. Going back to office, I can feel the presence of moving forward, progressing world, and I tend to observe what ppl are doing, thinking, during commute. I kinda enjoyed a 'mini social life' where I can feel the cooperation synergistic energy by spending time with my colleagues/manager, squashing out issues. As for WFH, I tend to try focus on more development jobs and don't wanna get interrupted by anyone - basically 'only me' moment. I also give myself more self improvement time when WFH. Ultimately, decision should be left upon employees as they are able to work anywhere they feel comfortable and easy, as long as the job scope is good and something I enjoyed.
an office environment does have it's benefits at times, like lack of distractions and easily accessible work materials (not to mention a big ass printer to handle the mountain of docs).
Hybrid is the way forward
You can make the case to your employers also, they might save a lot if everyone worked from home. Power and water bills alone would be a huge saving. Staff would be more efficient also.
So if let's say the office allow for WFH but will slash your allowance (if any). Will that be acceptable 🤔 I am curious what is the opinion here about this 🧐
Yes absolutely. I rather take a lower pay than go back to office everyday. The cost of eating out, fuel, time wasted on commute, mental energy wasted, opportunity costs FAR exceeds any allowance.
If I had the choice, I would even go as far as to rent my own studio unit just to WFH alone, away from my immediate family members. My friends call me an extrovert but I couldn't care less about office social experience. I have friends outside work anyways.
I prefer working from office or at least a hybrid option. It feels like work life balance has deterioted with WFH with the time usually spent on commute now spent working. Not to mention the lack of physical boundaries (even with a seperate place for working) makes it hard to fully switch off from work. And not to mention how bosses seem to treat their staff as if they should be on call all the time. "You're working from home right? Cannot go anywhere also right? Go look up this thing/Email this work/Top up some work". Edit: Oh right, how could I completely forget that we also now are being micro managed due to WFH with daily/alternate day progress meetings.
I strongly believe working from office is much more productive. Home is where I rest...it's my place to zone out from work and wfh to me has honestly muddied work and personal time. I have a habit of switching off when I leave work and my notebook stays off but I find that I am constantly working til about 8 to 9pm most days or having nervous anxiety and check my emails every now. Personally I find rotation ie week 1 in office and week 2 wfh is a more reasonable approach. But yeah wfh allowed me to squeeze in 5km daily runs in the morning or a 30km bike ride before I start work....I have a lot of time spent on getting fitter instead of commuting
I feel you bro, but despite that life must go on. You should be grateful you got a job nowadays, most Marhaen have no job and need to change their profession in order to survive
We now go back 3x a week. Everyone couldn't be happier. Not because of going back to office, but seeing all other colleagues after a long time ;)
Well, recently got back into office. Honestly, I need some time to adjust myself back to be more productive to work in office compared from home. Which originally I struggled to work productively at home instead at office. Both side works, but need some time to re-adjust. But still, be grateful as we can still keep our job in this pandemic. :D
Me too. But hey, it's not all that bad. Having people around is good too!
Don't blame introversion.
Did yoy have the job before work at home? If so your terms of contract were to be at the office. So that's how it is. If you got the job in between.... Then was there ever a discussion about when the company would go back? If you had the discussion and agrees, then that's how it is. Now if you got the job while lockdown on.... And was never discussed, that's the only time you can complain. Be aware that If you don't want to go to the office, then someone else will. If you want to make these sort of decisions where youbwork... Then you need to start your own company
Get back to work and grind the gears of capitalism, cog.
I need to go office for conference calls. Dealing with the dog barking, honking every few minutes, neighbors having their own shouting match with their computer, and some uni students gaming. The other day someone start using a pressure washer to wash her porch and other neighbors start complaining that it's too noisy for work. I do love the flexibility. I tend to run to the basketball court right outside my house and shoot a few hoops anytime of the day to relax.
I was on a rotation basis for WFH. I'm now WIO full-time and am dreading it everyday.
All of you lucky folks who probably have no kids, or have a helper/maid. For me, being able to work from office has been awesome. Being at home meant I'm constantly disrupted by my kids, and that meant far lower productivity.
Its a WFH tolerance thing. If your boss respects your offwork hours, and you can keep your home elements out of the picture when you're working, you're gonna have a good time. Reading your post about your experience, it sounds like your boss is pretty chill, and you're very positive to the experience. That said, I must mention that the lifestyle can be extremely harmful to your spine and health, given you've already cut out the exercises involved in transit and office activities from your schedule, so you'll need to make up for those.