Genx wfh sucks, cell phones are a leash. I want 1995 back.

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SackBadger2024@reddit

I tried to do the work from home. I wore out a lot of PlayStation and Xbox controllers.

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Fuddle@reddit

gif

Yeah, like at the last prison I worked for if you were home; away on teams would go on after 60 seconds.

After awhile I didn't care and started to set up fake meetings with myself.

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Cryo_Dave@reddit

If you're just going to be at home turn your location off. Life 360 shows I've been at home since April 25, and since my employer no longer allows wfh I can assure you I have not been at home for a lot of time since then.

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some_dude3645@reddit

Ditch the app and set "do not disturb"

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FacePunchMonday@reddit

I commuted 2+ hours every fucking day for 15 years id rather get torn apart by rabid honey badgers than go back to the office.

QueenScorp@reddit

You either need better boundaries or a new job. Working from home does not give the company the right to expect you to be online 24/7.

I have worked from home for 8 years with three different companies and when I'm done working I close my laptop and don't give work another thought until the next day.

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AccomplishedIgit@reddit

Probably both but my industry is rife with layoffs right now. I’m doing my best.

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CompetitiveAppeal663@reddit

You are definitely doing it wrong. I wfh 3 days a week, in-office other 2. It is a sweet schedule. I schedule all my shit on my wfh days and still have time to bake bread and go to the gym and go grocery shopping and even clean the house a bit on my wfh days bc there is no commute and no office distractions. Then I have absolutely free weekends.

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54338042094230895435@reddit

9am hits I open my laptop. 4:30 hits, I close my laptop. That is my leaving for the day. No work apps on my phone, no way to get a hold of me. Not that my company ever really would need me after hours.

Weird_Technology_282@reddit

Surveillance and 24/7 expectation of access sucks. Get rid of the app, you're at home, man. Reset expectations of availability (not on breaks, only emergencies, until after work). I only use a cell phone for pickup of groceries and such. Have a VOIP telephone for home use, telephone calls. I'm not selling my soul to the Man. I use the technology, it doesn't use me.

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My girlfriend uses Life360 and as I’ve explained to her, that’ll be a big hell no for me. I’m more than happy to tell you where I’m at or where I’m going, but I don’t need another something tracking me. The phone itself. Does that just fine.

I agree with your OP, but I would go back just a little further to the 80s. That was a much simpler time in life. Our brains were better because we had to remember 100 phone numbers. Now the phone likes to remember things for us and it also loves to share those things with people we don’t want to.

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WhitneyFebreeze@reddit

Trade iPhone for a flip phone. It’s so dang annoying you’ll never want to go on it except when something is important. It’s very freeing. In the beginning it was a little annoying because I can’t scan QR codes at restaurants, but now I just tell people whenever I can’t do something that requires a flip phone, and it actually gets me talking to people IRL. I like it

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Carl_Solomon@reddit

Fuck yeah! This world is a motherfuckin' joke. All these kids are soft bitches.

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Quirky_Might_8780@reddit

I may also be contributing to that political stance. 😇

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overeducatedhick@reddit

Wife and children have iPhone with Life360. The children fuss at their mother when she calls to check on them instead of just looking at the app to see where they are. I, on the other hand, have an Android without the app, and am out of the loop.

I, too, WFH. But my family confuses it for being off the clock and the job acts like it means I never truly leave work. I'm usually still at my desk when everyone goes to bed.

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Ordinaryfemale@reddit

Get a burner phone. Forward the wife phone to the burner phone and get the fuck out of that house from time to time.

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OE2KB@reddit

Oh yes she will appreciate that. r/S

Middle-Bed-1883@reddit

Jesus, go hang potatoes in the shed. Works for all those homes show contestants.

That's basically how I use my phone - calls, texts and What's App for my son as he doesn't text just What's Apps everyone.

Comes in useful for paying whoever ordered the takeout that day (usually just get an Americano if I partake at all) off my banking App. Other than that I will search the odd thing on it when out and about - usually Google Maps because I got myself lost again.

