Working From Home

Microsoft Teams looks like it's a bit more faff to set up but is also free, don't require email addresses for video con, and doesn't have the annoying 45m min restriction. Been using it at work and the collaborative working tools work surprisingly well ime.

Video quality on Teams is better than Zoom as well.

Teams is great

I liked Skype for Business (ex-Lync) a little more for ease of use, but I am okay with Teams.

I shall now go and ritually scourge my flesh onnaconna praising a product of the evil M$ corporation. Mea maxima culpa

We're supposed to be switching to Teams next year campuswide and a few of us are vaguely using a general space for it in the meantime. Reasonable enough from what I can see!

teams is very purple

MS Teams has been a learning adjustment but I like it 3 million times better than WebEx so far.

Skype for Business was easier for virtual training only because it was the one environment where few people said "I CAN'T GET INTO MEETING". we used Skype to message each other too, so they were already logged in, and they clicked a link, and boom, meeting open.

whereas WebEx, which we used after, was something people never used except when they were in training so half the time they'd click the link and it'd tell them "if program doesn't open, click here to install temporary file" and the average learner would react like someone was speaking Esperanto.

or....we had the year where our learners using Citrix to access their virtual workspace (FUCK CITRIX UP THE URETHRA OMG) had WebEx crash immediately if they accessed it within Citrix, which required them to access WebEx OUTSIDE of Citrix, meaning they had to spend all day toggling outside and inside Citrix whenever we did activities.

so yeah...I'm full on embracing MS Teams, lol.

Been WFH since March and I honestly don't know if I'll be able to handle the transition back to working at an office. It has been lovely basically just rolling out of bed, brushing my teeth, and "going to work" by entering the home office. We're using Google Meet for our meetings since our systems are all Linux systems and thus don't operate anything relating to Microsoft, but I'm also mandated to keep a chatroom up just in case any of our team needs to confer about a work issue and, let me tell you, the "chirpy extrovert" of the group (to steal from a beautiful turn of phrase a friend of mine uses to describe Facebook) has managed to infect that chatroom with her annoyingly chirpy extroversion. But since that is literally the only drawback to this whole set up, I honestly don't mind.

I'm realizing the reason I used to do so well working from home is it cut out my commute altogether, allowed me to unwind sooner, and then I was able to do more social activities during the week because i didn't have to be up as early the next day, so I could 'reward' myself after a tough day with fun activities, and then I'd get over it. or I didn't dwell on mistakes I made (cos I'm a massive perfectionist and I get embarrassed if I fail at anything)

without this 'reward' system due to COVID, I find my frustration just growing into a bigger and bigger ball to where I just feel worn out by the time the day ends...or I hyperfocus on my mistakes and get bad imposter syndrome. Likewise, even though I'm used to working from home, half the people we teach aren't, so our job got much harder and we just lost a full-time employee, so we're understaffed.

ultimately, the thought process of "look, people are getting sick and dying, it could be much worse" keeps me from despairing too much, and the knowledge that my family is financially secure. thinking maybe I should work a week from the beach or something.

Me, on Tuesday:

"Hey, the trainer in one of my classes is from Woodlands, Texas. Do we have a contingency plan for what happens if he loses power due to the hurricane? Because I can't take his place - remember, I'm leading a class in the morning and my afternoon is booked solid."

~silence~

Me, on Wednesday:

"So, it looks like the Woodlands, Texas will be spared the worst. However, I think it'd be a good idea if we come up with a backup plan in case the forecast changes. Is there a contingency plan?"

"That facilitator lives near me. Nothing's going to happen, we're fine."

"...ok. I gave him my number anyway."

Today:

~text message from facilitator~

"Hi Neanderthal. I lost power 10 minutes ago. The storm didn't really hit us, but because our energy company serves Louisiana, they're doing brownouts here to protect the grid. I don't know when my power will be back up".

I FUCKING TOLD YOU and gave you multiple opportunities to help me find a solution to avoid screwing me over and then the thing you said wouldn't happen happened and now I had to abandon everything I was scheduled to do this afternoon which now puts me half a day behind after I feverishly worked to catch up on Tuesday.

Feels like the President's brand of "wishing away bad news" is infecting my co-workers.

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

― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Thursday, March 12, 2020 6:13 AM (five months ago)

hahaha my friend made this actually --

but also, I have been thinking about the technical aspects of converting office buildings into affordable housing ... there would be regional issues in terms of different zoning/planning codes (as well as building/fire/health) ... things would also depend on the age of the building. ...

