I Would Rather Not Go, Back to the Office

[A Hat Like That]

Has anyone (who is able to work remotely) done much/any work from somewhere like a public shared workspace or a cafe, if/when your home isn't a suitable workplace?

Worked from a graveyard summer 2020 when the weather was good. OK, was mostly marking exam papers, but those were the good days.

Gin and tonic at lunchtime, marks go up, wheeee.

[Big Mclargehuge]

At our place they've told us we're all working from home on a permanent basis barring what they're referring to as "Connection days" basically a day (or half day) where a whole team can visit the office to do all the things that are otherwise difficult to co-ordinate on the internet (stuff that involves white boards and shooting ideas around the room) my managers VERY keen to get us all together as he likes group meet ups. I'm very much less keen on the idea, but we have our first session booked in for November. Its a half day so mercifully only a few hours. But i've recently found out a couple of my colleagues are going abroad for the time leading right up to the day before we have this meet up. So thats me fucked.

they're also planning a "Large" department meet up (30-40 people) in December. But im going to be up front on not attending that one because FUCK getting in a cramped office room with 30-40 people for 6-8 hours with poor ventilation for a lark.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Our local bus companies are now trying to get people to go back to the office. From the Oxford Mail.

...Research has revealed an average employee that works from home all year round produces 80 per cent more carbon emissions than an office worker.

An average home worker produces 2.5 tonnes of carbon per year while working – the equivalent of making more than 1 million cups of tea.

The study by WSP consultants identified that working from home in the summer saves around 400kg of carbon emissions, the equivalent of 5 per cent of a typical British commuter's annual footprint. However, this small seasonal benefit is significantly reversed in the winter when workers typically heat and light their homes for much longer periods.

A second related study by Purdue University in the US found that video conferencing can create as much as 1kg of carbon emissions per hour, due to the energy intensive way in which internet data is stored and transferred around the world.

As much as 96 per cent of this is caused by streaming video to allow home workers to maintain face-to-face contact while away from the office.

Based on the findings Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel are encouraging Oxfordshire residents to return to offices in line with government advice to help reduce the county's carbon footprint.

Phil Southall, Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel Managing Director, said: "This data dispels the myth that virtual meetings from home are good for the planet. While our own findings demonstrate commuting by bus rather than car can deliver further significant carbon footprint reductions.

"Returning to offices can help reduce carbon emissions, while supporting the wider economy and enhancing mental and physical health and boosting social inclusion. And with gas and electricity prices rising this winter, leaving the home office behind this winter will be good for your pocket, too. We'd encourage people to get back to offices and to consider swapping their cars for a bus journey to really make a difference."...

The calculations used in the WSP study used accepted energy demand benchmarks set out in the Energy Consumption Guide. For the purposes of the study an 'air conditioned, standard' office type was used. For staff travel the national average commuting figures as compiled by National Statistics and the Department for Transport were used. The average miles per gallon figures were taken from studies produced by the Department for Transport and National Statistics...

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/19681733.switch-off-home-working-commute-bus-reduce-carbon-emissions/

Really not impressed with the bus companies trying to encourage more people onto buses where only 20% of passengers wear masks. It would seem sensible now for all those who can work from home to be encouraged to do so to reduce the amount of COVID cases and thereby reduce pressure on hospitals.

[The Culture Bunker]

I wonder how many of these online meetings are set up by managers trying to keep up a sense of control, as well as making themselves seem busy to their own managers?

[bgmnts]

In a perfect world there would be a massive collective sense of "oh shit half these cunts do absolutely fuck all why do we need them?" And they'd all be out on their arses on the dole or to get useful jobs.

All be dead way before then though.

[katzenjammer]

In a perfect world there would be a massive collective sense of "oh shit half these cunts do absolutely fuck all why do we need them?" And they'd all be out on their arses on the dole or to get useful jobs.

Unfortunately it's only other cunts higher up that also do fuck all that have the power to fire them, and if they did that they would have nobody to boss around in zoom meetings.

[jamiefairlie]

I wonder how many of these online meetings are set up by managers trying to keep up a sense of control, as well as making themselves seem busy to their own managers?

75%

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

It's clear when we are genuinely busy at work because all the meetings all stop and somehow everything still gets done (at least as much as it did before)

Our firm are a classic case of using quiet times to start initiatives then them all getting dropped when things get busy, rather than truly being used to reform the business. Sometimes it feels like we are just cosplaying at being a business really.

[flotemysost]

I wonder how many of these online meetings are set up by managers trying to keep up a sense of control, as well as making themselves seem busy to their own managers?

