The working from home thread

[stavros]

I found myself dancing whilst working today. Well dancing as much as one can whilst sat down. You don't get to put on quality tunes when you're in the office.

 

[marty21]

I've stopped listening to music whilst I work , so no dancing , prefer to have speaking on in the background. Mostly been listening to Times Radio, which is radio -4 ish...

 

[William of Walworth]

I found myself dancing whilst working today. Well dancing as much as one can whilst sat down. You don't get to put on quality tunes when you're in the office.

In my case, admittedly rare I think, that's not true -- even though I am in the office, when working.

</music-packed gadget and outside-chatter-concealing headphones ... >

 

[blameless77]

I picked up my giant cat and showed him to a bunch of colleagues on a call today. He gave me a shitty look and immediately flounced back to his comfortable sleeping spot.

My cats regularly Bomb my meetings. Always lightens the vibe

 

[josef1878 2.0]

Thursday will be my last day wfh. Thank fuck. In 3 months I have almost become feral and I fucking hate what I was turning into. I have created opportunities/excuses to go in the last few Fridays and have been offered the chance to get back full time. Next time I'm told to wfh I'll be cancelling my broadband so I can't. Never again.

 

[stavros]

I found myself dancing whilst working today. Well dancing as much as one can whilst sat down. You don't get to put on quality tunes when you're in the office.

I did it a lot again today, variously to dub and early 00s pop.

 

[Elpenor]

I’ve been here 4 weeks, no sign of my laptop so I can’t work from home. So the inexperienced temp gets to deal with angry walk-ins while the managers hide at home

 

[Elpenor]

I also get tasked with doing everyone’s printing and post

 

[stavros]

The mouse I took from the office a year ago is very much on its last legs. I think my local computer shops open on Monday, so I'm going to have to invest in one of my own.

 

[Artaxerxes]

The mouse I took from the office a year ago is very much on its last legs. I think my local computer shops open on Monday, so I'm going to have to invest in one of my own.

Early on I invested in a ergonomic wireless side mouse.

Absolute best choice of the pandemic

 

[existentialist]

The mouse I took from the office a year ago is very much on its last legs. I think my local computer shops open on Monday, so I'm going to have to invest in one of my own.

It's worth paying a bit more than a tenner for a mouse, BTW. Mine generally survive for at least 10 years, and I usually (haha, 2 bought in the last two decades = "usually" ) aim for something in the mid-£30 range. Microsoft mice aren't half bad. Logitech are OK. Steer clear of the no-name hockey pucks, which feel horrible and break rapidly.

It does surprise me, in a way, how little people are prepared to pay for the peripherals they are going to spend hours a day using. Someone complained about their horrible keyboard to me the other day, so I sent them the link to the keyboard I use. "£109? I'm not paying THAT for a keyboard, I can get 10 for that price." Yep, 10 keyboards you hate.

And once you get into proper keyboard geekery, £109 is the bargain basement. I am not into proper keyboard geekery - I wouldn't know a Cherry MX keyboard switch if it came into my living room and jumped all over the furniture.

 

[BoatieBird]

The mouse I took from the office a year ago is very much on its last legs. I think my local computer shops open on Monday, so I'm going to have to invest in one of my own.

I can recommend this one, really comfortable and seems to be wearing well after a couple of years on constant use
Wireless Vertical Ergonomic Optical Mouse{12389548450}{117659604363}{499962699527}&gclid=CjwKCAjwvMqDBhB8EiwA2iSmPGbLdOs-7DHFJmS4kftRJRdWoLHfUzDUy83RJ0Nfsm8VvvTMg1tKhhoCEI4QAvD_BwE

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Awful

 

[rubbershoes]

Awful...View attachment 264113

I hope that's not cherry Coke. You're depraved enough that it might be

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I hope that's not cherry Coke. You're depraved enough that it might be

Coke zero. I do keep getting stitched up with cherry 7 Up though, bogging.

 

[Idaho]

I hope that's not cherry Coke. You're depraved enough that it might be

I don't drink fizzy drinks any more, but if I did it would be cherry Coke or Dr pepper. Sweet bin juice.

 

[William of Walworth]

Quality orange juice at lunchtime with the food, otherwise coffee all the way!

The fact that I'm not (thread-relevantly!) working from home, is irrelevant here ......

 

[BigMoaner]

Awful


View attachment 264113

Get a wireless keyboard and mouse.

 

[stavros]

I had a meeting in person today. I'm very proud of myself for remembering how to put on a tie.

