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I Would Rather Not Go, Back to the Office

Started by turnstyle, February 24, 2021, 02:18:31 PM

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Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Norton Canes on September 07, 2021, 11:37:40 AM
Same here. It's been on the cards for a few weeks but the plan to come in from yesterday was emailed round at... 3:30pm on Friday afternoon.



Cunts.

Chollis

Quote from: Norton Canes on September 07, 2021, 11:37:40 AM
lock up bike, get changed, dump stuff in locker, slump at desk... literally like the last 18 months had been a dream.

ugh this hits hard

flotemysost

Quote from: flotemysost on July 10, 2021, 10:38:04 AM
My main concern is that I need to start rethinking my shitting schedule, do I go for "early AM before leaving the house" or "ascertain an afternoon slot when everyone else in in meetings"? This is the stuff yer Canary Wharf bigwigs don't talk about.

Update: turns out there's a gender neutral bog near my desk which is seemingly always empty. JACKPOT

I'm enjoying going back in, though I appreciate I'm in quite an unusual position as my office is a plush media cocoon type place. And getting up and walking for 40+ minutes at the start of the day definitely picks up my mood in a way that lurching from my bed to my desk can't. I'm still only going in a couple of days a week at the most though, seems pointless to go in for days when I'm just going to be tethered to my desk on video calls with external teams most of the day.

I do also worry that this flexibility risks fostering a creeping culture of presenteeism - the official line has been admirably free from any kind pressure to go in so far, but I think there's still a risk of in-person conversations happening in the office, that don't reach (or benefit) those who are less able to be there physically all the time for whatever reason. And in the same way that I know I'm no less of an employee just because I sometimes might log in (from home) an hour later than some other colleagues (but still work the same number of hours) because insomnia has been kicking my arse all night, someone obviously isn't any less deserving of being involved and connected just because it's not practical for them to schlep to central London several times a week.


DrGreggles

Had to pop into the office today for a while, due to getting a hardware delivery.
I think the permanent WFH I'd be advised of may be true, as my desk has been given away to a newbie.

Milo

Had to take the train due to an MOT test yesterday. Despite running half the old number of trains it was still only a two carriage one and we were all rammed in and I was stood in the aisle right next to a schoolchild who was coughing like a raven.

Let's all get back to the office.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

QuoteSame here. It's been on the cards for a few weeks but the plan to come in from yesterday was emailed round at... 3:30pm on Friday afternoon.

Awful shite, I thought the week and a half notice we got was a piss take.

Hope plenty of people said 'tough, can't, made plans'

Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse

Phased return starting 20th September here.

I kind of don't want to because my dog is very old, but at the same time I live only five minutes away from the office. Main arseache will be checking which blouses and jumpers a) still fit me b) are fit to be seen.

turnstyle

Official return to office date of first week of October, but there's been a lot of 'it would be AWESOME if you could come in now, but NO PRESSURE, but it would be AMAZING'.

Went back in last week for a day, to give it a go. Haven't commuted in 18 months, totally haven't missed it. Caught a fairly late train and it was still pretty busy - I assumed it would be dead. About half the passengers not wearing masks. Cheers mates! Then, on the way home, trains were fucked. My 5 second commute from bedroom to living room has ruined me. 

All the talk of 'collaboration' and 'togetherness' was all bollocks. Because the desks are 'socially distanced', I ended up sat at the other end of the office away from the people I actually work with.

We're really entering the phase of 'get back into the office you cunts', but considering the whole Plan B business from Boris and chums, my take on it is that if we've coped well enough until now, why rush back into the office in our droves and put the NHS under massive strain during the winter. Better to play it cautious, no? Though I realise this would massively jeopardize Pret A Manger and its ilk. Sorry sandwich lads.   

Anyway, 3/10, would not recommend.

Ham Bap

Im still WFH. Also learned this week that our return to office is dependent on the number being below 200/100,000 in the daily/weekly COVID stats.
Its more than double that here. Im just hoping to at least get this side of Christmas out of it and keep working from home.

Though saying that i'll be a hybrid worker and have no set days in the office. Everyone I work with is remote so I may basically just be working from home full time now, in this team at least.
Also heard in a meeting to only come in if you want and if you're gonna be on calls/in remote meetings all day you might as well work from home.
Suits me. Cant stand open plan offices.

Fambo Number Mive

Latest BBC anti-WFH propaganda: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58662455

Does this one person have any evidence people abuse wfh? Surely most people working from home aren't doing audit work either.

No doubt the BBC will hold off on pumping out these stories if the government ever advise people to work from home again.

Perhaps less people would ask to work from home if they felt safer travelling on public transport. If Mr Monk is so bothered by people working from home, he should call for the government to mandate masks on public transport and reduce the cost of commuting by rail and bus.