A good proportion I reckon. I have to say I'm finding it really useful actually being able to have meetings in person - by mutual agreement, no one being forced in if they don't want to - probably helped by the fact that I do like and get on with my team, so seeing them in person is generally just a pleasant thing anyway. Whereas I HATE spending hours on end having a silent showdown with my jowls on Teams and counting down the minutes til I can go for a piss and losing half the day.

But for other things like writing emails, analysing chunks of code etc. I'm finding it easier in my current living situation to do that from home. I specify that because in the previous couple of places I've lived since 2020 that stuff really wasn't easy at all either (as is currently still the case for loads of people I'm sure), and I feel like that's a factor that still gets sometimes missed out of the home/office debate.

If I worked for a company that was demanding we go back x number of days per week I'd be livid, though. I feel like I'm sort of having my cake and eating it, and maybe that's how it should be.

[The Culture Bunker]

Tomorrow begins the new routine of working in the office Monday-Wednesday for myself, which I feel is leading up to us being back full time after Christmas. I'm in a very lucky position, I know, living in my own apartment with a nice big table to work on so WFH is pretty much ideal for me - a situation a lot of people aren't in. I get that meetings are easier done in person than online, but I'm also lucky that my role doesn't involve much of them.

I have said my intention is to start in the office at 7.30am and leave at three - partly to have as much of my afternoon as free as possible, but also because it saves a couple of quid on the tram by avoiding the peak morning fares. My manager umm'd and ahh'd and said it might not look good, might upset some people (ie her manager) to be seen taking off so early, which does back up my view that it's all about being 'seen', showing a 'presence' in the office so that it seems you're being managed properly.

[Beagle 2]

Got our big team meet up for the first time on Tuesday, a full day of germ swapping followed by a team piss up in the pub with London's maskless legends. Feel awful though, my cough is getting worse and now I've lost my sense of smell and taste (so far all tests negative but you do wonder). Still under massive pressure to go though.

[Bently Sheds]

Started back in the office this week, thanks to an enforced house move I no longer have the space to work from home.

There's desks for about 40 people and the current headcount is about 6 of us, so we're nicely spaced out. Although there are plans to introduce a hybrid/Flexi working environment, rumour (and how I've missed the rumour and gossip of a busy office) is that the boss wants everybody back in the place by early next year, vaccinated or not.

[wooders1978]

I wonder how many of these online meetings are set up by managers trying to keep up a sense of control, as well as making themselves seem busy to their own managers?

Oh that is *very* sceptical (looks up at ceiling avoiding eye contact)

[monkfromhavana]

Let's be honest, 90% of the people in meeting with their cameras on look bored, the ones with their cameras off are either arsing around on the internet (me) or doing some actual work. So far I have had 3 meetings this week and the sum total of my input has been 6 words. I think because the meetings are online, everyone tends to get invited to them because they can be. If these meeting were done face-to-face in the office there would probably be 4 people there instead of 16.

[flotemysost]

^ this. However I will say that I often turn my camera off, not because I'm pissing about on websites, but because I actually find it much easier to focus on what people are saying if I can get up and pace round the room a bit, or at least look at other stuff in the room/out the window - but if I had the camera on while doing so, it would seem like I was doing the complete opposite of focusing.

(I initially tried to set myself a policy of not trying to do other work during video meetings, because if it was a normal meeting I wouldn't be sending emails at the same time and it's not as if they've started paying me double for that one hour, but given the sheer volume of pointless video meetings every day it's sometimes unavoidable.)

With normal in-person meetings you don't all sit stock-still with your eyes boring into one another for an hour, that would just be hilariously creepy and weird. You look around, you fidget, you doodle in your notebook (well, I did). With the camera on, I'm either (on the rare days I think I look OK) preening like Buffalo Bill and trying not to be too obvious I'm checking myself out, or (far more often) cringing at how my stupid gawping mug gets thrown into stark relief whenever I open up a bright Word document or something on the screen. Or peering at everyone else's backgrounds.

I've also noticed it's far easier for certain people to talk over me in online meetings, making me wonder why I was invited in the first place.

[H-O-W-L]

I think if I had a job that forced me to have a camera on like a telescreen I'd probably end up wearing a scary draclea mask the entire time just to point out the absurd uselessness of having the camera on. Not least because I have a pathological complex of being incapable of displaying facial emotion (potential autism, even -- looking into that).

