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I started a new job during lockdown. Resource lead, so overseeing all our recruitment,resourcing etc. Lots of relationship building and problem solving and I am used to relying on face to face to face. 100% at home and so far so good but there are drawbacks. If i dont know something it can be a chore to find out who does whereas in the office it would be more obvious/shout out. Mass communication is e mail heavy, so engagement is harder to judge. Realistically i can see myself 1 or 2 days max in the office and rest home.
In the early 80s I was a designer in central London.
W1 studio in D'arbley St (Up 6 flights of stairs overlooking a brothel) and blue chip clients serviced via fax and motorcycle courier.
I do the same with email and Drive.
'tis no biggie except for the sales guys or the ones who want to milk their little positions of 'power'.
Oh, and if you work in tech and want the high speed physical link between Oxford and Cambridge then that says you have comprehensively failed at your job.
Funily enough the Agile development methodology which was designed by American graduates to keep jobs in America because you had to me close to the customer and have daily stand ups etc works really well during WFH if you adapt it slightly.
My Indian based company has been using multi-location agile development at scale for years so we have been able to adapt really well, once the hardware was at peoples homes I was very sceptical when I joined the company back in 2011 and we jokingly called it Foreign, Remote Agile - FRAGILE - but it does work. You are measured by your output rather than how well worn your seat is.
Cha****ng +1.
I've worked from home for 18+ months.. If everyone is working from home it works well but if you're the only one in a team then you miss out on all the brief conversations etc and context. Hopefully companies will do some sort of split so it's all or nothing as otherwise I can't see management biases being over turned in the short term.
I'm lucky that I have a boss who has said in the past "I don't pay you to sit at a desk for 8 hours / day" and "just because you're sat at a desk doesn't mean you're working".
Also agree training, mentoring and corporate culture all harder to install remotely.
WorldClassAccident
MemberIf I didn’t already have an office set up in the house I would be SO tempted to make a tree house in the garden and work from that
Just have to watch out for pesky squirrels 🐿
Never been keen on working from home but like it would seem many on here started a new job on the 23rd if March so induction was a few hours in a basically empty office that normally held 300.
Considering I'm new it's worked a lot better than i expected, I've been involved well and am very busy. Teams has proved a lot more useful than expected. I can see WFH being an option for some of the time going forward. I've got a couple in one team who aren't pulling their weight but most are and the other team work on different sites across the country every day so are used to not being supervised.
Probably helped that I've just moved out of manufacturing into a sector I dare not mention, that everyone hates. Ironically I'm finding my work colleagues to be much nicer and less money grabbing than those I left behind in manufacturing. Sector gas a future as well unlike manufacturing.
A lot of the problem comes from this old-School idea that if you’re really, really good at your job you’d be the perfect person to manage other people doing the same.
There's a name for that, it's called the Peter Principle. In many organisations successful employees get promoted to their level of incompetence.
I'd be quite happy to stay mostly working from home most of the time. It's easier to get into things without distractions. I wouldn't miss the 90mile round trip to the main site I work out of. Once I'm off furlough I'd still go into the or an office a couple of days a week. There are some things I need to see other people for. Plus it's closer to go to an office after a site visit than drive back home.
I switch off for all IT training, I find it just as easy to be bored in a classroom as I do on webex
We don't capture data for engagement when they're in the classroom, and some definitely pay little attention (lawyers, huh!). But we do get attention data from webexs, and some of the figures are comical. 🙂
We are actively discussing what we do when lockdown is relaxed. Our environment won’t permit 2m social distancing with everyone present and so we expect to remain WFH even beyond it being permitted.
One approach we are exploring is one day a week where each sub team is on site face to face, and one day a month where the entire team in in but with a layout focussed on distanced interaction rather than sitting at keyboards tapping away close to each other.
The office could be reconfigured to support client visits etc and we might still be able to get rid of 1/3rd of the space (and cost) at lease renewal time!
