Ryan
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Post by Ryan on Mar 27, 2020 15:47:05 GMT -5
Prior to all of this, our office allowed us to work from home on a limited basis. I have direct reports and I live closeby so it's not a huge deal to be in the office anyways, but I did love how quiet it was and the ability to get a lot more done. Now that I've been home for 2 weeks straight, here are my Pros/Cons.
PROS:
-Being able to sleep later, huge plus. I only sleep maybe 30 minutes later but it makes a big difference. -Being able to start sooner/work later. I used to get to work at 9:00, now I start at 8:30 and work till around the same time. -I never am tempted to go out to lunch because I'm at home, not that it's easy to do now anyways. -I save money on commuting costs. -Instead of taking an hour lunch, I take a shorter lunch and do something for 20-30 mins with my kids. -More productive.
CONS:
-It's isolating. I like the isolation in general, but i didn't realize how much time I spent at the water cooler. -Not as easy to communicate-In the office, I think people are a little too quick to pop by when they have a question and it makes for a lot of distractions. Working out of their home, most people don't want to reach out over the phone because it feels more invasive.
Determination:
For me, working from home 3 days a week and in the office 2 days would be perfect.
How bout you?
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Mar 27, 2020 20:41:53 GMT -5
We had a one day a week work from home policy. I never took advantage of it, never got a company issued laptop. I did get set up to login from home (downloaded software to my pc and got a token thingy on my phone). Starting at the end of February I saw the "writing on the wall" that we might be going to "everybody works from home" so I started prepping - made sure I could still login and even did some 'busy work' kinds of "work" from home for an hour on a week night and then another thing that takes 2 hours on a Saturday - just to get a feel for it and to see what I might need at home to do my job. I also started turning some of my pieces of paper with info (or tips/tricks or shortcuts) into PDFs and storing it in OneNote. And then sure enough I went from NEVER having worked from home to working from home full time. Good thing I prepped. I brought home all the right manuals/things and I have all my "cheat sheets" and "crib notes" from the papers on the walls of my cube in One Note. IT was very weird walking out of the office and knowing I wouldn't be seeing my coworkers or boss again for weeks. I think I'd like to go back to the office. I do think I will apply for a company issued laptop and sign up for a scheduled work from home one day a week day. My PROs -- sleeping later is a big plus. I haven't been this well rested in decades. I get up about an hour later than before. -- I get in a chore or two during the day (like putting in a load of wash or picking up/tiding a room). -- no commute costs -- I'm still "brown bagging breakfast and lunch" and making dinners - I didn't eat out much at work. -- I get to call and talk to my family who are in a timezone an hour ahead in the morning before I start work. -- I've gotten use to conference calls instead of face to face meetings - one must communicate differently because there's no body language to read. -- I'm not sure I get more work done - I'd say about the same amount. My CONS -- I'm starting to have a hard time stopping working I sign in at 9am and I'm still working at 6 or 7pm. I did use to work late a couple times a week when I was in the office though. -- I'm having a hard time separating work from home. -- I feel like I'm glued to a monitor/screen from the time I get up until I go to bed. -- I need to institute a "go for a walk outside" break at least 2 times a day (that's my goal for next week). -- being at home surrounded by all the things I'd rather be doing is stressful. I'm an introvert and have had the life long dream of being a Hermit in a "Cave" with indoor plumbing, hot and cold water, and an internet connection. And I may have just achieved the dream. My life hasn't changed that much. I don't mind NOT being around my co-workers (I don't really work with them we're just in the same department have the same boss). Like I said above - I would like to go back to the office - to separate work from home. I think I would like to have a one day a week work from home day. In our weekly department meeting - my boss talked about the meetings with higher ups and how they asked if there were any problems with the 'working from home' and our projects/support etc... and how he had thought "the only problem is gonna be getting all the developers to come back to the office".
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Mar 27, 2020 21:31:56 GMT -5
Headquarters in DC is huge about being in the office. And because they all have horrible commutes they don't start until 9 or 930.
