Working From Home

Looks like this will be me from next week, or even maybe tomorrow. My plan is to move to the conservatory and stock up on educational software / film downloads for them.

I cannot work with kids disturbing me, this is going to be hard.

turn child into book and board game zombie imo

my carrom board is finally gonna get some use, v excited to get good

i hope office buildings empty out like suburban malls and are repurposed into affordable housing.

― Yerac, Thursday, 12 March 2020 12:56 (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

I wish I could find that faux-pamphlet from a few years back about an office building gradually turning into an overgrown post-apocalyptic ecosystem

I've worked from home for almost 19 years. I expect it to all come crashing down around my ears any day now.

i don't maintain much of a social circle outside of work (mostly just my wife, my parents, and my cat) so I do think I benefit from the social aspects of coming into an office every day and interacting with people. i'm lucky in my position that I typically don't HAVE to do much interacting in any given day if I don't feel like it, but if I do then there are always people around who want to shoot the shit.

Does anyone do this with kids in the house? Seems kind of impossible without turning child into tv zombie

i do but there's always another carer around. she (child not carer) occasionally comes up to spin around on my chair but generally respects the sanctity of the office space.

that sanctity in full:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKxqy9SJ-0I

Spare a thought for us poor sods who can't work from home, we're dead.

My first day of working at home. Not without its downsides, but I did watch an episode of Kojak during my lunch hour, and so without coronavirus I would possibly never known about this meeting of the titans

https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/reviews/190/1346970079_6.jpg

I'm less likely to brush my teeth on time WFH

I thought you’d been running this drill for years?

I had no use for it but bring it on!

xpost I have. but bad habits never change.

the only real prob i had working from home was a) animals, who would bark in the background during meetings/training, or b) roommates. right now, "b" isn't a prob cos he's never home and even when he is, he's quiet.

my brother used to walk in the door and intentionally try to get me to laugh while I was in a meeting by yelling non-sequiturs (a man in his mid-30s, going on 12). one day he came out the bathroom singing Billy Joel at the top of his lungs, forgetting I was working, so all of my colleagues were treated to that.

animals, otoh, usually the people on the phone go "aww how cute, what breed are they?"

One blessing of my job is that I have not been expected to read and respond to emails outside of work hours. Based on the rules for our WFH, my management seems to be respecting this.

Recommendation of uncertain usefulness to other ILXors, based on my previous WFH experiences: Get dressed, including putting on a bra. (In my specific case, bralessness soon becomes uncomfortable, sweaty, and otherwise not conducive to work.)

I draw the line at pants (US definition) tho

got access

the daily requirement to reoort back on the detail of my work have made me rather kindly disposed to coming in

one of the first days I worked from home in 2012, I was given a new laptop, and we headed into a web meeting (Skype, Sametime, WebEx, I can't even remember rn). then, like now, I just woke up and turned on my computer in my current state of dress, so I had underwear and pants on, but no shirt. so I log into the meeting, and the webcam comes on by default, and for two seconds, I see myself on camera, face to just slightly below the shoulders. then I realized this was sharing and my project manager said "uhh I can see you", so I ducked below the desk, put a shirt on, and disabled the webcam for-eva

Daily seven-way meeting this morning. Everyone hears a voice: "How much is the toilet roll?" Everyone denies it was them (or a TV they're surreptitiously watching). Everyone then mutes their microphone.

access revoked.

they didnt realise so many people would actually use it

guys I wish i was making any of it up, i really do

It's why I like WebEx because if you dial in through the computer it says who is speaking and there is no denial!

Xxpost

That's fucked, deems, I'm sorry. FWIW, feel like we might not have made it a week into WFH if we hadn't had a confirmed Cov Case in our actual office. MF-ers gonna need a winch to haul me back into that plague den at this point.

I've adjusted surprisingly quickly to working on one tiny laptop screen as opposed to the two big monitors I'm used to. Just involves constant shifting and sliding of all the programs I have open at a given moment. I was relying on this being my busiest time of year to keep me occupied and focused but, ehh, I'm noticing a marked decline in the amount of work product coming in.

All other pros and cons aside, the ability to chair dance and deliver emotive + passionate lip sync performances while listening to music is perhaps the greatest WFH perk of them all.

