Working From Home Megathread

I really hope they do come out with some solid advice, because there are alot of private companies getting people back in either full time or like I'm back 3 days a week and am miserable, and terrified being back in the office and any question of it is that your contract is in Head Office and thats it.

I think if people are allowed to take part in other social activities and kids are still in school, it makes sense to try and curb any other unncessary contacts - so if you can work from home, you should work from home but some employers are just not getting it. They see it the other way around that if you CAN go to the pub, you SHOULD come into the office... eh no, the complete opposite, if you CAN go to the pub, then limit any other contacts you have in order to not make that visit more risky than it should be.

All the other benefits are a no-brainer - traffic, carbon, housing, finanical pressure, work/life balance etc is just unreal that this isnt being supported more by the Government.

How do i do that?

First off you'd need an additional router, something like a TP-Link AX1800. Once you have that ring tech support in virgin media (last time I did this I was on hold an hour they hung up, took 2.30 hours to get it done it should take 20 mins). Ask them to switch your hub to ipv4 because you want to use modem mode i recommend asking to action this while you wait on hold, they rarely ring back. Once thats done ask them to factory reset you should now have the modem mode option on your hub 3 menu . Turn this option on and reboot the light on the front of the hub should be purple now. Plug port 1 from the hub into your new routers wan port and connect your laptop to a port on the new router. Follow the instructions to connect to the new router once it connects to the internet change its wifi ssids and password to the ones you used on virgin media.

Its not this easy: https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-hub-modem-mode

Thanks so much for that, i appreciate it 😀

To be honest, i can't see many companies listening to it especially those that have hybrid like mine is - office split in 2, 5 days in 5 days home - it took them a year to even do it in the first place - up until early this year we were all in full time!

If the government don't commit to making this stronger than "advice" then not a lot will change with respect to WFH. Companies that have already started bringing employees back on a phased basis aren't going to upend the whole thing based on "advice".

Doesn't get much clearer than that to be fair. My place will be livid to have to send us home. 😎 (if they decide to comply)

I hope you'll be ok now from Thursday night. The social club might have get togethers after hours or maybe even zoom your line manager clubs that you could sign up to.

Whilst I agree that it should be stronger than "advice", any company that requires staff to come into an indoor office right now is reckless, negligent and does not care about their staffs safety and opens themselves up to court actions if employees catch covid in their indoor offices. No reputable employer would force staff to go into indoor offices right now.

Anyone willing to guess how long the WFH requirement will stay in place for? My bet is until April. By which time WFH will have become the norm for most.

Yep I'd say that is spot on. 2 years of WFH coming up and I have to say WFH has suited me extremely well in terms of work life balance.

Spare a thought for all the poor bozo’s who retired in early 2020.

My employer (Financial sector, HQ in downtown Dublin, 500 employees in that location) had a plan to bring us back for the new normal of 3 days a week after WFH since March '20. We started going back on a rotation basis in the beginning of Oct, 50% in each week on the 'stagger, gradual return to work' wording from the government. We were told today that we would go back to full WFH starting Friday. Our function is seen as essential by govt standards and we have the possibility of going into the office if we want to, but HR doesnt want to take the responsibility of forcing people to come in given the change in government language (WFH where possible).

Message from HR was that this would be reviewed in 3 weeks time. Not sure if that's what they got as a guideline from the govt of if its a internal deadline?

I havent read any official comment on the press from govt representatives that this would be a short term measure. Would make sense to try to bring down the numbers ahead of the Xmas holidays where, as previous experience show, there is a tendency to congregate and flex the guidelines anyway.