Yes! I've finally set up a dedicated office in my home (although I still share the space with my coworker...the dog!)

Have had the pleasure of hybrid working for over a decade, I work on software projects managing teams across international time zones. Last trip was Feb 2020, last move was Sep 2020, and now am full time at home. Has helped that my husband set up my office with full office furniture from day 1, he surprised me when I returned from my intl trip in 2003! I feel super grateful.

Unhappy at home more than 2/3 days per week. Hard to stay focused, lonely, feels caged.

Nope, not me. Stuck at home for 18 months and was counting the days until they called us back. I'm dog-tired after a shift and hour commute one way, but I'll gladly take that over having no separation between work and home -- I didn't so much feel like I was working from home but rather like I was living at work. No thanks. The benefit to my mental health is more than worth what I pay in gas and commute time. I'm 75% time in the office now, 25% time at home; that I can deal with.

I went through this years ago. I had a job where I was 100% at home. It was a completely different type of job. It was great at first, but as the years wore on I became very disenchanted with the set-up. I got called back to the office punitively for not hitting my targets and secretly I was happy, I had had enough of the isolation, feeling disconnected from my colleagues, and feeling like work was always "there", not to mention the higher targets those of us working at home were held to. I made it to just shy of 10 years at home. Spent the last couple years at that job working in the office and just felt mentally and emotionally much healthier.

I knew darn well I'd hate it this time around, too -- been there, done that.

I retired 4 years ago, but the last 6 years of my career I worked from home and loved it. Most people around here are back on site. It isn't for everyone though. There were coworkers who chose to stay onsite. It was either because their spouse was at home or they knew they wouldn't have the discipline. It is best to have a separate room just for work where you can close the door and forget about work when your day is done. I never felt stuck at home when working or during the pandemic. I was out and about as usual.

Not an option but I could. Mental health suffered over all for people due to the lack of social interaction. Those who thrive from home have pretty solid support systems. Hopefully the pandemic taught us all how important a support community real people in real time, is.

I have been working from home for over 30 years, love it. I was able to be around for my kids, able to take them to their after school practices etc. They are all grown up now, but I have my dog who does not leave my side.

It doesn't apply to my job, but if I could, I probably wouldn't - or at least wouldn't do it full time. I live alone and the social interaction at work is important to my mental health. (If I only worked part time, then I could fill the other part with other social activities, but I think you're talking about full time work).

Before the epidemic, I was very hopeful that I could WFH. But after experiencing, I found that due to my job position, I had to keep an eye on the group's messages. But as soon as I sat down in front of the computer, my daughter would cry and ask me to hug her. My family didn't seem to understand me very well either. They thought that since I was at home, I should stay with the kids and didn't realize that I was already at work. In addition to the impact of the child, telecommuting also greatly lengthens the working hours. My boss or colleagues will @me online at any time, there is no concept of being off work. And the phone or video conference became more. No matter how big or small things have to open a concall, sometimes at 9:00 p.m. is still on the call. Communication is not very efficient, really tired.

Adeline, no family doesn't understand that you may be home ,but you are still working. My son assumed I would watch their baby after it was born. After all he thought a baby just sleeps and eats. Lol No! I work just like you. The grands did come to my home if they were sick so the parents could go to work, but my husband watched them when I was working. I can't imagine having kids 24/7 and working from home.

I was lucky that my employer (VA)was strict on working hours. You did your 8 hour, no more or no less.

My house and animals are too demanding to make WFH productive. My work culture in a small firm is also very collaboration based and I appreciate being in the office with them. I can see why a lot of people like WFH but personally I prefer the mental separation and the face to face time with my colleagues. We've been in office the entire pandemic, which has been easy since it's such a small firm.

I have been working from home since the pandemic lockdown. I have to return back to the office on January 3rd 2022 but only for 2 days a week. I'll take it. But I wouldn't have mind making working from home permanent.

Part time, 3 days at home and 2 at the office for team building and brainstorm activities.

We were lucky, so we had a family room upstairs with a guest room, all other rooms are downstairs... So we repurpose the guest room and family room into offices, but left a couch and TV in the family room. My kids are in middle school, so they stayed downstairs (unless they were slacking off, and asked to be in the office with us)

We spend lunch time downstairs, put a laundry load, check kids school work, watch TV then went back to the "office" . by 5pm we come downstairs and forget about work. Then by 5 the teenagers go upstairs to play in the family room.

For 13 years I work from home as a self-employed consultant. It worked well because I had a detached office in the backyard. At the end of the day I shut the door commuted across the grass and into the home. The office was once a storage shed that was nicely converted for me.

Working from home worked nicely for me because I needed to concentrate intensel without interruption from chit chat in the office. Whenever I went in I could get no work done. But towards the end of those 13 years business had changed. Clients had really cut down on travel budgets so we were not spending much face-to-face time, the source of much of my work social interaction. Other factors had also changed which caused work to become unbearable so I decided to retire. 

I can certainly understand how some people might enjoy working from home while others would find it isolating. It's not for everyone. Hopefully our country and business world will find a right balance.

I’d rather work from home than get Covid. Going to the office, no matter how much they pay, isn’t worth it if there are no HEPA filters and other policies to make it as safe as working from home. People would do better to invest their energy and focus into actually ending the contagion than all these attempts to work around it or live with it.

