The working from home thread

[BoatieBird]

My employer sent out the 'work from home if you possibly can' email last night.

We were already pretty well set up to do this anyway - most of us have laptops instead of desktop PCs + a docking system for when we're in the office.
Skype for business is regularly used as we have colleagues all over the country.

Who else is WFH?

 

[Lord Camomile]

First time ever today. Up until now my role has been primarily frontline, but as of a restructure it's much less so and I got lucky that I had nothing today that I couldn't do from home.

Supposed to be back on the frontline tomorrow, will be interesting to see if they ask us to come in.

 

[PursuedByBears]

We're the same and I was planning to WfH today. However my son has started coughing so there's two of us working at the dining table and two children playing video games in the room next door for the next 14 days.

 

[hegley]

"raises hand"
Pretty much everyone in our dept can WFH and most people doing so. We're on Teams for social contact.

 

[maomao]

Fingers crossed I can do this very very soon. Have been promised a webcam and an extra screen. If not sorted by next week I may quarantine the family to force the situation. Need to upgrade my spare PC from Windows 7 though, that's going to be a pain.

 

[colacubes]

We're all homeworkers in my company so welcome newbs I've been doing it for over 5 years. My tips are for all of you newbs:

1. If possible find a separate space where you can work quietly without being disturbed - so ideally not in the kitchen/living room. I realise this may not be possible for all especially if you've got kids home with you.
2. Get dressed and aim to start at a set time. Don't work in your pants or PJs as tempting as it is.
3. Take regular breaks to make a cup of tea etc.
4. Try and go for a brief stroll or do something different for half hour at lunchtime so you take a proper break and don't eat at your desk. Having a dog is helpful here.
5. As far as possible try and keep to your regular work hours if you can. This does not apply for me as I'm often on call evening or weekend, but if you can be strict do. It's important to maintain a distance between work life and home life and that can be tricky if you wfh.

 

[rutabowa]

 

[kabbes]

Whole company is across the world, give or take — tens of thousands of people. The server is a bit stuttery today but it seems to be holding up

 

[Smangus]

Same here keep geting kicked out due to demand.

 

[Fez909]

I've been WFH semi-officially for months now - went official & full time on Friday. It's great.

 

[hash tag]

When I got home from work this morning Mrs T was telling all her lot not to come in today citing essential travel only.
She is currently in work picking up the pieces and will be home later
Discussing this with the early crew, we concurred that the roads were much lighter than normal.

 

[BoatieBird]

I was on leave yesterday because it was my birthday.
I bought shitloads of cake to take into work with me today and now I'm going to have to eat them all myself (with some help from the menfolk).
(((my waistline)))

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

My last day in the office is today. From tomorrow I'll be working from home. Nearly everyone else is doing it already, I'm just here to pick up a laptop from IT really, the one I have at home isn't really up to the job.

I can't say I'm looking forward to it to be honest. I've done it occasionally but never really got on with it.

 

[Lord Camomile]

1. If possible find a separate space where you can work quietly without being disturbed - so ideally not in the kitchen/living room. I realise this may not be possible for all especially if you've got kids home with you.
2. Get dressed and aim to start at a set time. Don't work in your pants or PJs as tempting as it is.

These were both in my head last night, but here I sit on the sofa in basically what I slept in (plus some additional jogging bottoms and hoody)

3. Take regular breaks to make a cup of tea etc.

Been doing much better on this front

 

[BoatieBird]

I've just got together on skype with a few colleagues for a virtual tea break
It worked well so we're going to make it a daily thing.

 

[lizzieloo]

I know someone who thinks he's far too important to work from home even though he totally could, hopefully everyone else has done the right thing, so he's in isolation anyway

 

[Buddy Bradley]

I've just got together on skype with a few colleagues for a virtual tea break
It worked well so we're going to make it a daily thing.

This is a good idea - keeping social rituals going can really help maintain bonds with co-workers and give extroverts that need to be around people a way to recharge.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

 

[5t3IIa]

View attachment 202053

At least treat yourself to a cushion!

 

[ruffneck23]

I've actually made it into the office this morning , so I have everything I need to WFH , its dead here , only me and my boss in, I only got in 20 mins ago, don't think i'l be staying long, but its looking like lock down for at least a month.

I'm not sure how I feel about it , tbh , I dont mind coming into work.

 

[rutabowa]

View attachment 202059

alright Tina Topper

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

I'm not sure how I feel about it , tbh , I dont mind coming into work.

Yeah for me I like having that clear work/not work cutoff. When I've done it before I've ended up sort-of-working all day right into the evening. I'll be trying really hard to keep regular hours, I think that's important.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

alright Tina Topper

I work from home pretty regularly anyway, so having a decent setup is essential.

 

[rutabowa]

I work from home pretty regularly anyway, so having a decent setup is essential.

I like your monitor stand with the USBs

 

[rutabowa]

Tbh I can imagine the transition from "wfh" to "don't bother coming in again, or getting paid" might be quite quick in my job.

 

[ruffneck23]

spoke to my boss who told me there is no new work coming in , So I said so what do we do , just try and get our tasks done and then just wait..?

Yes he replied...

Thank goodness I'm not contracting at the moment, love to all of you who arent so lucky

 

[marty21]

Had a email yesterday about working from home half of the week , so it could be 2 or 3 days at home. Mrs21 can also work at home , she will commandeer the spare room, I'll be on the sofa near the telly

 

[ice-is-forming]

I could wfh, the rest of my team are. We are spread out hours away from each other and a couple of them wfh all the time.

I'm doing community development atm so literally all meetings have been cancelled and im not allowed to meet anyone face to face in work hours. So more Skype etc.. although everyone in my industry couldn't care less about community development right now for obvious reasons.

But other people in a different team at work are really busy as they have client contact that has to be done.
So I have an opportunity to lend a hand and get skilled in other positions too, which isn't a bad thing for me.

Having said that emails from upline change every hour so who knows what it'll look like by tomorrow. I've been bringing my computers home every night in case I get a call that the office is closed.

I will try really hard not to work in my pjs, but I'm not sure I'll manage it

 

[May Kasahara]

We have been advised that we can, and probably should, WFH as much as possible. It's a bit weird though as our schools are still open, so I think us office staff kind of feel like we should be onsite too.

I've got a couple of meetings I'd really like to have, then am anticipating full WFH as of next week. Thank goodness I've finally got a work laptop, after 6 years in the job.

 

[Sue]

I work for a tech company but working from home has (bizarrely) always been a bit of a no no as our CEO is not a fan. Now they've been pretty much forced into it and had to buy a load of new laptops last week (I feel sorry for our IT team). They sent out a mail late last night, assuming we'd all be checking our work mails at 11pm . And even now, they're saying 'we don't see a need to close the office at the moment' and being pretty curmudgeonly about it. And since they haven't tested the VPN for this number of users, it's not working so well. (Apparently they were going to test it this week .)