The working from home thread

[Cerv]

printing motherly payslips seems like a blast from the past. I thought most places gave an online version as standard & just print on request if you needed an original for a mortgage application or whatever.

it can't help with your colleague being fed up. knowing that it's a pretty pointless thing to be forcing him in to the office for.

 

[Elpenor]

printing motherly payslips seems like a blast from the past. I thought most places gave an online version as standard & just print on request if you needed an original for a mortgage application or whatever.

it can't help with your colleague being fed up. knowing that it's a pretty pointless thing to be forcing him in to the office for.

There’s a constituency of people who can’t retrieve online due to various circumstances unlike the rest of us (leavers, maternity, long term sick etc) as access is only via our internal systems. But that’s just one day a month.

*Edit - rare to need a formal printed payslip for mortgages these days I believe

I think he’s being treated very unfairly, and have told him so. Also on half the days he’s in the office on his own so he’s hardly getting any “well-being / morale” benefit from being there. He’s only 19 so is rather picked on by the managers

 

[Artaxerxes]

printing motherly payslips seems like a blast from the past. I thought most places gave an online version as standard & just print on request if you needed an original for a mortgage application or whatever.

it can't help with your colleague being fed up. knowing that it's a pretty pointless thing to be forcing him in to the office for.

They post mine and it’s fucking annoying, no online option

 

[Part 2]

Expectation with us is 2 days a week although I've told my manager I'll aim for one a week until the end of March. Went in last Thursday, there was one other person from our team and 3 from another in an office that probably seats about 70. A similar number in the office next door which is 100-120. My colleague said she was just there showing willing and was leaving at 12.30. Fine be me I was only there for an hour anyway to sign into the desk that has a PC and save myself carrying in my laptop in future.

Booked a desk for this Friday but it's obvs from the booking system that only 50% of the team are bothering, with one fella quite blatantly saying in our meeting this morning that he's at his parents 200 miles away for 2 weeks. The general feeling seems to be "I'm only going in if there's a purpose to it and it's not work I can do at home'. Hopefully that'll last a while longer.

 

[Voley]

Some mixed messages at ours now.

Senior management are saying '2 days a week by Spring', my manager's saying 'Two days a week by Summer', everyone else is going 'Fuck that'.

Anyone that wants to be back in is already there, the rest of us are biding our time.

 

[kabbes]

I have detailed stats for office attendance for each office across Europe, Africa and the Middle East on a day-by-day basis. So I don’t need to estimate, I know

Translating the numbers of people into a % of the possible total is harder, of course. I know what the theoretical staff capacity is but I don’t know what actual full attendance looks like, given that there will always be some people away from the office, with holidays and illness and so on. But I would say that London is running at about 60% attendance on Tue - Thu, about 30-40% on Mon and about 20-30% on Friday. So, on average, people seem to be coming in about 2-ish days a week.

Here you go (with specifics removed), this is the London graph. The purple line is theoretical capacity. (You can see that on Eunice Day nobody came in, basically, and the following Monday was correspondingly low too).

 

[stavros]

printing motherly payslips seems like a blast from the past.

I hope my mother never asks me to pay her.

 

[Voley]

I have detailed stats for office attendance for each office across Europe, Africa and the Middle East on a day-by-day basis. So I don’t need to estimate, I know

Translating the numbers of people into a % of the possible total is harder, of course. I know what the theoretical staff capacity is but I don’t know what actual full attendance looks like, given that there will always be some people away from the office, with holidays and illness and so on. But I would say that London is running at about 60% attendance on Tue - Thu, about 30-40% on Mon and about 20-30% on Friday. So, on average, people seem to be coming in about 2-ish days a week.

Here you go (with specifics removed), this is the London graph. The purple line is theoretical capacity. (You can see that on Eunice Day nobody came in, basically, and the following Monday was correspondingly low too).

View attachment 311597

That's the way to do it.

"And did we, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, lose any productivity on these days? No. No we did not."

Come and work at ours please kabbes.

 

[Hollis]

I went in for a meeting today - 3 'outward facing' types.. reminded me how tiring real social interaction was compared to managing a Teams/Zoom call.

On the upside went to the pub afterwards with them - very nice to see a city pub full of young folk out enjoying themselves..

 

[marty21]

Work are now insisting that people spend "some time" in the office from April , I pretty much go in all the time but the majority of the work force have been wfh for the duration. The office is busy today , mostly because I'm at HQ & the Biggest Boss & the Leader of the Council had a live / on-line meeting this morning.

 

[Leafster]

I had a Zoom meeting with the Board of Directors of one of my clients last week. It's the first time in about six months that I put a proper shirt on.

 

[stavros]

I had a Zoom meeting with the Board of Directors of one of my clients last week. It's the first time in about six months that I put a proper shirt on.

I even got the iron out the other day, and what's more used it.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

i mostly wfh, just go the office a day or two every couple of weeks or so.

main office is still at maximum 1 in 4 occupancy or less (and most chairs got removed / hidden somewhere to enforce this)

we can't have a team meeting (there's 5 of us) in regular office, so have to travel to organisation's other office about 15 miles away because meeting rooms there are big enough to get 5 people in under 1 in 2 occupancy rule for meeting rooms.

nothing to stop 4 of us going out in the same car to a site visit

 

[Elpenor]

My gut feeling is work will eventually mandate is to be 2/5 in office. One day when we are all in and another to be chosen ad hoc.

