Working From Home Megathread

stevie84

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117904003#Comment_117904003

Thanks, it completely sucks there's no support from the Union or Civil Service HR. I completely agree with you and you've hit the nail on the head with those who are the most eager to get back to the office. Those I personally know who are biting at the bit to get back to the office are not happy at home, also who want to be in on everything and make demands about everything else except this because it doesn't suit them.

It is totally boiling my piss that the CS are now rolling out all this "managing stress" stuff and promoting the work of the CSEAS when they couldn't give two hoots what's in employees best interests or also give them any say in their working environment or conditions now that we played our part and worked from home when told to.

I feel I am going to be known as the nuisance employee because I am challenging it and going to try fight it. I have requested support from my consultant so we'll see what happens. I know I'm probably fighting a losing battle as I can't see the CMO being on the employee's side. However, if people don't challenge it on the grounds of health, mental health or what's best for their overall well-being nothing will change. If you are a diligent, effective worker than the least we deserve after 18 months is a conversation.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/112769008#Comment_112769008

Have you seen the prices of property in Latvia recently! Increasing 😱

Backstreet Moyes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909501#Comment_117909501

Crazy the way all these companies didn't realise they could hire people abroad until the pandemic.

They only realised after the Irish started working from home that they could hire Latvians.

Damn those Latvians working on learning English to take all our jobs.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117908741#Comment_117908741

Imagine a senior manager who is giving a presentation, and they step away from the camera for 2 mins to attend to a dog who has been startled by the postal-delivery and leave 20 people sitting there waiting for him. Result = 40 mins of wasted company time.

It wouldn't be acceptable behaviour in a F2F meeting in the office. Shouldn't be on-line either - but is for now due to doggie and child care being closed last March.

Once we're back to "normal" though, there needs to be adequate care in place for the doggie (substitute kiddie / older person as required) so this doesn't happen.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909909#Comment_117909909

Thats taking the mick now in fairness, any manager like that will have a dedicated video conference location available.

People are acting here like every office in Ireland is closed down when that's not happening.

Its 2021 wouldn't be a major deal anyway.

An Ri rua

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117907022#Comment_117907022

Ill give you one, seeing as you can't Google? DPP. Recent case. Jail. Done from the office.

I could give you more I know of but I'd be breaching law.

It's not a reason to not allow WFH as coercion does happen, this is Ireland, no need for Mexico, and it previously was accessed from the office. Is it more tempting now, in WFH? I'd imagine so, yes. Particularly where private companies don't have the same security monitoring as certain govt bodies.

Ps it is a big reason that certain depts resisted remote access until the pandemic. Many limited it to emails only prior to that.

We're off thread but if you want another 5, sorry but you'll have to educate yourself.

Ps your company's business continuity plan sounds fairly amateur. Google online backup, I pioneered Irish sales of it in 2005, and you're welcome.

Christy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909909#Comment_117909909

I mean odds are the wasted time is about 20*the length of the meeting. Something many companies were plagued with was having far too many pointless meetings and wasting time. On that scale the dog bursting in doesn't register. The company can deal with losing 2 min an attendee at he occasional meeting (if it is happening every meeting then someone is taking the p)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909909#Comment_117909909

Didn’t happen one time to me during the last 18 months. We keep coming back to the fact that you just done seem to deal with competent professionals in your line of work.

What is has done though is remove the utterly pointless meetings that are had while in the office, when the office micro manager just wants to meet about everything

Cluedo Monopoly

A friend of mine is an experienced software professional working in a company for about 10 years. Management told everyone 6 weeks ago that they want everyone to hotdesk in the office for 2 days a week from October. He had roughly a 1 hour commute and asked that he get WFH on a permanent basis (he said he was willing to come to the office for important meetings) but they refused. The top man is an old school control freak. He handed in his notice 3 weeks later and landed a nice job fully remote. Now his company is doing a 'review' of the WFH policy and plan to make things more flexible.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909909#Comment_117909909

It sounds like the senior manager in this imaginary situation got a dog during lockdown and has it poorly trained tbh.

I have been working from home for 18+ months, my dog is 4 I have had him since he was 8 weeks. Zero interruptions. I have been on zoom calls constantly and zero pet interruptions, one or two kids but that's about it.

Your talking like the people can't do something worthwhile on a call with each other for two minutes? Surely they can discuss other pieces of work etc

bokale

I find less time is wasted with meetings as people can go from meeting to meeting in the click of a button. When we were in the office you'd be waiting for people to get to he meeting room a lot I felt.

Fair enough the dog thing would be annoying, haven't experienced it myself, but it probably balances out with everyone being in the meeting bang on start time.

And definitely not an issue that would sway me to be against WFH.

We had WFH before the pandemic. Nowhere near this level. But people are enjoying it. Especially now experiencing things opening up and being WFH. People seeing the options it gives them.

I believe WFH will be the future of work that is suitable for WFH.

Beginning to wonder if people are not WFC (Working From Cars 😱) these days with the amount of attention people are affording to their driving on very busy roads. Drivers failing to move on the green light, driving very slowly, creeping all over the road. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of this is going on, eg calls, (dare I imagine video calls) online catch-ups etc. I’ve observed increasing lack of attention by others st the wheel over past 6 months and if so many are working froM home, why are so many cars on the road at almost any time during daylight hours. I almost think this topic deserves another thread!

ixoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117910888#Comment_117910888

Not only that, I can multi-task during meetings now. If a portion of what's being said is not relevant, I'm able to answer emails/chat queries, do small updates, etc. It's far more beneficial for the company than having people sitting idly nodding along.