Other than those three things my Google Pixel is basically a dumb phone - don't even use it for taking pictures.

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turtle0831@reddit

I love wfh. You just need to turn your pet perimeter alarm off.

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MissNancy1113@reddit

I know a Boomer mom who tracks her 45 year old son, his wife, and their grown children. People are just stinking weird.

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Head_Trick_9932@reddit

Why is your wife tracking you when you’re at home?

Our generation isn’t normally as clingy.

My family also didn’t track me but they also knew that I was at home with the youngest one.

I got to bond with my youngest kid. Then I got laid off due to a company merger. Since then I have worked in a factory for two years, worked as a graphic designer at a newspaper (won some press association awards!), back to graphic design for a bigger company, then laid off again. Now I’m a Team Lead at Walmart in their Online Pickup and Delivery department after my marriage falling apart (I needed a change that paid a bit more).

Absolutely hate my job. I manage almost 80 employees and the ADHD nature of the job is so stressful. Constantly and instantaneously bouncing between screens on a phone and monitoring metrics, pushing people beyond reasonable expectations (including yourself) is seriously burning me out. You’re on one high stress task that has repeating deadlines only to immediately shift gears to another high stress task. We’re understaffed even at almost 80 associates. So much so that two people calling out on a busy day wrecks your plan and metrics and you only get a lunch break (literally running all day).

I make less now thanks to the economy and can barely pay my bills. Less money and more stress.

Grow a lawn.
Tell everyone to stay off it.

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captain_ohagen@reddit

Go outside and yell at clouds

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Punk-hippie-5446@reddit

Bonus: when growing a lawn, one can’t help but touch grass.

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captain_ohagen@reddit

Dude, sack up and ditch the tracking! you'll be healthier for it.

I seriously do try. But I'm on video most of the time. Its just the times I "can't" that it gets brought up that really burn me up. I have ZERO desire to ever go to an office again, and I hope to ride this out until retirement -- but I have had those days where i have literally said "fuck it -- I'm going back to an office job and you guys can figure out what its like to come home to a fucked up house each day because I 'work'... and I'll tell you this is more about the kids than my wife. They think some magical fucking unicorn shows up and empties the dishwasher, empties all the dishes in the sink, the laundry keeps running, and all the adhoc requests via text just mythically happen each day. And i just get money.....

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BOSS_OF_THE_INTERNET@reddit

Hell no. I love WFH. Been doing it waaaaayyy before covid and will never go back.

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Beginning_Key2167@reddit

I love work from home. Been full-time work from home for several years before that was part-time work from home.

I don’t think I would know how to act civilized in an office environment anymore lol.

I would surely be fired from My occasional outburst lol.

At home, I can curse out a claimant lol.

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jupiterspringsteen@reddit

Same, on the odd occasion I bother going into work, I find it irritating and exhausting.

I've got my home office as good as I can. It makes it way more tolerable.

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mikedorty@reddit

Me too, been WFH since '16, I was a guinea pig to see if it would work to free up office space. Slowly they let a handful of other high performers go home. Then stupid covid happened and everyone went home and then they made everyone come back to the office 25% of the time including all of us that had been full time. It sucks.

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Tberd771@reddit

People look at me like I'm an alien when I say I don't have a cellphone. If I'm not home, leave a message on my answering machine. Shame they don't have actual physical tape anymore lol.

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jpowell180@reddit

There was a period of my life when I did not have any type of phone at all, except for using the free Google phone on my laptop; it did not receive calls, it only made them, people wanted to get a hold of me they would use email or maybe even… Shutter… Facebook. Then my brother and his wife gave me a Samsung S3 with a prepaid plan, I couldn’t exactly turn down something free like that; I kept that going until the prepaid company went out of business, and then my other brother gave me a brand new iPhone, and put me on his family plan because he did not like me being out of contact, but that was of course, very generous and kind of him.

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My 27 year old daughter told me with a straight face I was a bad parent

Have you tried designating a home office space? Outside that space you Do Not Work. Inside the space is Office space.