Neanderthal that sucks! wtf not understanding what the word contingency means durrrr

omg sarahell if you still have that could you ilxmail it to me?!

(to be clear, I'm not mad at the person who lost power, I'm mad at the leaders in charge that kept telling me they didn't need to help find a backup resource for him because "nothing is going to happen with this storm").

xxxxposts

https://packardjennings.com/2020/02/01/somepic2/

this is why you must become management

then you get to argue with other people in management on a regular basis ... uh

many thanks sarahell!

I'll say this. I was a project manager from summer of 2012 to winter (early) of 2015. first year or two, I loved it - I had a way to finally unleash my creativity on my projects, I was good at meetings and talking to clients and well I got to travel a lot of cool places for free. I was a favorite of the director of our dept. and my first few projects went well to where I was getting massive bonuses/performance reviews.

the place became toxic in a way I'd never seen before - micromanaging and intimidation/bully tactics, and my mental health went south and I started being irresponsible and drinking heavily and one night drove home drunk and totaled my car by driving into a wall after I blacked out on a turn. not sure how I didn't get a DUI, but I basically fled that role after that. and the entire department two years ago.

I could maybe return to it at a different company though........just need to gird up my loins and find a company that wins those "best place to work" awards and try it out there.

(not suggesting that work is to blame for me drinking and driving, cos that was my folly, but it did contribute to the mental downward spiral that I chose to medicate in the wrong way.)

Do you have the job security to call a dumbass a dumbass?

at this point, yeah, i'm a lifer (almost 16 years) and I didn't get disciplined over my "hot mic" incident so if they were willing to let THAT slide....

I don't mind trying to keep up to the standard we maintained in the office (allowing for the difficulties associated with remote work). But I do object to having to do a performance review. Especially considering that there probably will be no net pay increases. Is it true that performance reviews only serve employers trying to document a need to fire someone?

not necessarily -- depends on the workplace -- depends on the type of review. I've heard about performance reviews being part of the DEI (Diversity Equity Inclusion) toolkit in terms of improving the workplace's commitment and efforts to such principles.

we do one every year. I object to having to do a self-assessment though. I know what the purported benefit is supposed to be (you get to sell yourself, talk about how well YOU think you did), but it makes no difference in our final score, and takes too long to fill out during a time of year when we're already busy. if I want my boss to be aware of something for my review...I'll just email it to him.

Last year I flew to the Philippines for a month and basically supervised the training programs for Manila and Tarlac (which are two hours apart), 14 classes simultaneously, with little to no issues, while simultaneously teaching 3 classes. All with a laptop that wasn't functioning properly and outright died halfway into the trip. My boss tried to advocate for this as me 'exceeding expectations' and was basically told "ehh, so, he's expected to travel". first rating that wasn't "Exceeds" in more than 10 years with the firm, despite putting in more labor than probably any year previously.

I know full well I ain't gonna get a raise.

so I'm leading a class last week, teaching other business instructors about how to handle discipline issues in a class, what we're allowed and not allowed to do. I draw from experience and tell them about a time where a learner made frequent inappropriate sexual comments in chat in training and describe briefly how we handled it. no specific details or names, obv, I couldn't even remember who it was or what he said, exactly - it was almost two years ago.

wouldn't it be my luck that randomly, one of the 25 attendees of my class was the actual asshole who made those sexual comments. who appears to have cleaned up his act and has now been entrusted with training people.

I found out cos he outed himself to the entire class and admitted he was the guy in my story. that wasn't awkward! had a giggle about that afterward. only me.

omg they are gagging for us to return back to the office. “second family”? pic.twitter.com/udntfSVXSh

— mi🌿 (@helloalegria) September 2, 2020

I am hung up on "bants"

we brits love some proper bants

one cheeky afternoon coming right up

"cheeky afternoon in the sun" is code for the affair you're having with a co-worker, right?

I am now worried that the bants I've been enjoying up to now have not been proper. Shit.

"cheeky afternoon in the sun" is code for the affair you're having with a co-worker, right?

― Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Thursday, 3 September 2020 20:58 (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

"Seeing your second family" is barely code

can really sense the creeping desperation as it keeps going

bull up your bants

man, if I'd have forseen this pandemic, I never would have moved to a position that involved talking all day.