 

[fucthest8]

Well I've bloody loved working from home and I'm glad to say that we are never going back to have people permanently office based. Half our staff were largely WFH/mobile before C19 and we'd just launched an Agile working policy so that all staff could WFH as much as they liked (oh, the irony), so now we've ditched a couple of offices alltogether and are turning the remaining ones into a sort of co-working space that staff can use as they wish. (Booking restrictions apply)
I intend to almost never be there.

 

[Cloo]

Next door are totally redoing the back of their house (end of house where the spare room/my study is) so there is intermittent banging and drilling.

I'm really curious as to what they're doing - their house was an HMO when they bought it 3 or 4 years ago and they've done a lot of work to it, but now they've finally taken out the kitchen they inherited (and most of the walls of it). Will have to ask for a peek inside once allowed - everyone on this stretch has done different things to the layout - we bought ours still with the original layout that included a tiny Edwardian kitchen space and outside-opening loo.

 

[Hollis]

I'm 7 weeks in an have got into a pattern of bed at midnight - get up 8.30... all very civilised. Can't imagine going back to 5 days on the tube now..

We're not going to be going back until at least September, and it is within my domain to try to mitigate office based working..

 

[Cloo]

Was watching some research discussions today about this kind of thing (part of my job!) - an organisation who poll lots of people about workplace experience were saying that basically, almost everyone rates home better for work than the office, although the very best performing offices (and they literally cover 100ks) do outdo the average home experience. But essentially, offices are going to have to do a lot to be better than homeworking.

 

[mx wcfc]

Was watching some research discussions today about this kind of thing (part of my job!) - an organisation who poll lots of people about workplace experience were saying that basically, almost everyone rates home better for work than the office, although the very best performing offices (and they literally cover 100ks) do outdo the average home experience. But essentially, offices are going to have to do a lot to be better than homeworking.

We had a whole office teams meeting today, with the results of a survey the firm did.

About 40% of people are still looking to work in the office all or most of the time. That surprised me, but we have a lot of youngsters and a lot of people whose commute is just a 20 minute walk.

Our offices are pretty good to be fair - aircon, comfortable, free coffee, cafe areas, quiet areas, sofa type seating in "collaboration pods" etc, and, in my case, a great view.

The firm is looking to scale back its floorspace though, and confirmed that they are not renewing part of the lease on a building in a different location.

The survey is right though - offices are going to have to change and be much better for people to work in, as there will be a surplus of supply over demand.

 

[Cloo]

Sounds like you do have an above-average workplace mx wcfc - these survey-gatherers (Leesman Index) found that in the best workplaces, around 50% of people want to go back 4-5 days a week, compared to 27% in an average one, which I found really striking. I asked a question in the chat about whether good workplaces encouraged good workplace friendships and whether that attracted people back? This started a bit of a conversation and someone pointed me to some research on this from last year which I must look up. Someone else said she reckoned that awful workplaces might strike up the best friendships as you bond over the dreadfulness

 

[mx wcfc]

Someone else said she reckoned that awful workplaces might strike up the best friendships as you bond over the dreadfulness

I have worked in some pretty awful offices.

It certainly created a degree of "solidarity".

 

[Elpenor]

All I can say is that not meeting my colleagues isn’t helping me get used to the huge complex organisation I know work for, and zero chance of making work friends when they don’t come into the office.

Still no sign of my laptop, so I’m destined to be post monitor for my colleagues for another few weeks.

 

[BigMoaner]

to me it's all about the set up. i spent half the pandemic uncomfortable on a kitchen table, using a laptop. now i got a wireless mouse, an office chair, wireless keyboard it improved it by many times. mix of office and onsite will do nicely. whether we get it or not is another thing. i work for a uni and i have a suspicion that if/when the students return fully to classrooms, labs, etc, then they will expect staff to do the same.

 

[mx wcfc]

All I can say is that not meeting my colleagues isn’t helping me get used to the huge complex organisation I know work for, and zero chance of making work friends when they don’t come into the office.

Still no sign of my laptop, so I’m destined to be post monitor for my colleagues for another few weeks.

My daughter has started a whole new career this last year. It is shite for her. She's coping but I expect her to be in the office as soon as things open up, whether the carpets are nice or not, tbh.

 

[mx wcfc]

to me it's all about the set up.

I spent the summer working on the kitchen table with the patio doors open.
It became clear that mrs mx didn't like this set up, and I'm now upstairs in the boxroom. It was fine in winter.

Come Summer, I want to be back downstairs again. I have a cunning plan, but it requires bits of furniture to be removed from the old "family room".

And, tbh, it looks like I'll be wfh long term so I need something "proper".