I leave my phone ALL the time. People get so upset...I can't understand why...their response is what if something happens to you...something ALWAYS happening all over the world and people are not tied to a chip/cellular phone 😉

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Jokerchyld@reddit

Respect for keeping Life360 on. I track my kids but Id be damned if they can track me.

Kids: Dad we just want to make sure your safe

I have also been WFH since Covid. In-fact, our company just sold and moved out of our downtown offices, and we are not entirely WFH / Virtual. And it is great.

Saves the company money. Saves the employees money.

I will never miss standing in a line in the hall waiting for the meeting room to open up because the folks in it are running over - to then spend the first ten minutes getting the projector working.

It is so much easier now.

Fuck working in-office. Especially with $5.00/gallon gas.

Not every occupation can do this - but for knowledge workers? Fuck yes.

amybeth43@reddit

Burnout nurse here, worked thru it too. Cptsd, lost coworkers and close friends. Posts like these are so fcking tone death.

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SourceSeparate3759@reddit

Grow a pair and take the app off your phone. The whole “warden” thing just reeks of you bitching because you allow yourself to be put upon.

Its an app that shows where you are. People in your group/family can check your location. Its good for people with kids. It can even let you know if someone is speeding.

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alinroc@reddit

I live in my jail cell and if I leave my fu@$ing cell my phone via life 360 notifies my wardens

wanderingdev@reddit

i think you wanted this to go to OP. :)

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birdlord_d@reddit

I'm with you 100%. My husband's family are all connected or whatever the setup is. I told them under no circumstances woukd I or he participate. We are grown ass adults.

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Icy_Tiger_3298@reddit

*Dobby

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Lopsided_Panic_1148@reddit

You don't have a WFH problem, you have a family problem. Why do you even have that shitty app that tracks your location, anyway? Turn it the fuck off, and tell your family no more. I'm a married mother, and I will never, ever have a tracking app. That shit is sinister.

And if your family complains tell them to suck it.

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SatansLoLHelper@reddit

They grew up thinking helicopter parents were normal.

I've seen this happen IRL.

Try uninstalling big brother 🤷‍♀️

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JohnnyRelentless@reddit

my wardens (wife and daughter)

Definitely.

Been WFH for about 20 years. Technically I am field based but whatever.

WTF is Life360?

Just googled life 360, fuck that.

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KnoxVegas41@reddit

I grew up in an extremely controlling and manipulative family.

I don’t need that shit in my life.

How can people justify this? Humans survived for countless generations without constantly being tracked and monitored.

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JTJonze@reddit

WFH isn’t the problem, your family is.

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ih8theeagles@reddit

Stop acting like their concierge. When you’re leaving to grab smokes or whatever ask if anyone needs anything. If they don’t it can wait until the next time you or someone else goes out. The idea of every want needing to be immediately gratified is the problem not cell phones or Life 360.

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citizenracerx@reddit

Family tracking you is the least of your problems with the electronic leash, NSA joins the chat.

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Powerful_Ad_2506@reddit

100% a skill issue.

Apparently. My kids are grown with families. We do hang out together, go on vacations together, dinners at each other's houses regularly, etc.

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Foamfollower_65@reddit

I've been WFH for well over 20 years. You learn to shut the door at the end of the day.

I get to run errands, cut grass, attend appointments, etc. You'll learn to make it work.

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sweetthang70@reddit

I know it's not possible for everyone depending on their housing situation,, but my wfh office is strictly for work. I get ready in the morning just like anyone else-shower,etc. then I go into my office. I come out for breaks and my lunch. At the end of my work day I shut the office door behind me and don't go back in until the next day. That room is for work, the rest of the house is for living. It really helps to separate the two.

Why are you letting your phone track where you are? That is just weird. We grew up with no tracking, why are you doing it now?

If the school-age child is old enough for driving lessons, the instructor strongly encourages the use of Life360. That way, you know where your teen is driving around with a "stranger."