How do you go about “team building” when you work remotely? At present all the team members know each other well from the time we spent together in the office, but when will that knowledge expire?
For the cost of one months rent I could take the entire team for a week away bonding together...
I’ve done WFH about 1 day per week for the last 5 years but also spend, sorry spent, an inordinate amount of time on planes, around 130 domestic flights and 25 long haul last year alone according to my BA app. I hated it. It broke me and I genuinely had had enough after Xmas. Ironically I probably caught c-19 on one of those trips and have therefore been home since the second week of Feb.
Upside is I see may daughter all the time and we have really bonded - I block out slots in my calendar for PE with Dads and we always have breakfast and supper together. It’s ace. Home life is generally much nicer and I am also way fitter as a result of having more time and more energy.
Downside is I am a loner anyway and not seeing anyone means I do suffer a bit with anxiety and stress. I struggle to walk away from work and was drinking a bit too much to ‘relax’. Of course then I don’t sleep and it gets worse.
If it is permanent then I need to reset my mind, I could cope If other aspects like meeting friends and having domestic holidays was in the mix. At the moment it’s all a bit tunnel like.
We’ve got 22,000 people, I have over a hundred and I doubt we will ever work like we did before.
Herself has the kit supplied for a home office, desk & chair, screen, dock and keyboard. I expect that she will WFH for a good part of her remaining time until retirement.
All of the job titles bandied around here sound like high scoring bullshit bingo phrases. I pity you all.
Lets see...
Transformation Director of Data which is a fancy title for moving our clients computer systems from old technology to new technology
Pre-sales technical consultant
Developer
IT worker x 6
IT consultant
IT Support
IT / programming
SME/Technical PM
Director of IT and Digital
R&D
IT trainer
Classroom teaching
Developer
Civil Engineer
Sales
Conference production
Resource lead, so overseeing all our recruitment,resourcing
Designer
You lot are barely trying. My title is "Account Technology Strategist".
Lots of good points made - the one about the informality on video calls I can relate to. I work with a whole range of people at my customers, from IT support to CIOs, and pretty much everyone is comfortable in jeans and hoodies with kids and pets running in and out of the room.
Don't worry, JP has form for less than positive posts on other peoples threads
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Beej - I worked somewhere once where we were allowed to make up our own, and other peoples job descriptions.... It was lucky dip on who sent the order to the printers. I was, for 250 business cards Principal Conceptual Engineer
A lot of the comments seem to follow a trend of “I can work from home but would like to go to the office to meet real people / socialise / be seen / team build”
I think this comes from the feeling of comfort you get with doing what you always did. It is like a lot of retired people still go shopping on weekends because that is when they shop rather than during the week when there are less people around. People add to the experience.
It's more that I'm an engineer in a department, there's say 12-15 teams/types of engineers on a project, if I have a question about the correct level of flange lubrication I need to go and ask a pipe layer, or if I need to ask about a large column I need to go ask the heavy erections group. In the office that's straightforward, you walk over in the general direction of that team and ask your question loudly at the first desk and they'll figure out who's looking after it.
Teams makes that a PITA, projects end up too big to have one big team room for that sort of inane question, so you struggle to actually get to know who your counterparts are in the other teams.
Beej – I worked somewhere once where we were allowed to make up our own, and other peoples job descriptions…. It was lucky dip on who sent the order to the printers. I was, for 250 business cards Principal Conceptual Engineer
I once introduced myself to someone I didn't recognized as "tea bitch" and joked it was because I had no clue what I was doing and was overcompensating for it by being nice to everyone.
He was the excec and probably knew my day rate 🤣
You lot are barely trying. My title is “Account Technology Strategist”.
My actual job title is "Subject Matter Expert." I genuinely can't decide whether that's awesome or pretentious toss.
