Working From Home Megathread

Do you really think stopping people sitting in a canteen would stop people from talking?

You do know chats around a water cooler is not meant to be taken literal right?

Where did I say the people chatting are making decisions. What I said was they could be making small talk about the day and something may pop into there heads which they can then bring up to the group as a whole to make decisions. You have this idea that people talking in groups are conspiring against you are something.

Maybe you should do as suggested in your first sentence may help realise not everyone is out to get you

How was my sentence great for relaxed chat countered with line not everything has to be in a meeting?

To clarify, i was not implying that all talk was/is bad. What I am saying is that decisions made or work related talking outside the team/department you work for is counter productive. I have my own experience with this first hand from agencies and then in telcos.

You can talk shop, football, celebrity stuff, whatever you want, I really don't care. When it comes to work, however, I do draw a line there. This might be due to my own experiences where a co worker can come back to you and say "So myself and XYZ talked about that thing you are on, and we think it is better to do this instead". You/I were not consulted, the decision is already made in their heads, there is now no real context to the conversation that you were never part of, and that builds up distrust across a team that is working together.

If there is a suggestion to come from that, fine, bring it to the table as a that, a suggestion. But if it is a decision made without context or reason, that is the issue I have with that.

My current employer employs the idea that every decision needs to be contextual. We decide, as a team, every 2 weeks (Sprint Planning) what we will work on. If a decision comes from higher up the chain, fine, that is how it works in companies. But it never happens during coffee zoom chats that 2 teammates might talk about your work and decide a different course of action.

Relaxed chat all you want.

Who said they didn't have friends at work but have changed their tune now?

Everyone I know including myself have friends from work, that is my experience.

If people want to work from home, let them be. For me working from home is a better quality of life, no fumes from the roads to deal with. I get to run a in a park where there is no traffic and better air quality. No rushing home for sports and more importantly i am more productive.

Some people want to go to the office, they can go to the office, no harm in that, that's their choice. Some of them don't have the setup at home, might live on their own etc.

If you don't like your company setup, leave or shut up. Its pretty simple.

One of my daughters is still working from home, but there's no plan for anything. They don't know is it permanent, will they be back to the office, will there be a hybrid. The manager is telling them he doesn't know, because his managers won't tell him. Crazy stuff.

I have zero idea where you got that from.

If you are happy to WFH, have suitable facilities and do a job which is compatible with being off site - that's perfect.

But it is not a reason why WFH will work for everyone else, or should become the norm. There are many jobs and situations which are not suitable for WFH.

This is exactly it. In some cases it works really well, even better than in the office. In others cases it doesn't work well. If you feel that you can work well remotely but the company/PS doesn't facilitate it, look for another job. It is really simple.

What do ye do? Seems a bit OTT to be honest.

Well the issue there seems to be that parents have their adult "kids" in the house and they are working remotely. I can see that as a problem alright, but the kids should be in their 20's at least so should probably think about finding their own place anyway, especially if they want to WFH.

The government would hardly pay for private sector workers, that wouldn't make any sense at all. I also can't see them increasing costs by providing remote working hubs for their own staff. Some employers might do it if it means they can have a smaller office or even no office. Some startup type companies already do this. Maybe some employees would see value in paying for it themselves if the other option is a commute from Gorey to Dublin.