Pre-pandemic, it was as cozy a job as ever, and it will be as well when it's over. but now I have to feign a level of passion I can't even remotely dredge up right now.

things have stabilize. we hired our own employees rather than using a partner site and class is going very well, with few to no technological issues, and the learners are great. my co-facilitator knows what she's doing.

now, in the absence of any actual issues, I have the yips. I guess having things going wrong to blame helped me be more relaxed as I knew I wouldn't get blamed for any fuckery, but now that that's gone, I feel immense pressure to deliver.

idgi. i've been here almost 16 years, I know what I'm doing, I'm a good speaker, the classes find me entertaining, and yet I find myself examining every word I say, I get us behind because I'm lacking confidence that the class is ready to move on, the one time my co-worker (incorrectly) corrected me, I felt beet red, even though I was technically not wrong.

I think part of it = we're using webcams. I used to teach in person all the time, and that is nothing for me - I use my theater background to get past anxiety. but I've taught virtually for so long that I've gotten rusty with it and also, I don't have a property desk setup in my room. my room has a mattress and a tv and not much room for much else and I never thought I"d have to use my webcam.

I'm getting a desk/new bed when I move into my new place but I have to contort myself into weird positions to look proper on the camera since I'm basically propping myself up on a pillow.

i think i'm just too mentally fatigued to actually work right now. when this election is over, maybe not.

actually I think I feel so under pressure to succeed in everything and feel so judged and seen by everybody now in all walks of my life (which is just a perception, not reality) that I just need a few days out of the public eye so my four days of PTO will be nice.

I think getting a desk will help. I just got myself a desk and set up my room with a little office corner, and it makes a big difference to how professional the whole thing feels.

Remote classes are just not as good as in-person classes, though, and that's hard for those of us who base some of our identity around being good at our jobs. Especially if you've spent 16 years being good at this particular job. I'm sure you're doing everything as well as it can be done w/the limitations of the tech, but it's hard to have an idea in your head of what a good class w/ high energy & student engagement should look like and not be able to reach it.

I looked up Graham Greene + burnout the other day because I was wondering if he coined the term (he did) and saw that somewhere he calls it "The long despair of doing nothing well."

Neanderthal, your training sessions need more ukulele

lol...i...could maybe do that towards the end.

xp - I wonder how much of that perception is due to a contraction in the scope of your life? Maybe yours hasn't ... mine has. I work more than I used to because I feel like there isn't anything else to do, and thus my work feels more stressful and important than when I had more balance in terms of creative fun, friends, etc.

perception re being judged, not perception re more ukelele ...

oh it totally has to do with that. full stop. without activities like theatre, singing at fundraisers, attending concerts, sometimes I get release or feel fulfilled, most times I feel preoccupied with work.

i've found more safe activities as a result but honestly I think we all just need the year to end. we've been told the busy period of our department, which has lasted since March, will probably go to next March. and we're a dept that usually has a manageable summer and a quiet winter. we're also running with 5 people in a 7 person dept

I can totally relate -- wait, I said that already, yeah? ... I think this whole thing has done a number on so many people's senses of time and work/rest etc. ... because a lot of my work involves individual clients, it's like I am "on call" 24-7 in terms of the texts and emails I get from clients, which, before CoVID no one emailed me or texted me at 7pm on a Saturday night. And I don't _have_ to respond immediately but it provokes anxiety and sense of obligation ... so then the sensible thing is to set times for myself where I don't look at email or messenger or texts, which used to be fine because I could go out to bars and parties and shows and see friends, but now, the phone and computer are also the mechanisms through which I socialize and it's harder to filter the work stuff.

xxxxposts to self

ok one thing that annoys me about my co-facilitator

she keeps saying AWESOMESAUCE.

it's been 50 or 60 times since Tuesday.

what YEAR IS IT

xpost I feel you on the "I don't have to reply but if I don't, I'll feel anxious until I get rid of it". when I was a project manager I got my emails on the blackberry and it would be too tempting not to look at them and reply to them. I was even at Gasparilla Pirate Fest replying to emails one weekend. and that was before COVID.

agree that maybe coming up with a schedule where you consider it "sarahell time" and dont' allow yourself to look at work emails is a good idea, but are these emails intermingled with personal emails, or separated? same with messenger/texts (ie do you have a work number and regular number or does everything go to your personal line?)