Working From Home

working at home = dud for me. 6 mos. of freelancing for aol and i was ready to comit hara kiri with a letter opener.

Always got stuff done though - often at 9pm on the Sunday night when server traffic was quiet and my conscience was playing up.

working from home: classic
working from home when your flatmate has been made redundant and is mooching around the flat with his annoying boyfriend all day: DUD DUD DUD oh god just go awayyyyyyyyy

I twisted my knee playing football last night (that's why I'd stopped playing!), and couldn't walk properly today as a result, so I emailed in sick to work, and told them I had various things I'd do online and that I'd be available via email and my work mobile. As result I've actually been marked down as "home working" today rather than on sick leave.

This is the first time I've done this (although I do, if off sick or on leave, generally check work emails reasonably regularly - especially when I was off after my hernia operation for instance), and it's been surprisingly productive; I've organised as many if not more things as I would have done had I been in the office, sent a gazillion emails chasing various things, edited a load of copy, drafted some new web pages, AND had a nap and stroked the cats. And all while wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt that are full of holes and not fit to be seen in public.

i'm working from home today and it is fucking amazing.

-shouting abuse at co-workers who can't hear you in response to their emails
-singing along to records
-cooking your own lunch
-not bothering to pretend to work if there's a lull or you're done by 1600
-no commute obviously

I have been working from home for almost four years. I can only see advantages. If you're office based and you have Skype, Webex and so forth I really don't see any reason *not* to. The people who still insist on buying or renting huge energy consuming, Earth destroying office space (space which could be used so much more constructively, be it for housing, parkland or given back to nature) are truly behind the curve.

What I'm interested in -- and I'm interested to know if there has been research in these areas:

(a) Has anyone done serious calculations of how much energy we could save (inter)nationally if everyone who *could* work from home did so and secondly,

(b) from a sociological point of view, the focus has been on the negative ("you can't get to know/work properly with people who don't see and physically interract with, ergo groups of home working people are doomed to failure") but shouldn't we also consider the flipside, that home working allows for people to be judged on their true merits, rather than the ad hominem nasty stuff that comes to the fore when people have to share a space?

Heh, my wife just started doing this full-time and has liked it so far.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, a couple people at my office must have asked about the possibility because the partners sent out this really passive-aggressive email at the start of the year about how it will never be a possibility here because, basically, "it is impossible to believe that anyone could work productively out of their home". It was just laughably obnoxious and reductive about any possible benefits. (Of course, several months later one of the partners' favorites moved to Texas with her husband and was suddenly approved to work "remotely")

I don't ever want to do it

with my immunocompromised status and the virus terror, I may have to

BUT

the plantation I contract for, at a pitiful wage, uses a "VPN" that requires use of your

PHONE

which I do not have and do not want

fuck apps, fuck texts

is that app PingID?

no

Full time wfh since Oct 2012. Best thing ever. Makes work not suck. Def still look forward to the weekends but I no longer dread Monday. Limits my "advancement" options but I don't care; if I could maintain current position now thru retirement I'd be thrilled.

makes personal traveling mid-week possible. it's harder now that I changed roles, but when I was working in implementations, all they cared about is that I worked, not where I worked from, so sometimes I'd head out of town mid week and bring my laptop.

did manage to go to Vegas midweek last year because i had no classes that week

I’m starting to wonder whether spending £4500 a year on train tickets so I can commute to London, sit in an office and have web conferences with my colleagues and customers around the world is the most productive use of my time and money. The big problem with working from home ime is that it is much harder to put a cap on the day. I’m more likely to agree to 7pm meetings or answer emails at 10pm than I am if I have physically left my place of work.

Full time WFH since May 2015. It is definitely harder to put a cap on the day, though I don't really have meetings or emails to answer (I'm a web dev)

Its the job content itself as much as the WFH but I've changed around my perspective to not see work in terms of hours or blocks of time like this, but blocks of stuff that I need to have built by the end of the week or month. This means the delineation between own time and work time is more entwined. Mentally I'm kind of always at work but also never at work, I don't know if its better or not but I don't miss my 90 minute each way commute!

