The working from home thread

[marty21]

First day back in the office (sorry "Hub") today. Odd, really odd.

I'm glad I've been working in the office for a few months & have been in occasionally from May last year. Coming back to an office after so long is going to be very tough.

 

[stavros]

I did a little bit of work this morning, which is naughty of me, but ah well.

 

[Artaxerxes]

 

[Petcha]

Lolz. Did he actually say that? I can't speak for Mother Nature, but I'm not sure she has experienced the pleasure of a 10 second commute from bed to desk in her underwear or cracking open a beer or two while on a long boring call, at any time of day (with the camera and mic turned off of course)

 

[Cerv]

I don't think Mother Nature is fond of glass & concrete office blocks at all to be honest

 

[rubbershoes]

Went into the office this morning to see a new client.

They didn't turn up so I sat in a meeting room for half an hour and then came home.

 

[marty21]

Lolz. Did he actually say that? I can't speak for Mother Nature, but I'm not sure she has experienced the pleasure of a 10 second commute from bed to desk in her underwear or cracking open a beer or two while on a long boring call, at any time of day (with the camera and mic turned off of course)

Hopefully my team has forgotten the meeting where I accidentally turned the camera on and they could see me lounging on the sofa

 

[Cloo]

In today's exciting WFH news, I heard a muffled thump and then gsv calling something and rushing out the front door - and looked to see him and some guys on the street staring at the partly-demolished bin store at the back of the shop opposite our house. Someone had reverse into a big bin in front of it and brought down a whole side of the wall behind it Oh, and fucked off, but gsv and a passer-by got their registration.

 

[Sue]

Hopefully my team has forgotten the meeting where I accidentally turned the camera on and they could see me lounging on the sofa

Were you in your jammies?

 

[elbows]

Lolz. Did he actually say that? I can't speak for Mother Nature, but I'm not sure she has experienced the pleasure of a 10 second commute from bed to desk in her underwear or cracking open a beer or two while on a long boring call, at any time of day (with the camera and mic turned off of course)

He said it shortly before losing his place for over 20 seconds and awkwardly shuffling through his papers while breathing uncomfortably. Which reminds me that 'mother nature' already tried to kill him during this pandemic, and turned workplaces and business conferences into places of mass infection.

 

[StoneRoad]

I'm staying WFH, recently that's been for the sake of my health as much as doing the work ...

I need uninterrupted [by workshop noise & other people] time & space to research and compile tenders for new work projects.
By the way it can take as many as six to seven months - on average - from initial enquiry to the project actually starting. Some can take years because of funding delays and needing various approvals, Covid has made this process even more difficult & time-consuming. And that's just the same 'expenditure' whether the bid is successful or not.
I do have a reasonably good success rate, but I'm still spending a lot time in the hope of gaining work for the team.
This includes being available for discussions outside "office hours" - a feature of my client base - and making site visits to inspect potential projects, which can be anywhere in the UK.

And ditto in terms of peace & quiet for the various admin tasks I do during each month.

Thankfully, I don't have to spend all day, every day on the above. But it can be intensive when deadlines that I've set myself are approaching.

Now I've had my booster, I'll be able to go into the 'shop a little more often ... say two or even three times a week, for an hour or two, on a random(ish) schedule to keep an eye on progress.
Or even go and collect timber or other supplies if they can't be delivered.

 

[MickiQ]

One of the unexpected side effects of working from home was that this morning I got to defrost Mrs Q's car so she could go to work

 

[Petcha]

I've been struggling in for 10am, twice a week (it's supposed to be 4 days a week, 9am to 6pm). What's the fucking point. It's surely not in my firm's interest. They were getting 12 hour days out of me WFH. Doesn't make sense. Now they're getting 7, and it's a grumpy 7.

It has been nice to actually meet my colleagues and put legs to head and shoulders but that's done. I'm ready to return to my routine of Coco pops, masturbating, logging in, replying to a couple of emails, have a beer, masturbating and then heading to the spoons for lunch with the laptop. It's far, far more civilised.

 

[marty21]

Were you in your jammies?

No

 

[scifisam]

And so it begins......

Latest missive from on high is that we are being "encouraged" to go to the "hub" (we don't have offices now, we have hubs) twice a week.

Each team has been allocated an "anchor day" when the whole team is sort of expected to go in, and we should do at least one other day. My team's anchor day is Thursday, which is a good day to go to the pub after work. As for the other day, I expect I'll try to avoid that most weeks. There is a "general, if reluctant" feeling that new people and especially trainees, need face to face training and need to get to know people better. The key may be to keep an eye on the bosses' diaries, and pick a day when a couple of them are in, so they can see I'm not being difficult about it. I'm in a difficult position in that I have very little work on, so I don't want to antagonise people.

It's going to take a bit of organisation at home though. M-i-L can't be left alone all day, but there's three of us, so it shouldn't be impossible.

I'm getting to the point where it might not be a bad idea for my MH to go to work sometimes, so I'm not too grumpy about it. Given I'm going out to pubs/gigs etc, I can't really argue with it.