I'd love to WFH again but our firm have just fulfilled their dream of owning their own flashy office and no longer leasing, they've kitted it out with new furniture and fancy lights and even got a break out space....there's no chance they are letting this sit idle, they want bums on seats so WFH is just not happening. They also have this notion that when we are all in together we collaborate and work things through....truth is we just chat shit and argue over trivial stuff for hours....and the pointless meetings arghh... Oh and the miserable gits have a strict no radio policy and insist we do the whole trousers, shirt and smart shoes crap...because it's so much more professional.
My actual job title is “Subject Matter Expert.”
Can we refer to you as Bosun SME then?
Downside is I am a loner anyway and not seeing anyone means I do suffer a bit with anxiety and stress. I struggle to walk away from work and was drinking a bit too much to ‘relax’. Of course then I don’t sleep and it gets worse.
If it is permanent then I need to reset my mind, I could cope If other aspects like meeting friends and having domestic holidays was in the mix. At the moment it’s all a bit tunnel like.
I wish I could describe this so eloquently. But this is Exactly the same for me. I’m not alchoholic but it’s easy to turn to a beer or two as “something to do” or “something different”. And cancelling the family Hols has been a real blow to me mentally as I face 6 months of a very high sales target with just 2 of us sharing a 5 person teams load and no real break from it.
Strategic Account Director fwiw, basically means I work with the company‘s biggest customers to embed ourselves via sales growth aligned with their strategies.
My travel has gone from > 2 flights a month to zero. I was getting sick of the travel too but it lifts my wages by 25-30%. Replacing that is hard.
Strategic Account Director
That abbreviates nicely!
Here's a question for us who've 'suddenly' been thrust into WFH.
If, you got an e-mail today saying "Dear Intergalactic Key Accounts Emperor" in these unprecedented blah blah blah you're WFH forever.
What changes would you, could you and have to make?
Would you give up that London flat and buy a somewhere with a bit of Land?
Give up that expensive PCP car you wouldn't need so much now?
If you're single, could you accept you might not get to 'chat shit' with anyone M-F?
Does you sofa look like an explosion in a post-it factory?
Are you counting the seconds until the chiropractor reopens because you've been bent over a 13" laptop at the dining table for 2 months?
My, Boss has seen the writing on the wall, he's given up his Lease Car (it was end of term anyway) and bought an E-Scooter for his 1 mile commute / trip to the shops as he's decided he's not doing F2F meetings anymore. But then, he's got the advantage of having an office a mile from home that's he's largely kicked everyone else out of.
Not purely driven by WFH but this has appeared on my drive, my V8 Diesel Range Rover has gone and the Mercedes is hooked up to a trickle charger
What changes would you, could you and have to make?
We'd have to lose one of our dining room tables ( that we're both currentle sat either end of) and substitute it for two desks instead. I'd change the carpet for something a bit more office chair friendly.
I'd buy a better printer too. Our occasional home use cheapo HP OfficeJet is struggling to keep up.
We'd only need one car.
And a spade, to bury the childrens bodies.
How many of you WFHers also use a Messaging app? We found it to be an invaluable "back-channel" for informal requests, chats, even just office gossip.
WE have an office WhatsApp group.
I'd imagine that we're not unique in that regard.
Have loads of WhatsApp groups due to all the different groups of work related stuff. Trying to move it over to teams for work related stuff to be honest to encourage separation of social and work.
We use Teams for everything - so I'll have a call with a customer running, and be using the chat for the call participants and then sometimes another chat for just our attendees, or individual 1-2-1 chats with specific people on the call.
We've got running team chats for informal stuff, gossip, stupid stuff. They tend to be a mix of work and non-work, very like you'd have in an office environment.
I've also got a few running group chats with specific work topics and multiple 1-2-1 chats going too.
Teams groups and channels tend to be used for more formal stuff, e.g. working on a proposal response.
What changes would you, could you and have to make?
Tidy my desk up properly. Add a third monitor.
Already have a good printer. Already picked up a secret hand office chair.