Outside of DC, telework is approved for 2 days a week. It seems like most people take advantage of it. Many of them have gone to using their iPhone full time or their signature line lists home and office days.
I'm not sure what the official policy in DC is. I think organization wide is 2 days. My office is more restrictive and only allows one day. Additional days are approved on a case by case basis. If I'm doing an online training or conference, multiple days are approved.
I didn't do it regularly because some people in my office look down on it. Some months I ended up doing it every week due to circumstances. Other months I had very little.
I'm trying not to let my hours slide and creep into off the clock hours. I want to benefit from not spending 2 hours a day in my car.
I am getting more sleep and enjoying avoiding the commute. It's also nice to not have to dress up.
I do miss seeing some people. A few things could have been more easily solved in person but we are learning. And I have more room at work to get up and take a walk.
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Cookies Galore
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Post by Cookies Galore on Mar 27, 2020 21:34:13 GMT -5
My normal work week is working from home Tuesdays and Fridays, in the office Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. I've been fully working from home since March 13, it's definitely different from what I'm used to, but I've been able to create a new normal relatively quickly even if I am feeling a little stir crazy.
I log on between 7:15 and 7:30, take my full hour break, and log off at 3:30 (we have a 35 hour perk week). It's a busy time for my team so I've been very productive at home, though I do miss my monitor. I didn't want to have to drive to work just to get it (i take transit to work) and I didn't want to risk my cats destroying work property so I'm only using my work laptop. It's okay for now. I also really miss the people I work with.
My new normal routine is up at 6:45 to shower (M/W/F hair washing days in my new schedule), swipe on some mascara to feel a little normal and put together, wear a cardigan and leggings. Breakfast is cold brew coffee or Earl Grey tea, and either rye toast and a fried egg or greek yogurt with a spoonful of peanut butter. Lunch is leftovers, something I throw together, or takeout from a local deli. When I log off I work out then do stuff around the house. I'm going to have to incrementally set my alarm earlier and earlier. When I'm in the office I get up at 5 to catch a 6 am train, so I don't want that to be a shock to the system whenever I go back. My husband's job is considered essential so he's gone by 6 am and home by 4 pm. Around 4:15 I'm ready to strangle him.
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Cheesy FL-Vol
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Post by Cheesy FL-Vol on Mar 28, 2020 5:47:37 GMT -5
I have been a full time remote employee for 3-1/2 years now and I love it. But then I am introverted, so it suits me perfect.
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Mar 28, 2020 7:41:11 GMT -5
I'm hating it right now.
In-office conversations now have to be done online. Which is fine, but if I spend 5 hours a day meeting, I loose 5 hours of productivity.
One of my coworkers is using the distance in inability to address issues immediately in real time to make chaos for us.
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jeffreymo
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Post by jeffreymo on Mar 28, 2020 8:21:00 GMT -5
We’ve been WFH for 2 weeks now with my only previous experience being playing catch-up on evenings and weekends.
I like the extra sleep. I like being able to get a head start on dinner. I like the gas savings. I am ok with the isolation. One thing I’ve had trouble with is - I have a couple of team members who were’t super effective at their jobs. One constantly interrupts me for things they should already know and the other doesn’t say anything but I have to double-check all of their work. When we were in the office it was somewhat aggravating but it was easy for me to give a quick answer. With WFH like you said it’s sometimes difficult to solve problems over the phone or with instant messaging. We are still trying to navigate the best methods for working together and solve problems in addition to solving the problem.
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moon/Laura
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Post by moon/Laura on Mar 28, 2020 10:26:41 GMT -5
This is my Friday of my first week WFH. Even though most of us could have easily done so all along, they've never allowed us to. The ones that couldn't have prior to this were because they still had Linux laptops. We all used to, but most had already switched to windows. Our phone software doesn't play with Linux so one of my tasks was re-imaging and setting up those peoples' laptops. Not my job, but someone has to do it.
WFH is definitely different, but I don't mind it. The majority of my work is accomplished via instant messaging, so I'm used to that. My productivity hadn't changed. Where it's difficult is when I have to play "deskside support" (this is not my job either) for a team mate who is having trouble.