One uncomplicatedly good thing my work did - let everyone take home their work monitors.

oh dear, dmac

11am, day 2, wfh: announced "dootly-doo" to nobody at all, as there is nobody else here except the cat
1pm, day 2, wfh: singing nonsense songs at the cat, who is maowing back (she started it, miss)

Fear I may be turning into the boss from A thread for Steve n.'s list of songs that his boss sings

The big boss did say we could take monitors and even a chair but I was walking 1.5 miles home so that was not entirely feasible. the chair was tempting as my back is going to be fairly knackered if I sit in this sofa, or even at the dining table in one of our dining chairs, hunched over this laptop for months

(I am sure there are people here who could carry a large Dell monitor and an office chair 1.5 miles through once-busy streets and a v muddy field, as well as my rucksack and carrier bag full of random stuff I found in my desk drawer that I thought I might need, or at least be embarrassed at still being in my desk drawer if I died - not even work paperwork, mostly chocolate and hoarded sachets and pots of instant pasta/noodle/couscous snacks)

the o/h has still been in work so far but he gets to wfh from tomorrow/Mon so then we'll be fighting over the one good chair and the big monitor

actually I don't want the big monitor, it is massive and was bought for gaming and I tried to do some work on it yesterday and it felt like I was squinting at some Excel cells in one small corner of the screen while who knows what was going on in the other 90% of the screen

supplementing my laptop with a good wireless mouse and keyboard has made getting actual work done much easier. logitech mx keys and mx master 3 mouse, official endorsement

I've adjusted surprisingly quickly to working on one tiny laptop screen as opposed to the two big monitors I'm used to. Just involves constant shifting and sliding of all the programs I have open at a given moment. I was relying on this being my busiest time of year to keep me occupied and focused but, ehh, I'm noticing a marked decline in the amount of work product coming in.

Acrobat version finally downloaded

received no work assignments yet this morning

absence of annoying coworkers is best thing so far

Yes. As opposed to trying to work with a frat rager taking place behind me every day, the only distraction atm is my gf's WFH sitch, which is just an ongoing video conference of her preschool's teachers singing songs to the stuck-at-home kids. It's kinda soothing my otherwise frayed nerves, tbh.

good thing about wfh is I can grouse in private after that annual review meeting.

So far the biggest upside is that I can take breaks to practice drum rudiments on the practice pad, can't do that in the office. Quarantine is great for the chops, too bad I can't put them to use.

Had a webex meeting at 11 and the host signed off by saying "we'll do this again in a month" so at least I have a rough idea of how long I'm expecting to be WFH. Probably gonna be longer, though; where I work (a med school in NJ) all events have been cancelled through end of May.

moved from dining table into back room with office chair & more ergo friendly setup
dining room chair was hell to sit on for extended periods

mr veg ordered an adapter for me to link my current monitor as second bigger screen, yay

I need more plugs

Hair plugs? Don't worry, Joe Biden will hook you up

corner desk setup, herman miller chair (bcz I knew this day would come, I decided to splurge a long time ago)

I have three computer screens, one big tablet and two phones to stare at throughout my day

the problem is the phones and tablet keep running low on juice

So far the biggest upside is that I can take breaks to practice drum rudiments on the practice pad, can't do that in the office. Quarantine is great for the chops, too bad I can't put them to use.

lol yes i've had the buchla music easel VST open on my 2nd monitor all day ready for between-email jams

i almost bought a dirty old aeron off craigslist yesterday, this repurposed dining room chair w/ $4 ikea pad isn't really working for me

This old office chair is the hardest part, no matter what pillow configuration i try.

My music computer is next to my current work computer, and yesterday I did chip away at writing this long midi track (which is meant to sound kinda randomly generated or through-composed in the end), but overall I've been surprised by how much work I've been doing and how little slacking off. More than when I'm actually in the office, I'd say.

I spent some time yesterday rather ruthlessly organizing what was on the screen and where, learning how to use more control keys and such to change focus instead of the mouse and learning how to use Mission Control.

crucial

(for windows 10 users, check out the built-in virtual desktop feature)

the o/h has still been in work so far but he gets to wfh from tomorrow/Mon so then we'll be fighting over the one good chair and the big monitor

hey this is now! who knew the desktop computer keyboard was so louuuud. might need to sit in separate rooms. the only other room is the bedroom and my back will disintegrate if I sit on the bed all day...