"
Working from home forever
- my wife has just been told to plan/expect on working from home either partially or full time for the next two years. They are looking at closing a number of their offices which will be difficult to set up to maintain social distancing and need to reduce numbers in the other offices.
If, you got an e-mail today saying “Dear Intergalactic Key Accounts Emperor” in these unprecedented blah blah blah you’re WFH forever.
What changes would you, could you and have to make?
I’d have to move house which isn’t going to happen. I’d love to, but that would require money. No room and the last few weeks have been a nightmare tbh. Don’t miss the social side of work, just having a desk, being able to concentrate and having home and work completely separate to each other. For me it’s not healthy having no separation between the two.
Try and reduce the wiring clutter as per another thread
My new thinking is that I stick the two laptops up one end of the desk so I can see their screens if any messages pop up. The desktop will continue to live underneath. I will use the Microsoft Wireless display adaptor to allow me to mirror which ever computer I want to onto the main screen in front of me.
I will have a single wireless keyboard & mouse connected to the 4 way USB switch along with the wired microphone and camera.
I would like the laptops to be able to connect to the USB switch wirelessly to reduce the desk clutter. I am guessing that there might be a dongle to dongle solution for this but does this really exist. Also, will all the wireless to wireless links in such close proximity cause issues?
How many of you WFHers also use a Messaging app? We found it to be an invaluable “back-channel” for informal requests, chats, even just office gossip.
Teams.
We don't gossip / chat much.
The Boss is hard to read, at first we were having scheduled video conferences twice a day, it was the youngest team members idea. Sometimes he would get a bit shirty if we went off topic, sometimes he wouldn't, but we were insanely busy at the time. I'd argue it was the best time for going off topic, stress levels were high, but that's an aside. Anyway we don't do that now which is a blessed relief.
When lock-down first happened my social / mates whatsapp groups were crazy, endless memes, jokes, arguments etc, but they're dead quiet now, a bit like the kids we're adjusting to a lot less social interaction which I don't think is good.
At the start of this, all the talk was about what we were going to do when it was over, we were never going to take life for granted again blah blah blah, but rather than a huge endless party when it's over and a return to a more friendly society, I think there's a chance we might become more distant than ever. People aren't looking out for each other any more (well not as much) but treating each other with more suspicion "are they sick" "how many times have they been out today?" "is than an essential worker coming to fix a pipe or an old friend popping over?" "does he need to go out in the car all the time?"
Already picked up a secret hand office chair.
Sounds very cool, I want one!
Best thing we did was switch our broadband to SIM based (with associated antenna etc). I reckon without that no way could I have - with any confidence - used all the video stuff I've done this last two months. Bought a second monitor but that was mostly so my daughter could have a big screen to see what was going on video/chat when she was helping facilitate.
Otherwise all set up from WFH for years. Glad I moved back in from the big shed we used when kids were young. It's about 85 degrees in there at the moment!
We're already talking about having just one car. Mine goes back in Nov and right now I'm wondering if I'll bother leasing another one.
Get some work done on the house, stuff sorted and either moved on or board the loft and get it up there. Decorate the current box room/ office, new desk. Have IT kit and chair from the office already, but looking like months more at home and possibly beyond that. I used to enjoy a couple of days a week from home, but full time isn't doing me any good.
Some of our staff and managers are struggling to get their heads around the 'new normal' at the moment. I have a daily catch-up chat on Teams or Skype with video with my guys to keep us on close terms. Some staff have had hardly any communication from their manager since lock down and are fed up and want to go back into the office. None of my team do.
I’d have to move house which isn’t going to happen. I’d love to, but that would require money. No room and the last few weeks have been a nightmare tbh. Don’t miss the social side of work, just having a desk, being able to concentrate and having home and work completely separate to each other. For me it’s not healthy having no separation between the two.
We're not quite in that boat. My Wife is a Community Nurse, at first the dreaded middle management couldn't accept that the grand tradition of 'Handover' made be a thing of the past and they we were still cramming 12 of then into the same room before and after they headed out to see some of the most vulnerable people. Even the blindingly obvious stupidity of that couldn't persuade them to stop, but finally it seems to be. She works from a small laptop anyway.