Currently the office junior is in on his own for 2 or 3 days a week and he simply doesn’t know how to answer the complex questions we get from our walk-in customers. There are 6 of us who do have the technical knowledge required and if I was running the team (which I’m not!) then that would be the fairest way to do it, and also ensure we get the much heralded “collaborative” benefits of being in together!

One of the supervisors came in today, they sat in a separate office, said “hello” and “goodbye” and that was all we got from them. Didn’t even ask how we were and they line manage one of the people in the office.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

My gut feeling is work will eventually mandate is to be 2/5 in office.

that was where my previous employer was going in october / november before the shit hit the fan again

One of the supervisors came in today, they sat in a separate office, said “hello” and “goodbye” and that was all we got from them.

with some supervisors i have had in the past, that would be a great improvement compared to their attempts to supervise anything...

 

[Voley]

Went in today for the first time in ages as I had a meeting. Quite enjoyed seeing a few people irl again so might start doing a day a week. I think there's going to be some pressure to return soon and I'm hoping if I make a bit of an effort now a day a week might keep everyone happy. I did enjoy seeing a few familiar faces again.

 

[marty21]

Apparently the big bosses here are now insisting that cameras should be on for Teams meetings

 

[Artaxerxes]

Apparently the big bosses here are now insisting that cameras should be on for Teams meetings

Instant resignation

 

[zenie]

Apparently the big bosses here are now insisting that cameras should be on for Teams meetings

This is where things start getting shaky.....!

I know of friends who are simply leaving jobs when sanctions such as this, and coming into the office are being forced upon them. the labour market in London being what it is they can pick and choose what jobs they go to and WFH is a dealbreaker.

I work from home, but I'm Self Employed. I actually think I'd like to go to an office or coworking space in a few weeks just to get me out amongst people.

 

[marty21]

This is where things start getting shaky.....!

I know of friends who are simply leaving jobs when sanctions such as this, and coming into the office are being forced upon them. the labour market in London being what it is they can pick and choose what jobs they go to and WFH is a dealbreaker.

I work from home, but I'm Self Employed. I actually think I'd like to go to an office or coworking space in a few weeks just to get me out amongst people.

It seems Teams meetings are here to stay, I still haven't had a proper face to face meeting in 2 years.

 

[Sue]

Apparently the big bosses here are now insisting that cameras should be on for Teams meetings

I find this weird -- it's absolutely standard where I am (and in my previous job) that you have your camera on on calls. I'm not sure why it's a big deal to do that?

ETA And I much prefer being able to see people when I talk to them -- it's hard enough to miss nuances online. Wthout a camera on, must be impossible to catch any nuances at all....

 

[marty21]

I find this weird -- it's absolutely standard where I am (and in my previous job) that you have your camera on on calls. I'm not sure why it's a big deal to do that?

ETA And I much prefer being able to see people when I talk to them -- it's hard enough to miss nuances online. Wthout a camera on, must be impossible to catch any nuances at all....

Some people don't want to show their homes on camera - or can't work out how to do the fake background thing - or maybe their home internet connection is dodgy. I don't have a problem myself, as I work from the office mostly (and would prefer face to face meetings) but many a meeting at the height of the pandemic I didn't have the camera on - and logged in wearing my jammies .

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

To be honest I do think it's a bit rude to have your camera off. I'm sure there are legitimate reasons some of the time so fair enough if that's the case but I don't really think it's common.

I've moved jobs recently and although I'm in a couple of days a week so meeting people in person I'm still doing a lot of online meetings and where you're meeting people you don't know I really don't think having the camera off is helpful.

 

[Artaxerxes]

It’s fine in smaller meetings, 2-3 people but above that it can fuck off if I’m not hosting or speaking.

 

[Elpenor]

I think camera on is fine, mandatory where I am and for my colleagues who work in other offices it’s the only way I’ll ever know what they look like. I must admit I find the fake backgrounds where you disappear into the screen a bit nausea inducing. Admittedly I use Teams as a phone really, and have a maximum of two 45 minute meetings a month. I’d probably feel differently if I had my entire day on teams calls.

I did have to make sure on one Friday afternoon that my can of beer and plate with coke / straw weren’t visible

 

[strung out]

Smaller meetings of 10 or few people, definitely should be camera on. Larger meetings not so important, but if there's that many people, the chances are you're not going to be seen anyway, because the Zoom/Teams call will always default to those who are speaking rather than anyone with their microphone off.

 

[strung out]

My biggest pet hate is people who don't use headsets and don't mute themselves when not speaking. I get that they can be uncomfortable for long periods of time, but the amount of times someone's comment is unintelligible because somebody else on the call is generating feedback from their laptop speakers is so fucking annoying.

 

[Throbbing Angel]

My biggest pet hate is people who don't use headsets and don't mute themselves when not speaking. I get that they can be uncomfortable for long periods of time, but the amount of times someone's comment is unintelligible because somebody else on the call is generating feedback from their laptop speakers is so fucking annoying.

We just tell people if this happens. Plus you can mute other people in Teams, so I do that sometimes and then message them.

 

[marty21]

We just tell people if this happens. Plus you can mute other people in Teams, so I do that sometimes and then message them.

My manager once muted me in a meeting as Mrs21 came in the room and made a comment about how useless someone was (I was playing the meeting through the laptop speakers ) sorry strung out

 

[marty21]

I used headphones all the time after the Mrs21 incident.