Working From Home

my boomer colleague and I do the exact same job, answer emails in the same inbox and now, working from home, check the same voicemail box. she's revealed that she doesn't return any of the voicemail messages except by email, as she does not want students to have her personal phone number. she was confused that this did not bother me, and even more confused when I explained I don't answer unknown numbers, have my voicemail set up, and my phone is always on both silent, and no vibration

(I don't have my voicemail set up, sorry for tortured sentences)

what makes it harder?
They kept trying to get my to switch to a laptop and I didn't want to, cause small screen and annoying keyboard but I was assuaged by promises that I could hook up a different monitor and keyboard to it. Then my boss's request to provide me a laptop got denied anyway so...

nobody's really been keeping tabs on me so I've been slacking off a bit, but I'd better get my act together next week

This marks the 372nd week in a row I've told myself this

haha, well, the same might be true here now you put it that way

it's like I said about having coworkers setting a low bar: co-worker who is part time wfh has been repeatedly caught breaking THREE of the big no-no's (1 she sells jewelry on facebook during work hours 2 she took photos of herself wearing said jewelry while at her desk that included sensitive info on her monitor in the background, and 3 she tried to recruit co-workers into her jewelry cabal) that are discussed during our annual compliance or ethics or whatever it's called training, yet she's still here.

and on top of all that, she's not even good at this job!

literally considering doing weekend work so i can get some reporting done without interruptions

i kind of suck at this i feel like

have received a very ominous email about the existence of my job

I'm doing the jim in vancouver maneuver right now. but I have pants on

we did 'office drinks' today at 4pm where a few people from about three related teams cracked open a drink of their choice and we opened up a massive zoom call. it was fun! after about half an hour we realised we should probably stop so we did.

I’ve done a couple of zoom HHs so far, they’re OK. Was more rewarding to just walk down the alley outside with my beer and chat with IRL neighbors from a safe distance.

Sorry katherine

Jim I am 100% with you on phone protocol except I have a ring vibrate which is a very brief “zz”

The only thing I miss about my old job is I worked solo on most assignments.

I train full-time and our plate is full and the sheer volume of people on VPN is overwhelming servers and our IT line so I can't get through a single training session without a major stoppage.

Which is fine if they let you make adjustments but they always want you to finish in the same duration despite the issues so you make massive cuts to the curriculum and then they ask you why something wasn't taught.

I had a one person class today and two hours of VPN issues later....had to postpone.

My boss is pressuring me to have her finish on her own and I'm like "why? The rest of my week is open, why shouldn't I finish it when she's back up?"

we have our new email stuff after last week's phishing incident and they have set up a new group on workplace for the IT help desk. which someone added me to against my wishes. it is full of extremely dumb questions, failure to read instructions, and whining. "but i don't like gmail!" and other gripes. it's great.

man I really appreciate my boss (and company as a whole) after hearing about some of the bullshit other wfh ppl have to put up with.
exhibit a, email from today:
"Hi team,

I know there is a lot of craziness going on, kids have eLearning, dr appts, family stuff, etc…

Since we are all WFH you can have some additional flexibility with your schedule. Our intent is not to have everyone burn through PTO because they can’t put in 8 hours per day between 9-5.
Some things are easier done off-hours, so if that works then go for it. If you need to work 6 hours one day and 10 the next then just let us know. "

Flexing is a necessity. People are gonna burn out unexpectedly some days or their kids are going to need extra attention others.

Good for them recognizing that.

Yeah 1 of my coworkers (who is all-around great) has 2 young kids with ADD, 1 more severe than the other. She is struggling.

it's amazing how ppl who are a total pain in the ass in the office retain those qualities remotely

nothing worse than a pain in the ass who now is forced to communicate via poorly-drafted email

lol

i'm glad i'm not being supervised because i would have to explain why i'm working 2 hours one day and 1 hour the next day

The one thing I hate is that our terrible outsourced IT is so backed up rn, if we have tech issues we basically have to solve them ourselves.

