Over the recent years, working from home has become the new norm for millions of people around the world. It has some upsides; for some people, it allowed them to save precious time on commuting back and forth and minimized certain expenses, such as money spent on gas or lunch-break outings. Not to mention the additional hour of sleep in the mornings or the comfort of working in your sweatpants. However, every coin has two sides and working from home (also referred to as WFH) is in no way an exception.

Some of the drawbacks of such an arrangement were discussed by the ‘Ask Reddit’ community members. The user TheBruceDickenson asked them what is an unfortunate reality with WFH nobody talks about, and the redditors poured their hearts out. Their answers cover everything from a disturbed work-life balance, to missing wearing pencil skirts, so scroll down to find the disadvantages of working from home and see if you can relate to any of them.

#1

Work From Home can easily become Live at Work.

Image credits: TanLimes

#2

When you work from home people assume you have the day off. "Can you do...."

No, I'm working. Just because I'm here working on the computer doesn't mean I can do your thing. Pay no attention to the fact that I'm browsing reddit, it's part of my process.

Image credits: SuperstitiousPigeon5

#3

The good part is you get up at 7 and you’re in the office at 705. The bad news is you are still in the office at 705pm.

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#4

When you and your partner both work from home, you miss that natural separation of your lives. Suddenly you have much less to talk about, because you're living your lives together more than previously, and then takes more active effort to maintain individuality and not regress into the singular relationship entity in all aspects of life which isn't healthy for anyone.

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#5

I miss wearing my nice work outfits. The only reason I leave home is to pick up groceries, go to the gym, or go to church, so 80% of my wardrobe is going unworn.

But I do NOT miss my 2+ hour round-trip commute, so I would never wear a pencil skirt again if it meant I had to go back to that traffic hell.

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#6

I'm missing out on a lot of "accidental" exercise.
I used to walk to the train station, then from the station at the far end to the office. Have a wander around at lunch.

Now, I walk from my bed to the shower, and from the shower to my office/man cave. If I had a Fitbit, it may get as high as 50 steps by lunch.

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#7

You feel jailed, like you work in your house, you clean the house, you cook for the family in the house and when everybody gets home from school/work you are the only one who did not get to go outside. nobdy want's to come outside with you because they were outside all day.

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#8

It's lonely. While I may occasionally be irked by a colleague here or there, I have a good group of supportive colleagues that I'm close friends with, and who help me get through the days that just seem to drag on. WFH you miss out on that socialisation and support.

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#9

Worked from home since last year, I find less reasons to go out and gained some weight too (realized early, already lost it thankfully). Lead me to barely take care of myself, since no reason to go out as I mentionned, and as someone who's already depressed, I was just "drowning" in my loneliness, no one to share a coffee during breaks, no one to chat with, no one to directly you ask you for something with a sense of actual purpose, etc...

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#10

Using your own heating and electricity.

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#11

Sitting all day has absolutely destroyed my core. Without needing to constantly get up and walk over to talk to someone or any of the other million little things I walked around at the office for, my body has slowly wasted away without my notice

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#12

I was extremely disappointed to find that when I worked from home, stealing office supplies just didn't give the same thrill.

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#13

I love working from home but it can give you an everybody is just a stranger vibes. Loss of connection to the outside world is real.

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#14

Probably not very healthy to have even LESS physical activity throughout the day.

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#15

Every discussion needs to be intentional. Forget about chance meetings in the hallway. Forget about casual lunches where you build relationships. Forget about contact with anyone outside of your immediate team. None of that will happen without you making an effort to set up time. If you don't take the time to manage things, long term WFH kills networking, culture and comraderie.

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#16

It’s veeeerrry easy to start drinking too early in the day. 3:00 is ALMOST quitting time, might as well have a drink.

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#17

Lack of hygiene routine. Bad posture. Working harder to prove to your bosses rhst you don't want to go back to the office

Image credits: Armedwithapotato

#18

Omg yes. When I started WFH due to pregnancy struggles, I noticed that we would have a lot of people knocking on the door. I take calls so I’m not just lounging around. I would let the door go unanswered and then I would see my MIL calling me and sending me messages that so and so will be stopping by for x thing. I told her I’m busy working and cannot leave my desk. Another thing that would happen would be her aunt who was living with us at the time would come to the living room to watch TV and videos on her phone. The fact that I had to tell her more than once that I am WORKING so she needs to watch TV in another room baffled me. I also had to explain that I have access to people’s medical information and how would she feel if she called her doctor’s office and the person she was having a conversation with was discussing her private information in front of others.

#19

I have to buy all my own toilet paper

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#20

As it turned out, many people don't really like their kids.

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#21

Families don't grow close when they spend so much time together. They end up finding reasons to dislike each other more.