[Malcy]

My office is based 350 miles away so I'm sorted for keeping working from home which is great. For people who even have an office local I can't see the harm in keeping it that way and any company forcing, or suggesting even, that a person return to an office to do a job they have proven to be able to do the past year+ from home are shits and probably not working for but income etc.

It's a shame as it's probably one of the few positives from this whole situation that should be kept no matter how far you are from HQ.

[Fambo Number Mive]

The BBC anti-home working juggernaut rumbles on: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59244992

Ms Mann, a member of the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee that sets interest rates, said online communication was unable to replicate the spontaneous office conversations that were important for recognition and advancement in many workplaces.

She told an event hosted by Financial News magazine: "Virtual platforms are way better than they than they were even five years ago. But the extemporaneous, spontaneity - those are hard to replicate in a virtual setting."

No discussion of the reasons people don't feel comfortable commuting to work during a pandemic.

[Cuellar]

Love the extemporaneous spontaneity of going into the kitchen at work and going 'hiya' to someone who's waiting for the microwave to finish warming their porridge, the thrill and fizz of being asked if you've got 'plans' at the 'weekend', and spontaneously firing back with 'nah, not really, just relaxing - you?' then like a bolt of lightning the extamporaneous response will dazzle all and sundry: 'same'. Then spontaneously wandering back to my desk and extemporaneously opening excel and then doing that for 7 more hours.

[bgmnts]

Or just the reasons maybe people don't want to spend loads of money and time going to a shit place to interact with people they hate to do pointless jobs that rarely need doing in a building after the invention of the internet.

[Big Mclargehuge]

Well I went to the office for the first time in 2 years this week, bit nervous in the first instance not really knowing what to expect. but it was a LOT better than expected. dont get me wrong, I'd still much rather be sat in my pants eating doritos and not feeling like people are breathing down my neck! But apparently my place has had restrictions in place since it implemented its "Back to the office plan" I was expecting crushes, masses of people swanning about unmasked coughing and licking anything they could get there hands on. but in an office that could hold over 2k people, i'd be surprised if more than 100 were in the entire building at any one time. noone was masked in the building (which was a bit disheartening given all the material sent out about site visits specifically said that mask wearing around the building was mandatroy) but half the place has been ripped out and sealed up and there were security guards on the door sanitizing hands on entry and double checking people arnt bringing the fucking plague into the place (Apparently some idiots have tried to come into the place with covid on the grounds that they're "Fully vaxxed so whats the problem!?!")

I was grouped in with my team and we were given a room that hosts 12 so we could space out. it was actually quite nice to catch up with people in the flesh after nearly 2 years of only seeing VERY close friends and family on a VERY limited basis. I was there for 4 and a half hours and left feeling a lot better about it than I was going in.

We've just been informed that an on site christmas "Meet up/Office party" has been planned for mid December that'll be half meeting based and half party based. attendence stands currently at over 50. I will not be going to that.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Been going in every Tuesday for a couple of months, and was expecting word that it would be going up to two - as has happened with other departments. Today, my manager comes up with an apologetic look and tells me she's been told to get us all in for three days. I presume it's either someone trying to impress someone up the ladder and we're just leading the way on what will be an organisation wide thing.

My immediate reaction was to quit, frankly. Which I won't, but after 18 months of avoiding pretty much all the headache-inducing white noise that working in an office involves, the prospect of 21+ hours a week back in the place in inducing major anxiety in me.

When my ineffectual boss tried to shepard us back in in the bit before everything went bad and they locked down again he inadvertently made it patently obvious it was one of the higher-ups demanding some presenteeism and that he'd also begrudgingly yielded without any push-back. That annoyed me, but the icing on the cake was after it was all scheduled and organised and we turned up he announced he wouldn't be there because he'd picked up a dog at the weekend.

I felt vindicated in my choice to purposely 'forget' my lunch so I could piss off home and not come back.

[turnstyle]

My place is 3 days a week in the office. Didn't even ramp up to it, just 18 months working from home (which, by all accounts, went well and proved productive according to the company), and then BAM, it's 3 days a week you cunts.

Someone questioned it in a company meeting a couple of weeks ago. The reply from HR was 'We're simply following government advice'. Is that government advice? Back in the office 3 days a week. Must have missed that.

Anyway, HR have been running workshops with managers recently based on a feedback survey. In my group we raised that the 3 day mandatory office attendance was not going down well with staff. 'Yeah...' said the person from HR 'we get a lot of that'.