I use our living room as my office. I could use HOUZZ ideas as to how to blend the 2 functions of the room. I want it to be living room 1st, office 2nd. Hard to find such photos in the app

If you don't need a lot of space to work they make desk armoires that might work in a livingroom.

I have a secretary desk which is ok looks wise and functional enough when home part-time, but would prefer an open surface desk with ability to stand now that I’m home full time.

💯I am fortunate that I've had the luxury of working from home before it was even popular. Digital/Social Media Marketer. And I remember when people used to kinda shrug it off like I played all day. But truthfully, there's room for everyone. And look how many companies discovered they could survive working remotely. The savings to those corporations has to be astronomical. Plenty of companies prefer seasoned professionals behind their social media profiles, even those goofy ones that seem to have nothing to do with us.

So basically, nothing's changing. I could never go back. No matter how I do the math, even if I had to take less (not happening, but hypothetically), when I factor in the time and frustration of commuting, the additional expense of eating out OR lugging meals in totes. Please. I eat better because I love to cook, and can when I want. The 3½ hour daily NJ/NY commute (if lucky) was taxing. What's the point of earning a decent salary if you really are too tired to enjoy it?

Someone would have to make an extraordinary offer to get me to feel otherwise. #EAHWP

Pardon any typos - Siri's fault; dictating

The pandemic IS NOT OVER.

I would rather take my chances and go to an office than work from home. Feeling more stress, sadness and poor mental health working from home.

I started my work from home adventure in the early days of the pandemic and have mixed feelings about it. I loved not having to go into the office everyday at first, but I got tired of my own company. Last August, I started voluntarily going into the office once/week, which was nice. Since July, we’ve been in the office part-time 2 days one week, 3 days the following week and I love it. It’s nice to get some things done at home during my workday. But, I also appreciate seeing co-workers again too.

Remember people....the pandemic is not over. We still have a significant % of the population not vaccinated. You couldn't pay me enough to go back into the office......public transportation, people not vaccinated, etc. I am very blessed to be able to work from home and I have demonstrated with objective data that I am just as effective working remotely as I am in the office. I plan on doing this until I retire in late 2022.

Personally, I enjoy working from home, but then I've always been bothered by excessive socializing in the office, including people sticking their heads into my cube to "just say 'hi'" and breaking my concentration (I'm a technical editor). The nature of my work means I haven't had to worry about being on call at all hours (something some of my coworkers have been dealing with). I'm not looking forward to the day they force me back into the office at least part-time.

I left a job of 25 years to take a new one where I could work from. I never had the option with my previous company and for the short time they "allowed" us to work from home I enjoyed it. The ability to start dinner early, take a walk, or get a quick workout in at home. I won't go back to an office anytime soon. I think at my age, socialization is not as important as it was when I was younger or had young kids at home. I have a beautiful office that is my space only and I feel as productive if not more here at home in my comfy clothes and slippers.

I work 4 day weeks, two at home and two at the office. I would gladly work from home all four days. The commute to and from work is so awful. The work I do when I’m there I can easily do from home. There’s no reason to talk to people face-to-face when we have phones and zoom.

I’m retired now, but in 2020 I worked from home some. I detested it and was sure glad to be designated an essential worker so I could go in to the office.

I also detest using a telephone and Zoom, which contributed to my dislike of working from home.

I am not sure if I will be looking for post-graduate work but if so I would definitely want to work from home because my disabilities got a lot worse and in a way the pandemic was a blessing because I can get around at home and not be in too much pain most days at the end of the day, even though I still have to kind of plan out my day.

I have worked from home 34 years. I don’t answer emails or take non emergency calls after 530. I have 10 managers who have 200 employees. Boundaries are a must but I don’t have children so that was not an issue. I do often put my dog in another part of the house so she doesn’t bark on video calls.

I prefer going in to work, but over the past year and a half it's been mostly at home, based on management's decision. I like the interaction between me and my coworkers. I miss seeing people on a regular basis.

I've worked from home for six years now, with work travel once or twice a month which was a wonderful balance for me. Work from home in a pandemic is very different in my experience, since there isn't the usual life activity, travel, social interactions, outings to balance it out. I've had a harder time staying focused, energized, excited, engaged, etc.

We are lucky to have two dedicated office spaces, and my "weekend gig" as a psychologist is a small private practice from our basement office (separate entrance, bathroom, closed off from the rest of the house which is so great!) My husband will be transitioning to his own private practice in the coming months. Knowing that we have several decades of work from home ahead of us, our goal is to build an addition with two separate offices, a bathroom, and exterior entrance. This would be truly separate from our living space and the noise of two small kids which is incredibly distracting in therapy sessions or video calls (as you all know!). This space would also function, or be able to pivot to, a guest area or even in-law suite.

It would also be a part of a larger renovation of the kitchen and living spaces. We knew we would work towards this kitchen and living space gut and reno when we decided to buy the house, but the idea of adding on as well is driven by the pandemic. I can't imagine we are the only mid-30s professionals wanting to set up an ideal home office space like this, as many of us will work remotely in some capacity for our entire careers. I anticipate that we'll see more houses with these dedicated spaces- technically making a home like ours 6 bedrooms (which seems insane for a family of four!). But the truth is, we use every square inch of this house!