I've sued to dual 24" monitors, I've slimmed down to a laptop, monitor and keyboard. It's about as slimline as I can go.
We can't move, we've only been here 5 months and will likely be in negative equity now, at least for 6 but more likely 12 months, maybe more.
There's no room for a home office, I've been looking at conservatories, or "glass extensions" as they call them, I can get them at 'Trade' from a client, but I don't have money for it at the moment.
No way to extend here and no money to do so if it was possible. The house was too small before WFH happened and it’s putting a lot of strain on home life tbh.
I face 6 months of a very high sales target with just 2 of us sharing a 5 person teams load and no real break from it.
Why?
I really struggle to comprehend this mindset. A company's under-resourcing (presumably) isn't your fault. If I had to do the work of three people I wouldn't think "wow, I'd best work 24-hour shifts," I'd think it sucks for them to be getting a third of the work done until they hire more staff.
We are just a few weeks away from completing a house rebuild and extension. It includes a new study, large dining room table surrounded by windows and small summer house with power and wifi access. I have a dog and a brand new bean to cup coffee machine. Never been a better time to start full time WFH!
Would you give up that London flat and buy a somewhere with a bit of Land?
I've been wondering about this. Could this be the beginning of the end for the London powerhouse? If you're not trailing into the office every day it makes little difference whether you're in The City or the Orkney Islands.
If you’re single, could you accept you might not get to ‘chat shit’ with anyone M-F?
I do rather tend not to shark work colleagues.
Are you counting the seconds until the chiropractor reopens because you’ve been bent over a 13″ laptop at the dining table for 2 months?
Nor do I visit quacks. My neck is rather sore though.
The worst part is not being able to check out what outfit the trainee in Accounts is rocking today 🙁
I do rather tend not to shark work colleagues.
It is possible to talk to people for reasons other than wanting to bang them, it's even possible to interact socially with members of the same sex.
For most people their colleagues are probably their social circle. As nice as the idea of a nice big house in Orkney is to a middle aged bloke with a wife and 2.4 kids, it'd be miserable if your only interaction with the world was via skype.
Then again, tinder.
If you’re single, could you accept you might not get to ‘chat shit’ with anyone M-F?
I do rather tend not to shark work colleagues.
Ha ha, I meant gossip with people Monday to Friday, as in you live alone and might not see your Pals until the weekend, although reading it back it does seem more like chatting up people.
It is possible to talk to people for reasons other than wanting to bang them, it’s even possible to interact socially with members of the same sex.
And bang those too?
Of course it's possible, but I didn't think that was the thrust of the comment I replied to.
For most people their colleagues are probably their social circle.
Really? How depressingly sad if that's true. Other than Mandatory Corporate Fun evenings and the very occasional pub lunch I don't think I've socialised with work colleagues since I was in my 20s. I have actual friends for that sort of thing.
it’d be miserable if your only interaction with the world was via skype.
Sounds like bliss to me TBH.
I have actual friends for that sort of thing.
It's possible to have both, especially if you don't work with arseholes*.
*edit: appreciate that might not be within your control 🙂
I have actual friends for that sort of thing.
Maybe you have the wrong job? I have many "actual friends" I've met via work - both colleagues and people who I've met through colleagues. It's not the only way to meet people, but it provides a usefiul first filter to select out people with similar interests and outlook.
One thing we still need to do face to face is get together in a room to thrash out work allocation. Doesn't seem to work well via Skype audio.
Suspect it will work even worse in next week's Skype meeting to finalise it, when I am on leave. I'm gonna get screwed over big time.