Fucks sake. I just don't understand it. Why this rush back to the office, when everything was, by all accounts, going well before? And no, I'm not more likely to 'throw ideas around' or 'collaborate with other departments' every time I get up from my desk for a piss. It'll be a head nod of recognition, and the standard 'alright?'. I've got enough shit to do as it is without creating new spontaneous projects with other departments every time my bladder informs me it needs a release.   

[Sebastian Cobb]

Someone questioned it in a company meeting a couple of weeks ago. The reply from HR was 'We're simply following government advice'. Is that government advice? Back in the office 3 days a week. Must have missed that.

Anyway, HR have been running workshops with managers recently based on a feedback survey. In my group we raised that the 3 day mandatory office attendance was not going down well with staff. 'Yeah...' said the person from HR 'we get a lot of that'.

Textbook example of a HR department functioning exactly as intended.

Bunch of scabs.

[jamiefairlie]

My place is 3 days a week in the office. Didn't even ramp up to it, just 18 months working from home (which, by all accounts, went well and proved productive according to the company), and then BAM, it's 3 days a week you cunts.

Someone questioned it in a company meeting a couple of weeks ago. The reply from HR was 'We're simply following government advice'. Is that government advice? Back in the office 3 days a week. Must have missed that.

Anyway, HR have been running workshops with managers recently based on a feedback survey. In my group we raised that the 3 day mandatory office attendance was not going down well with staff. 'Yeah...' said the person from HR 'we get a lot of that'.

Fucks sake. I just don't understand it. Why this rush back to the office, when everything was, by all accounts, going well before? And no, I'm not more likely to 'throw ideas around' or 'collaborate with other departments' every time I get up from my desk for a piss. It'll be a head nod of recognition, and the standard 'alright?'. I've got enough shit to do as it is without creating new spontaneous projects with other departments every time my bladder informs me it needs a release.

It's not hard to understand, it's about control. Forcing you back to the office is disempowering you, making you feel like a drone again. That's what they need, they can't afford the plebs starting to think and act for themselves. They're really shitting themselves that the genie got out the bottle so they're desperately trying to stuff it back in.

[The Culture Bunker]

It's not hard to understand, it's about control. Forcing you back to the office is disempowering you, making you feel like a drone again. That's what they need, they can't afford the plebs starting to think and act for themselves. They're really shitting themselves that the genie got out the bottle so they're desperately trying to stuff it back in.

I've had my manager tell to sell office working as doing me a favour: "I feel like you've been working a lot harder at home because there's an expectation you'll put in extra hours". Which isn't that true - my hours are half eight to four. OK, when at home, maybe I'll log in a bit early to see how many emails I've got while supping some coffee, but I never go past four.

What is true that time spent in the office is increasing my stress levels considerably, due to the nearby racket from the square outside (trams passing by, buskers doing the same fucking songs every day) and the constant low-level din of inane gossip. I think the long spell working at home really has lowered my tolerance for noise pollution.

The irony is that such irritations have caused me to drop a couple of clangers in my work.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It's not hard to understand, it's about control. Forcing you back to the office is disempowering you, making you feel like a drone again. That's what they need, they can't afford the plebs starting to think and act for themselves. They're really shitting themselves that the genie got out the bottle so they're desperately trying to stuff it back in.

The thing about this line of thinking is that there will be a sizeable portion of people who will now value home working comparable to a pay rise etc, hopefully shitty firms that push it lose all their good people. I realise this only includes the privileged but I think that also many will have cut their outgoings so might be sitting on a bit more cash so could maybe be a bit more cavalier about jumping ship without something else lined up.

[Milo]

I do wonder what home working could do to recruitment. Companies who don't insist on people coming in can hire from literally anywhere and people who want to work from home can apply anywhere.

Unless the reason they're insisting on people coming into the office is some sort of response to this.

[jamiefairlie]

The entire thing reminds me of the music biz reaction to Napster and file sharing, total denial, try to kill it so they could retain the old ways. You can't do it, when something like this happens it results in a paradigm shift that builds momentum. Employees like working from home, they now know it works and the most marketable will not accept restrictions on this, it's non negotiable now. The companies that embrace it will outperform those that don't and by competition alone, it will become the norm.

[flotemysost]

New development in my office: COMMUNAL BISCUIT JARS IN BREAKOUT AREAS

I'm nowhere near as worried about surface transmission as I was at the height of my pre-vax winter 2020 anxiety bumper edition, and I love biscuits, but still. Covid aside, surely it's just not a great idea to encourage everyone to be rummaging around in the same mountain of fig newtons with their manky E. Coli-rich paws.

Edit: maybe they will LITERALLY become breakout areas amiright ahhhh