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The working from home thread

This is progress surely? More relaxed and flexible working hours are huge positive imo.

WFH has been brilliant for me getting my 11 year old daughter and taking her to school. Plus spending a lot more time with her.

On the flip slip the working hours in a day have got blurred and its not uncommon to work 10 hour days. Sometimes 12.
Yes, agreed. My work are a lot more relaxed about hours now and no demands for us to go back to the office full time.

Major progress.
 
Anyone been using VR headsets for meetings? The company I'm joining sent me an email to see if I'd like an oculus headset for meetings. Is it practical? I've been happy with just voice, screen sharing and whiteboard...
 
It’s getting easier imo. Plus I’m now very used to it.

I think they will be a much more relaxed attitude for several years to come now. WFH a couple of days a week for to foreseeable. A much nicer balance.

It’s one of very few positives to give from all this. On society I mean.
doing 10-12 hour days is a positive?
 
Are you working for Facebook? :hmm:
Christ no. But companies recruiting remote staff are keen on splashing out on kit. My current employer gave me a pretty flash laptop which I never used. The last few weeks I've been bombarded by offers of desks, chairs, PC kit and now this headset thing. I understand that being remote saves them money but I've been remote for 20 years and so already have everything I need.
 
doing 10-12 hour days is a positive?
Occasionally happy to if it means doing 5 or 6 hour days sometimes and getting to spend more time with my daughter and not commute from Brighton too (which would mean another 3 hours our of each day). This is the most content I've felt about my working routine for years. But that could be because I'm also 5 months sober and feeling very happy and positive generally. Who knows.
 
Anyone been using VR headsets for meetings? The company I'm joining sent me an email to see if I'd like an oculus headset for meetings. Is it practical? I've been happy with just voice, screen sharing and whiteboard...

Its where its heading. Metaverse etc.
 
Pre covid I wanted to change my hours one day a week so I could collect my children from the school bus on the one day Mrs Shoes couldn't do it. It would involve me leaving 90 minutes early once a week. I'd always hit my time and billing targets and had been their star performer for years. It would have been easy to just say yes.

But my boss insisted on me making a formal request "making a business case for it", and explaining how I'd make up the hours on other days. But she couldn't just look at that and agree it. I had to go to a meeting at her office (45 minute drive away) last thing on a Friday afternoon. The meeting lasted less than 5 minutes.

Now I've been wfh since March 2020 and have unilaterally changed my hours so I work 7.30 - 4.

They said people who wanted a change to their arrangements, such as being wfh, had to put it in writing. So I emailed asking for that and my changed hours. That was months ago and there's been no reply.

Basically, fuck them. I'm going to do what I want and they'll do nothing about it. They need me to keep on making the money that I do. And if I left, they'd have to pay me everything they owe me, which they probably can't.

The downside for me is that I can't leave. They're paying off what they owe slowly and if I leave they may not be able to.
 
Pre covid I wanted to change my hours one day a week so I could collect my children from the school bus on the one day Mrs Shoes couldn't do it. It would involve me leaving 90 minutes early once a week. I'd always hit my time and billing targets and had been their star performer for years. It would have been easy to just say yes.

But my boss insisted on me making a formal request "making a business case for it", and explaining how I'd make up the hours on other days. But she couldn't just look at that and agree it. I had to go to a meeting at her office (45 minute drive away) last thing on a Friday afternoon. The meeting lasted less than 5 minutes.

Now I've been wfh since March 2020 and have unilaterally changed my hours so I work 7.30 - 4.

They said people who wanted a change to their arrangements, such as being wfh, had to put it in writing. So I emailed asking for that and my changed hours. That was months ago and there's been no reply.

Basically, fuck them. I'm going to do what I want and they'll do nothing about it. They need me to keep on making the money that I do. And if I left, they'd have to pay me everything they owe me, which they probably can't.

The downside for me is that I can't leave. They're paying off what they owe slowly and if I leave they may not be able to.
Do you have documentation of the hours your owed?
 
Been told again to go back into the office 1 day / week. Don’t really want to but suppose I ought to as I want to go permanent. My dad keeps telling me “it’s good to be in, and get to know people and to be seen by your boss” except she works in a different office and I never saw any managers at all when I worked in the office for my first three months. Am also very happy just doing my work.

Usual system, book a desk (more people than desks). So I either go into the office on a Tuesday or Thursday when there’s other people from my team in, or go in on the other days when I’d be on my own (so erm why bother going in?!).