Three of us WFH. Son in his room (not ideal, get's distracted), and me and the Mrs downstairs. We have a table for a PC in the lounge and I'm either in the conservatory, or the summer house. As both these are used for craft stuff by my Mrs, I'm in a much 'messier' environment than I like - fabric all over the place. Mrs is likely to be out of a job soon as she's on a fixed term contract, but she drove me nuts when she was on furlough recently - busy sewing, but would barge into the conservatory and start sewing something up, right next to my laptop, and I'd lose one of my screens due to interference.
I'll be looking to make the summer house far more like an 'office layout'. Downside, it's not secure so means taking everything in and out every day. Long term might be an additional 'shed' to work from. I know I'll at least be 2 or 3 days WFH, maybe more in the Autumn. 20 folk in our office, in banks of 6, no social distancing possible.
One thing we still need to do face to face is get together in a room to thrash out work allocation. Doesn’t seem to work well via Skype audio.
That's probably the easyist bit where I am, it's an agile project and it's all neatly divided up into small parcels of work with points assigned. Total points / number of developers and off you go...
Maybe you have the wrong job? I have many “actual friends” I’ve met via work
Actual friends that I could ring up out of the blue, suggest going for a pint or popping round for a brew and it not feel weird or otherwise atypical, that I've met through work? I can probably think of one off the top of my head and that's a 30-year old friendship now.
I move in various circles and am fortunate enough to have a large and diverse set of friends acquired variously via school / uni / conventions / board game groups / escape rooms / a supporting cast of thousand other hobbies. Work, not so much. I get on really well with my team and other peers, but if I quit my job tomorrow I'd probably never speak to any of them again.
Most of my Wife's friends she made through work, she rarely speaks to her Older friends anymore.
I'm the complete opposite, I get on well with the Guys from work and I'm, pretty pally with my Boss, but I find it hard to be completely unguarded with people from work - I mean, how can you moan about the people you work with, if they're you're mates?
a few interesting things happening, I live and work in London
enjoying working from home, had that pre lockdown on an infrequent basis, have set up the office since going into lockdown so wfh is now straightforward
BUT, i have a London house, I could move to a non-London house and have a big infrequent commute instead, and then be able to leave nearer the hills which would be ace. Pre lockdown I used to cycle commute 4-5 days a week
What is this going to do to house prices, be nice if they rebalanced a bit. Are London weighted salaries needed if everyone is working remotely
Is HS2 really needed now? Could put money into fibre instead?
Did we really need to travel/fly so much? Lower CO2 emissions are definitely a good thing
Interesting times
I get on really well with my team and other peers, but if I quit my job tomorrow I’d probably never speak to any of them again.
Good for you, but others are different, and not "depressingly sad" at all.
Really? How depressingly sad if that’s true. Other than Mandatory Corporate Fun evenings and the very occasional pub lunch I don’t think I’ve socialised with work colleagues since I was in my 20s. I have actual friends for that sort of thing.
Careful about being too snarky about this. During our ill-feted and brief move back North, my wife got a job WFH, so was living and working in the house all day, in a place where she basically knew nobody. That was really hard for her, because she didn't get to meet anyone at work, and it's from things like the Mandatory Corporate Fun evenings and idle nattering across desks that friendships, even casual ones, often grow.
As for the question about messaging apps, we have Teams (which is great) and there is apparently a team WhatsApp group, but I don't have WhatsApp. I figure if you can't get me on email, text, Teams chat or, you know, ringing me on my actual phone, then I probably don't need to get whatever the message is.
Why?
I really struggle to comprehend this mindset. A company’s under-resourcing (presumably) isn’t your fault. If I had to do the work of three people I wouldn’t think “wow, I’d best work 24-hour shifts,” I’d think it sucks for them to be getting a third of the work done until they hire more staff.
Two reasons:
a) Because I'm an overly conciencious and committed - rightly or wrongly - person - Im just built this way and don't like to be lazy and/or take the piss.
b) 50% of my Salary is based on the commission I get from that high target. So in order to keep decent wages coming in I need to work my balls of / being lazy and taking the piss is a sure way for a salesperson to get fired.
