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I've seen this used in several places, but WFH seems to make more sense to me. Is there some other significance that I'm missing besides the 'M' coming from the end of 'home'?

Dave Andersen
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3 Answers3

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WFH is the usual acronym for working from home, as you'd expect. WFM is Internet slang for 'Works for me'. Perhaps the two have been confused and the mistake has perpetuated.

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    That's teh ticket! Pwned! – Robusto Jan 22 '11 at 13:11
  • That seems like a reasonable explanation – Dave Andersen Jan 22 '11 at 18:42
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    I've seen 'wfh' degenerate to 'wtf' a few times. – Anguish Languish Jul 05 '11 at 22:06
  • Am I the only person who thinks Works for me means That's good enough for me? This answer doesn't WFM. – FumbleFingers Jan 25 '12 at 00:29
  • @FumbleFingers: What user3444 meant is that although “works for me (WFM)” has nothing to do with “work from home (WFH),” the two acronyms were conflated simply because WFM and WFH look similar. This explanation makes perfect sense to me, although I do not know if it is the truth or not. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jan 25 '12 at 01:58
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    @Tsuyoshi Ito: Thanks for the clarification, but all I can say is it seems odd that 10 people upvoted this (-1 because I downvoted). This implies to me that at least some of them did so because they've actually encountered WFM being used with some kind of I work for me (at home) meaning. If not I think the question itself is pointless, and should therefore be closed anyway. And I wasn't able to find a single instance in over five minutes of Googling to support OP's suggestion that this usage might be seen "in several places". Besides, I like my own explanation better! :) – FumbleFingers Jan 25 '12 at 02:09
  • @FumbleFingers: I think that you have some misunderstanding about what this question is about. I can easily find some instances of “work from home (WFM)” on Google, and it is obvious that some people consider WFM stands for “work from home.” The question asks why they do. See also Anguish Languish’s comment. I do not know if that is a real story or not, but confusing the acronyms “wfh” and “wtf” is perfectly plausible even though no one uses “what the f**k” when they mean “work from home.” – Tsuyoshi Ito Jan 25 '12 at 02:42
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    Tsuyoshi Ito: I have to take your word for it that several/many people really do use the "acronym" this way, but that doesn't explain why. It's always possible that one person once made a "mistake" that others copied without knowing why. But to suppose that they all do it because of confusion with the equally-obscure WFH seems unlikely to me. People who actually work from home aren't usually stupid, so why would they mix these things up so meaninglessly? By comparison, an ironic "I've been 'Workforce Managed'*" seems a far more obvious derivation to me, even if I'm a lone voice. – FumbleFingers Jan 25 '12 at 04:25
  • ...also note that Anguish Languish’s comment is totally irrelevant. WFH is at best a rare combination of letters , and there will be many people who type "wtf" (what the fuck) repeatedly in internet chat contexts. Once the first letter is typed, given the proximity of the other letters on the keyboard, fingers are inclined to just repeat what they usually do it that general area. Which doesn't transpose to wfh/wfm because no-one types either of these very often, so there's no mechanism for the fingers to "learn" an automatic sequence involving just them. – FumbleFingers Jan 25 '12 at 04:52
  • @FumbleFingers: I think you have confused WFH and WFM in your comments, and that is the point. It seems that WFM is a common word, at least among software developers. Therefore, it is quite understandable that what Anguish Languish described happened in some of them between WFH and WFM. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jan 27 '12 at 17:28
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WFM: work from mobile — not necessarily home, but off site.

Andrew Leach
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Jack Brosch
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Working From Mobile is far more probable now that WiFi and mobile hot spots (LTE) are so pervasive in North America.

Just Some Guy
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    Hi, Just Some Guy. Your response would make a very reasonable comment beneath Jack Brosch's answer, but it is a bit thin as a standalone answer. Can you take up Andrew Leach's challenge to Jack Brosch to point to reference-work authority supporting the claim that WFM stands for "working from mobile"? – Sven Yargs Nov 15 '17 at 19:27