Working From Home

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.

I have found I'm doing more work at home than I did at the office, as I have to demonstrate in some way to the boss that I'm not bunking off every day. Escaping into 1923 (editing) and 1933 (listening) is good too of course.

In line with experiences related above, I'm pretty sure this sitch is gonna lead to permanent back/neck injuries if I can't figure out an ergonomically-sound work setup. I'm getting some nasty twinges.

Girlfriend's 1930s bureau just buckled under the weight of her office-supplied monitor (managed to fix the hinge with a hammer), so I'm ok to work small for the time being. I've been WFH 1-2 days/week for nearly three years and I do often think, particularly late afternoon, "ah, I'll deal with *that* when I'm back in the office with the big screen". Well, this is it for the foreseeable. I did plan to make the 35-mile round trip to collect peripherals today but I can't get a ride now. As long as we're not on lockdown, I can try again next week.

just reaching the time in a writing day when all i can think of is biscuits and crisps

i guess when i complete this particular job i can actually trying baking some biscuits, probably not gnna try making crisps tho

I saw France have banned cycling, which has me baffled as surely it's the best no-contact exercise activity? Where am I going to get the chance to spread germs on a cycle ride in the countryside?

I've been 2-3 days wfh for 3+ years and actually there is no need at all for me to go into an office beyond the odd face to face meeting so this has been great. Obviously I'd much rather it didn't happen this way, but managers love control (it's their job really).

xp Cycling was banned so that hospitals don't have to deal with the x-odd number of broken limbs/collar bones right now.

ok, that makes a little sense, though not a great deal tbh, how many cycling injuries do they see?

I've no idea! And it does only make a little sense, I agree. Googling now I'm reading mixed reports re: the ban tbf.

"One watchword matters: "Save lives! Stay at home!'.'

The government then appeared to back up this message by retweeting the federation with the words: "We have one message for cyclists: 'stay home'. "

But when the ministry of interior was asked to confirm cycling was banned their response to Liberation newspaper was slightly different.

The ministry said it was permitted if it was "necessary for good personal balance" adding that that it is all about "reducing your trips outside to the maximum".

The interpretation of the rules by police on the ground may also not be consistent.

One French journalist reported taking his bike out to get some exercise and the police who stopped him to ask for his form accepted that it was allowed as long as he was alone.

Cycling to work is NOT forbidden however although you will need to have your "attestation" with you to show to police.

Runners on the banks of the Garonne river in Bordeaux, southwestern France, on the third day of the lockdown in France. Photo: AFP

The sports ministry's precision came after widespread criticism of the high number of people all over France taking to the streets to jog after the lockdown entered into force on Tuesday at noon.

"We are trying to protect as many as possible," the sports ministry said in their string of tweets.

"Be vigilant, do not distance yourselves too much (from your home. The idea is also to avoid anyone getting hurt to avoid overwhelming 15 (the French ambulance number) or health personnel."

I know we all hate cars, mostly with good reason. But if you have one, going for a scenic drive may be a relatively hygienic distraction. As long as you don't need to stop and get out for gas or meals or whatever.

Yes there is some risk of a car accident that puts you in unwelcome close contact, and stresses the health system. But with the quiet roads out there, it may be less risky than it normally is.

I went into work today to get my company laptop, instead of remoting to it from my home desktop. The smaller screen will be annoying probably, but I couldn't take another day of sitting in that chair, my back was going into meltdown. Now at least I should be able to try different setups.

Carpal tunnel update: now have pins & needles in my left hand :(

ok you can go home for the day

:D

Sorry about that, VG.