Pros - getting up at 5:15 (instead of about 3:30) to start at 6 - no 40 min commute each way - saving money on lunches - ability to do quick chores during the day
Cons - no interpersonal relationships with my co-workers, who I actually enjoy. We have less than 20 people in our room, split among 4 shifts (2 day and 2 night). We're all reasonably tight knit. One team I work with has a guy who will spin off song lyrics based on current conversation, and I can often pick it up where he left off. Or people will bring in food to share or whatever. Lots of shit-giving, like when C exploded an egg in the microwave. 2 years ago, and we still tease her, lol. - I don't really have an official "office". I'm making do with a smallish table that holds my laptop and 2 external monitors, but is a little taller than is really comfortable. Had no office chair, so after 2 back breaking days in a kitchen chair (12 hr shifts), I bought a used one for $10 through nextdoor. Major improvement! - cats. Everywhere, wanting attention.
I guess for the most part I'm ok. Don't know if I'd want to do it all the time, even though overall I tend to be introverted as well. I think that when restrictions have eased we'll have a get together to celebrate. There are a number of us who have gotten together outside of work, know each other's families, etc. It's just weird not to have the "work fam" around.
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ners
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Post by ners on Mar 28, 2020 10:38:26 GMT -5
I am finding out I am not cut out to work from home long term.
Things I like no 40 minute ride.
Things I dislike - not seeing coworkers. No real office space, working at kitchen table. Still do not have access to my files from work.
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Ava
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Post by Ava on Mar 28, 2020 11:02:26 GMT -5
I've been working from home for a week.
PROS No commute costs, no wear-tear Saving 90 minutes a day on commuting time Less stress because my commute is on heavy traffic Saving money because there's no impulse buying at the cafeteria at work Get more accomplished because no interruptions except the occasional phone call or message
CONS Cat going crazy with happiness to have me all day. She tries to play, get petted, served food, tries to jump on the monitor so I will pay her attention. Isolation Not getting dressed, putting on make-up and perfume to go out Talking to people Miss my coworkers I don't have the appropriate set-up, only one monitor, using the kitchen table and kitchen chair Not moving enough. At work I would take a walk at lunch time, had the bathroom further away from my desk
Overall, I think I would love to keep working from home. The cons can be solved. Furthermore, I plan to have a very serious conversation with my manager about this possibility when things go back to normal If I get approved to 1 or 2 days a week (very likely) I will set up a double monitor and a comfortable desk and chair. If I get approved to work from home permanently (chances are slim to none) I would move from this area
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movingforward
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Post by movingforward on Mar 28, 2020 11:11:11 GMT -5
I am finding out I am not cut out to work from home long term. Things I like no 40 minute ride. Things I dislike - not seeing coworkers. No real office space, working at kitchen table. Still do not have access to my files from work. Same here. No commute and being able to sleep later are great, but I'm not crazy about working from home. I am the executive director so I still go into the office 2 days per week for a few hours. Someone has to make sure any bills that come in the mail are paid and any checks that come in are deposited. I'm the only person there so still working in isolation. I have always been a compartmentalized person and working from home doesn't really achieve that. I also find myself forming really bad habits. The other day it was noon before I realized I hadn't even washed my face. I would have been at a conference in NYC this weekend having fun with colleagues but... It probably would help if I had an actual office space at home but I don't. I end up either working at the kitchen table or on the sofa with my computer on my lap. I have no printer or scanner either.
