Working From Home

"screams" eh.

an asshole hedge fund billionaire in texas who was somehow involved in enron convinced my city that they needed a propeller plane to fly in circles all day to take pictures of crimes happening. it makes one revolution every 7 minutes. it's supposed to fly at a greater height than it is. every day there is obnoxious propeller plane noise, all day, but intermittent. zero crimes solved in the several months of pilot (heh) project. oh and it only flies during the day, so this stupid waste of fuel misses most of the real crimes. lawnmowers have never bothered me but this is so, so annoying.

if u wanna be happy when you're mowing the grass
never let a Tombot eat your whole ass

zero crimes solved in the several months of pilot (heh) project

just wanted to humilitybrag about dealing with the worst of both worlds w/r/t getting both constant development/renovation noise AND lawncare adjacency noises.

my ground-floor studio apartment is strategically located in the corner of an old (for this city, i.e. 1920s) three-story apartment building of tiny 1-bedrooms and studios in an urban neighborhood just across the interstate from downtown, with construction going on right across the street. the building's dumpsters and recycle bins are located three feet from my kitchen window on the north side, and the entry/exit gate to the complex is located three feet from my bedroom window on the east side, directly adjacent to the sidewalk of the street with the construction site on the other side. hella noise every few minutes on both sides. in the summer I basically have to choose between privacy or ventilation, as it heats up pretty quickly with no fencing or awning or vegetation shading the facade, and the ceiling fan can only do so much and is pretty noisy itself (can't have it on while trying to sleep).

I'm not really complaining, it's the cheapest apartment available within a ten-minute walk of my downtown office ($940), and I chose it for that reason, but GODDAMN is it not an office and nowhere near ideal for focusing on spreadsheets and word docs and permit applications and having Microsoft Teams meetings and conference calls for eight hours a day. my upstairs neighbor's 100-year-old hardwood floor is basically one and same as my ceiling and I hear EVERY tiny bit of her contact with it whether or not she wears her clogs (and she always wears them) and she's a hairdresser who's been out of work for the last three months and physically cannot sit still by the sound of it. much cracking and creaking and stomping about, all the time. the resident manager lives nextdoor to me and he's been staying busy with his circular saw and nailgun and hammer on some sort of tiny garden planter project he wants to install in the perpetually shaded narrow space between our wall and the noise-collecting concrete retaining wall between our building and the taller building nextdoor. it's been in progress since Memorial Day, a little noisy bit at a time, four or five feet from my window.

anyway, in addition to all this, our gardeners, the nextdoor building's gardener's, and the other nextdoor building's gardeners all come on their own individual weekdays to trim our respective shubberies with their two-stroke clippers and leafblow all our trash into the street for twenty minutes a day. landscaping is important for a property management company, they want these shitholes looking nice. and then the garbage trucks too, and also the recyclable trucks, can't forget those, they have their own days too. they're always laughing their asses off when they come to wheel the dumpsters out from three feet from my window when I'm having a 12-person Microsoft Teams meeting with all the windows open. I should've known better than to leave them open! suffocating in a 10'x10' box without fresh air is totally cool!

so yeah I like offices. they're good places to work for people like me to who live in squalor. and I've had more than a few conversations with coworkers who are like "ummmmmm yeah I'm loving this working from home situation! in no great rush to get back to the ol' office!!!" and who can blame them, cause they're successful humans who are comfortable in their own homes and can get stuff done there. shoot, my department hosted their quarterly forum online for the first time last month and it featured endless slideshows from the various dept section people showing off their swanky living room workstations. one guy was even douchey enough to share a photo of his laptop perched next to his hottub on his deck at sunset with a frickin cocktail thrown in for good fun. these people are proper people.

I'm only a five minute bike ride from my office so I'm still making trips downtown once or twice a week to get into the office to do stuff I can't do from home on my laptop, printing and hardcopy permit package submittals and whatnot. It's cute though that the department policy as of two months ago is that my remotely-working section head has to do a facetime "screening" with me no more than ten minutes prior to my entering the building where he asks me if I have a fever or a cough or a headache, and I say no, and then says "great, you may enter the building."

STOP MOWING UR LAWN U CNUTS

I live by the port,train tracks,and while my apartment faces away from the very busy road I live on,it is on the corner of the building,so sirens and trucks going by are very loud. I'm inured to it but the other day a student I was talking to on the phone (I work at a university) said it sounded like I was outside lol

Oh yeah I also have two fans going on constantly (apartment is small and hot)

so yeah I like offices. they're good places to work for people like me to who live in squalor. and I've had more than a few conversations with coworkers who are like "ummmmmm yeah I'm loving this working from home situation! in no great rush to get back to the ol' office!!!" and who can blame them, cause they're successful humans who are comfortable in their own homes and can get stuff done there.