Ok maybe three:
c) Now's not the best time to pack it in - as I'm in a slightly niche industry also - and look for another job.
I'll just say I'm not working 24hr shifts, maybe a fluctuating 10-14hrs, and outside of that I do manage my time / devices with no exposure to work these days.
Could this be the beginning of the end for the London powerhouse?
London is not a power house because of connections to the Parts of the UK it's a powerhouse because of connections to t the world.
Mrs kilo currently wfh so the rear of the living room is now an office with sliding doors shut. If it were permanent it would be problematic, 50% of the lounge lost, having her chuntering away on calls and meetings when I come home and want to sit around watching tv is not ideal for either of us. Her office space also has the Sonos speakers in it and the cd system to further compromise matters. Our crappy printer / scanner is getting a hammering and there are files all over the place. All in all I’m not a fan of giving up a chunk of my home to work. I also believe that a separation between home and work is mentally a good thing. I can’t wfh at present and if the possibility arises I’ll decline.
I am a bit surprise people still use their printers so much for work.
With regard to losing the house to office - I wonder how many companies are willing to pay their employees home insurance increase for a dedicated business use space? Also, what about H&S in the work place? Paying you rental for the room you give them in your house?
Any lawyers/unionists fancy weighing into the battle with facts rather than my first thoughts?
Mrs kilo has to proof and jiggle a lot of documents, reports and contracts so it’s easier to quickly scribble her initial thoughts on a printed copy than any other way
I wonder how many companies are willing to pay their employees home insurance increase for a dedicated business use space?
If it's general desk based work, no customers coming in, no stock on site, there's usually no additional premium.
I wonder how many companies are willing to pay their employees home insurance increase for a dedicated business use space?
Wasn't this covered near the start of this whole enterprise? There's a difference between working from home and running a business?
Also, what about H&S in the work place?
Also PAT for electrical equipment could be fun.
I wonder how many companies are willing to pay their employees home insurance increase for a dedicated business use space?
There’s talk of a £6 a day home working allowance to cover additional bills etc. Although I don’t know if that’s a tax thing, an ‘expenses’ thing or the day dream of a headline writers somewhere.
I think most people would be quids in just escaping the cost of the commute / lunch out thing, but everyone’s different.
Mrs has decided in order for me to do it full-time we’d either need a summer house or conservatory and my employer should pay for it... Public Sector workers are funny sometimes.
I think for Many especially if you're not being payed a high salary if it's a 100% wfh then some employer allowance should be allowed. Especially if the office is some distance away as it might be best for the worker to rent a desk at a shared space.
Also, what about H&S in the work place?
Also PAT for electrical equipment could be fun.
It’s not like WFH is a new thing, people have been doing it as long as work has existed. It’ll just be on a larger scale.
Saying that, Brits have a great ability to forget learnt lessons and doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons because that’s what our Parents did. We could all be back where we were in a few months the only difference being some dusty, ignored signs advising us to stay 2m apart.
I really struggle to comprehend this mindset. A company’s under-resourcing (presumably) isn’t your fault. If I had to do the work of three people I wouldn’t think “wow, I’d best work 24-hour shifts,” I’d think it sucks for them to be getting a third of the work done until they hire more staff.
From what I can tell (and I don't mean to be dismissive of your job or skills) your job sounds like it's task orientated. So there's a list of jobs and you do them at your own rate and if there's too many jobs they pile up and it's not your fault. I've worked like this before, and it's mandatory to do as you say and DON'T try to do it all. It's a key rule when working Agile: You plan to do X number of points in a sprint, and if you fall short by Y, don't just say 'ok let's work harder and do X+Y next week to catch up'. That way lies failure. You just acknowledge that your velocity is X-Y and tell your management to expect the result later. Obvs this isn't always welcome, but that's the difference between good and bad management.
