Working From Home

(it also helps that the dept has been over-delivering despite being under-staffed and is key for the company's strategy)

They did the zoom hangout thing at my old place and nobody came lol. I really hate video calls. Much rather just be in person. By the end of the pandemic I just couldn’t handle them anymore.

the zoom hangout thing, doesn't only one person get to speak at once? and isn't it usually the same few people?

I feel like it's better if you treat it like a party where participants can wander in and out so you only have a certain number of people overlapping

My workplace (irl) has a "coffee chat" open meeting once a week where you can show up if you like and socialize, and we noticed the party rule applies: If there's below a certain threshold you can have one conversation going, but if you break that threshold people naturally divide into subgroups and have multiple conversations going, bounce between groups, etc.

If you're doing a shared activity and it's less of a conversation space and more of a game or task, the little injections of conversation pick up a little

it is only a one day deal and i do get to see a dalek, but hey, why did we ever do this?

― koogs

working from home has made me realize how stupid and pointless my job is and how much i hate it

i liked my co-workers and i genuinely enjoyed spending time with them

also apparently the only way i can get people to spend time with me is if they're literally required to do so. so i'm That Person in the office.

decided to go out and work late afternoon because today is a SLOW day adn I'm just observing classes and getting tired of being inside house. also nobody had messaged me like....at all, all day.

bring my laptop out to a restaurant and work and then all of the questions come in, but nbd because I was multitasking.

then one of them finally asks me to actually answer a question in the training and I'm trying to do so by typing and they weren't reading it so I eventually just unmuted with hip hop playing loudly in the background cos I'm like "lol fuck it, I'll ask forgiveness later".

so experiment = shut down permanently! lol

(to be clear, nobody gave a shit, but....I didn't like doing it)

So the "meet the team" thing I mentioned upthread is happening — beginning of next month, I'm being flown to Boise, Idaho. I'm gonna have to spend two entire days in transit (there are no direct flights from where I live, so I have to do multi-hour layovers in Seattle going there and coming back) in order to spend one day in between in the office, attending meetings, being taken to lunch, and whatever. It seems completely absurd to me, but clearly it's not my decision.

Make sure to bring us back some potatoes

I'm more likely to come back with a bag full of LDS and white power (but I repeat myself) literature.

Ha, I could probably be in our San Francisco office in a half-hour, but I can't be bothered

how long would it take you to get home from that office, Andy, though, that's the real question!

the real advantage of WFH is the lunchtime nap. Don't get me wrong, we used to take those when we worked at the office too but most people did it in their cars. I found a little nook with a couch and a view in the building's gym. Nothing beats yr own bed though.

^^^

That is truly the one thing I miss. I did WFH yesterday. Napped twice.

So depressing to still watch WFH getting stripped away. I still get one day a week, but it's constantly held over our heads as a treat that will be taken away at any moment.

The company my wife works for was all "remote work is great, we want you to be happy and remote work is the future" in 2021, but have since done a 180.

It was a slow rolling, "hey it would be nice to see some of you in the office once a week" > "actually you must be in the office once a week" > "did we say once? we meant twice" > "it would be great if you could be here 3-4 days per week" > "actually, now we require you to be in the office 4 days a week" to current rumblings of mandatory in person full-time coming soon.

Amazingly, somehow they just haven't connected the hemorrhaging of employees and open positions to that whole train.

I'm still WFH 100%. but my company downsized their office during the first lockdown (before I started working there) and now the office is constantly full, there's only enough room for half the employees if that. I'm happy to go in if there's a reason, which there probably will be soon, as we are going to build a new system that's going to require a lot of discussions that would be easier in person, but apart from that I can't be arsed.

My current employer doesn't even have an office. When I started talking to them about work, I kept offering to come in if necessary. They kept saying "no, no need," until finally they told me they don't have an office.

It's possible that at some point this will bite me in the butt but for now I am just going to roll with it.