My child is now 23, and we all still have it. But we're not policing each other...it becomes joke fodder. Guess we're weird.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Sorry_Lecture5578@reddit

IMO, Life360 is the opposite of anything GenX. We went from being free range, and learning to deal with issues as they arose, to being, and wanting, to track and be tracked. Its fucking disgusting, honestly. Its so normal for everyone to know where everyone is... its wild. When did we become this group of dependent losers?

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LittleMush@reddit

I don't think I consider the way my family uses it as being "dependent." It's a tool, it's on the user to not become a slave to it. I mean, I get that this is all considerably different than when we grew up. Jeez, if my mother would've had Life360 on me back in the day, I'd probably still be grounded! But again, it's all in how emotionally invested some people become in technologies. My family is "yeah, whatever, it's still on the phone. Can't be arsed to even bother with uninstalling it."

In 1995 all the employees at my dad's company called their pagers "leashes". Sorry, fellas; it got worse.

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Commercial-Border227@reddit

WFH is amazing. But who told you to still have school aged children? Lmaoooooo. That is a YOU problem. You sentenced yourself to that punishment.

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dakotarework@reddit

You don’t hate WFH. You hate Life360 and that you and your daughter and wife share locations. You and your family need to have a chat about how and why to use that.

But WFH is a godsend.

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deelee70@reddit

I fucking LOVE WFH. I’ve had a friend express concern about the isolation, but by my 9am start I’ve had multiple social interactions with my family & acquaintances at the gym, my local cafe & dog park. Come work time I am ready to focus on working without any distractions other than my dog wanting a pat & making lunch (plus the occasional load of laundry). I fucking LOVE it. After 3pm, the rest of my family start coming home & chaos reigns again.

We also track each other because we often meet out for dinner or a drink or get picked up by car from things & there’s a lot of “how far away are you?”. Once the kids were over 18 it just became a convenience that is reciprocated.

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brendaleetee@reddit

Same. I never want to go back to working in an office again.

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Jaybonaut@reddit

Count your blessings, do you have any idea how hard it is to be able to wfh nowadays?

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Plenty-Run-9575@reddit

Stop calling the people you chose to have in your life “wardens.” It’s gross. It is a Boomer-level excuse for a joke. Have an adult conversation with them to change their expectations and/or discuss not having phone tracking on.

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WarpedCore@reddit

Maybe. just maybe OP is just a little frustrated and is venting.

Give OP this. It can be a safe space here.

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We have find my turned on on our phones, but we don’t use it to track each other in an obtrusive way, we use it so we don’t have to send location updates.

1kpointsoflight@reddit

I had this app for a time and I agree it’s stupid. I share location with my family and if they want to they can find me through the “find my” app that is free. I showed them this and deleted the app. The diff is the find my app is truly about safety tracking no getting notified that I’m at the dispensary again….

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jmg733mpls@reddit

Maybe use your voice and tell them to not message you during work hours? Seems like a you issue.

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mrbabyman767@reddit

Telling your own wife and daughter is not so easy my bro. Women are not so easily convinced to change their behavior.

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shamashedit@reddit

Actually, if you talk to women about your problems, they tend to listen. Now if your idea of talking is telling/demanding, idk what to tell ya.

Genx who loves working from home here. It’s a god send.

Sounds like you built your own prison buddy.

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makinthemagic@reddit

Why dont you have a burner?

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FrankParkerNSA@reddit

Delete the app and give your daughter freedom too.

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HighSeasArchivist@reddit

There's a 0.0% myself, my wife, or our daughter would ever let Life360 anywhere near our phones. I'd straight up tell either one of them to fuck off if they even suggested it, and would get the exact same thing in return. You all bring this shit on yourselves raising a bunch of fucking weaklings that can't fend for themselves.

Fact: You are in total control of how people contact you.

No is a complete sentence.

CatelynsCorpse@reddit

Referring to your home as a jail cell and your wife and daughter as wardens is a choice, I guess.

It's weird as fuck that you need to have Life360 on if you work from home. Like, just turn it off, damn. haha.