Cuellar

Quote
His view is that a lot of people who ask for flexible working want to work part-time but on a full-time salary.

...

Nevertheless, any legislation is "setting a tone that is almost making people think they can do full-time work but on part-time salaries", Mr Monk told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Someone has got this the wrong way round. The BBC paraphrase contradicts his direct quotation doesn't it? Surely he meant to say 'part time work on full time salaries'?

Anyway, why is it always banks, hedge funds, and the like who are advocating 'back to office'? Bit hard to do a 3 hour coke fuelled lunch then go and molest an intern while WFH I suppose.

SpiderChrist

Quote from: Cuellar on September 23, 2021, 11:22:07 AM
Anyway, why is it always banks, hedge funds, and the like who are advocating 'back to office'?

Because they're all cunts?

SpiderChrist

Quote from: Cuellar on September 23, 2021, 11:22:07 AMAnyway, why is it always banks, hedge funds, and the like who are advocating 'back to office'?

edit double post twat

Icehaven

Is it partly because then they can justify only recruiting their preferred type of person, i.e. those that can afford to do the unpaid internships, live in central London, went to school with their kids etc. rather than from virtually anywhere in the world? 

Quote from: Cuellar on September 23, 2021, 11:22:07 AM
Anyway, why is it always banks, hedge funds, and the like who are advocating 'back to office'?

Commercial property interests.

Cuntbeaks

End of November for us, but seeing as how there are only 6 socially distanced desks between 34 people, i dont think I'll be buying a travel pass any time soon.

Going back is tempered by the fact that it will be to swanky new offices a lot closer to the train station than they previously were. Still, walking around Glasgow city centre is about as appealling as eating dog shit.

QDRPHNC

If my linkedin feed is anything to go by, the cunts who can't wait to get back to the office are the same cunts the rest of us want to work from home to avoid. A lot of them seem to work in HR.

flotemysost

I was in the office the other day and I hardly got anything done because I was too busy talking to people. I mean, it was genuinely productive having meetings in person and it was useful being able to just run over to someone's desk to ask them something (rather than "let's schedule in a Zoom, how's your afternoon looking?" thanks I'd prefer to die) but I think I replied to maybe three emails all day.

And colleagues who were working from home that day and didn't realise I was in the office probably thought I was just not replying because I was dossing around eating biscuits and wanking. And they'd be correct ahhh

I think there's a risk of engineering a culture of presenteeism both in person and online, and both can fuck off tbh.

Uncle TechTip

I'll be honest, I occasionally stick blutack over my camera and run a script that presses keys to keep it awake, then I have a quick nap. I'm doing the work, just not at the time you expect.

flotemysost

^ I think that's it. I've been a bit unwell recently (nothing serious) and it's made a huge different being able to wear comfortable clothes and have my camera off if I want, or have the option of lolling over to my bed for a quick lie-down if I need to - it's kind of opened my eyes to how wildly unsuitable and taxing daily office presence and commuting must be for anyone with any sort of actual chronic or debilitating pain or illness.

I've also had insomnia for years and I used to really struggle sometimes with the fact that it's not really socially acceptable to shut your eyes for a few minutes in a meeting (not to actually sleep or anything, just for a bit of respite), and having the extra time in the mornings has been a bit of a godsend some days - again, that's obviously nothing compared to what loads of people go through, but just another example of an incredibly simple change that doesn't actually detract from the quality of work being done. Someone is not a better worker for unnecessarily struggling through pain or discomfort, ffs.

beanheadmcginty



Sebastian Cobb

I use one of them but can't remember what it was called.

I had some colleague who's a bit forward ask me in chat why they never get read ticks in teams when they send me a message, I said at the time I had no idea and probably some weird bug using the browser/linux versions of teams, but then later I was fiddling with some other settings and it seems I must've explicitly turned it off, good.

I guess that's one that was snuck in turned on by default. People who turn read receipts on in emails are generally scabs who are not to be trusted imo, I always decline to send the response anyway.

Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse

Quote from: flotemysost on September 25, 2021, 11:47:34 AM
^ I think that's it. I've been a bit unwell recently (nothing serious) and it's made a huge different being able to wear comfortable clothes and have my camera off if I want, or have the option of lolling over to my bed for a quick lie-down if I need to - it's kind of opened my eyes to how wildly unsuitable and taxing daily office presence and commuting must be for anyone with any sort of actual chronic or debilitating pain or illness.
Working from home has been great on days when my period is being an absolute bastard.

