The working from home, sent home when their businesses stop trading permanently or temporarily and isolation thread

[Bairnardo]

24 minutes ago, Shandon Par said:

Worth it though? 

Aye probably 

[Fullerene]

2 hours ago, alta-pete said:

Asking for a friend - how many days can you wear the same t-shirt before it officially becomes tink behaviour? 

1

[Suspect Device]

Was working from home since last Tuesday. Got the phone call today that there is no more work from Friday.

I've still got their PC though. That might be worth some cash on ebay…...

[Sergeant Wilson]

8 hours ago, Shandon Par said:

Mrs Par is the opposite. 

You're not kidding!

[8MileBU]

I just assumed that those settings would be blocked by IT. I'll be straight on that at 9am.

 

They are at my work. Goes inactive after 10 minutes. However if you have a work phone, add Skype For Business on there, login with your work account, leave the app open in the background and piss about on P&B, or browse Pornhub for hours on end.

 

ETA: Pornhub are doing free Premium if you promise to stay at home.

 

[The Master]

I think I’ve managed to get myself into a better routine this week which I’ll try to keep going forward.

My desk is now exclusively for work. Time I would normally have spent there in the evening is now on the sofa or other places around the house with my iPad. 

I’m now also making sure to take a walk at or soon after 5 to delineate between “work” and “home”. It gets me out the house, while also feeling like I’m “leaving the office” each day.

I’ve also decided that now is the time to test a beard. Only a handful of work colleagues are seeing me on Skype so the initial scruffiness isn’t an issue.

[The Master]

I thought I'd give this a bump to see how people are coping with wfh this far in.

I started a new job in towards the end of last year, and despite it normally requiring a commute to Aberdeen, I'm now looking forward to the day I can get into the office more often. I was able to get in 4 times since starting and each time felt like the best thing ever, tbh. Which is ironic, because if things were normal I'd relish wfh days.

Being in the house all week - save for a wee walk each day, and occasional shopping - really is shit. 

Things are a bit haywire productivity-wise as well. Sometimes I feel super productive and at other times I have massive brain fog. I think that's something everyone has, but this can change hourly at times just now. Normally, I'd have at worst a day every few weeks where I couldn't properly focus. I do still get done what needs to be done, though. 

How's everyone else doing? 

Edited January 30, 2021 by The Master

[Bert Raccoon]

Working from home is class. My work consists of speaking to customer's all day but I have no family distractions so I basically do my job whilst also being able to watch old episodes of The Bill, Eastenders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street while I've also discovered gems like Homes Under The Hammer and the miriad of programmes on daytime TV about variuous countries custom regulators (Border Control and the likes)

I save about £150 a month on travel, about £10 a week on lunches and have 15 hours a week extra to myself. I can also smoke my vape when I choose.

I understand it's not for everyone but home working is ideal for me and I'm actually performing better than I was in the office.

[Le Tout P'ti FC]

I love WFH.

I gain a good few hours in dead commuting time, I haven't been stuck in a tedious queue caused by the City Bypass since March.

I've been able to get outdoors and experience daylight on a daily basis over winter, compared to leaving in dark to sit at a desk with no view of outdoors and coming home in dark normally. Sitting at my home desk with my back door open during Spring/Summer was an absolute joy.

My relationship with my colleagues has improved immeasurably. Much more time to speak to people on a one-to-one basis, and the ones who irritated me in the office I just don't have to deal with.

When schools were open I was able to structure my day to drop or collect from school, instead of using a school club. Spending hundreds of hours more in the company of the best 7yo in the world - priceless.

My biggest learning has been to break-up my work and home days, and to do so I make sure I leave home before and after work. Whether that's a short trip to coop to buy milk, a twenty minute walk around the village, or a proper two/three hour walk out into the Pentlands depends on how much time I have available, but I find deliberately breaking up time indoors helps. Also to pack away all work stuff.

I've also been able to concentrate on single tasks much better without disruptions.

Post COVID working arrangements to be confirmed, but fully expecting to be working an average of 3-4 days pw at home.

Scarecely any drawbacks about this (I'm referring to WFH here not lockdown to be clear!), although I am missing my morning coffee from Press Coffee near the Meadows, I am missing the companionship of the guy in the Fountainbridge cafe I frequent, and I am missing post-work pints with my pals in Cloisters, our "city local".

[Busta Nut]

On 20/03/2020 at 18:22, throbber said:

Her work today were due to deliver her lap top around 5 o clock but the woman who was meant to be dropping it off somehow managed to run the lap top over in her own car.

that's fucking amazing.

[coprolite]

I must have put on about 4 stone from missing 12k of walking or cycling every day and having on demand access to the fridge and cupboards. On way back down though. 

Saved 15-20 hours commuting but spend easily that on home schooling. 

Seeing far more of the kids is a big plus for me. I'm fed up with the mrs though. Things that were just infuriating before are filling me with murderous rage now. 

[Hillonearth]

I have to admit by and large I've enjoyed it so far, although I also totally understand why some hate it.

We've now officially been told that the old attending the office five days a week model is pretty much over and done with even post pandemic...the smart money was always on WFH gradually becoming more and more prevalent over the coming years, but the changes would previously have faced a rearguard action from some of our management who would have fought tooth and nail to preserve their preference for The Way We've Always Done It Up Til Now. The last ten months has taken the decision out iof their hands, and the fact that the vast majority of people have successfully made it work has blown any case that could be made to stop it continuing right out the water .