Only going in 1 day a week is taking a bit of a toll tbh. Every day feels very samey. Loops. Thank god I have a dog that makes me get off my ass but even then I sort of just take him to the same places. I think 2 days feels just about right. When I started going back 1 day I was like, holy shit this commute is long, how did I ever do this. But I think it's worth it to do a couple of times a week now tbh. That said I am lucky that my office is in the centre of a big bustling metropolis so I can get cool lunches, take care of errands, see people after work for a drink etc. If I had to drive out to some industrial park I would likely be less keen.

two days is very nice, depending on commute ofc

I've been back in the office full time since Nov '21, so I have very little sympathy for anyone complaining about having to go in periodically.

I never napped at home but now I'm doing regular work naps on the floor of my office (well, on the mat I use for a standing desk).

I've been wfh since 2005, but in the past it was always with other remote teams, so everyone w'ed fh and we all chatted shit on IM or on our regular calls or whatever. Nowadays I'm more likely to be the only person on the project who's w'ing fh, and that is lonelier. When I had Twitter it was fine, but now I don't have that anymore. But at least I still have you guys, right? RIGHT?

WFH getting slowly stripped away does suck, but probably worth bearing in mind that companies are likely paying a lot for office space and are almost certainly on long-ish leases. Will be interesting to see what happens as these leases gradually run out. Can see a lot of them not getting renewed.

companies are likely paying a lot for office space and are almost certainly on long-ish leases. Will be interesting to see what happens as these leases gradually run out. Can see a lot of them not getting renewed.

you can look at downtown San Francisco already for that apparently ...

There's a big article about empty corporate real estate in Manhattan out this week that I found fascinating.

Yeah, my employer moved to a smaller office space this year. They tried to "highly encourage" most people to go back in a few times a week a couple months ago. Hardly anyone budged. It was so poorly planned because they also wanted everyone to continue with their remote space and desks are still by reservation only. The thing is, there's nowhere near enough space for most people in the new office space. Also, having to accommodate onsite work plus juggle a remote work space is so unrealistic and adds so much complexity.

I highly doubt people are going to go back in, unless they force people back, which is not unlikely because the CEO is this old dude who is disconnected from reality.

I found out about a month ago that my employer got rid of our office which is the only one in the state. Now I just have to hope they don't get bought out for the billionth time by some asshole who wants butts in seats.

I work in tech and never ever understood why we need to be in the office. All of our meetings are conference calls whether it's with coworkers across the country or 10 people sitting just rows away from you. I would go months without speaking to anyone in person.

Yeah, I work in tech, as well. I have a feeling if people are forced back in, all devs will remain remote, except leadership. Most of my team works across the country, so group coding, meetings, and trainings all happen on Teams and nobody ever bothers turning on their camera. It's pretty chill and it works for most of us, so I don't see that changing

Yeah, we don't do video on teams either but I suspect it's mostly because our computers can't handle the multiple video streams and the company is very opposed to replacing computers no matter how decrepit they may be. I request a new one at least three times a year because Outlook seizes up often so I can't join meetings through the calendar and it takes a good 10 minutes to send an email.

We were, at one point, encouraged to have our photo displayed in Teams but now maybe half of people do and maybe half of those are of tigers or flowers or something. One guy has a pic of him with a lifesize cut out of Chevy Chase. Maybe I should get myself that Danny Devito cut out.

Another gigantic plus to WFH for me right now is that this is the last summer my kids will be spending their summer at home. Our oldest will be off driving next year, so I assume barely home, then off to college the year after when the younger one starts driving.

Even though they spend most of their time playing video games or chatting with friends, I'm so grateful I get to spend this last golden summer in the same house as them.

15 minutes chatting in the kitchen, 30 minutes sitting next to me while I host a meeting, what feels like an eternity of bugging me to order pizza, an hour or two watching a series or movie. It's all so perfect and blissful to me.

i love that post, ss

tabes otm, lovely post sunny <3

wow, I remember when beeps was born <3

Feels like maybe 8 years ago :(

The work trip I was very much not looking forward to has been moved from August 7-9 to September 27-29, which actually works a lot better for me; I've got stuff going on here right now that will be long since resolved by then. Of course, now it's going to coincide with some kind of offsite team-building exercise (trust falls, rounds of shots), which, ugh. (I'm pretty sure there won't actually be rounds of shots as my big boss is a Mormon.)

