The working from home thread

[Steel Icarus]

I'm stressed as all get-out. Far worse than being at work. Stuff heaped on, heaped on. I seem to have about five bosses all of a sudden. Facing 40 phone calls to students who don't want to be contacted I had an email demanding to know what I'd done so far regarding an events week in October.

 

[May Kasahara]

Solidarity @catsbum. Luckily my colleagues and bosses are all very supportive of each other, pulling together etc - I'm fortunate, I know. But it is feeling like A Lot. And we're all in the same overwhelmed boat.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Solidarity @catsbum. Luckily my colleagues and bosses are all very supportive of each other, pulling together etc - I'm fortunate, I know. But it is feeling like A Lot. And we're all in the same overwhelmed boat.

Yeah. Someone put it very well - too many people checking up when they should be checking in.

It's not that I don't have supportive colleagues, it's that the party line is "unprecedented event, you can only do what you can" but the reality is "here's loads for you to do so we look like we're being proactive and on the case".

I'm tired, I worked 1 hr 40 mins after my day finishes because it'd have been worse if I hadn't. And my part time colleague, though incredibly poor at knowing what to do and getting on with it, could at least be relied upon to take some load off me - and she left on Friday

 

[muscovyduck]

Having to start seriously putting in some boundaries with some of my colleagues on social media. Don't know why you'd think messaging your manager who you have only known for a few months at 11pm for no reason is a good idea. Writing up a list of everyone I don't want on my personal accounts later so I can delete them all in one go.

 

[Orang Utan]

My golden rule is to never accept a friend request from anyone you work with until you leave

 

[Badgers]

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey emailed employees today confirming that they’d be allowed to work from home permanently even after the pandemic passes.

 

[NoXion]

I had a colleague check in with me this morning about some previous work I did last week. Thankfully it was over Slack text chat, so he didn't get to hear my screaming meltdown as I struggled to remember my repetitious work schedule.

Calmed down a bit, but it won't fucking go away. Now I have to rack my brains remembering what the FUCK I did last week.

Please for the love of fuck, no more days like this.

 

[stavros]

Oh boy, we worked out how to record Teams meetings today. Hopefully I grow immune to hearing my own voice back.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I'm not wfh much, as what I can do from home is limited. some of the people in the office I work in are working from home some / most of the time.

(I'm off today with what seems to be a standard cold, but don't want to take too many chances)

we are using 'teams' a lot both for formalish meetings, and also keeping it on the go either for text chat or occasional video calls so the people who are at home don't feel to disconnected.

Lesson for one of my colleagues from late last week - if you are using teams for some (shall we say) very informal communication, then it's best not to do so when one person on the chat is in the office and has their lap-top connected to the projector at a (sitting 2 meters apart) meeting with the top management...

 

[weltweit]

I got muddled between teams and teamviewer. They aren't the same thing are they?

 

[weltweit]

Had a good day WFH today, good focus and got a lot done.

 

[existentialist]

I got muddled between teams and teamviewer. They aren't the same thing are they?

Nope. Team viewer is a class leader, Teams is a flaky, shonky piece of shit whose author should regard themself in shame and disgust.

That's the only difference between them you need to be concerned with.

 

[May Kasahara]

I went to my office for a couple of hours yesterday. It was so nice to actually go there, sit in my comfy chair etc, but it made me really, really depressed for the rest of the day. The building is the same, my desk and monitor and our floor are all the same...but what happens in and around them is not the same and never will be

 

[Leafster]

Today is National Work from Home Day! I wonder if anyone will give it a go?

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey emailed employees today confirming that they’d be allowed to work from home permanently even after the pandemic passes.

Most office-based companies are probably calculating how much money they could save by reducing office space. Good for staff too though - I'd rather never set foot in the place if I could help it.

 

[kabbes]

Most office-based companies are probably calculating how much money they could save by reducing office space. Good for staff too though - I'd rather never set foot in the place if I could help it.

I know for a fact this calculation is happening in my company. We already only have 80% as many desks as people in the London City office. Changing that to 40% (or possibly even lower) would save an absolute fortune in rent.
The company already has a lower expense ratio in this crisis as a result of people no longer flying all over the place to have meetings. Doing these using WebEx instead hasn’t harmed anything. This also has not gone unnoticed.

 

[mx wcfc]

My employers moved to a "one desk per 0.8 people" type thing when we moved into a new office 3ish years ago. That works 90% of the time, but it's a pita when it doesn't work and you end up sitting in the kitchen, or next to the boss cos you were last in.