Of course it's happened via a medium none of us would have wanted, but the necessity of telescoping five or ten years worth of incremental change into a few months of big bang has created an opportunity to redefine the paradigm of the rest of our working lives.

 

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by Hillonearth

[Adam]

Still loving it. I’m currently on the hunt for a new job as I’m scunnered with my current workplace, and the first thing I have been asking for is a minimum of 3 days per week WFH after offices gradually begin to open. I find I get much more work done at home, although that has changed slightly with home schooling.

[throbber]

6 hours ago, Busta Nut said:

that's fucking amazing.

Totally forgot about that until now and me and the Mrs just had a little chuckle about it there.

[gaz5]

I have to admit by and large I've enjoyed it so far, although I also totally understand why some hate it.
We've now officially been told that the old attending the office five days a week model is pretty much over and done with even post pandemic...the smart money was always on WFH gradually becoming more and more prevalent over the coming years, but the changes would previously have faced a rearguard action from some of our management who would have fought tooth and nail to preserve their preference for The Way We've Always Done It Up Til Now. The last ten months has taken the decision out iof their hands, and the fact that the vast majority of people have successfully made it work has blown any case that could be made to stop it continuing right out the water .
Of course it's happened via a medium none of us would have wanted, but the necessity of telescoping five or ten years worth of incremental change into a few months of big bang has created an opportunity to redefine the paradigm of the rest of our working lives.
 
 

This.

I was an arbitrary 2 days from home/3 days office before, cos that was the way it was. Would spend 90 minutes driving to Edinburgh some days to sit on Zoom talking to people in London and India for 7 hours, then 90 minutes home.

Now doing the same from my home office without 3 wasted hours and much happier about it.

From home I get more done, there are far less distractions, our output has remained steady or got better across the organisation and the work life balance is a million times better, not to mention the saved money.

Not ideal the way the change has happened, but the change has none the less showed that the traditional office paradigm, particularly in industry like mine (FinTech) needed to change.

Thinking about the money companies could save on expensive office space, I think/hope this is the future.

[Academically Deficient]

Due to the industry I'm in, we're still in work most of the time. But there's been a few COVID outbreaks and several friends outside work have had it, so I'm going to wfh. I hate it though. I thought I'd be great at wfh, but there you go.

I struggle to concentrate, and wee niggy things, like snidey emails, can ruin my day. If I was at work it wouldn't bother me so much.

So in summary, COVID has made me appreciate humans more, but simultaneously made me despise them as well.

[The Master]

15 hours ago, Le Tout P'ti FC said:

I've been able to get outdoors and experience daylight on a daily basis over winter, compared to leaving in dark to sit at a desk with no view of outdoors and coming home in dark normally. Sitting at my home desk with my back door open during Spring/Summer was an absolute joy.

I think you might just have nailed why my productivity is haywire just now.  Normally I'd pop out to grab lunch or at least go for a walk around lunchtime, so I experienced proper daylight every day.

Now, I go for a walk "after work" as a way of delineating work vs. home. In the early months that was fine because it was still daylight;  not just now, though. 

I might try and find time to mix things up next week. Work a little later each day, and go for a walk in the middle of the day. 

[vikingTON]

I'm fortunate enough to have a task-orientated rather than hours-bound workload. It's therefore much easier to adapt WFH to deal with the unavoidable slumps in motivation from day to day and to make use of decent weather to get a lunchtime walk and some natural light as well. Occasionally a half-hour lie-down if my sleep was gubbed the previous night. Given a few months longer and I'll probably be on a French-style, two and a half hours and a bottle of wine for lunch routine tbh. 

If you're in a position to switch off email notifications then absolutely do so. They're a distraction when trying to get other things done and a huge irritant as well. Letting them sit for a few hours to then rattle through them/bin appropriately is the road to sanity. 

[effeffsee_the2nd]

It’s a bit meh from me
I didn’t start working my office job until early autumn this year when they got the go ahead to return part time . I had been working physically at the workplace all the way through the first wave ( same company just different job)
In September , the difference in behaviours between the office staff Who by then had been WFH for 5 months , and us who had been out the whole time ( and were in an environment where social distancing wasn’t possible) was absolutely night and day . For us who worked through the lockdown it was almost like work was this wee island where the pandemic didn’t exist wheras they were busy sanitising every 2 seconds and being paranoid about the 2 metre rule.
Anyway the first we while was ok. My new job still sort of needs a physical presence so we went to work 2 days a week and WFh the other 3 . In September time it was actually ok coupled with the relative freedom we had back then.

From the circuit breaker untill after the new year we were WFH every day and it got pretty tedious after a few weeks

Now we’re back part time again but it’s pish either way, the office is less than a 3rd full . You’re sat miles apart from everyone and you need to wear a mask every time you get up to make tea or go for a pish , however it does ,if nothing else, give you a bit of social time with people, just anyone really from outside your household.

[Stellaboz]

When we eventually go back to an open office, we have to do 2 days a week in office. Totally fine with that, stroll in on Friday for a few beers!