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BadPAV3@reddit

gif

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ogliog@reddit

>just turn it off, damn.

That scenario is a big Nope for me.

I work from home and have complete autonomy and flexibility with my schedule, as long as I'm online during core hours.

All that matters is if I'm reaching all my goals (KPIs).

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Equal_Statement_7270@reddit

Why did you ever do the life 360 thing? I have some friends who use that for their adult family members and it drives me crazy. My husband and I know where the other is b/c we keep in contact if we are going to be deviating from our normal schedule of work/home, etc. We do not need to be notified every time one of us goes to Target or Harbor Freight - LOL

I could not deal with tracking on my phone & neither could he. We do not need to police each others whereabouts.

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Crafty-Farm-8470@reddit

I wfh all the time. It's 65 degrees and sunny and I'm outside with my partner and dog. Wouldn't trade this for an office in a million years. And I'm writing this on a cell phone!

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Iittletart@reddit

Turn it all off. It is perfectly reasonable to turn off the surveillance state defaults on your phone. If you are worried about hurting your family's feelings then pretend it is a privacy from big government bullshit or something else. But you have the autonomy to set your own settings on your phone and I very much doubt your wife and daughter would want you be doing something that is making you feel so trapped and mad.

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DagnyLeia@reddit

As a genxer, um, nobody knows my whereabouts unless I tell them. My daughter has her Life 360 on, but my husband and I only turn ours on when a specific need arises. Otherwise..ewwwwwew. I find it unbelievable that my daughter's friends all share their locations with each other.

OldHead1776@reddit

Not sure what Life360 is. Everyone, including my office, knows I have my cell on silent 100% of the time. I will look at it eventually, and respond to urgent, but if its not, you might be waiting or ignored. I'm in off two days a week, so a lot of the time, people just hit me up then.

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9inez@reddit

Sounds like a lack of communication in the family about what sharing locations is for.

gif

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moonflower311@reddit

My partner also dislikes wfh BUT (and thus is a big but) after having jobs with 3 separate companies that ended up in the same office complex we bought a house 2 miles away. So partner has a 5 minute commute to a quiet office with one or two coworkers he likes (there are more but a lot are millennials choosing to do wfh) catered lunch all windows and a pretty view of downtown and a sweet gym setup in the building. Back in the days of the 45 minute commute he would have given anything for wfh though.

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Slippery-ape@reddit

I love my wfh

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bluedonutwsprinkles@reddit

Same, 17 years ago in April

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robertwadehall@reddit

I've worked from home for 9 years now, I love it. I'm more productive than I was in cube land (or worse, open plan offices). I don't miss having a commute, though I have more cars now than I did then. Never heard of Life 360, the only people that need to know where I'm at are my partner (she works from home also) and our dogs.

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CaptainLollygag@reddit

It's a location sharing app. Might do other stuff, I dunno. The app isn't the problem, OP's wife and kid are. They need to respect that OP is a human capable of making his (?) own choices about when to leave the house.

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Why do use that trash?

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TheKaptinKirk@reddit

Might as well go into the office if that's what they're doing to you. I work from home with no chains. Take a nap, go to the coffee shop, play games, whatever I want when I want. I also work weird hours sometimes; nights, weekends. Get the work done correctly on time. That's all that matters.

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NVJAC@reddit

I also work weird hours sometimes; nights, weekends. Get the work done correctly on time. That's all that matters.

That's the attitude my wfh company takes too. When I hired in, they even specifically said "We don't *want* you working at 2 am, but if that's when you do your best work then go ahead." As long as I'm getting my work done on time and in the manner it needs to be done, they really don't care what hours I work.

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battlesong1972@reddit

I wish I had an office to go to. My company sold the building during Covid

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bluedonutwsprinkles@reddit

We do not use 360.

I'm wfh and so is my husband (in a different part of the property) but we just communicate with each other. If I leave or he does, we tell each other.

The only thing I want to do with a 1995 is tell myself what stocks and gold to buy.