Came to post that I’m glad we still have clients to give my colleagues things to do, for which he gives me things to do. Was interacting today with friends who are basically the boss of their businesses but don’t have any business now and so were kind of distressed in a different way.

will I brick my personal laptop in order to squeeze employment out of nothing? time will tell

What do you mean? Saw your bad news on the other thread, that sucks

my employment, if it still exists (does it still exist? nobody knows!) is contingent upon my ability to do my work from home, which is in the stage of troubleshooting where it looks like I'm going to have to manually edit the windows registry to get it to work, which is risky

that's abominable.

we already had lots of telework capability in place, this has really just been a stress check on our VPN + O365 cloud services to accommodate everybody teleworking at once, which it appears Cisco and Microsoft were already prepared to deliver per whatever ridiculously priced contracts we have with them. One particular network that only certain analysts have to use has been a PITA all week but aside from that our stuff all works like a charm, no fiddling required.

otoh you didn't get a text from your boss saying "I think you shouldn't show up to work anymore, maybe just go ahead and file for unemployment, K"

at least you know and don't have to spend the whole weekend not knowin

I guess. I was making a bad joke about another ilxor's coworker's situation, I should probably hush. I hope you get some proper tech support or at least some respectful communication from your employer in the very near future.

at this point I would be surprised if there was a single person on the planet capable of fixing this, given that I've talked to almost everyone

Did you talk to Ed?

I really don't know who you're referring to

(when I said "everyone" I meant the tech support arms of every involved product/party, i.e. generally several hours of being tossed from person to department to person to department, none of whom helped, and also everything I could find on google, which was almost nothing)

Ed is a smart ilxor that often knows the answers to things

but is it something that any of us could help with? given that i have never once been able to solve a problem on the Oh no! More boring computer problems! Oh no! thread, i doubt i could help, but maybe someone else can?

sorry to hear about it, either way. tech problems are just the fucking worst, especially given the circumstances

I'm self-employed and have worked from home for the past year and half, though in the past couple months, I've been moving towards possibly being part-time employee rather than contractor for one of my clients -- and it was kinda nice going into the office, taking smoke breaks with my colleague, having beers after work -- now it's back to the way it was.

i find it hard to focus. however, i am enjoying not being in the office with people i don't like that much.

don't you have a cool arts job?

i'm burnt out on it

my coworkers and i haven't ever really gotten beers after work. i loved jobs where that was the situation

ha i remember when i used to work for an art museum -- i uh, was disappointed to learn/feel like it was way too much like a corporate job except people talked about art and were more attractive.

Socializing with co-workers after hours is the fucking worst. When I worked for a major label, having to awkwardly hang around with people I'd spent all day in the office with, at shows by one of our bands, was easily one of the worst aspects. Especially when the head of the label would show up; it turned going to a metal show into a performance review. "Clap louder if you want that raise!"

I liked going for a pint with colleagues right up to the point where I was the boss, then it got weird, now I have nobody to go for a drink with, but it's ok because the pubs are closed.

Ed is a smart ilxor that often knows the answers to things

xp -- at this point I'm just going to backup/reformat the PC and start over, in hopes that nuking the PC will fix whatever it is that is causing the problem

this is really about the worst possible time to do this, but we don't really choose these things, do we

I liked going for a pint with colleagues right up to the point where I was the boss, then it got weird,

I got lectured by a drunken staff member at Christmas about how much "power" had changed me :)
He was all apologies on the Monday - I told him I was drunk and couldn't remember what he said.

I say that to my coworkers all the time

whenever a colleague came to me to complain about my demeanor after I got promoted i just told them they were part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor and spilled my drink on them

right now, only two of my teammates are even located in the same city as me. my boss lives in a different country (Canada), and his boss is in Texas.

we have to fly in to be in the same place at once to even do things like drink together.

"I'm going to backup/reformat the PC," she said, expecting it to be easy and not to require her to take apart the entire apartment looking for a flash drive to turn into bootable media because the easy method didn't fucking work

finally managed to get it to work; never want to look at another powershell window again; murphy's law says I have now guaranteed my job loss

i thought i had the adapter for my work laptop here but i don't and it is dead now and we are required to ration our contact with the office. so i have given up. on my first day of working from home. i'll go in tomorrow morning and get it.

you can probably find a universal adapter online

nah i need to go in eventually anyway, i just wasn't going to waste my opportunities making a trip today

thought i would enjoy hanging out with my cats all day and taking it ~easy~ but my brain hates this, like it's constantly being pulled in two directions. an unholy thing has been let in my apartment.

that's all i'll complain about it though, anything is worth getting my commute time back

whenever a colleague came to me to complain about my demeanor after I got promoted i just told them they were part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor and spilled my drink on them

I missed this, but lol.