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souldoubt
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Post by souldoubt on Mar 28, 2020 11:45:09 GMT -5
I've been working from home for the last two weeks and even as an introvert it's not something I would want to do full time. I live near the beach and used to go a lot when I was younger but now we maybe go 10-15 times a year between restaurants and walks on the beach trail. For me going into work is the same as living near the beach. I may not see most of the people I work with on a daily basis or drive along the coast for weeks at a time but I know both my co-workers and the ocean are there. The pros are being able to sleep in, roll out of bed into my office chair and no commute. The biggest con is when I get busy working at home I'm bad about getting up and moving around whereas at work going to the bathroom requires more than walking to the next room over.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Mar 28, 2020 12:14:27 GMT -5
I've been working from home for the last two weeks and even as an introvert it's not something I would want to do full time. I live near the beach and used to go a lot when I was younger but now we maybe go 10-15 times a year between restaurants and walks on the beach trail. For me going into work is the same as living near the beach. I may not see most of the people I work with on a daily basis or drive along the coast for weeks at a time but I know both my co-workers and the ocean are there. The pros are being able to sleep in, roll out of bed into my office chair and no commute. The biggest con is when I get busy working at home I'm bad about getting up and moving around whereas at work going to the bathroom requires more than walking to the next room over. all of this, and the comment someone else made about realizing that I am not cut out for this long term. boundaries are not being kept, I am actually posting from my laptop since I booted it up to log a couple hours of work today. my office had a general 1x/wk WFH allowance, alongside very flexible hours as long as you were accessible and your work was getting done. I was WFH usually on Tues or Wed, and counting time worked offline on the train to shorten my day in the office. after my roommate moved out, I was all over the map on office vs WFH, and had generally been WFH 2x/wk. my job is managing contract manufacturing for pharmaceuticals, so I legitimately can do my job from anywhere with appropriate connectivity. we already do a lot of instant messaging and conference calls because of that flexibility, so this isn't much different. I have been WFH 100% since 3/9, but I've had to go in to the office twice for a couple hours each time. I have to make another trip, to scan something that got missed before we all vacated. the official policy now is 100% WFH if your job allows for it. keeping with the general flexibility already, they are acknowledging the need for wacky hours and longer breaks to take care of things as you go. the routine I have settled into has been log in by 8am, log out for probably 2h mid-day to take my dogs to the park and run them tired, and then work til 5 or later. I'm spending as much time as possible working from my back patio, to get the dogs outside and running around. if it's sunny and over 40 degrees, I'm out here. I actually got a slight sunburn yesterday, good problems pros: -I got 4h/day back with the nonexistent commute -I get to play with my dogs all day -I'm not spending $ on parking/train/lunch out -I don't need headphones for my background music cons: -my dogs don't understand why I'm home all the time and we aren't always out doing things. one of them is incredibly needy and clingy -I miss interacting with people that don't irritate me - the local reaction to social distancing is appalling -I find myself working on weekend days, just because it's something else to do while I'm home. (someone remind me that I need to pack up my house before I sell it next month!)
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Mar 28, 2020 12:42:04 GMT -5
I've never been allowed to WFH until now. Concurrently with schools closing, I tried to stay home as of end of day March 13. Turns out, the plug I was given for me computer didn't fit, so I had to go back into the office for that and my mouse, keyboard, get admin rights so I could download print drivers to computer, on March 17th. I've been WFH since then. Many coworkers thought I was silly for doing the social distancing. It is indeed harder to get my job working from home, but it is gradually getting better. My place of employment was patting themselves on the back for being proactive about all this. Maybe Ops was more, but from where I sit in Finance, I feel like they were behind the ball. We had a meeting some weeks back, and we were all tasked with getting things set up with IT, and do a test run for WFH. I tried, but couldn't get anybody to move their ass on it for weeks, until everybody started scrambling to get things set up at the 11th hour.
I'm at the end of 2nd week of WFH. First week was ridiculously difficult, working off a single, extra small laptop screen when I often need 2 monitors to do my work with any efficiency. I received my adapter for my monitor last Sunday, and this helped productivity very, very much.
My household streams TV, so it has been very challenging trying to keep the kids quiet and entertained while my husband and I try to get our work done. Some processes I run are sensitive to disconnection, so I need to kick everyone else offline while I do them. We have encountered noticeable slowdowns in bandwidth at times during the day for no reason within our own household. I have moved to working more during off-hours.