#22

Visiting the kitchen way too often out of boredom.

Image credits: The-Meech

#23

That we have to mind the house work too while "at work"

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#24

When I'm done work I often just wait for an appropriate time to go to bed.

I have more time than when I commuted. Yet I do nothing. How.

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#25

Loud neighbours.

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#26

The heating/cooling bills. It'll be on all day because the house is always occupied.

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#27

You end up not ‘working from home’ but ‘living in the office’.

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#28

Very difficult to break into team or grow career.

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#29

My wife works from home and it seems like a very sedentary lifestyle. Sometimes, she doesn't even have to get dressed.

I don't know, it just seems like if you're already anxious or depressed, you can accidentally become a shut-in.

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#30

The isolation/loneliness wouldnt be such an issue during pre covid times. The combination of working from home, Living alone and quarantine (immunity issues make me high risk) can be difficult though.

Image credits: EmmaRB

#31

No boundary between home and office, your time and work time.

You don't need to get dressed. You don't get the commute to get mentally ready for day at work and to decompress after said day.

Image credits: Kalle_79

#32

The crippling loneliness.

I rarely speak with anyone during my work day. My wife works two jobs, and my daughter is in a school sport as well as having a job. Most days of the week I am home, alone, and only see my family for about 30 minutes if that. At least when I worked at the office I would see other people for eight hours a day.

#33

The depression that comes with it. When my fiance was working from home while with a call center he hated the fact that "work" was less than 5 feet from his bed. He ended up quitting because he found it depressing how he couldn't ever really feel like he was getting away from work/terrible customers (anyone that's ever worked a call center know how bad the customers can be)

#34

No one seems to understand that you're really properly working. People will come into your room and ask you unimportant questions and you seem rude telling them you're working and sending them away.

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#35

Lack of motivation. Why get up earlier than needed? Why get dressed in the morning if no one's going to see me? Why brush my teeth? Why do anything?

Lack of boundaries. Nothing is stopping me from doing my laundry while I'm supposed to be working. But nothing's stopping my boss from asking me to grab him some files while I'm supposed to be off.

Lack of interaction. It's lonely and does a number on my social skills.

The confinement. My supervisors are pretty laid back so I had a LOT of freedom in the office. A lot of my tasks were also away from the computer and I basically had to stop doing those entirely when I was working from home. Aside from illicit laundry breaks, I had no "legitimate" reason to get up and do things. Not to mention giving up my roomy workspace at the office in favor of a small, cluttered desk. WFH became more of an insult as stuff was opening back up, too, since I could finally get away from my house but was required to stay in for 40 hours of my waking time.

Also? I personally enjoy my commute. It's 10 minutes through a nice area of town. Traffic is never bad unless I leave late. It feels like the beginning of an adventure, even if it's not.

#36

Depending on your living situation, your room can become your workspace and it feels real bad.
I work in my room, it feels like my space is now not my owns,.
I have had my clients see my room and it sucks

#37

Its depressing as hell.

Been WFH 100% of the time for the entire pandemic. Same with my wife. We see each other all day every day which isn't great for our relationship, and since we had a baby during the pandemic, we don't really have the ability to get out much outside of work hours which makes the issue worse. Every day begins to feel the same, like groundhogs day. My hygiene has gotten kind of bad because showering isn't as necessary when you don't leave the house. I used to shower every day, now its maybe 2-3 times a week. Some days I barely move. I basically only go from the bedroom to the office, to the kitchen to eat, and then it's back to sitting down. Thankfully, I haven't really gained weight, but I feel weak as hell. It doesn't help its the heart of January so its 10 degrees outside, as I used to take walks during the day.

What was once my man cave and my place of rest is now my office so I have lost the feeling of peace from being in this room. I used to play a lot of PC games, but I rarely spend any time in my office outside of working because it feels like my work place and I can't relax there anymore. I have reverted back into a console player so I can play games on my TV in the living room, although I only beat one video game in 2021 compared to about 20 in 2020, mostly due to being a new father.

We moved away from the city to get a bigger place and pay less for rent, but I would absolutely kill to go back to 2019 when I used to walk a mile to the train station only to cram myself into a train with 100 other people. I miss going out to lunch with people at work, being taken to dinner by my vendors, or even just having a reason to go somewhere. I miss having a relationship with anyone other than my wife, and looking at anything other than a handful of screens all day.

#38

I’ve been WFH in solitary confinement for 2 years. Just laid off. Now I have to go from indoor cat that hides under the bed to outdoor feral, dodging cars and finding my own mice.

#39

I'm not taking regular breaks. In office, there is regular chats, time to get cups of tea, little breaks from time to time. All because there are people about. At home, I work solidly from 8:30am to 12 lunchtime before I realise I need to stop and take a break. Then I work from 1pm to probably 4pm before realising I should take another break possibly. I don't finish until 5:30 and the last hour I'm just a bit dead inside.

