The New Normal Annoyances
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Comments posted to this topic are about the item The New Normal Annoyances
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The problem is (even more for Devs like myself) that, if your team can work from home, anywhere, then people anywhere can be on your team. So companies don't need to pay for a UK-based (as I am) professional, they can get a cheaper team from abroad.
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For me at least, the transition to a more permanent home-working setup was relatively smooth. I was already WFH one day per week anyway for childcare reasons so my home setup was already pretty much on-point.
The biggest challenge for me as a person and as a manager has been the maintenance of a work/life balance and balancing my work priorities against those of my wife. To that end, I've transitioned from a standard 9am-5:30pm workspan to a 9am-7pm workspan, with two hours off during the day to enable my wife to work and to enable me to spend more time with our young son. My bosses gave me the backing I needed in order to make that change, but some people within the business still think it's acceptable to schedule meetings during that two-hour period - those two hours are clearly marked on my calendar as me being "busy". What it has done is highlighted for me the number of times people choose NOT to use the scheduling tool in Outlook when arranging meetings (that's definitely an annoyance).
All things being equal, I would prefer to be back in the office - I do miss being able to see people face-to-face. I'm also confident that my company has taken all of the measures necessary to ensure that our workplace is a safe and healthy place to be. However, my commute to work relies heavily on public transport and I have serious misgivings about using that public transport under the current circumstances. For me, there's no viable alternative to public transport which wouldn't involve be driving 20 miles each day into/out of Glasgow and parking the car, especially since I renewed my travel ticket at the end of December for another year and can see no likelihood of any refund being given for the months during which I've been unable to use that ticket.
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I’ve never been a fan of meetings, period. They usually consume the time allotted for work. But I find that I miss the face-to-face creativity that happens when a group gathers around the whiteboard. The whiteboard tools in the remote workspace are a poor substitute, or are disabled by our legal team.
It’s going to be well into 2021 before we reopen our physical spaces. Or perhaps 2022. Or perhaps never. I need to find a way to adjust to the new normal and use the collaborative tools the best I can.
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Working from home has been such a blessing for me. I can concentrate much better. I'm not having to put in with cramped cubicle working, such as I have in the office. I don't have many meetings, so that's not much of a problem. I do agree with you, Steve, that there's a certain awkwardness about video meetings, not knowing when to start, etc. I put it up to the latency in the video transfer between everyone scattered around the state. For me and my situation, working from home has been significantly better than working in my office.
However, working from home has introduced some unexpected problems. In August we had to put down out 13-year-old Black Lab mix. I had hoped that she'd make it through the pandemic, but it wasn't to be. She had been helping my daughters coping with anxiety of COVID. We decided that it would be good to get another dog, so we got a puppy from the City pound. She's adorable but distracting.
Rod
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I certainly don't miss being in the office. My home office is much quieter without dozens of conversations around me, people walking by, and 100% of my meetings were via Zoom anyway! My commute to work dropped from a stressful 45 minutes each way to a 30-second walk to my home office! My only drawback is my cat now thinks that I'm home just to give her attention, but even she has settled into this new routine. My wife loves having me home during the day and I now get to have lunch with her as well as my recovered commute time!
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One day, our home at two separate hour long power outages. After the second power outage, the cable internet didn't come back. Fortunately, we have a mobile hotspot and I used that for the remainder of the day while the cable provider worked on their outage.
Audio is also an issue for meetings. Work uses a mix of issued laptops with VPN access and issued desktops with GoToMyPC. I'm using my personal desktop with GoToMyPC to access my work desktop. Most of the meetings that I've been in use a conference calling service, which I use. But I was in one meeting where the organizer assumed everybody had a mic with their PC. From what I've researched GoToMyPC does not support audio from a microphone from a remote PC.
- Doctor Who 2 wrote:
However, working from home has introduced some unexpected problems. In August we had to put down out 13-year-old Black Lab mix. I had hoped that she'd make it through the pandemic, but it wasn't to be. She had been helping my daughters coping with anxiety of COVID. We decided that it would be good to get another dog, so we got a puppy from the City pound. She's adorable but distracting.
I'm sorry to hear about your 13-year-old Lab. We're facing the same problem with one of our 11-year-old Beagles. In April, I saw a mumps-like bulge from his mouth. Surgery in April confirmed oral melanoma, an aggressive cancer; we had to put his 14-year-old mother down four years ago for the same cancer. Zeus had radiation in May/June with chemo from June through September. Last week was bleak with us discussing the "E" word with his oncologist. Fortunately, the specialty clinic and his regular clinic allows owners with masks on inside during the procedure. But he's doing better with additional pain meds and antibiotics; last Friday he was wrestling with our four-year-old. His sister was supposed to end chemo for thyroid cancer in mid-August, but she developed intestinal problems and refused to eat. She's being treated right now, but she won't put the weight back on. Losing both would be bad for us and our four-year-old Beagle, River; she has huge separation anxiety issues if Zeus and Athena aren't with her
Athena (left) and Zeus (right) when they were five years-old in 2014
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Sorry about your Lab. We lost 3 dogs a couple years ago, which was a hard year.
One of the bright spots for this time for us is a new filly. It's neat to spend some time with her, and when she's in the front yard, she's just outside my window.
- Ralph Hightower wrote:Doctor Who 2 wrote:
However, working from home has introduced some unexpected problems. In August we had to put down out 13-year-old Black Lab mix. I had hoped that she'd make it through the pandemic, but it wasn't to be. She had been helping my daughters coping with anxiety of COVID. We decided that it would be good to get another dog, so we got a puppy from the City pound. She's adorable but distracting.