Still, I love not having to get up extra early, get dressed in non-comfortable clothes and makeup, nagging my kids to keep up the pace so we can all leave on time for me to make the 45 minute drive through annoying traffic every morning. I'm not sleeping in too much more, but enough that I don't feel groggy all the time. I'm start work earlier than before, doing what I need to get done asap in the morning, then work more sporadically throughout the day. I wouldn't mind this at all if it weren't for everyone else in my house interrupting all the time. I'm an introvert, and I got more me-time during my commute than I'm getting holed up with 3 other people, plus the contractor working on my kitchen during the week. At least my husband is usually really easy to live with since he's an introvert too.
On the money side, we're saving a ton on gas and daycare costs right now. My husband also had a 30+ mile each way commute, too.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Mar 28, 2020 13:01:01 GMT -5
I have been trying to keep to the same general hours. I've been about 30 minutes behind. I need to force more walks next week if the weather holds out. I have no problem doing it at work.
I get up, wash face, take inhaler, brush teeth and get dressed. Yes, it's yoga pants but I'm changing out of my pajamas.
My husband is also working at home. I try to do my conference calls in the bedroom upstairs to avoid disturbing him.
The realization that I need to get out of the chair more is helping with cutting off work when my hours are in for the day.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Mar 28, 2020 13:31:59 GMT -5
One more issue is that at work, I've got my monitors set low, and chair high enough so I don't have to crank my head to see the screen though the bottom hay of my glasses. I can't do that at home, and I can barely see my monitor without cranking my neck I was planning on getting work glasses made before all this happened. I wonder if I could use the middle part of my prescription to get some from Zenni, and if it would work? Is Zenni even operating right now.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2020 13:41:30 GMT -5
Been working from home last couple weeks and I have never been busier. Keeping the supply chain going has been a full time task and then some.
My company has had a task force since Jan to keep everything we purchase whole but a couple of our vendors completely shit the bed with their suppliers and didn’t start acting till the past couple weeks and we are seeing gaps in their supply. I went off on one yesterday for it.
I do have to go in a couple days next week to spell my boss and his boss so someone is there to supervise production. The really bad thing is Sales\Marketing has gotten to sit on their asses the last couple weeks with nothing to do but bitch about temporary stock outs. Yes it’s my fault UPS is a week late on stuff coming from Europe with you know..... a pandemic going on.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2020 13:55:29 GMT -5
There are advantages of course, but I find I'm not nearly as productive at home (not yet anyhow, maybe I'll improve once I'm more in the swing of it), plus I find I'm working ALL THE TIME. I use the computer for personal stuff and can't ignore the emails that come in from work. I find myself logging into VPN and releasing work orders at 10 at night or running reports while watching TV, instead of just clocking out at 4pm and having nothing to do with work until I clock back in at 7:30am.
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moon/Laura
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Post by moon/Laura on Mar 28, 2020 14:19:38 GMT -5
I realized a little while ago, too, that it's harder for me to keep track of what day of the week it is when I'm here all the time.
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Sharon
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Post by Sharon on Mar 28, 2020 14:43:03 GMT -5
I am very much enjoying working from home and hope I will be allowed to continue doing so 1 or 2 days a week once things return to some semblance of normal. The savings in gas plus the two hours a day I get back from no commute is wonderful. Right now I am still getting up at 4:30 am and try to be logged on around 6am, instead of just heading out the door, because I am having my house resided and new windows put in and it it gives me a couple house of peace before the workers show up and start hammers/sawing etc. I log off around 2:30 - 3:00. We have a daily team huddle which is helping to keep us connected. We talk about the necessary stuff first then have about 15 minutes of just general conversation. I too am having difficulty keeping track of what day it is and when did I do such and such, was it this week, last week etc.
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Post by empress of self-improvement on Mar 28, 2020 15:04:25 GMT -5
I like working from home because I can sleep an hour later. I don't like it because my reason they let me stay home keeps needing to go to the bathroom. <<sigh>> My back hurts.
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Mar 28, 2020 15:30:42 GMT -5
My commute to work is 15-25 minutes, depending on traffic and mode of transportation. So I'm not saving a ton of time by staying at home.
I need that time to switch from job mode to parent mode. I am not doing well without having that decompression time whats so ever.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Mar 28, 2020 15:35:54 GMT -5
I realized a little while ago, too, that it's harder for me to keep track of what day of the week it is when I'm here all the time. Its like that for retired folks too.