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medisamurai@reddit

i remember going to community college for the summer and this young guy about 22 was a part time plumber or roofer or something telling me about buying stock and i was like, that sounds cool but what could i buy.

i just looked a stock calculator, 500$ in amazon 30 years ago would be 1.5 mil now.

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Meepoclock@reddit

I’m bored with it, too

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Ramona_Lola@reddit

Really? So Jealous. I love WFH but talk to your wife and kids about their neediness. Like what would they do if the cell phone didn’t exist? They would figure it out. No need to be a martyr.

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Back in 1996 I got my "dream job" (I was 19) as an EMT with AMR in Los Angeles. My annual income at that time was $18,500 a year. I will remain in 2026 for my current paycheck.

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Mortimer452@reddit

Your workplace requires you to use Life360!? That's a hard no for me, dog.

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Apprehensive-Ant2141@reddit

Read it again. He’s talking about his family.

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pumkinut@reddit

You misread his post. His wife and daughter are notified by Life360, and hot him up for errands when he's not in the house, so he feels trapped in his home office.

I made it very clear when I WFH. It's like I'm at the office. I'm at work, and things can wait until I'm not at work, just like any other day

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Mortimer452@reddit

He added the (wife and daughter) after my post - I get it now

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Zandor72@reddit

This is just my 2 cents -- there is a middle ground that's just right...

I can't imagine spending your entire adult carreer working from home - people need to be around others, and to build professional relationships.

But - all week every week, 50 hours with commuting is too much.

For me, 3 days in the office, 2 wfh is about right.

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Express_Front9593@reddit

Therapy. Yourself, couples, and family therapy. Instead of running, fix what is clearly damaged.

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Sufficient_Stop8381@reddit

I’ve had a wfh job for a year and I hate it. I’d rather be in an office and separate work from home.

I’ve never used Life360 or other nanny tracker apps and I never will. Once you let that electronic leash in the door it’s hard to get rid of because “sAfEtY!” No one needs to track me constantly in the name of safety. If I was in actual trouble my family wouldn’t be able to help from miles away anyhow. I’ll take my chances.

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Plus-Pomegranate8045@reddit

WFH is not the problem in this scenario.

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Black_Pill_Oh@reddit

I probably have the best wfh setup. I travel a third of the time, and even though I have an actual office, I'm not required to be there. My wife is wfh 3 days a week so we do lunches and afternoon dog walks together. I'm not monitored, and there's no quotas to meet.

I (47F) don't track my kids or spouse and they don't track me. Heck...I've sent my family to vm to play Pokémon Go. They know I do it. It's all good.

I literally have a work text I'll be responding to when I get back to office. I am sick. I am home. If it is important, they will call and I'll adjust my time sheet.

Leave your phone in the house and go for a walk.

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imtooldforthishison@reddit

My son and I have Life360 and its only because he works late and it tells me when he has left his job, so I can go unlock the door for him and he doesn't have to fumble his keys in the dark. We started this when he started working 3 years ago but neither of us pay any attention to it outside of that.

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tnmcnulty@reddit

47/m. I still have PTSD from my WFH. I quit in Jan after 3 years and I feel reborn.

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Eazy12345678@reddit

you sound like an old geezer that doesnt understand how to use technology

I've been WFH since 2020. Got called back to the office a couple months ago. It sucks.
During the time I worked from home, I lost weight because I was no longer eating in the corporate cafe or from a vending machine. My caffeine intake dropped significantly. My blood pressure went down, my a1c went down, my cholesterol went down.

Back to my office and it's all reversing. I spend two hours a day in traffic, wasting time and fuel. The worst part is I no longer see my granddaughter throughout the day. It's now limited to a couple hours before she goes to bed.

I own my business and even so, I've been leaving my phone in my truck and in my office for the last month. I've just been returning calls at my convenience. Work has not suffered and I've not felt this good in years. It keeps your brain in a constant state of expecting a call that something is about to go terribly wrong. When you let go of that, it's a return back to normal. It's been wonderful.

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