Chedney Honks

Until I was stuck at home isolating, I fucking loved it. Now I can't wait to get back to the office.

wooders1978

Sadly I was made redundant earlier in the year from mid pandy agreed "home based" job - boo
Got a new, betterer job though - yay
Only downside is that they are insisting on 3 days in 2 days out of the office and sadly, when they can get away with it, a full 5 day return to the office

It's fucking SHITE and senseless for me
All of my team are either up north or in the US - so I don't work directly with anyone in my local office - I spend two hours of my day getting there and back, all I can get for lunch is pasta or sandwiches (can't have either due to diet restrictions)
I also forgot about the horrors of granulated coffee so I have go to the down the street to the coffee shop and spend 3 quid on a crap cappuccino - fuel costs me a bomb and basically I just sit in an office on a teams meeting which I could quite easily do from home - my boss is chill about me WFH but HR have intervened so I have to go in 3 days a week or the cunting world will fucking explode, it's fucking RIDIC


flotemysost

Quote from: Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse on September 25, 2021, 06:04:31 PM
Working from home has been great on days when my period is being an absolute bastard.

Oh yeah, I'll never forget the time I was unceremoniously given the old heave-ho from a job on the same day I also happened to be having a ridiculously torrential flow, and only realised once I got home that I must have done the walk of shame from my desk with a gory Rorschach splayed across my arse for everyone else in the office to see, as if getting fired wasn't humiliating enough already.

But yeah having the option to work from home removes so much potential awkwardness and embarrassment with stuff like that, a few mates who have IBS/IBD or similar disorders have said the same thing (though of course if you're cooped up in a flatshare with a shared bathroom and people you're not especially close to who are at home all day too, it might not be ideal).

Quote from: wooders1978 on September 25, 2021, 09:28:03 PM
my boss is chill about me WFH but HR have intervened so I have to go in 3 days a week or the cunting world will fucking explode, it's fucking RIDIC

Urgh, sorry to hear that.

Sebastian Cobb

That's an absolute example of needless presenteeism.

Scotland doesn't exactly have bank holidays, it's very convoluted and with the exception of easter (which differs still depending on where you live) is largely completely arbitary.
There's a fucking table and everything:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_and_bank_holidays_in_Scotland

The outfall of this is we more-or-less get given 'floating days' or if you ask your boss nicely you can work a designated holiday and then take it as a holiday 'on tick'.

Ham Bap

Quote from: wooders1978 on September 25, 2021, 09:28:03 PM
Sadly I was made redundant earlier in the year from mid pandy agreed "home based" job - boo
Got a new, betterer job though - yay
Only downside is that they are insisting on 3 days in 2 days out of the office and sadly, when they can get away with it, a full 5 day return to the office

It's fucking SHITE and senseless for me
All of my team are either up north or in the US - so I don't work directly with anyone in my local office - I spend two hours of my day getting there and back, all I can get for lunch is pasta or sandwiches (can't have either due to diet restrictions)
I also forgot about the horrors of granulated coffee so I have go to the down the street to the coffee shop and spend 3 quid on a crap cappuccino - fuel costs me a bomb and basically I just sit in an office on a teams meeting which I could quite easily do from home - my boss is chill about me WFH but HR have intervened so I have to go in 3 days a week or the cunting world will fucking explode, it's fucking RIDIC

I really hear you with this. I also work remote from everyone. My teammates and boss are all 80 miles away, and my US teammates and US boss are 3000+ miles away.

In the before times I would go into the office to sit by myself, do my work, teams meetings all day then trudge home again. Maybe not talk to many people in the office, sat there like a plum Billy no mates all day.
Literally no point being in the office.

I had to be in the office at least twice a week. Most of the time I didn't bother going into the office or would go in then home at lunchtime so at least I was seen.
I did get into trouble in the past for working too much from home when I was meant to be in. Easy to do when my most immediate manager sits 80 miles away.
Pain in the arse though. It's as if they don't trust you to do the work or if you're not in the office then they can't justify their own job and building.

I'd say in a lot of places they could cut a lot of managerial levels with little impact. I have about 5 different people who could call themselves my manager. Don't talk to most of them. I just get my work done.

One thing this pandemic has shown is a lot/most, (in my job) absolutely everything can be done in the house.
I don't need to drag myself out of bed at 7am on a freezing cold winter morning, drag myself Into the shower, out into the cold and into an office to sit on a shite back breaking chair for 8 hours surrounded by 100 people.

If someone is new on a team or new to the job then fair enough they may need hands on face to face training.
For everyone else there should be the trust to allow them to work where they want to get the job done.


Alberon

Apart from three months at the start of this shitshow last year and a few weeks at the start of this year I've been back in the office pretty much full time. I work in facilities management at a university.

Up until last week, however, there were very few other people in. I know quite a few other staff aren't happy about physically returning to the campus and now all the students are returning as well. At least I don't have to share classrooms or labs with them.