Do you think that "Work From Home" or "Remote Work" tends to reduce the work life boundary for the employees?

What I think is that Managers feel fine pinging employees at any time of the day. And as employees either you get good at ignoring messages or work outside the working hours.

Its an organizational thing tbh. My managers respect our boundaries and generally dont try to ping us outside work hours.

Depends on the company.

It really is different anywhere.

And some places those same managers do that thing regardless of work from home.

@LLAMS I feel what happens is that with remote work, the working of hours of managers and employees sometimes don't align. And when that happens you find people pinging each other at odd times.

5pm I close email client and chat client. Problem solved.

It depends on the company and the circumstances. For me, things were very slow past 2 months, so I'm glad I've had the comforts of home while not actually busy. On the hand there have been some occasions where we just kinda carry cause it's not like we're trying to beat the traffic. Last week a collegue worked until 23:00 on Friday but that was an emergency and would've been the case anyway

To us, more pinging and more expectations since we started WFH

Oh also since WFH the MFs decided to move stand up to 8am. Doesn't seem too bad as my start time was already 8 but now I have to actually start bit earlier because the meeting is at 8 so I have to be online, logged in and all that stuff by 8

There's less boundary, but it works both ways. There's more life during work hours, but possibly also more work during life hours.

It’s so easy to take a break whenever, which is nice. On the other hand, it’s easy to say “I only need another ten minutes” (Which is always a lie) or “I have an idea how to solve that!” People also tend to ping you whenever, and it’s so easy to respond. So in reality you’re working at all hours.

@Root Good point actually. Besides lunch, since I started WFH Ive started taking an extra tea break in the afternoon that I normally wouldnt take. Ive also found myself dedicating more time to personal development through Pluralsight courses because Im not worried someone is looking over my shoulder and thinking Im not being productive.

@LLAMS I’ve switched my usual music or awful Netflix serial background noise for LockPickingLawyer videos. They’re more interesting and this more distracting.

But I’ve also gotten a lot more burned out since this stupid mess started.

@LLAMS I feel this. I often found myself not so busy but scared to do courses because I didn't want to be seen watching videos at work even courses

@Root ++ for lockpicking. I enjoy BosnianBills videos too. The speed at which he can bust open something marketed as “secure”.

@TheBeardedOne 100% Ive been called out for it before at a previous company. All I ever watched was dev related but it was described to managemenet as “watching TV programs”. Assholes.

@LLAMS I would bitch so hard over that.

I really don't care if someone from work sends me a message outside of my working hours, I just ignore them and answer the next morning. I work 6 hours a day (it's an internship) and I'll only do overtime if I want to (and then I'll work a bit less the next day).

At 4pm, I'm done.

Pre-WFH:
the odd call or ping isn't the end of the world since my work day isn't aligned with the rest of the team.

Post-WFH:
Those boundaries became a little blurred and the messages, or emails, or odd call can still show up late at night. I don't normally answer though, but it makes you think about work longer in the day then you should have too.

My rule is that once work hours are over I don't do work unless It's interesting to me or critical and honestly makes me look better if I do it if I have the time.

I'll reply to questions cause that's usually the least amount of effort. But anything more gets a "I'll check it out tomorrow" answer

Realy just work as much as It's comfortable for you imo. As long as I have delivery when It's estimated or to my best efforts, I don't feel pressured to do anything extra, Im a human after all, not a cog and every manager worth their salt knows that a burned out employee is not useful to anyone

For me, I don’t know when my day ends and it sucks to not have that certainty. That’s why I liked working in office: fixed working hours.

I think it highly depends on where you work. Since I'm currently in research, i'd say there are no boundaries at all on pings. Never have been.

I admire the people who can separate work and life clearly, but I can't.