Yep. I don't miss the bus ride to and from downtown. But I miss the company-paid air conditioning. I miss the fitness center, and not just because of the tension of whether or not I would see Nick, and would he and/or I be in a mood to talk. Working in shorts and a t-shirt is nice, but I miss putting together an outfit that wouldn't be destroyed by the bus trip. (I'm sewing stuff in anticipation of this fall, but who knows if the area will open enough for me to go out and wear these things.)

just wanted to humilitybrag about dealing with the worst of both worlds w/r/t getting both constant development/renovation noise AND lawncare adjacency noises.

High 5! I got constant construction noise plus leafblowers and fireworks minus actual lawnmowers

however, I am currently devoid of police sirens and flashbang grenades and news & police helicopters after two straight weeks of it --

though speaking of construction -- when we were on full lockdown -- which meant no construction with the exception of affordable housing -- the neighborhood was eerily quiet, it felt like the suburbs. It also grimly demonstrated that next to no affordable housing was under construction near me ... which is an area where they should be building affordable housing.

that's surprising that residential development would drop off so dramatically like that under a temporary construction moratorium, considering that most new residential developments (at least in major California cities) are required by local ordinance to have at least some of their units be dedicated as "affordable." I guess every city implements their rules different. We're still shovel-ready & shovel-willing down here.

I miss the fitness center, and not just because of the tension of whether or not I would see Nick, and would he and/or I be in a mood to talk

this sounds like some juicy Nick drama that I think we all deserve to know! spill those deets here and now!

Juicy, no. Tedious, for me at least. He's a classic Washington white collar type, in this case working for a lobbying firm while I work for a Federal contractor. We would cross paths at the fitness center, and sometimes get to chatting. I tried asking him to a free screening of Christmas Vacation during the holidays, but his mother died that very day.

Officially I don't even miss Nick as much as I miss occasionally seeing interest in men's eyes (not that I was ever able to capitalize on any such interest).

Chevy made Christmas Vacation for two reasons and two reasons only: to make more money to buy more cocaine, and to console through laughter those grieving over the loss of a parent. Nick should've known this, and therefore he sucks.

I'm getting server time-outs literally every 15-30 seconds. Like I can't complete a sentence of an email without every one of my apps freezing and glitching out. I assume this is currently the case for all of my coworkers, as well. I still have quite a lot that needs to get done (including, what, six letters that need to be drafted and sent out) before the three-day weekend which, for me, starts in 90 minutes. Oh well!

xpost: Occasionally I bless my fairy godmother (whom I believe to be the late Dorothy Parker) for steering me away from boyfriends who aren't worth the salt in my tears. But sometimes I fear she might also be steering me away from men who might be worth a tumble.

Point of clarification: She died the day of the screening, and as Nick didn't have my contact info, he couldn't get in touch with me until after the holidays.

Also, officially I miss the gym because my back has been hurting.

that's surprising that residential development would drop off so dramatically like that under a temporary construction moratorium, considering that most new residential developments (at least in major California cities) are required by local ordinance to have at least some of their units be dedicated as "affordable." I guess every city implements their rules different.

here as well as in San Francisco, what is common is that new developments can either designate that required percentage/amount as affordable OR they can pay additional "impact fees" essentially paying into a City-administered fund that theoretically is used to build affordable housing elsewhere in the City. ... In practice, very little affordable housing does get built and the City is sitting on a bunch of money and builds no affordable housing, and, in addition, the City doesn't even collect from developers the entire amounts of the fees they are obligated to pay, which assumedly, also results in next-to-no affordable housing being built.

Another problem is that the City isn't terribly imaginative when it comes to affordable housing developments in terms of type of units and scale of development. They tend to wait for the perfect big project that checks all the boxes, which haha, rarely happens, rather than commit funds to a larger number of small projects, often involving renovation and/or conversion of existing non-residential structures. These smaller projects tend to be less expensive per unit, to boot.

and now this thread has gone from being about Working From Home to Working On Homes -- sorry

Went to the office today to actually bring my computer home (had been sshing in) and it made me sad! I like the office!

Yup

one of our trainers abruptly quit. that now puts us two below staffing target (we have 5, we need 7). On the plus side, this really reduces likelihood of any imminent layoffs. On the other side, we're in a hiring freeze, and we're headed into our busy season 2 people understaffed. And - he was one of only 3 people (including me) that knew one of our key curriculums. Fortunately, we're training 4 more right now, but this basically means it's going to be back to back classes for the remainder of the year, with zero prep time, and limited time off.

sigh. happy for the paycheck, but we've been at amplifier level 11 since March of this year and it would be nice to have a respite.

turns out i'm really bad at this but only when i have a big deadline crunch week

im being extremely lazy, my productivity is absolutely in the toilet. I don't give 2 fucks tbh.

might be worth checking the tax statutes where you are as I've seen that I can claim working from home as a tax credit (a percentage of the rent on my apartment, the heating, the electricity, the internet bill, etc.) which I will enjoy doing next tax season

might be worth checking the tax statutes where you are as I've seen that I can claim working from home as a tax credit (a percentage of the rent on my apartment, the heating, the electricity, the internet bill, etc.) which I will enjoy doing next tax season

the Trump tax overhaul bill that got passed in 2017 actually eliminated the long-standing deduction for home office expenses (and other unreimbursed expenses) for employees (that exceed 2% of AGI and if you itemize deductions) that a significant number of people used to take ... some states still allow the deduction and haven't changed to conform to the new tax code. ...

im being extremely lazy, my productivity is absolutely in the toilet. I don't give 2 fucks tbh.