I feel a lot of the risk could have been mitigated if more organisations were better at actually allowing people to work staggered or different hours - fewer people on public transport at peak times, less crowding on train/tube platforms (can’t count the number of times I’ve been in a crush of a few hundred people waiting to get on a tube train) and management doesn’t have to pretend it cares about having a coherent wfh policy. My parents have never worked more than ten minutes from where they live and I envy them.

I feel a lot of the risk could have been mitigated if more organisations were better at actually allowing people to work staggered or different hours - fewer people on public transport at peak times, less crowding on train/tube platforms (can’t count the number of times I’ve been in a crush of a few hundred people waiting to get on a tube train) and management doesn’t have to pretend it cares about having a coherent wfh policy. My parents have never worked more than ten minutes from where they live and I envy them.

WFH today. Probably one of many. Technically I am a 'remote worker' anyway, having been made one about a year ago, but I still come into the office as it's about 10 mins cycle away. Frankly I've nowhere to work at home - I have a small desk in my room that's uncomfortable to sit at, and my sofa and kitchen table are no better.

been asked to supply emergency contact info at work in case of

lol

"adverse weather closing the office"

politics is the art of what cannot be said etc

The big problem with working from home ime is that it is much harder to put a cap on the day. I’m more likely to agree to 7pm meetings or answer emails at 10pm than I am if I have physically left my place of work.

We have a pretty flexible working culture with a lot of working from home and honestly it's great, but it only works if you're prepared to treat people like grown-ups. TBH I'd retain the same boundaries as you do in the office. I don't especially mind working a bit later if I'm not going to be commuting home, but if you do have a 7pm meeting what's to stop you taking a longer lunch break or similar. As long as you get the work done when you're supposed to, who cares?

International meetings make things harder, but one way psychologically to put a cap on the day is just to make a clean break by immediately doing something that absolutely says to yourself I Am Not At Work Any More. Cooking, opening a beer, playing a video game, whatever. If you just start tapering off it becomes very easy to get dragged back into it.

I'm a freelancer, about 80% of my work is on-site at various places, just had my first conversation this morning about an office shutdown, guessing that most everywhere else will follow, shit is going to get tight.

no wonder u ppl are on ilx all fucking day

Been WFH since 2017. Love it. Possibly starting a 9-5 office job on Monday, though, and not sure how I feel about that (besides “thanks for the money”)...

The lifeblood of ILX the entire internet is bored office workers, moreso without the office.

its a turning point in history

in a bad way

let's run all the megapolls we've been fantasising about

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

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

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 turned my notifications off because they were distracting. i guess that was a bad idea."

thx

though the calendar notifications are like hard to turn off? i guess i just say i turned those off too if pressed.

anyway, thank you!

I've spaced on so many meetings even w/ notifications on. like gone to lunch with my mother and forgot I had a meeting scheduled.

hopefully they're understanding. it happens even when you're paying close attention.

yesterday I had a class completely fall apart and nobody was paying attention and everybody was asking stuff I'd already covered and I didn't know answers to some things as this is new tech and I've never used itin the wild and I felt like such a fucking useless sack of shit, my boss's boss kept stepping in, and she calls me after and I'm convinced she's gonna ream me out

and instead shes just reaching out to tell me not to worry, these things happen, and much of it wasn't my fault.

it was refreshing and it helped me rebound for today.

just a little word can make such a huge difference.

yup. she also vents to me too which makes me feel like an equal.

helps that her mother also is having health issues so she gets that I'm not at 100% due to my dad.

was excited that due to working OT, I was going to get out at 4 pm ET today.

