Working From Home Megathread

AndrewJRenko

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Personally, what I want is to get back to working in my office - a safe working environment that doesn't impinge on my family life.

I don't want my employer to pay me rent because I don't want to be working from home.

And that is what this always comes back to. Your wants.

What you want is for your employer (the Government) to ignore their own guidelines and make a special exception for you so you can work in the office, despite them telling every other employer in the country to limit numbers attending workplaces to essential staff only.

And we've come full circle. Again.

Antares35

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Does the guy in your section have his line manager monitoring him via the laptop camera, which is the context of these latest discussions?

Why are you so afraid of being monitored? I'm sure bosses have more to be doing getting work done and meeting targets than sitting at home watching other people's toddlers on CCTV.

AndrewJRenko

namloc1980 wrote: »

Andrew is just looking for a compo payout. That's all. He's mentioned compensation and being paid extra for working from home multiple times. Just looking for a few bob, nothing more.

Which part of my post above yours did you struggle to understand?

Antares35

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Moving the goalposts again? Your earlier post was about how difficult it was when the other parent was also WFH.

As a single parent (and I was one) it would be diffcult, sure - but not impossible. That's the beauty of staggered hours. You work when you can, and you do as much as you can. Especially during the current crisis.

There is a guy working in my section whose wife is working on the front line. One toddler, one school going. They've worked it out, and are managing fine.

Where there is a will there is a way, you just have no will to fine a way, Andrew. All you look for are obstacles.

I've worked with people like that. I worked in the public sector myself. Not for one second suggesting that it's all of course - many of the front line that we rely on are public. But I've met a few of this "type" that seem to haunt the halls of offices. Some of them still getting time off on a Friday to cash their paychecks, long after electronic payments were introduced. Who wouldn't move a pen from one side of the desk to another without checking it with the union. The kind who booked Tenerife for their Christmas holidays because they "hadn't used up their sick pay that year" as if sick pay was a goal rather than a safety net.

AndrewJRenko

Antares35 wrote: »

Why are you so afraid of being monitored? I'm sure bosses have more to be doing getting work done and meeting targets than sitting at home watching other people's toddlers on CCTV.

Why don't you switch on your webcam there and post a link on the thread? Why are you so afraid of being monitored - you've nothing to hide, right?

AndrewJRenko

Antares35 wrote: »

I've worked with people like that. I worked in the public sector myself. Not for one second suggesting that it's all of course - many of the front line that we rely on are public. But I've met a few of this "type" that seem to haunt the halls of offices. Some of them still getting time off on a Friday to cash their paychecks, long after electronic payments were introduced. Who wouldn't move a pen from one side of the desk to another without checking it with the union. The kind who booked Tenerife for their Christmas holidays because they "hadn't used up their sick pay that year" as if sick pay was a goal rather than a safety net.

The 1980s called for you. They want their anecdotes back.

gmisk

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Close the bedroom door while you're working.

Next problem?

You can also blur your entire background on pretty much any conferencing app as well, or you could just not turn on camera in conference call.

If your totally paranoid about being watched just stick some tape over your camera on laptop?

gmisk

Antares35 wrote: »

I've worked with people like that. I worked in the public sector myself. Not for one second suggesting that it's all of course - many of the front line that we rely on are public. But I've met a few of this "type" that seem to haunt the halls of offices. Some of them still getting time off on a Friday to cash their paychecks, long after electronic payments were introduced. Who wouldn't move a pen from one side of the desk to another without checking it with the union. The kind who booked Tenerife for their Christmas holidays because they "hadn't used up their sick pay that year" as if sick pay was a goal rather than a safety net.

That whooping 15 minute thing to cash a cheque was phased out a long long time ago and very few people used it. I have literally never heard of anyone do that with sick pay ever.
The type of person you describe have become more and more rare in the PS/CS I have worked in a lot of departments over about 17 years.

Mrs OBumble

Antares35 wrote: »

I've worked with people like that. I worked in the public sector myself. Not for one second suggesting that it's all of course - many of the front line that we rely on are public. But I've met a few of this "type" that seem to haunt the halls of offices. Some of them still getting time off on a Friday to cash their paychecks, long after electronic payments were introduced. Who wouldn't move a pen from one side of the desk to another without checking it with the union. The kind who booked Tenerife for their Christmas holidays because they "hadn't used up their sick pay that year" as if sick pay was a goal rather than a safety net.

I've met these people too - and they are typically the first to embrace "working" (sic) from home. No prizes for guessing why.

The ability to understand perspectives other than your own is a core part of teamwork, and pretty much required for any public sector job. Many posters here would fail on that, IMHO.

stefanovich

Antares35 wrote: »

There's a difference between ignoring the GDPR and treating your employees like imbeciles that can't be trusted.

I consider the company to be imbeciles for not providing a laptop not the employee.

Antares35

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Why don't you switch on your webcam there and post a link on the thread? Why are you so afraid of being monitored - you've nothing to hide, right?

You're being ridiculous and childish.

Antares35

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I've met these people too - and they are typically the first to embrace "working" (sic) from home. No prizes for guessing why.