I’ve not managed to find a docking station which works with my laptop and lets me use dual screens. I find the office stuffy and the chairs uncomfortable. Last time I was there there were 8 people behind me talking loudly and one of them apparently had come in feeling ill but it turned out he later had COVID.

I definitely save money wfh as I don’t have the heating on at home. Petrol isn’t much but would be a bit more than the cost of electricity etc. I guess I’ll do the supermarket on Tuesdays now.
 
New job resolution will be to make more of an effort to get out in the evening more often - wasn't really possible during lockdown / working silly hours job

Did see something on tweeter a few weeks back about an 'after works social but with random local wfh people rather than your colleagues' thing, but it wasn't local here...
 
New job resolution will be to make more of an effort to get out in the evening more often - wasn't really possible during lockdown / working silly hours job

Did see something on tweeter a few weeks back about an 'after works social but with random local wfh people rather than your colleagues' thing, but it wasn't local here...
Look on meetup.com there's probably something similar for your area.
 
We're all officially hybrid workers now - there's leeway for managers to insist you come in if they think it's necessary but I'm lucky enough not to have a manager like that.

I've yet to agree when or if I'll go in but I'm fairly certain it's just going to be whenever I need to. Suits me just fine. Wfh has been the biggest improvement to my working conditions in years - you'd really have to twist my arm to get me to give it up now.
 
Our office has opened up again, but I still have no desire to go in. Apart from it costing me an extra £20 in train fare and lunch every day (and an extra hour of travelling), I don't even work directly with any of the people that would be there. Completely pointless aside from socialising.
 
Our office has opened up again, but I still have no desire to go in. Apart from it costing me an extra £20 in train fare and lunch every day (and an extra hour of travelling), I don't even work directly with any of the people that would be there. Completely pointless aside from socialising.
That's my situation too. My team is spread out over Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. Even if I went in to my local office I wouldn't see any of them. So yeah, pretty pointless really.

I vaguely mentioned about us all meeting in Devon - in the middle of the three counties - at some point in the near future and it was met with a collective shrug of the shoulders. :D
 
We have a proper team meeting with our director later today so I'll be interested to hear his take on it. Most people think he's leaving it to individual managers discretion - ours is all for us carrying on in the same way / just going in if you want to.
 
We are back to going in once a week, twice if there's a good reason to. I'm comfortable with that, It's a change of scenery, and I'm not at home all day with only the M-i-L for company (!). Pub afterwards to catch up with a few Reading mates, so all good.

I dread having to go back full time. Mrs mx has to go into work (unless she absolutely cannot), we have my M-i-L living here and now my daughter has moved out, it only works because I'm around to give M-i-L lunch and generally keep an eye on her. Mrs mx will have to WFH tomorrow as I'm going in.

My biggest grumble about going in is that my trains still aren't back to the pre-pandemic timetable, which is a PITA getting home sometimes.
 
Just came across a job listing I'm quite tempted by, I'd probably get better pay but on the other hand I might have to actually a) work and b) go the office more than once a week.

Not sure I'm ready for that yet. Maybe I'll apply and use it as leverage to get the pay rise they've skipped this year.
 
So as of last week we are now in for 60% of our working week with Tuesdays and Thursday being compulsory. I did point out it was daft us all being in in case we all get ill but no one was bothered. I'm split across 2 different offices as well so double the germs.

I've just got a contract through for a new job that is happening and there's no word of hybrid working in there, even though it's been discussed so I'm going back to them on that.
 
My company seems to be well on board with WFH and looking into unlimited PTO, which if happens il rinse the shit out of it before moving on :D

But I love working from home, and think im more productive, yet still spend most days playing games, saying that I do the odd Sat ( from home) for nowt so dont feel bad.
 
1 day a week seems to be the minimum commitment I need to make and officially we are classed ashybrid workers. My line manager works in a different office which is a few hours drive away.

Went in yesterday - there were 7 or 8 people in an office that seats 36. 1 of those is retiring next week (he came in every day during covid and during the storm last week as his wife likes him out of the house apparently).

One colleague has to go in every day “to do the post and printing” and we get approx 2 letters a day in the mailbag and only print a few hundred payslips and the odd letter every month. He’s fed up as he will be on his own most days. His manager is being a prick about it and insisting that if he does overtime at the weekend he will need to come to the office
 
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