I am still working. because they have entrusted this new training project to me and one other person on top of my other duties, and sometimes there are two sessions a day that last all but my lunch time, so I either work OT or defer to next day.

starting to think I should take ILX's advice. I have about 15 days of PTO coming up (seniority has its perks) and maybe I will use those to start shopping myself around.

if you know any place I can make six figures writing metal reviews let me know. lol.

like can I start by complaining about an antiquated sign-up sheet in Excel for a training class, one where we establish no "cutoff" time after which no new sign-ups will be accepted, one that doesn't have a macroed notification button to send us emails when new people sign up.

so I have to check the roster several times per day to see if it changed, while I'm teaching 8 hours simultaneously, or people will whine at me that they 'didn't get their invites'. at least if I got some kind of notification I'd know to look. people get added right up until the 11th hour, too. sometimes after we've all left for the day.

anyone else get paranoid about playing other audio during a meeting - like somehow everyone's going to hear your youtube video?? lol, i can't get over it. probably for the best.

i got caught ordering a half rack of ribs during a meeting the other day. thought i was muted. some one wrote, "go for the full rack" in the chat

king

heez hungry

boss move

anyone else get paranoid about playing other audio during a meeting - like somehow everyone's going to hear your youtube video?? lol, i can't get over it. probably for the best.

― Nedlene Grendel as Basenji Holmo (map), Monday, November 22, 2021 12:31 PM bookmarkflaglink

only if it's a naughty song/video. I have the same fear. even if I've checked my mute button 73 times.

I guess here's a side-thread detour - what's the most funny/fucked up thing you've either said when accidentally unmuted, or heard?

I'm not gonna mention my accidental profane tirade again, but a few things I've heard...

1) mom to daughter: "U GOTTA GO POOPOO?"
2) co-worker to other co-worker: "man i cain't wait to get paid, i tells em man i aint even gonna use it to pay my rent, i'm gonna use this paycheck n i'ma go buy a GUN!" (dead silence)
3) my mom and I had a lengthy 4 minute convo of toilet repair

haha. there's a lady at work that is very sweet, but a colleague told me she was accidentally unmuted and was cursing up a storm and apparently pretty aggressively.

we also heard another person pee. that was pre-pandemic, actually, lol

pee-pandemic

The best one was on an intense customer meeting. I recognized the project manager's wife's voice as she irritably said "why the hell are you still on a damn work call?" (To be fair, it was around 7 pm) I started chatting him to MUTE MUTE MUTE immediately but he didn't see it and came back with "oh my gawd it's this stupid <customer name>" etc etc tirade while I am texting his phone and scrambling to see I can mute him myself.

lol, i have had that nightmare but never seen it realized.
i did have one talk where i signed off and went on a private tirade to myself before the person on the other end said something that let me know they were still on the line but then realized i had never unmuted myself, thank god

I thought I was on mute on a call and my camera was off, so went to the kitchen to make some coffee. Call was intensely boring and I wasn't involved in it at all. Ground the coffee beans with an electric grinder, you know the kind, crazy loud like a piece of industrial machinery, and it was right next to the laptop with the meeting on. Turned out I was not on mute. Complete silence on the call after I finished the grind. "Uh, did anyone else hear that?" were the words that broke the stunned silence. Whoops.

Noise Suppression or Voice Focus or whatever your app calls it is key.

My coworker has birds and when that feature rolled out he was the first one I notified.

I once insulted a client contact (who was a legit sociopath who once complained when one of our Florida-based colleagues left a meeting early to PREPARE FOR HURRICANE IRMA which was on our doorstep) and some idiot forwarded the email to her (not on purpose, he just didn't read).

Client contact never saw it cos she couldn't be bothered to read that far into a thread

I have a USB mic that I use with my desktop, and it has a little mute/unmute switch on it, and a red light that helpfully lights up when its unmuted. But it turns out even when muted its not really muted, it just turns the volume down to a low but still audible level. It took me a little while to discover this. Fortunately I never really said anything too embarrassing but I once yawned loudly when one of the senior managers was talking in a meeting, and he paused and was like "Did someone say something?"

Welp after 19 months I accidentally shared in a public (MS Teams) meeting my Spotify instead of the document I wanted to share.

I was complimented on my taste by one attendee.

anyone else get paranoid about playing other audio during a meeting - like somehow everyone's going to hear your youtube video?? lol, i can't get over it. probably for the best.