Thankfully, I have found my office pass, so I'll be able to get in!

If it stays that way then it sounds pretty sensible tbh. At least the anchor day does. Though it does lend itself far too easily to nicknames.

Marty - yeah, I think there is sort of that pressure to work from home if you're sick. In some ways it's fair, because some sorts of sick mean you wouldn't be able to work from the office (and certainly shouldn't be passing your germs around) but can work from home, though maybe not to full capacity. Like with a lot of stomach bugs you feel fine in yourself, but there's no way you could manage the commute, and nobody wants a colleague having diarrhoea in the shared loos every hour.

But it's tricky - sometimes you really are just too ill to focus, so won't do the job well anyway, and you need to sleep, and why should you sleep on your own time and work out of hours when/if you feel better, when you would have called in sick if you were in the office?

 

[Aladdin]

Everyone here in Ireland is being asked to work from home if they can..now the numbers are high again.

 

[BoatieBird]

One of the unexpected side effects of working from home was that this morning I got to defrost Mrs Q's car so she could go to work

I had the opposite this morning, I had to defrost my car and move it off the drive just so Mr B could get his van out and go to work

 

[MickiQ]

I had the opposite this morning, I had to defrost my car and move it off the drive just so Mr B could get his van out and go to work

We park ours side by side so that problem does not arise but I am sure that if it had done I would have been told off for not forseeing that possibility.

 

[mx wcfc]

If it stays that way then it sounds pretty sensible tbh. At least the anchor day does. Though it does lend itself far too easily to nicknames.

 

[Sue]

Do you work with many...anchors, mx wcfc ..?

Copyright scifisam .

 

[StoneRoad]

So, I'm meant to be WFH - but the workshop is easily accessible if I need to be there.

Friday I spent a large chunk of the afternoon dealing with a personnel issue ... see work frustrations.

Sat & Sun, some paperwork resulting from that - plus some more time spent on general admin & searching out potential new work for my team ...

Monday, time in workshop as feedback on Friday, plus some supervision of work in progress ... plus a bit more research ...
Tuesday, ditto ... but the person I went in to see wasn't there ...
Tomorrow, more of the same but also probably talking to a potential client ...

Normally, I go into the workshop maybe once or twice a week, but when other people are not there.
This week I'll probably have been in everyday ...

Hopefully, by next week I'll be able to go back to the my usual pattern.

 

[tommers]

I was on a call today with a couple of colleagues and halfway through I'm like "why can I hear J?" (who is someone I work with but isn't one of the people on the call) and the woman on the call goes a bit bashful and says "oh, cos I'm living with him now". Hahaha.

 

[kabbes]

I've been struggling in for 10am, twice a week (it's supposed to be 4 days a week, 9am to 6pm). What's the fucking point. It's surely not in my firm's interest. They were getting 12 hour days out of me WFH. Doesn't make sense. Now they're getting 7, and it's a grumpy 7. It has been nice to actually meet my colleagues and put legs to head and shoulders but that's done.

Ditto

I'm ready to return to my routine of Coco pops, masturbating, logging in, replying to a couple of emails, have a beer, masturbating and then heading to the spoons for lunch with the laptop. It's far, far more civilised.

Er, not quite so ditto…

 

[stavros]

I was on a webinar today with a load of people I didn't know. I had to do a double take at one point, as one was the spitting image of Lance from Detectorists.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Man breaking back on his stairs deemed workplace accident

Thank goodness he didn't make a diversion for Coco Pops

www.theregister.com

 

[Mation]

Who's back working from home today, that's able to work from home but had largely gone back to being on site, then? Anyone?

(Not me. We've gots to go in.)

 

[strung out]

Who's back working from home today, that's able to work from home but had largely gone back to being on site, then? Anyone?

(Not me. We've gots to go in.)

We've all been told we can come in if we want, but we're not obliged to come in for our 'team' days anymore. Lots of mixed messaging.

I've got an internal interview today, which I was hoping would be switched to online, as much easier to read notes, but nope, got to go into work and sit in a small room with three other people for a couple of hours

 

[5t3IIa]

Home for the foreseeable, apart from well-being in the office if I fancy it. Which I might

Really need to reorganise my desk corner in the bedroom as it is cramped plus next to a window, which is double glazed but still a bit cold.

I want to wfh as I want to be free but it doesn’t really work like that, does it?

 

[smmudge]

Who's back working from home today, that's able to work from home but had largely gone back to being on site, then? Anyone?

(Not me. We've gots to go in.)

We were back in the office twice a week but now wfh every day. I'm quite surprised because they're very good at ignoring advice unless they have to follow it, but it seems like they've actually taken some initiative now. Everyone else I've spoken to has said their company is carrying on as normal

 

[marty21]

Who's back working from home today, that's able to work from home but had largely gone back to being on site, then? Anyone?

(Not me. We've gots to go in.)

I will wfh today , going in tomorrow though, wfh on Wednesday again , then I'm off for Christmas.