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moon/Laura
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Post by moon/Laura on Mar 28, 2020 15:47:39 GMT -5
I realized a little while ago, too, that it's harder for me to keep track of what day of the week it is when I'm here all the time. Its like that for retired folks too. Bite me. 😋
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lurkyloo
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Post by lurkyloo on Mar 29, 2020 7:49:20 GMT -5
I don’t like it at all. I’m fully cognizant of how fortunate I am to have responsible and understanding supervisor/guidelines, and this is very first world problems of me.
I‘m a scientist. I work at a bench and there is only so much paperwork I can productively do, I have no idea how I will fill 6 weeks with it. I miss daily interactions with coworkers. I can get a lot done in half an hour here and there, but we are not allowed in the labs without special permission and then only for maintenance tasks.
Pandemic specific issues:
I‘m fortunate we have a babysitter for several hours each weekday, so I have some form of childcare. However I still have to get my severely ADHD kid to do his schoolwork, which occupies about 3 hours a day and means I‘ve burned a lot of energy before I sit down to work. I’m also only getting 5-6 hours of work time per day. I’m lucky my company isn’t charging me PTO for it, but I miss the ability to sit down and concentrate without kid interruptions.
DH is classed as essential, so he is still working a more or less full day. At least, he gets 8-9 hours by himself and can still go in to work #jealous. He does take PTO when the babysitter can’t work 6 hours.
I’m also generally low level distracted about making sure we have the supplies we need, grocery and otherwise, and trying to take on the supplier role for my dad as well.
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Mar 30, 2020 8:12:03 GMT -5
I'm working from home 4 days a week and going into the office 1 (our team of 5 is rotating days).
Prior to my current job, I worked from home ALMOST exclusively for about 3-4 years. That was by choice, I was essentially a 1-man team on the phone all day to different locations, and I loved being able to flip my phone to speaker mode rather than using a headset or holding a receiver.
Pros: -I also get to sleep an extra 30 minutes, and it definitely feels like much more. -I get to see my kids every day before they go to daycare where before it was hit/miss on whether they'd be awake. -I almost never go out for lunch and the leftovers in the fridge get eaten more often. -We're building a house and now I'm about 30 seconds away from the site instead of 30 minutes away which is great since I did the plans and I get questions about things regularly
Cons: -Unlike my previous company, my current employer is NOT set up for remote work very well. Tons of things are still paper/signature based for no real reason other than an unwillingness to advance (my hope is this becomes a pro and prods them towards catching up with the times). For now it means my day in the office is basically getting things off the printer for 5 people, scanning it, emailing it back out, etc. -I just eat more. The fridge is right there in the house. I eat healthier, but I definitely feel like I'm eating all day (which even if I'm eating less overall...like 5 small meals instead of 3 big ones...it just FEELS like I'm eating all day which isn't a great feeling). -Communication with office people is sometimes maddening. Because so much is done in person it seems like any ability to communicate in writing is absent. "Do you want X or Y?" "Yes" "Question 1, question 2, and question 3" "1 single answer" -My work computer setup is much better than home. Multiple monitors, desk that raises and lowers, all my files since we're paper-based. If I was ever working from home again in a more permanent fashion I'd probably go back to a better home setup, but for a temporary situation like this, it's just not as good as my office is.
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Cheesy FL-Vol
Junior Associate
"Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." -- Helen Keller
Joined: Dec 17, 2010 16:13:50 GMT -5
Posts: 6,663
Mini-Profile Background: {"image":"","color":""}
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Post by Cheesy FL-Vol on Mar 30, 2020 8:38:53 GMT -5
I've been working from home for the last two weeks and even as an introvert it's not something I would want to do full time. I live near the beach and used to go a lot when I was younger but now we maybe go 10-15 times a year between restaurants and walks on the beach trail. For me going into work is the same as living near the beach. I may not see most of the people I work with on a daily basis or drive along the coast for weeks at a time but I know both my co-workers and the ocean are there. The pros are being able to sleep in, roll out of bed into my office chair and no commute. The biggest con is when I get busy working at home I'm bad about getting up and moving around whereas at work going to the bathroom requires more than walking to the next room over. When I get up to go to the bathroom, I make a point of using the bathroom furthest from the office and I make myself take a few runs up and down the stairs before I sit back down. Now that the weather is getting nice, I am going to walk to the corner and back before I sit back down after a bathroom run.