― Nedlene Grendel as Basenji Holmo (map), Monday, November 22, 2021 12:31 PM bookmarkflaglink

Ha, all the time. I'm not sure I see it as paranoia though. The way Windows is these days the oddest things can happen, and sods law and all, just best to be safe I think.

right, it's like trying to accelerate too fast in a shitty car, you just don't need the extra trouble.

Today I taught a class while:

Cleaners were in the house making a fuck ton of noise

Mom got like 700 phone calls which were loud

Repairman came in to fix dryer LOUDLY

All without missing a beat.

And the head of customer care was attending too.

Headsets really dampen the outside sound well

I have two weeks off forthcoming thank god

it has a little mute/unmute switch on it, and a red light that helpfully lights up when its unmuted. But it turns out even when muted its not really muted, it just turns the volume down to a low but still audible level

i'm WFH full time now. i've spent the last 20 years of my life either studying or working on a university campus. i still work for a university but it is across the country and most of my immediate colleagues also WFH full time. this is the first time that my work is not really tied to a physical campus and it feels super super weird.

yeah wfh is one thing but if the physical office is in another state that’s pretty wild.

one of our team leads was presenting during a meeting and started having issues with Teams, he froze up for a while and then you could hear him go "fuck...aww, fuck...damnit"...then he came back and apologized, seeming not quite sure if anyone actually heard him say that. obviously no one was gonna tell him. it was awesome

does anyone use webex often? i would like to know why when i share my screen i do not see the screen in front of me in the webex window. is there a setting for this? i would like to be able to see the progress of the video i am playing without looking to the other monitor where the shared window is.

Oh, I've been WFH for companies in another city for most of 2021— I've never met any of these people in real life, have no idea what the office looks like, and tbh, don't care!

I have made a rep for myself in the slack, tho, for being an enormous music nerd.

yeah wfh is one thing but if the physical office is in another state that’s pretty wild.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, November 23, 2021 1:04 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I heard a lot of stories that as employers opened up this Spring they found that their employees had moved to other states/countries. This was causing myriad of issues, not the least of which is tax issues, because one of the main ways a state gets to tax a company is if the company has employees working in that state. So you might have a private school or university with all locations in a single state suddenly realizing they have employees on the other side of the country and uh oh, CA wants some.

yes. in europe a lot of people had the idea that, hey, why not live in a cheap rental in, say, andalucia, keep making that london wage, and rent out your flat for an exorbitant fee? some people did that. nice life. my company won’t let us though because the tax situation is muy complicado

Imagine telling yr employer that youd done that, literal idiot tax

lots of people moved to different states in my company, as most of us work from home. we have locations all over north america and i've been encouraged to move to the US. my VPN goes through various US states so it's weird getting geolocated in different states depending on my connection

i'm actually seriously considering seattle but that means i would technically be forced to participate in mandatory (a few times a year) meetings in california

coincidentally, i've just got a company-wide email from HR saying there's a pilot scheme to allow us to work from another country for up to 10 working days WITHOUT SHAME

fuck off, the shame is the best part

Our work forbids us from working from another country for data security and tax reasons, alas (?)

I'm freelancing for a US video production co. that's just begun to set up their EU base (i.e. myself and a handful of other folks). Have to say I love it so far. Working strictly from home until early next year and then I'll most probably be bouncing around different EU locations as work demands. I never want to do an office job (again) for as long as I live.
Majorly sucks that, yes, I have to pay taxes in my country of residence *and* US taxes as well. I don't see why the US should get a cut. Criminal, I tell ya!

do would they even check or know, vpn, etc

I was teaching a Teams class online last week and accidentally clicked on Rocket League, which my laptop can barely handle with no other applications running. Took a full five minutes before my computer calmed down enough for me to close it and resume teaching. I wonder how much of my quiet cursing my students heard

I was asked to place my phone on mute after everyone heard me rustling around in a bag of pretzels. That's not embarrassing. Sometimes you just forget.

But it was then I realized that the week before I had taken my phone into the bathroom with me for a piss and a toilet flush and I'm 99.9% sure I didn't have my phone on mute then either.