The problem a lot of office based businesses will have is that they are locked into 10/15 year leases, so even of they want to switch to WFH and minimal office space, they will still be paying rent.

We've been chatting about this on our Team catch ups. There is a clear rift between people who want to go back to working in the office full time, and those who would be delighted if they never had to get on a commuter train and go to the office again.

The people who want to go back are those with school age children.

However working practices change there will be no one size fits all approach to this, and, of course, all of this only relates to those of us who sit in offices all day.

 

[kabbes]

I’ve found that it’s the younger members of my team, for whom the office also serves as more of a social hub, that would like to stop working from home. The more mature, settled team members (who tend to live further out of town too) are more than happy for WFH to carry in indefinitely.

 

[kabbes]

.

 

[mx wcfc]

I’ve found that it’s the younger members of my team, for whom the office also serves as more of a social hub, that would like to stop working from home. The more mature, settled team members (who tend to live further out of town too) are more than happy for WFH to carry in indefinitely.

I was surprised when two youngsters came out so strongly in favour of wfh, for the reasons you give. I thought it would just be me, the office grumpy old git with the longest commute, who would want to wfh permanently.

For the youngsters, it was down to the cost, hassle & time spent commuting. They recognise commuting as being a factor with a big negative impact on their overall quality of life. Those with a 20 min walk to work weren't as bothered either way.

 

[kabbes]

I was surprised when two youngsters came out so strongly in favour of wfh, for the reasons you give. I thought it would just be me, the office grumpy old git with the longest commute, who would want to wfh permanently.

For the youngsters, it was down to the cost, hassle & time spent commuting. They recognise commuting as being a factor with a big negative impact on their overall quality of life. Those with a 20 min walk to work weren't as bothered either way.

To be fair, that would also have been me at 27.

 

[Badgers]

The problem a lot of office based businesses will have is that they are locked into 10/15 year leases, so even of they want to switch to WFH and minimal office space, they will still be paying rent.

This is the kicker isn't it

Some companies might have the product or business type/size that will allow the space to be repurposed but not many I fear.

 

[stavros]

I'm sure I was the only attendee intermittently turning my camera on and off in this very boring and very long Teams meeting today.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I’ve found that it’s the younger members of my team, for whom the office also serves as more of a social hub, that would like to stop working from home. The more mature, settled team members (who tend to live further out of town too) are more than happy for WFH to carry in indefinitely.

I've noticed that too - and also more extroverted staff seem to be struggling more with working at home. Being an introvert it's great for me, but I can see how people who like to be around others might have difficulties being at home all day every day.

 

[weltweit]

I am relatively happy WFH - and my savings are considerable. My boss said after this is all over if I wanted to continue for 2-3 days a week they would have no issues.

I just stick to my hours and get on with my work.

 

[quiet guy]

I mainly work from home and I only have one definite weekly Teams call and so far I have not activated my camera and no one has said anything about it. I then only have two further phone conference calls as a check in. The rest of my time is just to deal with some email traffic, try to book some site surveys and write up my site visits. Not sure how long this will continue due to funding rethinks and staff being furloughed or laid off.

 

[mx wcfc]

Half way through the team catch up this afternoon, my doorbell rang.
"Argghhh" I cried, "That's my beer delivery" and I ran off.

It's not very far from my kitchen table to the front door, and I heard every word they said.
"typical of mx"
"mx clearly has his priorities sorted"
and
"haha, I've never seen him move so fast"

Bastards.

 

[May Kasahara]

I'm done in. It is so busy and complex and there is so much interesting new work to do, on top of all the regular interesting work that still needs doing. Every day I seem to get myself involved in new projects, which then pile up on top of all the existing ones. It's fantastic, but I'm tired and find it very hard to switch off. Particularly as my workspace is in the bedroom.

Half term next week and our CEO has more or less issued a management direction to us all to take the time off

 

[NoXion]

It's been getting warmer the past week or so. I am really beginning to miss the air conditioning in the office, and it's only May!

 

[Roadkill]

Most office-based companies are probably calculating how much money they could save by reducing office space. Good for staff too though - I'd rather never set foot in the place if I could help it.

The problem there is that in reducing office space they're also passing some of their overheads - heating, lighting, cleaning etc - onto their employees. Are they going to increase wages to compensate? I very much doubt it...

edit - from their point of view it'll also have the advantage of atomising the workforce and making it harder for unions to organise.