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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.
I did over 90 flights in the 19/20 tax year (I had to tot it all up for my annual carbon offset payment) so that was between July and Feb 2020. I most definitely don't miss that amount of travel, being knackered all the time and not being around to be a human being at home. saying that I had proper dread and fear looking at the office door yesterday before I came back today and it's very isolating for sure.
Interesting to read what I thought 7 months ago on page 1.
Working from home has become the norm. I have been into the office probably 10 times since then. It’s ok, but I was right, living alone and working alone, all in the same house, is shit. Glad I’ve got the option to go in when I want to.
I'm still WFH at the kitchen table, bored and lacking motivation, though I am dealing with everything I need to for work.
It's generally a quieter time of year for me where I'd be working on projects for the new financial year and other more strategic things, but I can't as I'm only supposed to be dealing with issues that arise and the usual things I'd be doing involve a good bit of consultation and meeting people out an about.
Wife is part WFH as she is part of a triage system that requires her in the office a couple of days, so she's in the 'back bedroom', as will my son be when he's remote learning (still holiday this week).
I know it's necessary, but it's wearing very thin with inability to do my job fully, boredom and isolation. And yes, I do feel very lucky to have a job and be in a secure job, it's still crap though.
Well I came back to the Dining room table home office yesterday for a 9am start!
I guess we'll be still WFH for at least the first half of the year - can't see the vaccine being rolled out to enough people before then.
We don't have an office at the moment, all WFH, so I had to drive to a colleagues house this morning to collect a PC and then drives somewhere else to collect something else. All so I can build some test kit in the workshop, which is now doubling as a mini lab for work!
It’s ok, but I was right, living alone and working alone, all in the same house, is shit.
Yeah, did that for about 15yrs, luckily I had my young kids to keep me on my toes for a lot of the time but can be very isolating. Mrs dB has the spare room & has wfh since March & I've wfh for 22yrs so have a dedicated office but currently very little to do 😬
I still prefer it to going into an office, but with this new lockdown I will find it hard due to lack of other forms of interaction. Usually I have no issues when I can get out once a week for other stuff
I work for a software company as an account director, per covid I'd be out seeing clients 2 or 3 days a week and in the office the rest of the time.
I really miss the face to face contact with my clients, teams or zoom isn't the same.
My partner is a nurse, she's leaves for work at 7.30, usually home at 6.00 in the evening. I find it quite lonley, during the summer it wasn't too bad as I'd get out for a ride at lunchtime but during the poor weather I can't be arsed. I did manage into the office a handful of times when we re-opened it after lockdown, although with all the measures in place we've gone from a capacity of 20 to a capacity of 10, the busiest it ever got was 5 in on one day.
I doubt we'll ever get back to full time in the office.
Started a completely new job in September. Never met my team face to face. Practically all training delivered by e-learning with occasional Teams sessions.
First live cases now coming through and none of us have a clue. I would give my soul to be sat at a desk with an experienced colleague walking me through the live system as I try and progress the case. Our customers might prefer that as well 🤣
I re-did my home office arrangement at the weekend. New shelving, a new laptop stand, managed to clear a lot of stuff off the desk so it's a much tidier workspace. Could maybe do with a proper desk lamp actually.
Early talk at work was about a phased / partial return to the office around Easter time but that won't be happening. Personally, I'd be surprised if I see the inside of our office again before June.
Still loving it here, I went through a phase of doing a day a week or every other week in the office when things were a bit more normal over late summer, but we moved around that time and it made things a long day.
Also found I ended up dreading doing it, because people were obsessed with having pointless face to face discussions - I ended up going to the office to have back to back meetings all day & achieving nothing.
There are times it's a bit more lonely & isolated, but I will take that with both hands over being stuck in an office, all day every day.
Today was lovely - I had a couple of hours break between meetings so I wandered into the woods next to the house, climbed the big hill to scout out some lines & ended up starting to dig in a new trail. We have a big virgin, pine & loam covered hillside to dig on, literally a minutes ride from home. 🙂
Winter lockdown project - dig a few bangers!
