The working from home thread

[a_chap]

Had this welcome nugget of info in the Chief Exec's latest email:

£6 tax relief per week for homeworkers

HMRC has changed its practice so that from 6 April employees who are required to work at home can claim a flat-rate tax deduction of £6 per week (£26 per month) to cover additional household costs such as heat and electricity.

“For ease of administration”, the employee does not have to keep any records of costs or provide any evidence to their employer of the extra expenses they incur by working at home.

How to claim:

• Employees who complete a self-assessment tax return can make a claim for their home working costs under the section in that form titled “Using your home as an office”.
• Most employees are not required to submit a tax return, so they can claim the tax deduction for homeworking expenses either online or by post on form P87, or by phoning HMRC on 0300 200 3300.

The P87 form is easy to complete and so I would advise anyone who has had to work at home since the lockdown to make a claim through this means. Please note this option is not available to anyone in receipt of [this company's] homeworking allowance.

 

[Roadkill]

Since working from home is likely to be a bigger part of life for the foreseeable future than it was before all this kicked off, I've had a change-round at home.

I set the back bedroom up as an office when I moved here, because with its fitted shelves and wardrobe it seemed best suited to accommodate my books and files, but I've never really liked it. It's a bit small, but I think the main reason is there's a very slight bounce in the floor - not at all serious, but enough to give me pause for thought about the weight on the joists, which I assume date from the 1890s when the place was built - and as a result I don't think I've ever felt 100% comfortable in there. So last weekend longdog came over and gave me a hand switching the back bedroom and loft space over to create a new office:



I've no worries about the floor up here, which is rock solid - the joists are massive, and since the conversion was done in the 90s they're fairly new too - and it's so much nicer a space to work in. I actually look forward to coming up here. The 'new' spare bedroom has turned into a nice, cosy little room as well. Now wondering why I didn't think of doing this years ago!

 

[NoXion]

Some possible good news; it looks like I might be able to successfully make a case for continuing to work entirely from home, without having to come into the office. I mentioned my concerns about the fact that a quarter of the passengers on my bus into work this morning were not wearing masks, or were wearing them improperly, and I got the distinct impression from my team leader that staying home would be possible.

I've said that I will see how this workday goes, and report back tomorrow, when I'll be working from home again. They've currently got us working in the office alternating days.

 

[Part 2]

Had online training for my job today. It was hilarious. Clearly no one had done any testing to make sure the files we needed to access were working and one of the trainees, who's an apprentice, ended up leading the session for half an hour. Each time the trainer thought up a workaround the next file was corrupted or wasn't there.

One of best things about Zoom/Teams is you can see everyone rolling their eyes or in my case holding in the laughter. Poor fella running the show was probably in the office and couldn't even have a lie down or a drink after. Got another 2 days of it yet.

Manager still saying we're unlikely to be in the office this year.

 

[thismoment]

Since working from home is likely to be a bigger part of life for the foreseeable future than it was before all this kicked off, I've had a change-round at home.

I set the back bedroom up as an office when I moved here, because with its fitted shelves and wardrobe it seemed best suited to accommodate my books and files, but I've never really liked it. It's a bit small, but I think the main reason is there's a very slight bounce in the floor - not at all serious, but enough to give me pause for thought about the weight on the joists, which I assume date from the 1890s when the place was built - and as a result I don't think I've ever felt 100% comfortable in there. So last weekend longdog came over and gave me a hand switching the back bedroom and loft space over to create a new office:

View attachment 224117

I've no worries about the floor up here, which is rock solid - the joists are massive, and since the conversion was done in the 90s they're fairly new too - and it's so much nicer a space to work in. I actually look forward to coming up here. The 'new' spare bedroom has turned into a nice, cosy little room as well. Now wondering why I didn't think of doing this years ago!

great space! I’d look forward to working there too. I also like the armchair

 

[Roadkill]

great space! I’d look forward to working there too. I also like the armchair

Thanks. To be honest - and smug - I couldn't be more pleased with it. And that's a good thing, because I'm putting in 12-hour days at the moment, so it's nice to be able to spend them in a space I like being in!

 

[weltweit]

I am going to be working from home for a while yet it seems.
No worries here, it saves money and I get to sleep later.

Apart from that my role does seem quite suited to it.
All I need is a laptop and phone and I can get to work.

 

[stavros]

People who turn their camera off in a Teams meeting when everyone else is visible: what are they hiding?

 

[marty21]

I've lost weight getting on for 4kg, I don't have enough willpower to resist the bacon butties or the posh coffees, so I have both lost weight and saved money these past four months

I have lost weight , no idea how much as I rarely weigh myself but I'm definitely slimmer. I put it down to obsessive walking every day . Since lockdown I've averaged about 8 miles a day.