The ability to understand perspectives other than your own is a core part of teamwork, and pretty much required for any public sector job. Many posters here would fail on that, IMHO.

Have you a point?

mmclo

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

https://www.dataprotection.ie/sites/default/files/uploads/2021-02/Inquiry%20University%20College%20Dublin_0.pdf

So credentials of some email accounts were posted online? Were these staff or student accounts? How come the credentials got posted online?

This seems to be an amalgam of cases, I think I know one of them and it was a "reply all" situation

AndrewJRenko

gmisk wrote: »

You can also blur your entire background on pretty much any conferencing app as well, or you could just not turn on camera in conference call.

If your totally paranoid about being watched just stick some tape over your camera on laptop?

Skype for Business doesn't allow backgrounds
I tried it once on Zoom but it seemed that the spec of my laptop wasn't really up to it.

The discussion was around mandatory monitoring of staff in their homes via laptop cameras.

AndrewJRenko

Antares35 wrote: »

You're being ridiculous and childish.

Are you seriously suggesting that you don't see the many problems with requiring people to put a CCTV monitoring system in their own home?

Antares35

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Are you seriously suggesting that you don't see the many problems with requiring people to put a CCTV monitoring system in their own home?

No I'm suggesting it's childish and ridiculous to suggest someone provides a live video feed of themselves to a boards thread in order to prove a point. But you know that

kippy

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I've met these people too - and they are typically the first to embrace "working" (sic) from home. No prizes for guessing why.

The ability to understand perspectives other than your own is a core part of teamwork, and pretty much required for any public sector job. Many posters here would fail on that, IMHO.

Again you are falling into the trap that many fall into. This is not the real world nobody really knows what anyone else actually does here in the real world.

I've absolutely no issues understanding perspectives other that my own, but that doesn't make the perspective something I should agree with and bend over backwards to facilitate, particularly when that perspective is built on rubbish input.

kippy

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Are you seriously suggesting that you don't see the many problems with requiring people to put a CCTV monitoring system in their own home?

If you can see the problems with this surely you can see the problems with companies renting rooms in employees homes of them to facilitate their remote work.

mmclo

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

No unfair dismissal protection for someone on a 10 month fixed term contract. They can dismiss him if they don't like the colour of his shirt.

Not exactly more recent cases say some type of basic fair procedure would still have to pertain

Thats me

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

I can't afford to keep the heating on all day

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

I have young kids running around my house, does my manager now get to watch or even record my kids?

If this a case, should not your kids be adopted by government or another family in this case?

stefanovich

Thats me wrote: »

If this a case, should not your kids be adopted by government or another family in this case?

I grew up with no central heating and single pane windows. People are soft these days.

Thats me

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Have you ever worked in HR, or for a union?

Firings may be rare enough in small companies, but once the workforce starts to number in the thousands, you can practically guarantee that there will be a few fired each year, usually for untrustworthy behaviour. And that's with in-office observation and controls in place.

This is really serious for all of us WFHers.. I'd afraid of period of paranoid intrusive surveillance after forced WFH regime finished and this will be up to employers to offer WFH option on their own..

Thats me

stefanovich wrote: »

I grew up with no central heating and single pane windows. People are soft these days.

If we be would soft we would not notice how Andrew torturing his poor children :cool:

doc22

stefanovich wrote: »

I grew up with no central heating and single pane windows. People are soft these days.

:pac: You didn't exactly carry water from a well and have no indoor toilet like previous gen

Antares35

stefanovich wrote: »

People are soft these days.

You got that right

Thats me

Thats me wrote: »

If this a case, should not your kids be adopted by government or another family in this case?

He makes them run around to keep warm, saves on the heating bill. :P

AndrewJRenko

Thats me wrote: »

If this a case, should not your kids be adopted by government or another family in this case?

If you're planning on taking into care all kids from all families who can't afford to run the heating all day, then you'd better open up all the oul orphanages.

This might come as a surprise to many people here, but it is possible to consider the needs of people other than yourself in these discussions. Every point that I've made doesn't actually apply to me personally, but they do apply to somebody.

stefanovich

doc22 wrote: »

:pac: You didn't exactly carry water from a well and have no indoor toilet like previous gen

He was suggested that not keeping your heating on all day was grounds for the government seizing your children. Wouldn’t fuel allowance be preferable?

stefanovich

doc22 wrote: »

:pac: You didn't exactly carry water from a well and have no indoor toilet like previous gen

I have lived in conditions where I had no indoor toilet yes.

Thats me

Antares35 wrote: »

There's a difference between ignoring the GDPR and treating your employees like imbeciles that can't be trusted.

The only reason why we have GDPR is because employers are often imbeciles. I never heard about any massive personal information leak caused by somebody like AndrewJRenko shhoting their screen with mobile phone... Usually it is companies sharing info for money or having not clear enough policies.



But, in the other hand, nobody of us would like to become victim of AndrewJRenko who would share your rectovaginal examination in the twitter if he left with no control like he has while working in the open office.