Yeah lately I've just been phoning it in. If ever there was a time to do C minus work, this is it

I really need to stop weekday drinking again, sure I only have to roll out of bed to my desk 2 feet away but ugh. Cannot funkshun.

Nearby highpitched squeal of concrete drills in road is NOT HELPING

You're in Melbourne, Trayce?

I so much wish I could phone it in for a few days right now, job just doesn’t allow for it, too high pressure. I have been going to the office more lately and I second liking the office. Whenever I pull a couple of days at the office and then one at home I realize just how fucking much I get interrupted at home, like easily every 5-10 minutes for some stretches.

James: I am, Im in Brunswick and yeah we're all on lockdown now. Not that I left the house much to begin with lol.

Anyone not aware: my city has had a sudden large uptick in covid cases (well lol, large for us is "120" rather than "120,000" but you know).

So they have decreed we go back to stage 3 lockdown ie do not leave house at all unless for medical, to get groceries, or school/work where neccesary.

Americans would go mad.

xpost my old boss (who is in another dept) keeps on asking for me by name to train the classes that will be going to his teams, I have a feeling they're gonna try to bully me out of the PTO I have in the fall, but I'm holding firm on that shit. by August, esp if Florida is even more of a COVID cesspool by then, I'm gonna need massive decompression

So they have decreed we go back to stage 3 lockdown ie do not leave house at all unless for medical, to get groceries, or school/work where neccesary.

Americans would go mad.

heh -- in my part of America we were at that stage for 2 months at least ... it is weird to see/hear about all the other parts of the country that have gotten back to normal sooner and/or not been on lockdown at all ... but on topic, i had a skype meeting with a client this morning and I realized that on skype, no one can smell your sweat

drinking a beer while wfh for the first time. amazed it has taken almost 4 months

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fb/30/4e/fb304edf610c07daaf0f3239722ab671.jpg

already become fully adjusted/used to having 2 extra hours in the day not spent preparing for/commuting to the office

already back to feeling like there aren't enough hours in the day, not getting enough sleep, not getting anything done, despite the 2 extra hours

it's definitely a me problem (depression/whatever) but the thought of going back to the office schedule and losing these 2 hours is a nightmare. i miss seeing coworkers in person and other things but not that much.

obviously there are more important things right now, this whole experience has just made me internalize how shitty the office schedule is and how much of a negative it is in my life

work days should be shorter. unfortunately the "most workers only do 4 hours of actual work in an 8 hour day" thing doesn't apply to what i do.

hard agree

I absolutely agree that for those of us doing this easily theres no logical reason why we should go back to wasting an extra 2 hrs of our day, and money on transport/adding to pollution, leaving house to work.

But yeah also agree I cant do less hours - part of my job includes being available on a fucking rostered phone number between 8.30 and 5.30 ugh

wish studs terkel was alive to opine about this

class of only 9 people, and 6 of them have major audio problems that have lasted over a day (as they always do at this site). 4 of them are outright not participating at all, requiring me to call on them to make sure they're actually here (and sometimes I catch them napping).

and my co-facilitator might as well be named Led Zeppelin because all she does is ramble on - 90 minutes over the allotted time for the *first lesson*, and the class is lost.

at this point i'm just happy for the paycheck, but the perfectionist in me hates this nonsense.

wait.. she talked for.. an HOUR AND A HALF too long??

maybe you could have told her, "it's time for you to go... the autumn moon lights your way"

yes. we were supposed to finish the section at like....4:45 pm Eastern yesterday. we started at 9:30 am this morning - still not done.

I had to basically tell her to remember to watch the clock, because this lesson is one of the easier ones. how long is she going to take on teh longer ones? meh.

glad others gave gotten to a ‘phone it in’ mindset. i’ve been getting really burnt out, overall i prefer WFH to commuting and sitting in an office but its been four months now. i sleep way too much and am still exhausted most days. doesnt hurt that i had a really positive performance review last week. gives me some justification to go easy on myself

By my lights there's no gray area. People have busy lives. You have to stick to the advertised time. If you're not done, it's your fault.

Feeling that post, gt. It's been 4 months. I'm hitting a wall. Pretty much everybody I know is.

I’m working quite literally harder than ever, don’t know what’s wrong with me

usually that would be my response to stressful times. in my old job, I could lose myself for hours in writing customer care reference materials, doing technical configuration, and it would take my mind off of things.

but training people in less than ideal conditions when half of them are just as distracted as I am, oi. This was a dream job for me in quiet times - but right now? I'm frankly amazed I actually worked up the energy to be frustrated with how bad it's going at the moment, that's an improvement I guess.