 

[marty21]

People who turn their camera off in a Teams meeting when everyone else is visible: what are they hiding?

I have turned it off when I'm the only one on video.

 

[stavros]

I have turned it off when I'm the only one on video.

Fair enough: it's when everyone else has the camera on that confuses me.

 

[mx wcfc]

People who turn their camera off in a Teams meeting when everyone else is visible: what are they hiding?

On a call with clients yesterday, a colleague was on his phone so couldn't see the client getting more and more pissed off with what my colleague was saying (he didn't handle the situation at all well). I could see the client. After a couple of minutes, the client realised I could see him tearing his hair out, and switched to audio only.

(a lot of people have poor internet connection, so do audio only, cos their video keeps freezing)

ETA - I agree with you when it's people just being contrary

 

[weltweit]

People who turn their camera off in a Teams meeting when everyone else is visible: what are they hiding?

I turned video off and mute myself in zoom when I wanted to have a vape. It is easier to move out of shot for a moment, my cam isn't very wide angle so I only have lean to the left a bit and I am out of shot.

 

[thismoment]

People who turn their camera off in a Teams meeting when everyone else is visible: what are they hiding?

that they’re working from bed, still have sleep lines across their face and haven’t brushed their hair

 

[Roadkill]

People who turn their camera off in a Teams meeting when everyone else is visible: what are they hiding?

I'm normally having a fag.

 

[marty21]

I turned video off and mute myself in zoom when I wanted to have a vape. It is easier to move out of shot for a moment, my cam isn't very wide angle so I only have lean to the left a bit and I am out of shot.

Dude, I vape on screen , no one says anything, the only time they notice anything is when my cat makes an appearance.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

People who turn their camera off in a Teams meeting when everyone else is visible: what are they hiding?

They have legitimate privacy concerns, you voyeur.

I don't want to see my colleagues - I recognise their voices and that is enough.

 

[Sue]

People who turn their camera off in a Teams meeting when everyone else is visible: what are they hiding?

That I'm not paying any attention and trying to get some actual work done while people drone on..?

 

[Numbers]

I haven’t left the house today yet...



Because the WFH room I’m in is so hot and I’ve prob had 1 of my busiest days of lockdown I’ve been up and down the stairs all day for water/fag breaks etc.

Not bad going tho’.

 

[weltweit]

Am working on a project at the moment which has illustrated one disadvantage of my working from home arrangements which is that I have a very slow broadband connection. Sometime I need to send packets of files and it just isn't viable unless I pop into the office and do it there.

 

[kabbes]

My office


View from office veranda:

 

[Leafster]

Had online training for my job today. It was hilarious. Clearly no one had done any testing to make sure the files we needed to access were working and one of the trainees, who's an apprentice, ended up leading the session for half an hour. Each time the trainer thought up a workaround the next file was corrupted or wasn't there.

Not quite the same but my bank manager wanted a zoom meeting with me last week to try to sell me an investment product, it turns out. You'd think they'd have given him some training but I spent a large part of it looking up at his left ear as he was using his iPad camera and it wasn't in front of him as he was using his computer screen to look things up. At one point there was a crash and I ended up looking at his ceiling until he propped up the iPad again. Not very professional.

 

[weltweit]

I have only done 3 zoom meetings so far, in one someone switched off the electricity to my computer so I had to restart from scratch and in another I had a brownout for perhaps 10 seconds and again had to restart and also wait for the router to get itself going. So one out of three so far was issue free.

 

[Winot]

I have lost weight , no idea how much as I rarely weigh myself but I'm definitely slimmer. I put it down to obsessive walking every day . Since lockdown I've averaged about 8 miles a day.

Obsessive what?

 

[Badgers]

Obsessive what?

Wanking?

 

[Winot]

Wanking?

 

[Aladdin]

h bllcks



colleague set up a background of themself at computer

then when colleague b said "are you still there? think you have frozen" they walked in

(colleague b is the one who was getting a's alexa to play weird music when they went to the bog)

I set up a background for my class zoom calls.
This...

 

[strung out]

That I'm not paying any attention and trying to get some actual work done while people drone on..?

This, except not trying to get some actual work done, and probably just checking the cricket score.

 

[quimcunx]

I switch mine off because I dont like looking at myself or because the connection is unstable or because I want to do something else or so I cant be seen rolling my eyes or getting angry.

 

[kabbes]

In our weekly team calls, I have one person who doesn’t turn on video whilst the rest of us do. It’s fine — their choice. It does feel slightly weird though, like they’re spying on the rest of us. It takes some of the friendliness out of the interaction, somehow.