Working From Home Megathread

And is this cold year around? Anyone who has to heat the whole house to stay warm in a room needs a little rethink. Thankfully, Ireland has a mild climate for the most part, so any increase would be very minimal.

Apologies if this isn't the right forum, but there seems to be quite a few Civil Servants on here, and maybe somebody can advise.  I have been WFH since the beginning of the pandemic.  Last Tuesday, just as I was to return to work after Christmas, I was feeling grotty, did an antigen test, which came up positive and then applied for a PCR test.  I phoned my line manager to say that I was unfit for duty.  I then got a positive PCR result, by text message from the HSE.  How do I go about applying for special leave with pay due to Covid?  Do I screenshot the text message I got from the HSE?  Whoi is to say how many days I should take off before returning to work at the kitchen table? It all seems pretty vague and I'd like to know what the correct procedure is here.  Many thanks for any advise offered.

This is first piece I've seen which looks at the customer impact of WFH. About time, IMHO - customer impact should be the first consideration.

Almost two years ago when many people first went home, people worked very hard to make it work because they were scared companies would close and they'd become unemployed. As that fear has gone, the work attitude has changed a lot.

I had a giggle at the idea of a junior staffer declining a meeting cos it clashed with his yoga - but this is a classic case of a social/cultural norm which people miss learning if there aren't senior staff around to guide them.

Regarding this post from last month, I have had further discussions with the company in Dublin and they said a day every fortnight is fine. I am in the health science industry at a purely desk job so I presume that's why this is feasible.

Presuming the right salary, I think this is quite possible if not advantageous. I think a day in the office, albeit far, twice a month would be nice. That being said, this provision would have to be written into the contract as I don't want to be catdish'ed come six months down the road!

Here you go: https://archive.fo/zFhkT

Company I work for, saved millions due to Hybrid. No way they would go back on that.

Thanks for that - few things of note:

1) Yes there are far more internal meetings but who is setting them up? Middle/Upper management.

2) "In the private sector, polls continue to show that a majority of us want to keep working from home, at least part of the time. But what if it isn’t actually that good for us, or those we work for?" - This article completly negates the benefits of WFH eg. work/life balance.

3) A junior employee turned down a Company Directors request for a meeting because they were attending yoga? They sound like an idiot regardless of if they would be in the office or not.

Downsizing the office and moving to hot desks. Not everyone is in everyday, so no need to have the same amount of space.

Apologies if this has been covered before but it looks like I will be able to work remotely for the forseeable, even after the pandemic.

With that in mind, I'm looking for a bit of inspiration to spruce up the home office, which is currently the box bedroom upstairs in our gaff.

Has anyone done anything intersting with theirs or care to share a few pictures?