I am super tired from I WFH.

#40

That if you're someone who has a different "head space" at home vs at work, it can be xtremely difficult working from home. Some people can literally work from home and "dial in" if you will to the same level of attention or better than in an office setting. Others (like myself) have difficulty focusing on work at home. Even when I know I have work to do, when I'm at home, that part of my brain just shuts off and I have a very hard time staying focused.

My fiancé would often mock me, but I would dress as if I were going to the office even when at home. Something about the routine of it, putting myself in the position as if I were physically "at work", put me in the right head space to focus better on my work.

#41

People assume that working from home means not working, no, I can't go deliver s**t..I'M WORKING

You have no right to lunch time since "you can eat alongside the computer"

You have no right to an exit time "you don't have to travel back home so keep working for a few more hours"

You sleep and eat where you work, psychologically speaking, you never leave the office

You live in a family that likes to fight? Then good f*****g luck

#42

All the stupid house and kid c**p falls on me because my workday is flexible. Rotating laundry, picking up the kids, caring for them if they are sick, letting in the repair people, etc.

Plus my mom and sister who don't work always act like I'm rude if I don't go to their two-hour lunch outings.

#43

I’m f*****g bored out of my mind working from home. Say what you want about workplaces being sterile, blah blah blah, at least there’s human interaction. Everything over the phone, on video and on the computer is a pretty f****d up version of reality. I’m now at the point where our office is closed for the public, but I can go in a few days a week. Even though my commute is about an hour and a half total, I’d rather do that. Can’t wait until I can retire in just under six years, but who’s counting?

#44

Don't know about work from home but I have grown to absolutely despise online schooling like classes through Zoom. There is little to no social interaction with your peers and your ability to learn and retain information is significantly hindered. Also, in cases of students who have little to no social life outside of school, it can lead to a great increase in anxiety and depression.

#45

All of these comments are the reasons I went back into the office after about two months of working from home.

There are only a few people working in the office so it still gets lonely at times, but not to the extent that it does when I’m at home alone in my apartment 24/7.

#46

That I’m actually not working. Instead of surfing the net, chatting to colleagues and sitting in unimportant meetings scrolling through social media, I’m now cleaning and doing my washing while pushing through a new series marathon. I literally then sit down, and complete all my work in 3 hours or less just before a deadline.

#47

If you're not married and you die no one's gonna miss you for like...4-5 days.

Having to take a s**t in my own toilet and use my own plumbing and toilet paper

Being isolated from co-workers and have no social interaction with them.

Constant temptations to be less productive like your bed and Netflix

The feeling that you "didn't do anything" because you never left the house.

Complete dependence on a good internet connection.

#48

As a recent grad, it’s so much harder to learn job responsibilities. Can’t walk over to a desk to ask and I’m not the best learner on zoom. Also I feel like I barely know my coworkers

#49

I just had to fire my MIL from watching my Toddler while I was working from home.

MIL would be in the living room watching my toddler and would make snide comments about me saying I do nothing ALL day but sit infront of the computer, not cleaning the toddlers mess, even though I clean the house every morning. She would compare herself when on how she was a hard worker when she was young as a managing the fruit Isle. She would say I don't know how you can sit there when it's so nice outside. She called me LAZY. She would go up to be during important meetings asking me this and that and get angry and call me rude of If shuush her because I am in a meeting. Fired her and never looked back. Some people think sitting Infront of the computer is not really working.
I am a finance manager so it's a very high stress job.

#50

A lot of Cafe's and small shops in Cities are going bankrupt.

It's unfortunate but unavoidable.

#51

Not everyone lives in a 3000sqft house with a yard in the middle of nowhere, even if they work from home. Sometimes you have to be in a city (either your partner has a job where they have to be in person, or maybe you just like cities...), and that often means smaller places, and noisier environments.


If you live in 1 bedroom and both you and your partner are in meetings at the same time, it can be tough to not pick each other's audio. Those soundproof booths are becoming pretty popular.


In the same vein, noise ordinances in cities really assume you're not at home during the day. Dealing with construction across the street all day while trying to have a Zoom meeting is rough.

#52

Theres something to be said for the drive home. It separates work life from home life and gives you time to transition. Working from home there's a blurred line that makes it hard to separate work and home.

#53

I have to think and plan what I want to eat for lunch everyday.

When I go to the office I usually go to the work canteen or a nearby restaurant for lunch, now that I still mostly work from home I rarely go to restaurants for lunch and cook myself. On the positive side I learned some new recipes.