virgin jello shots

back in the office for the first time since initial covid shutdown (to meet a mate for lunch who is leaving today)

having the whole floor to choose from i ended up sat 10ft from a woman who has a) conference called without headphones b) used speakerphone to talk to amazon

my mate hasn't turned up yet, he's only really coming to return his laptop

and i can't do much in the way of work because i appear to be on the guest wifi. i can see a lot of things, just not aws, which is where i need to be. still, now might be the time to download those system patches and those autechre live sets, save me having to do it over 3g.

work coffee dreadful, the air conditioning was nice though

farting on mute - the most dangerous game

there's that meme of the french teacher that accidentally farted while recording audio questions for a French test and accidentally made it part of the question.

chat je pete

Student emails me irate that they got a 0 on an assignment when they just added the class. It's remote and asynchronous, so I had no idea they had just joined. I email them to tell them I will change their grade. They have already dropped the class.

Good riddance.

Geez, what an impatient clown.

virtual work has helped me not miss a ton of time during my dad's debacle, but it always seems a 'tale of two cities' when it comes to how I'm supported when out.

on the seasonal project I'm on now, not only did they step in and run everything almost without interruption, they were actually begging me to log off and be with my dad.

for ongoing issues on my core team, if I disappear, and tech things come up, they don't even bother to try and fix on their own and just figure they'll wait until I'm back. and these are things I've told them how to handle over and over again.

like one of them today asking me if 'we' did anything with the website issue he reported yesterday, and I'm like....did you see in the chat yesterday where I announced I was leaving for the day 7 minutes after you told us about it? You know the name of the contact, message them, you're here, I'm not!

i think sometimes with virtual work there's this thought of 'maybe he'll log back in later' which doesn't happen in an office environment. But no, I do not log in later when I log out for day.

considering I've missed less time than anybody else on the team, it gets a bit frustrating. like for all intents and purposes I shouldn't have worked Friday at all but I tried to in order to give myself a distraction, and it failed.

i wouldn't want to work in-person at my job again (hell, i don't want to work at all at my job these days), but doing this in-person intensive outpatient group has helped me. i feel like just need some sort of reason to leave the house regularly and be around a specific group of other people in a safe and healthy environment... my life has really been lacking structure and routine since we went remote and i'm continuing to struggle with it. i've tried doing regular co-working, but my friends keep losing their jobs and becoming homeless so it's difficult. :(

https://zoomescaper.com

i have to attend professional organization webinars every few weeks. i just join with no audio or video and do whatever. they always send me the certificate for credit afterwards. thanks guys!

I've now somewhat officially been told I'm probably never teaching classes again, now permanently supervising them. That is only making official what had already essentially be true for the last 1.5 - 2 years, but while I would have balked at this a year ago, I willingly accepted this offer today. (my job isn't changing, nor am I getting a raise, just I'm being pulled from the mix of instructors permanently)

It sucks, because I came over here because I genuinely liked teaching, but I'm realizing I'm suffering a form of PTSD from the last 3 years, that didn't really hit me in full force until dad died. Just talking to people (with the exception of close friends/family) feels like a chore now - it stresses me out.

so something that I used to flourish at, like training, now bums me out. it's not just work. when I sang a song at a fundraiser last month, my whole body went rigid and started shaking while singing, feeling abject terror with hundreds of eyes staring at me - despite having done theatre/singing for over 25 years.

perhaps this move will be good for me. which is why I ask why in the FUCK they gave me this class to teach immediately upon returning from bereavement. I got about 4 days to ease into it, but I was not in good shape to teach this class and frankly they should have fucking asked me first. I'm doing an ok job of bullshitting it but I sound like someone who is miserable and trying to fake it.

on the plus side, sounds like it's my last one, ever, so....I'll go out with a whimper.

I got observed during training yesterday and got (extremely undeserved) perfect marks and it felt like being an aging pop singer who can't hit any of the high notes anymore getting a cloying, insincere ovation. I mean I'll take it and hey, sometimes seniority helps when it comes to benefit of the doubt, but ...ugh.

sometimes i think working at home, which was a huge benefit before, is a hindrance now, given my current mental state. I live too far from the office to drive there regularly though (plus a waste of gas for little benefit).