Other jobs however are goal orientated. Win the deal, solve the customer's issue, and so on. I'm currently working like this. I've been given a problem to solve, and it's both a matter of personal pride AND corporate success that I do everything I can to sort it out. If I do, then I feel great satisfaction. Because I'm in charge of solving the problem I am emotionally invested in it, so I WANT to work loads on it. Of course, the effort I put in has to be recognised - and it is. I am expected to train and learn and help others when I'm not on an engagement, but no-one checks, and it's very easy going. I might've worked 12 days straight, but I've also grabbed plenty of 2 hour bike rides in the middle of the day and when it's done I'm going to kick back for a while. And I must say I quite enjoy it - I need the personal investment in the job to motivate myself and get my job satisfaction.
So if WFH becomes the norm, are the employers going to compensate the employee having to provide a workspace?
My wife is WFH now, so she's taken over my office & computer during the day, and work stuff is spread all around her.
And I would object strenuously of her employer wanted a camera running so they could check she was working (not likely though - she'd tear them a new one).
We are going to need to add another room if this continues.
There’s talk of a £6 a day home working allowance to cover additional bills etc.
It’s actually claimable now, if you are required to WFH, if say your office is shut.
Either the company can pay you £6 pw as a non taxable allowance (but how many will do that in the circumstances?) or you can claim £6 as a deduction on your tax return, but you’ll only get £1.20 or £2.40 back depending on your tax band.
You can claim more but would need to prove it.
Along with savings companies will make from not owning/renting offices, I think wage inflation will start to flatten out as more of the working population won't need to spend thousands on commuting. If they can find a way to take it off us, they will 🙂
Holy thread revival Batman 🙂
How’s the WFH going for everyone ?
I found it very strange ‘going back’ after Christmas.
I also jumped countries and tbh sometimes forget that I’m in a different country let alone that no-ones actually really ever in our offfice.
Until COVID hit my job entailed quite a bit of travel, visiting customers and discussing their needs. We sell products to the rail industry world wide. It's quite tricky doing my job and not engaging with the client face to face.
When not traveling I'd be sat in a pokey office with 5 other colleagues all of us engrossed in our work. WFH is not too dissimilar in that respect.
So for me working from home when not traveling and going into the office on occasion would suit me nicely
I worked predominantly from home before Covid and love it. I've now made a formal request to make it the default location permanently and am waiting to hear back. The whole company (oil operator) has been working from home since last February and on the whole coped well. The company is also actively downsizing (25%) and has factored ~35% reduction in office space based on more folk working from home.
i digress, but a question for the OP based on your job description...
i also work form home. i am about to start a new job after being finished at my last place in October. i still have the laptop from that job and it doesn't seem like they are bothered about getting it back. i can use it to go online but obviously all the licensed products are disabled; problem is i need administrator access to install any new programs on it - is there any way round this??
Not wfh, still a key worker in my own secure little office.
Mrs Kilo still wfh’ing and I still find it very annoying to get home and find half the living room is an office, but what can you do at present.
Just before Christmas more of her company started returning to the office(s), wfh was not universally popular especially with the younger staff who missed the social interactions work often provides so whether mass wfh sticks in the long term is not nailed on.
I'm pretty lucky in my WFH situation, have decent amount of space, all the equipment I need and live alone so no distractions - it's going to be tricky returning to the office though (the company I work for has always preferred people to mostly work from offices and I think that will continue post-pandemic), most of the equipment I'm using is work stuff so I can't just start working 50:50 office:home as I can't move 3 monitors & a desktop each time I switch :p
That said a colleague has his wife WFH as well and now his two primary school age kids are at home to so he's mostly relegated to a corner table in his bedroom and has to split his time helping with the kids - sounds a bit of a nightmare dealing with that and getting work done.
problem is i need administrator access to install any new programs on it – is there any way round this??
You can usually enable a local admin account using chntpw and a live linux cd but you may need to muck about with bios stuff if boot from removable media has been disabled
Well I have been back to work from yesterday. I've done next to nothing. Motivation is rock bottom.