Lol i will cop to watching tv on days when I'm not training people

A good friend of mine has two young kids and her manager's response to this crisis has been to micromanage everyone + ask for more + call them up when deadlines get blown. Absolute nightmare fuel.

You just can't expect great productivity from people rn.

But some bosses want shit to be business as usual.

times when i feel guilty i just remind myself of all the time they stole from me when i worked 60 hours and was paid for 40 because i'm salaried

ha same

Pretty much had I been OT eligible in 2017, i might have cleared six figs for the first time in my life

this crisis has made me realize that I am so used to doing my bathroom business at work that I have absolutely no concept of how long TP supplies last

I don't feel as guilty cos when I don't have a class, there's not much for me to do. I've taught them all so often i need bare minimum prep.

And I don't tell my boss anymore that i have capacity to do more work cos i got fucked me in the past doing that

Xpost lol

One day it's here, and then it's gone

i hadn't even thought of that! i'm on my last roll before i break into the 30-pack i got at costco before panic buying started. one thing that is weird about my current office compared to my last office is how many people seem to poop at work. maybe they're onto something, shifting the TP costs to the office supply budget.

before working from home I did nearly all my pooping at work

Read that as 'shitting the TP costs...'

I have ulcerative colitis and work for the government so god knows how much of the state budget I was blowing on TP before WFH

today in online meetings: is my mic not working properly or is it just situation normal that every time I start to say something someone starts talking over the top of me and nobody responds to anything I say?

I'm going with somewhere between the latter and actually I don't care, fuck all these stupid meetings anyway. I swear we didn't have this many meetings when we were actually, well, meeting

I am so used to doing my bathroom business at work that I have absolutely no concept of how long TP supplies last

envious, as I always breakfast at home and hafta interrupt it for you know

I am so used to doing my bathroom business at work that I have absolutely no concept of how long TP supplies last

most otm post of all

i spent the last year and a half converting our garage into a habitable space with a bathroom and we finally got a sofa in there this week and after one day of working out there away from my family I actually feel like I'm 'working' again after a month. i love my family but they have no boundaries when I'm at home and visible.

akm can I come work in your garage

I have done very little all day

this scenario happens in-office all the time but seems to be much more prevalent via remote

HEY THERE’S A FIRE PUT IT OUT ASAP
Me, a firefighter: ok where is the fire
HANG ON A MINUTE
ok send me details asap so i can take care of it
...
...
hey do you have details
STILL CHECKING, PLEASE WAIT FOR MY INFO
ok
....
(later)

I SEE THAT THE FIRE IS NOT OUT YET, DID I MISS SOMETHING?

i can and am getting all my work done from home, no bother

but i feel like i could spend the rest of my life trying to get the remote desktop window to fit my extended monitor and its still gonna have an inch either side and its destroying my soul minute by minute

I SEE THAT THE FIRE IS NOT OUT YET, DID I MISS SOMETHING?

otm

I have done very little all day

also otm

My (government-issued) laptop has locked down Skype to just text, no phone or video. Now my manager wants us to install Microsoft Teams on our personal laptops/other devices. I assume videoconferencing is on the horizon.

I have one guy in my team who fucks up joining Skype meetings every single time. Today I ended up with an IT guy phoning him and screen sharing to talk him through what buttons to click while the rest of us waited patiently and listened to half of the conversation because IT guy stayed in the Skype unmuted the entire time.

We'll do it all again on Monday.

I shaved my beard into a handlebar mustache for two videoconferences’ worth of comedy value today. Tomorrow everyone just won’t recognize me since I’m now barefaced for the first time in over a year.

WFH is working out better than I thought. Getting an extra hour of sleep due to no commute makes a huge difference.

Y’all got some crazy micromanagers. We’re not really “working from home”, we’re “trying to survive and just keep all the shit we oversee from breaking without actually creating anything useful”

Which is better: Skype, Zoom, or Teams? Asking for an IT Department.