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bobosensei
Well-Known Member
Joined: Dec 21, 2010 11:32:49 GMT -5
Posts: 1,561
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Post by bobosensei on Mar 30, 2020 11:24:13 GMT -5
I'm back in a position at work with flexible work from home privileges. I typically work from home 2-3 days a week depending on what meetings or other things goin on at the office. I have been in a position where I was expected to be in every day. I think the best part of work from home is no commute. We use microsoft teams so I get just as many interruptions. There may be a few more when I am in the office for things people won't post in public but don't mind bothering folks for if they think no one else will know. But honestly, people continue to ask me dumb things they just do it in a private chat instead of in our main group channels.
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Lizard Queen
Senior Associate
103/2024
Joined: Jan 17, 2011 22:19:13 GMT -5
Posts: 14,659
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Post by Lizard Queen on Mar 30, 2020 15:24:47 GMT -5
One big pro: it's happy hour at the office--Cheers!
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happyhoix
Distinguished Associate
Joined: Oct 7, 2011 7:22:42 GMT -5
Posts: 20,781
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Post by happyhoix on Mar 30, 2020 18:59:42 GMT -5
I've never been allowed to WFH until now. Concurrently with schools closing, I tried to stay home as of end of day March 13. Turns out, the plug I was given for me computer didn't fit, so I had to go back into the office for that and my mouse, keyboard, get admin rights so I could download print drivers to computer, on March 17th. I've been WFH since then. Many coworkers thought I was silly for doing the social distancing. It is indeed harder to get my job working from home, but it is gradually getting better. My place of employment was patting themselves on the back for being proactive about all this. Maybe Ops was more, but from where I sit in Finance, I feel like they were behind the ball. We had a meeting some weeks back, and we were all tasked with getting things set up with IT, and do a test run for WFH. I tried, but couldn't get anybody to move their ass on it for weeks, until everybody started scrambling to get things set up at the 11th hour. I'm at the end of 2nd week of WFH. First week was ridiculously difficult, working off a single, extra small laptop screen when I often need 2 monitors to do my work with any efficiency. I received my adapter for my monitor last Sunday, and this helped productivity very, very much. My household streams TV, so it has been very challenging trying to keep the kids quiet and entertained while my husband and I try to get our work done. Some processes I run are sensitive to disconnection, so I need to kick everyone else offline while I do them. We have encountered noticeable slowdowns in bandwidth at times during the day for no reason within our own household. I have moved to working more during off-hours. Still, I love not having to get up extra early, get dressed in non-comfortable clothes and makeup, nagging my kids to keep up the pace so we can all leave on time for me to make the 45 minute drive through annoying traffic every morning. I'm not sleeping in too much more, but enough that I don't feel groggy all the time. I'm start work earlier than before, doing what I need to get done asap in the morning, then work more sporadically throughout the day. I wouldn't mind this at all if it weren't for everyone else in my house interrupting all the time. I'm an introvert, and I got more me-time during my commute than I'm getting holed up with 3 other people, plus the contractor working on my kitchen during the week. At least my husband is usually really easy to live with since he's an introvert too. On the money side, we're saving a ton on gas and daycare costs right now. My husband also had a 30+ mile each way commute, too. My kid is 30 and has his own home, so it's just me and DH holed up here at the house. I can't imagine trying to do my job, which is still pretty much 7:30 to 4 - 5 even though I'm working at home (lots of zoom meetings to attend and documents to write) while at the same time trying to keep my elementary or middle school kid occupied with his school work. (As a HS student he developed some motivation Prior to that I needed full scale nagging and oversight to make him get his work done). Bless you for managing this feat, not sure I could. Hard enough to keep the cats from rioting.
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