Working From Home

got my second recognition in two months for the work I've done despite juggling my dad/mom's health issues.

no matter what issues I have with my company, my department is incredible and without them being supportive, I would have had a complete nervous breakdown.

it probably helps that both my boss and boss's boss are caretaking their parents right now, though. we have a caretaker chat going.

Glad you have some support at work, I feel that’s rare these days.

in my previous job (same company), the project lead's boyfriend was in the hospital for heart-related issues, and all the implementation manager did was grouse at how this was inconveniencing the project and demanding to know how long she'd be out.

that was when I made the firm decision to leave, and I made a lot of noise on my way out of the department.

There is no "my boyfriend is in the hospital" in "team."

lmao

I feel like that was the last time in my life I was any form of assertive. I now have an Implementation Manager, Account Executive, and Director who hate me and won't talk to me ever again. 2017 was wild.

Congrats Neadnerthal, that's good news!

After I had already put in my notice at a previous job, I stopped by the HR office to fill out some paperwork and overheard one of the partners telling our exasperated HR person, "that's too bad, but I've triple-checked our policies and 'boyfriend' is not listed anywhere so tell her she just needs to get back to work". I didn't really need much more confirmation by that point, but really made me happy with my decision.

Project’s lead boyfriend

Glad your work has your back Neanderthal. That kind of behaviour should be normal, not special.

At my workplace I just had to beg to get one of my managees compassionate leave for flying halfway across the world to see their dad while he has a risky tumour surgery. Meanwhile the workplace demands overtime up the wazoo, at late notice. Cunts. I did get my team member’s compassionate leave in the end, at least.

glad you did, and I'm sure they're appreciative.

it's amazing what is treated like an inconvenience.

"Hi, what's up? Huh? Both kidneys? How long you think you'll need? Wait, what, every week? Oooh, I'm not sure if that's going to work. How long do you think you'll live without it? Oh? Oh that's great, that's long enough for you to train your replacement. Hello? Hello?"

My last workplace gave me three weeks paid leave to go to Canada when my partner’s parent was sick! Like it was nothing. And it wasn’t even my parent! This sort of thing shouldn’t be hard.

I am sure chronic depression and acute anxiety are not the best career advisors. But right now I want to go back to an office, just to get out of my apartment.

I am sure chronic depression and acute anxiety are not the best career advisors. But right now I want to go back to an office, just to get out of my apartment.

― Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Wednesday, July 13, 2022 5:28 PM (three days ago

<3 i had these feelings a little while ago ... felt like Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion at one point

I am glad that those of you that have humane colleagues and HR systems ... have those things. ... a new thing I realized about working from home is: that my colleague assumes that I could go to a worksite with as little notice as if I was working in an office, however, because I am at home, I am most often not dressed to go out and look like a professional person in our line of work, and I actually have to take idk at least 10 minutes to get dressed, etc.

this past week was the least "work from home" in a while -- we had 3 walk-throughs and 3 inspections and had to go in person to the City building at least once, and this was a week where my colleague had to mind his 5 year-old kid for at least half the work day ... I had to remind myself that this is actually better than being bored or the slow crazy of isolation

I actually voluntarily spent an extra half day in the office last week, I think I'm just lonely tbh

there's definitely been days where I wanted to do it, but ever since the pandemic, my company has sold more and more of the floors of the office t where we only own a third of it now, so there's fewer places to sit. also when I moved in to help the folks, I went from like, ten minutes away from it to like 30-40.

other problem is I only have two colleagues that live in Orlando and they don't go in, most of my old friends quit or terminated years ago (problem of sticking somewhere for almost 18 years, that happens!). but....sometimes the quiet in that office is oddly peaceful, because my problem is there's *too much* going on in my home.

I think my perspective is a wee bit diff from the people I know who only started remoting during the pandemic, as I'd been doing it for ten years. truth be told, it's probably good I don't have access to those snack machines lmao.

I have a personal rule about not making big life-changing decisions when drunk, high, depressed, or anxious.

As a result I pretty much never make big life-changing decisions. I think this is for the best.

Ymmv

I am supervising a 210 person class that is being broken into six classes of 35 each simultaneously, which originally I thought was going to be my only assignment for a while. It's going to be tough as it's a mega customized assignment with a new partner site that we have no prior relationship with.

they just tossed another SEVEN assignments on top of me, so that the week of 8/8, I will have THIRTEEN goddamn classes going on simultaneously (24 people I'm supervising). I've never had more than 10 at one time, and those had staggered start dates, whereas these are all starting on top of each other.