#54

For me, it’s the fact that nobody seems to understand or respect the fact that I don’t like working from home. Everybody treats it like it’s the future of work and companies are terrible if they don’t embrace full WFH policies. Since our company switched to a hybrid schedule (you can take a few wfh days a week), my coworkers think I’m nuts for being in office most days.

We all work differently and need different environments to be productive. If you find wfh to be best, that’s great - I just wish there was a little more acceptance that some of us (from my experience, a small minority lol) prefer to be in the office.

#55

If I use annual leave I just come back to all the work the day after.

I work in a large college and honestly I haven't got the slightest idea how the other departments are doing, I seem to be completely left out of any discussions regarding my role and just get emails telling me the extra tasks that now magically been assigned to me.

I now go into the office twice a week which is perfect for me.

Thankfully I have permission to do my work on my home computer but I feel sorry for my colleagues who have to use the college laptops. They are so s**t they don't even have an ethernet port!

#56

This happens in our house. I don't work. So, I hang out , water my plants, smoke weed. Maybe do a jigsaw puzzle. It's usually a pretty laid back day. My husband, on the other hand, works very hard upstairs in his office. I can hear him on calls where he's getting all fired up and then he gets off the call, comes out of his office and tells me the same stuff I just heard, just with more f-bombs. I am still thankful for everything!!

#57

Due to the realities of Zoom meetings, over time, you'll wear your nice shirts a lot more often than your pants. This is the modern mullet. Business on the top, party pants on the bottom.

If I was a smart man, I'd invest heavily in companies that make sweat pants and comfy socks.

#58

I thought I hated my job because I was forced to commute 40 minutes each way and forced to be physically present in the office even when my work was already finished. After I started working from home I realized it was the job itself I hated, not the commute or any other part of it.

#59

Having stress from work now be inside your home. I hate that my bedroom (where my desk resides) is now a trigger for work anxiety. Once my boss called me to yell at me about something and it all happened in my own home. I liked leaving the stress of work behind at the office at the end of day...now it's always with me.

Also, work-life balance has been demolished. My company was eventually like "Well, you work from home, why aren't you working earlier and later? Why aren't you logging in on weekends? Let's schedule meetings from 11am-3pm, eff your lunch."

#60

•Depending on your company, you may need to pay for your own office setup if you want to work efficiently

•Less reason to go out

•Decreased social interaction

•Decreased work life balance. Some people may have a harder time shutting the computer and logging off for the day


With all that said, I would easily take the downs mentioned above if it meant not coming into the office

#61

WFH is freaking awesome, the only downside for me is less physical activity since I'm not walking around the office but that's easily remedied by increasing my workouts. No dealing with blabbermouth coworkers, not being forced to pretend I'm busy just to appease the boss, saving tons of money and time on commuting, I'll never go back to the office. The less connection I have to my company the happier I am and WFH is perfect for that. I can get my stuff done and disappear, that's how it should be.

#62

My Zoom calls starts at 8.30 AM and ends around 9 PM (not all days, but most). I would still trade in work from home to going to office any day. At least I can turn off the video and not have to see people I don't like.

#63

Overall, I love WFH. Don't have to dress up, don't have to commute, and I'm so much more productive without all the normal office interruptions that I'm working fewer hours and accomplishing more. My car insurance is a lot cheaper (because I changed to one of those pay by the mile plans), and I'm not spending money on gas. I cook for myself now, so I'm not paying for daily lunch.

The only issue that I've really noticed is that leaving the house has become an Event. I don't just go hop in the car and go somewhere anymore. I left my house once (?) last week, and it took actual planning to do. I don't FEEL lonely, but I'm sure the many, many hours I spend at home by myself is taking some kind of mental toll.

#64

I find I get distracted way easier.

#65

I’ve found it has really exacerbated my social anxiety. I’ve been 100% WFH for almost two years now and at this point I’m so used to only seeing my wife and kids that basically running into anyone else I know kind of triggers me. I guess the moderate amount of interaction I used to have on a day to day basis was good for me.

#66

I have to be quiet when my roommate are working when I'm home too. Basically I'm hanging out at my friend's work.

#67

Lack of human interaction.

#68

Also, in cases of students who have little to no social life outside of school, it can lead to a great increase in anxiety and depression.

#69

I've been working remotely for the better part of 5 years and love it.

If I had to say anything negative , I would say internet connectivity is more vital , but even that isn't even much of a unfortunately reality because I live in NYC and there's Strong connectivity nearly everywhere I've been.

#70

You never feel like you leave work behind.

#71

Why do I feel like this is some "WFH bad!" propaganda?

A lot of people saying they feel like they're jailed. What? Really? Just f*****g go outside and do something. Go to the gym. Play with your kids. You feel more jailed at home than you do in a s****y cubicle at work with your boss breathing down your neck? The f**k is wrong with you people?