We're never going back to everyone in the office every day, that is the past now. Even when things are fully opened back up, we will be a blend of some days at home and some days at the office.
The pre-start meeting for Radiator Replacement & WC Refurb at Fysche Hall Clinic will be held on Monday 14th December at 15:00pm. I would be grateful if could you confirm your attendance.
Should there be additional/alternative parties required to attend, please feel free to forward on the meeting invite as required. Trish/Glen – could you please make any other tenants / service providers aware and invite if required with the link below to join the teams meeting.
The works are scheduled to commence in early January and anticipated to take four weeks - items such as Access / Security & Welfare etc. will be confirmed during the meeting, however if you could please notify any interested parties of these works that would be appreciated.
Any queries please do not hesitate to contact me.
What's your role?
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??
I would take the existing HD out of the computer and keep it safe somewhere. Go and buy a new HD and install a fresh copy of windows on it - that way you have full rights to install anything you want, plus if your old co. ever realise you still have their computer, you can switcharoo the hard drives and their laptop will be back to "normal"
finished at my last place in October. i still have the laptop from that job
Pfft, a piddling laptop? I finished my old job 30th Sep & my old company car is still on the drive! Anybody want an Outlander, going cheap!
I think there will be plenty of people returning to physical offices when they are able to, the novelty of actually travelling and meeting people will be quite a boost for morale.
That said I haven't had to regularly work in an office for about 10 years, but I have travelled a lot (did 16 flights in January 2020 before lockdown!) and had meetings with people all over Europe, I wouldn't want to go back to 100+ flights a year, but two a month and some F2F time with people and beers after work in Kosice or Warsaw would be nice occasionally.
I did wfh full time from 2013-17 and hated it mainly working with offshore teams. When I got a new job I didn’t even bother finding out how to log on at home.
Now I’m sat in Spain and wfh is pretty good. Paying London rent to sit inside would be a wasted opportunity for me and this is going to have a big impact on my whole life. One bike, one suitcase, a laptop, a phone and replace the car with a van when the time comes.
our Director threw a tantrum before Christmas and said he wanted everyone back in as he didn't feel we were working effectively from home and we've got a COVID secure office.
he's been seen 3 times over the last 10 months, whilst many of us have been in 1-2 days per week all the way through.
I don't think we'll ever be back in 5 days per week, but I'd be happy with a 2/3 day split as I need the social contact and need to see our workshop guys weekly.
Still WFH from'the shed'. MrsF was furloughed and out of work, but starts a new job Monday, and son been out of work since summer, but is doing Dominoes delivery.
MrsF's boss dropping laptop etc off this week as they are all at home. I've been in once, only to sort out changing the password as you have to be physically connected to works network. Realised how much paperwork I don't need in the office. None of us will be 100% office based going forward, which suits me.
I'm still WFH and expect I always will so long as I stay in my work. I manage a couple of teams who are building based so I get out and about when I need to, or want to.
Interesting to think about the future though. Mrs S and I have always planned to move abroad when we retire, now able to consider this much sooner (when kids bugger off to Uni) as my work could, in theory, be completed anywhere. Obviously Brexit has buggered that up slightly but still exciting that living in the sun is now not entirely dependent on local work or retirement. We are looking at options for splitting time between countries in the next few years now.
I would take the existing HD out of the computer and keep it safe somewhere. Go and buy a new HD
simple as that!? you dont need to do any mad coding sorcery when you boot it up??
how much would you expect to pay for one of them?
Thinking something similar but what I wonder is how it works to build up relationships with people over Zoom as opposed to face-to-face.
Back to page 1 this
We had two new starts (yeh massive sample I know) just after (the first) lock down, they’d been appointed literally in the week leading up to lock down.
They are both now as seamlessly integrated with the team as anyone else. It actually surprised most of the team before heading off to Christmas that only one person had met either of them. Actually a bit odd really how they’d become part of the workplace yet never seen us face to face.