I waved the white flag to say "what the fuck", as nobody else on my team has half of this workload - the most anybody else has is 7, AND they have a partner helping them! This isn't even the type of work you can make up by working overtime, you have to be available to oversee these classes between 9 am - 5:30 pm ET, like I flat out am going to have to ignore half of them on any given day.

what does this have to do with working from home? they can't see me flipping them off since i'm at home. lol

They made us all come back to the office three days a week. Now we're moving to another floor for the fourth time in a year.

Corporate sent a passive-aggressive email a couple weeks back about people not adhering to their “committed” days in office per week that people enter in, March or whatever, when expectations about the environment were different. I think a fair bit is estimating facilities needs, which is a shitshow because they own or semi-permanently lease. A couple buildings are in-person physical labor of a sort on one floor and office space above so they’re stuck. The other, more present thing, is high level people who think their subordinates — think actual high level functionaries — should be where they are and are short-circuiting at a lack of exec camaraderie, read: leaning on people

they should be happy their subordinates aren’t demanding 25-hr workweeks…. yet

what does this have to do with working from home? they can't see me flipping them off since i'm at home. lol

― We were clothed, except for Caan, who was naked. Don't know why. (Neanderthal), Thursday, July 21, 2022 12:59 PM (yesterday)

seriously, zoom meetings where you can have your camera off are a true blessing for me, because no one can see me rolling my eyes and scoffing ... earlier this week, I attended an info/feedback session for City regulations around parklets (primarily design/construction guidelines and permitting).

Invariably, the city did their presentation, opened it up for questions, and one of the questions was about street closures. This meeting was about parklets, not street closures. The lead guy from the City reiterates that this meeting isn't about street closures. Street closure guy of course needs to fully express himself regarding the subject of street closures, and how he wanted to continue having his street closure. ... I am definitely glad no one is seeing my face at this point. ... Then I and another person get to ask questions that are actually about parklets ... Then the next guy, has his business on the same block as the street closure guy, and wants to reiterate how great their street closure is, and that they want to keep it. ... I was definitely in flip off mode at that point. And, I really don't miss attending government meetings in person.

we had a meeting where they basically said we should be coming back into the buildings more because they are expensive. which seems to be a bad argument. buildings are expensive whether people are in them or not. and if there's a desire for people to wfh more then there's scope for even fewer buildings. (the've already sold off the top two floors of the building we used to occupy before, to a competitor, no less.)

This article a couple of weeks ago added fuel to my fears that many CEOs are just biding their time and waiting for the next recession to tighten the screws on letting people WFH: Why CEOs are so WTF about WFH

I feel my public speaking is suffering because I do it all from home now. in my old job, although I still was mostly WFH, I went to the office frequently during trainings, client meetings, etc, so I was presenting in front of people.

I am getting tongue tied more often now, finding I also hate the sound of my own voice. some of that is also my anxiety/stress levels lately, but it's disheartening as this is one of my strongest skills and it's eroding fast.

even stuttering now, which was never a problem for me previously. I find I have to slow myself down in those moments.

I, too, have some issues with the sound of my voice and there was one person on a zoom call where there was enough of a lag (bluetooth speaker?) in their zoom session the other day that I ended up hearing a quiet echo of what I just said a moment later. Not a big fan.

oh yeah I can't do that at all. the echo renders me unable to speak usually.

Our own voices are uniquely terrible. I however have heard an mh and he has a familiar and friendly voice. I bet it’s the same for you, Neanderthal!

a very satisfying read

Part of the problem is that the collegial, purpose-driven office that senior leaders idealize feels like a myth to many young workers. Since long before Covid-19, most offices weren’t delivering the mentoring, collaboration and social fabric that makes in-person work feel worthwhile. Indeed, many of the offices I visited in recent years were desolate, open plan landscapes dotted with individuals staring at screens, headphones on.

"Shut the fuck up! I am sorry, but shut the fuck up! I cannot stand this garbage. It “feels like a myth” because it never fucking existed, and you are a con artist if you suggest otherwise! One anecdotal example of a good office does not replace the tens of thousands of different offices that suck, and you can’t even come up with one! Your example is so fucking rotten that your anecdotal evidence works against the point you’re trying to make! "

https://ez.substack.com/p/privilege-and-pro-office-pablum

lol, it is purpose-driven for the senior leaders because it is fulfilling their purposes. They feel gratified and that it is worthwhile because it reinforces their egos, their power ... not that of the plebes that are pretty much only there because they need the money and they'd prefer not to have to do manual labor.