I'm sorry to hear about your 13-year-old Lab. We're facing the same problem with one of our 11-year-old Beagles. In April, I saw a mumps-like bulge from his mouth. Surgery in April confirmed oral melanoma, an aggressive cancer; we had to put his 14-year-old mother down four years ago for the same cancer. Zeus had radiation in May/June with chemo from June through September. Last week was bleak with us discussing the "E" word with his oncologist. Fortunately, the specialty clinic and his regular clinic allows owners with masks on inside during the procedure. But he's doing better with additional pain meds and antibiotics; last Friday he was wrestling with our four-year-old. His sister was supposed to end chemo for thyroid cancer in mid-August, but she developed intestinal problems and refused to eat. She's being treated right now, but she won't put the weight back on. Losing both would be bad for us and our four-year-old Beagle, River; she has huge separation anxiety issues if Zeus and Athena aren't with her.
Pets are indeed family members! At one time we had 3 dogs and a cat, then our white German Shepard died on Father's Day of all days. Less than a year later we lost our Rottweiler who was the mother of all our pets (cat included) and any other animal she could adopt. Our Shih Tzu followed her around like a shadow. Both the Shih Tzu and the cat were severely affected by her loss and it took the better part of a year but both are much better.
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For me, one of the annoyances (easily fixed, but nonetheless) is the distinct lack of noise working from home. I've found I need some sort of "white noise" in the background, it seems to help me stay focused. The fix is easy enough, just stream the local news radio station on my personal PC.
I do rather miss the "human contact," but even if I were going into the office (which is an option,) the one time I went in to get my access cards updated, the place was a ghost town, so I'm not sure just how much interaction I'd get out of it.
Other than that, my only other distractions are self-made (really, I'm "working" right now,) the wife is back to work, the cats don't really care if I'm home or not (they're all down sleeping on the couch,) and we don't have kids, so it's just me at home...
But I can't deny, the 15-30 second commute from the bedroom to my home office is really, really nice...
I'm down to gassing up my car once every two or three weeks!
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I was already working from home 3 days a week so I was pretty well setup when they told us to work from home full time. My commute was 45 miles each way and I have to say I don't miss that. The annoyances that I do have seem to be pretty common. People starting to talk at the same time on Skype meetings. The coworker with the loud speakers who causes everyone else on the call to echo when they talk. The coworker with the horrible distorted headset who's barely intelligible. I miss the comradery of being in the same room with the team (just not the commute).
I also want to express my sympathies to Rod at the loss of your black lab mix. And also to Ralph for what you are going through with your dogs. It's hard to see them go through that.
- Aaron N. Cutshall wrote:
I certainly don't miss being in the office. My home office is much quieter without dozens of conversations around me, people walking by, and 100% of my meetings were via Zoom anyway! My commute to work dropped from a stressful 45 minutes each way to a 30-second walk to my home office! My only drawback is my cat now thinks that I'm home just to give her attention, but even she has settled into this new routine. My wife loves having me home during the day and I now get to have lunch with her as well as my recovered commute time!
Sounds like you've got it made, Cutshall!
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- Aaron N. Cutshall wrote:
I certainly don't miss being in the office. My home office is much quieter without dozens of conversations around me, people walking by, and 100% of my meetings were via Zoom anyway! My commute to work dropped from a stressful 45 minutes each way to a 30-second walk to my home office! My only drawback is my cat now thinks that I'm home just to give her attention, but even she has settled into this new routine. My wife loves having me home during the day and I now get to have lunch with her as well as my recovered commute time!
I get to share lunch with my wife, too. I consider that to be one of the best benefits of working from home.
Rod
- Ralph Hightower wrote:Doctor Who 2 wrote:
However, working from home has introduced some unexpected problems. In August we had to put down out 13-year-old Black Lab mix. I had hoped that she'd make it through the pandemic, but it wasn't to be. She had been helping my daughters coping with anxiety of COVID. We decided that it would be good to get another dog, so we got a puppy from the City pound. She's adorable but distracting.
I'm sorry to hear about your 13-year-old Lab. We're facing the same problem with one of our 11-year-old Beagles. In April, I saw a mumps-like bulge from his mouth. Surgery in April confirmed oral melanoma, an aggressive cancer; we had to put his 14-year-old mother down four years ago for the same cancer. Zeus had radiation in May/June with chemo from June through September. Last week was bleak with us discussing the "E" word with his oncologist. Fortunately, the specialty clinic and his regular clinic allows owners with masks on inside during the procedure. But he's doing better with additional pain meds and antibiotics; last Friday he was wrestling with our four-year-old. His sister was supposed to end chemo for thyroid cancer in mid-August, but she developed intestinal problems and refused to eat. She's being treated right now, but she won't put the weight back on. Losing both would be bad for us and our four-year-old Beagle, River; she has huge separation anxiety issues if Zeus and Athena aren't with her.
I really feel your pain, Ralph. At the beginning of this pandemic I hadn't realized how important one's pet(s) could be. And at the time our Black lab was in good health. But soon that changed. As the months went by the and the stress upon, well really all of us, became hard. My wife would cry, I'd lose sleep, etc. Annie (our Black Lab) had been a solid rock. I held out hope that she would make it through the pandemic, but when it became apparent she could no longer make it without lots of pain, we had to do what was best for Annie.
Well, the new dog doesn't replace the old one, but she antics are providing a diversion which helps.
I hope you won't be offended by my saying that I'll be praying that your dogs recover and help you get through this tough time.
Rod
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