Completely agree re:meetings

The insane amount of hours I've wasted sitting in pointless meetings where I had no need to be present was..... well, insane

Now, I find organisers are a lot more selective in who they are inviting and when there's a non applicable part of the meeting happening, I just check emails, complete training updates etc etc.

One big thing I don't miss is the off-site all day or half day meetings. Utter waste of time and resources

Littleredcar

Can I just ask what government departments are going back . I work for agriculture and we are asked now to go in one day a week. I presumed it was service wise but it seems not to be

Patsy167

"Employers demanding workers return to office could face ‘legal risk’ in cases of medical concerns"

https://www.thejournal.ie/back-to-work-return-to-office-employer-employee-safety-rights-5549884-Sep2021/

moycullen14

Vox Pop on Morning Ireland at Connolly Station. A lady interviewed saying she's delighted to be back in the office. Hope that she can still do some WFH as she comes from Cavan and needs to get up at 430am! How in the name of God could you actually want to do that? If you've no choice then fair enough but actually preferring it..... The mind boggles

zebastein

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909909#Comment_117909909

That is based on the assumption that you never waste 2minutes in an office meeting.

Now remember in the office, how many:

• meetings starting late because the participants are in a corridor chatting between the 2 meetings, getting caught in discussions where they should not have been, or they have to move all their stuff from the previous meeting to the next one which is not even in the same building.
• meetings taking 5minutes to start because "I have to plug in the laptop to the videoprojector" "oh damn there is not the right connector" "how do you make the screen work?". "The pens for the board are not working, let me go go ask for new ones", missing chairs, room double booked and the other guy negociating that he needs the room...
• meeting with: people knocking at the door for something "urgent", a break needed because the AC is too warm/too cold, "can we open the window?". Oh **** a fire alarm, we have to leave it here for now.

What I observed is that people who were never prepared and wasted time in "real life" are the same that have a dog barking, a baby crying in remote working. (Lack of) Professionalism is not related to your environment, it just shows differently in different places.

Other subject but I took the M1/M50 this morning and it was packed like in the old days. And it is not even the worse time as many offices will only reopen next month. There are more people working from home, but there are also more people taking their car either because they avoid public transport or moved away from the city centre.

storker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117913864#Comment_117913864

A manager I knew used to be driven demented by late arrivals to meetings. Also, people would accept meeting invitations for a meeting in one building from, say 10 to 11, when they were also attending another meeting in a different building from 9 to 10, with a 5-minuute walk between the two locations. Rather than flag this is a problem, the attendees would just turn up late. An attempt to introduce a maximin meeting duration of 45 minutes to counteract this got no support.

AlmightyCushion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117913846#Comment_117913846

Wow, that sounds awful. How the hell could they actually enjoy going to the office with that commute.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909909#Comment_117909909

Not this utter garbage again. 40 minutes wasted time, give me a break. Your quest to poke holes with these made up scenarios are better suited in The Office writing room.

You are hell bent on having all this care and help or legislation, you can not get the idea of control out of your head. Your lack of trust in people is really astonishing.

Absolute Zero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117913897#Comment_117913897

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117913846#Comment_117913846

I'd take that with a pinch of salt to be honest. Fair play to her if she is genuine though.

zebastein:

Other subject but I took the M1/M50 this morning and it was packed like in the old days. And it is not even the worse time as many offices will only reopen next month. There are more people working from home, but there are also more people taking their car either because they avoid public transport or moved away from the city centre.

You’ve said it!

Where is the traffic actually coming from if most people are sitting at home with laptop open, industriously beavering away? As I suggested, are some folk might be Working From Cars.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117913846#Comment_117913846

Insanity. That kind of mentality, I will never understand.

PokeHerKing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117913948#Comment_117913948

Who doesn't like leaving cavan?

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117913960#Comment_117913960

Touche, very touche.

I think it would be a real challenge for me in making meetings in the office as efficient and productive as they were with everyone at home on zoom. We got very good at collaborating - working in real time as a group on shared documents for example. That isnt possible with everyone sitting looking at the one screen in a meeting room. And everyone on zoom at their desk in the office would be ridiculous. An option could be everyone in a meeting room on their laptops with the same documents open....but them you are literally working remotely while in the office!

Luckily for me, all of my team is remote (London, NYC and India) as are most of my internal relationships, and so I hardly have in person meetings anyway. My office work looks the exact same as my home work, just with a different view and free coffee

floorpie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117913559#Comment_117913559

I feel that the natural downtime that comes from walking to meetings, periodic irrelevant meetings etc. is useful for long term productivity. I find WFH far more intense and demanding as there's no breathing room or downtime, unless you're willing to skive.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117913960#Comment_117913960

Possibly the forthcoming price of light and heating in the house 😂

Young_gunner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117914306#Comment_117914306

Irrelevant meetings are good for productivity?

I like to work intensely when i'm at my desk and then go for a stroll around my neighbourhood for a quick break. WFH has increased my productivity and well being hugely.