As much as I hate to admit it, it's not exactly a crazy idea that humans work better together in person. I would still trade more time and flexibility at home for a more impersonal and slightly less efficient remote work environment though.

it depends on what they are working on tbh.

I mean, some jobs are harder to do virtually than others, sure. it was just many businesses' insistence that the job couldn't be done remotely that was frustrating for many.

if your job involves doing a lot of individual tasks that don't require you to frequently check in with someone else, honestly it's easier for me to do that if I can put on the TV or music than if I have to hear people at the cube next to me talking about the mega awesome Nickleback concert they just went to

my current job, being a trainer, doesn't necessarily make a ton of sense as a virtual role, but they let me be virtual before the pandemic, and they started giving me classes full of people who weren't based in my state, so I couldn't choose to go in if I wanted. (originally when I took the job, I hated training from home so much I would go to the office and reserve a room just so I could feel like I was in an office teaching, even though there were no students in the room with me.

it sucks because teaching people in a classroom at work used to really feel rewarding, it used to be fun and I got to travel a lot. but at the same token, if I wasn't allowed to be virtual, I'd have had to quit a year or two ago.

I'm back in the office 3 days a week now and actually loving it. My wife likes having the time alone at home as well, lol

some of my work involves physical structures and things, and it definitely helps to have everyone involved in decision making there in person looking at the thing at the same time. But, one thing covid really has reinforced for me, is how many jobs exist that are completely detached from anything material / physical.

i think wfh is a godsend for bullshit jobs with awful managers you don't want to be around (i.e. mine). if you actually like your coworkers and like what you do then it makes sense it would feel refreshing to be back in the office.

yeah that's my case, thankfully

(the latter)

The one big gap at my place - if your laptop blows up. As a phone representative, you get your shit literally in a day, they can't afford not to.

If you're me, they ask you a million questions and maybe you get one that day maybe you don't. Ten years ago, if you couldn't be without your laptop for a day, it was nbd. We we had four floors of classrooms you could reserve with a computer, polycom, tv screen, the works. You could reserve the room from your phone or one of the guest computers on the first floor.

Boom, you're square. Well, now, we sold like three of our floors. We got rid of the guest computers. You can only reserve a room on your phone with Samsung or Apple (I have a OnePlus). You gotta call.

If you get a room, half the time you walk in and the room is gutted. No monitor, no keyboard, no mouse, no polycom, something is missing.

If it's not, some of the computers are somehow still configured to our old company's server prior to spinoff (despite that being four years ago). Then you can't get in.

The last time it happened to me I went to the office and dropped off my laptop and they were like noncommittal on new one's timing. I had a class to teach in four hours, spent 3.5 trying to find an available room with working equipment, and nothing. I had a half hour to go and I walked back and said YO CAN YOU GIVE ME LITERALLY ANYTHING TO USE FIR A DAY and they relented and gave me a loaner.

i think wfh is a godsend for bullshit jobs with awful managers you don't want to be around (i.e. mine).

hahahah lol! it's also awesome because you save money on food and can do laundry at the same time.

extremely otm, also save gas $

It's exciting - parking at my building has been free from March 2020 through now, but we will be returning to paid parking in the next few months and they're raising the rates by 66%!

Love to have a pot of beans on the stove while I am reviewing contracts. Haven't figured out how to do that in the office.

right? also love to skip out and go grocery shopping or go for a run when everyone else is too busy to notice.

but i'm a bad boy and LOVE it if i can steal time from the state without any risk.

otoh i will gladly give all of this up for an on-site job opening up in a different area because i hate my manager so much.

I did a bump of coke with one hour left in my shift a few years ago, as I was at my friend's house getting ready for a party, expecting it to be a slow Friday, then someone sent me a question that required me to investigate something, and that was mega difficult.

I like dropping by the office so I can tell my coworkers about nickelback concerts

mysteriously the “please return three days per week” emails keep saying “except mh” at the end. my work is done

today I was asked by a trainer if I could prepare them Wednesday through Friday this week. Originally her manager had asked me to prepare her Wednesday, and Monday through Wednesday of next week, but the trainer said she had PTO on Monday and Tuesday, but that she was willing to give it up if need be. I of course said "no, your time off is your time off, let's do it this week and then pick it up when you're back".

and she had this teary-eyed reply thanking me, because otherwise she wouldn't get to spend much time with her visiting family, and I'm like, wow, it says a lot about how bad the workforce is right now where I'm being thanked for simply respecting someone's existing time off, which fwiw is what the default response should be.