I still can't concentrate, don't know if lazy or anxious or just bored, but the same is usually true in the office except that I had less excuse to be anxious tbh. (I don't know how anyone else is getting anything done rather than constantly checking the news/twitter/ilx but apparently they are?)

i still haven't heard from the editor of my current project. no reply since wed morn when i told him i was likely to hit deadline today and asked some small questions abt style in the final version: i may actually still hit this deadline if i get off whatsapp w.my pals lol. but the last actual communication was over a week ago :(

the main reason to get this off my desk now is to get the whole thing out of my head and move on the the next project (= freelance life during plague)

i dearly hope the editor is ok tho :( :( and just busying himself with last-minute prep for living thru it all :( :( :(

just finally heard from him -- as well as this book he is wrangling a broken arm and elderly parents in geneva's version of the shutdown. glad he is ok, he's been good to work with. this project could hardly be less urgent but spending hours on end thinking abt music and technology and composition in the mid-60s is actually p soothing

And suddenly I can't access the workplace VPN (my home Wi-Fi seems to be fine). Just texted my manager to see if anyone else has reported this. I can keep working, but I won't be visible on Official Skype.

the funniest bit was that news articles pop up about mouse jiggler devices or whatever, but they found something that was more common: people leaving an object on the space bar

another two months, another two attempts at a face-to-face day (last tuesday of the month). only i have holiday to take, so i booked days off for Jan and Feb

it's funny reading all the other 'i won't be there' messages come tuesday morning, including this from our team lead, which went to 107 people:

"Morning all, I won't be in the office today as I am unwell with diarrhea."

said team lead also mentioned that the other half of the team (so the other 8 or so people) are going to start coming into the office weekly and would our half of the team like to also? a resounding No.

five years on and they're still sending these notes to me lol

Dear Andrew ***,

You have 1 assignment that are 1801 days overdue.

You must complete the following assignment(s):

- Executive Series: Securely Working From Home with Quiz

lol @ being on take 5 of recording a tutorial video due to random system malfunctions on 3 of the takes and having mom suddenly beginning an extremely loud conversation in the other room and bleeding into the recording.

sigh

#6!

What, you don't record work videos from the front seat of your car like a real American?

another in-person day today and the loud people have found the quiet area where i'd book a desk.

the chair / desk setup also feels like it's forcing me into stress positions - arms and neck already aching. and the laptop screen is in that awkward distance where my varifocals can't cope without tilting my head unnaturally. i have neither of these problems on the sofa.

Xxposts the summer round our way is the worst for that. Just about finished and the ice cream van comes round the corner, so end of video now soundtracked by a tinny version of the Liberty Bell march.

My work is going to “hoteling” and I’m dreading it

this morning I had an appointment to follow-up on my knee. but I stupidly made it for 10:30, as at the time, my assignments at work were pretty thin. then I get scheduled for a four hour development session at the same time, and I can't reschedule the appointment, so I decided I'd use Company Portal to access the meeting via my phone.

Oh hey, now I can't sign-in (even though I've used this as recently as months ago) due to some random error message. so I go to my appointment with my laptop tethered to my phone in my car, and at my appointment.

success. yay for working from home. but glad the place was close by lol.

finally getting to the first stress test for the boss after the mass layoff and he's....failing. in his defense, they've basically loaded us up with workload approximating last year's, when we had about 8 more people than we do now, but he also got away with looking better than he performed because his boss bailed him out often.

one of my colleagues approached me about him today and I basically told her that it's good that right now, we're in demand, but not to break her back over things and to take meticulous notes in case anybody tries to throw her under the bus. I've been here before, underneath the overworked guy who eventually takes it out on his underlings, and while that's not happening now, it's a matter of time before he flips out I'm sure.

― her pal Santa falls to the floor (Neanderthal), Tuesday, December 3, 2024 3:31 PM bookmarkflaglink

UPDATE: everything has spiraled into absolute, uncontrolled chaos. not like the petty concerns I used to share, basically every day is being given a last minute assignment with missing instructions, or getting pulled onto 17 new projects, or things not getting assigned at all until too late. my manager is falling apart and the four of us left to do work are just basically not finishing half the assignments given to us and nobody even remembers they assigned it to us half the time.

I got a raise a few months ago so that was nice but I'm seeking out what else is available internally. however, lots of departments went through similar downsizing so I can't imagine they're not going through the same thing.

Dear Andrew ****,

You have 1 assignment that is 2149 days overdue.

You must complete the following assignment(s):

- Executive Series: Securely Working From Home with Quiz