Setting a Precedent
Today I got issued a start date of next Tuesday for my new job.
Why Tuesday? It's likely the project leader is getting pissed and attending some stag do in Krakow and will be horribly hungover on Monday.
Actually, that's not the case as those were the 'good old days' of life before we all became ritual hermits.
Having been technically unemployed since last December I needed some work and yet I was putting off this one in the hope of something better.
The pay is OK but the location is over an hour's drive in distance and that's if the traffic behaves. Some days it could take me up to 2 hours to get to the office which is around 50 miles away.
I have asked for confirmation and have not been sent a reply yet but when you get an email that says this…, I reckon it confirms my suspicions as true
Welcome to Bangers and Testicles Delicious Breakfasts and hopefully the onboarding and getting up to speed will just be as enjoyable while you are working from home.
To work from home, you need to use a RSA token and I have submitted the request for you. Blah blah blah....
Working from home has become more frequent in my profession during the last few years and yet some the ‘old fuddy-duddies', usually old bastards... don't want to let go of their old ways.
20 years ago it was just this and there was little leeway even if you requested. That was the way it was and that’s how it stood.
With today’s virus killing over 500 people a day in the UK things have had to change.
Working from home is the normal way of life for non-critical services and I often think, is this setting a precedent for the future?
My performance is based on results. I work in Software Automation and am given a specific task. I produce a result or I complain, 'I can't do this, its too hard', except I don't complain, I just get on with it until it’s done.
Do I need to be in the office, waste 3 hours of my life every day and copious amounts of diesel as well as unnecessary wear and tear on my vehicle to obtain the very same results?
Did you not read anything about what I said? If I can deliver what is your fucking problem?
Management like to manage and they like to see what their grunts are doing. If they are perceived to be doing anything other than 'good old hard work' then that is just no good.
We grunts may not have any current work on, yet we have to steadfastly stare are our monitors at spreadsheets, and databases pretending to be busy.
Will this all be in the past and can we now play games, paint the house, watch movies, masturbate or have REAL sex during work time now 'SO LONG AS WE DELIVER?'
I have still not received an answer to my question. I do like to know what I am going to do next week; it must be a tough one to answer.
Has a precedent been set due to the CoronaVirus?
Has working from home got that kick up the arse and will working from the office be much less frequent once this all dies down?
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For sure. I experience the same where I work. I started teleworking regularly 6 years ago due to medical issues. I am better now, but proved I can do it and they trust me. It all starts with hiring the right people and then the manager(s) need to ensure clear expectations are set and ensure open and regular communications.
In fact, I am in my very fitst course for my Doctorate and my final project and paper for the course is "Effective Leadership for a Remote Workforce". It is sponsored by my boss and a senior scientist in my organization.
You said it. I always deliver and that is what they hire me for. If I want to sleep for 45 minutes in the afternoon, what's the big deal?
The Japanese have got it right with their sleep pods for employees. It would never happen here.
My guess is that working from home might be simpler than it may seem:
What do you think is a better way of working from home:
I think the current situation is the birth of new more flexible ways of working ... in the most part. There will obviously be exceptions.
I've been working from home one or two days a week in my previous two roles and could on those days, produce the same output than in the remaining 3 or 4 days in the office. Often it would be of a higher quality too due to the reduced number of distractions and interruptions.
I've always let teams I've supported do what they feel they need to do to get the job done well. If that meant being out of the office, so be it. If you can't trust people to deliver wherever they may be, why employ them in the first place?
After working from home for months, will the non-essential workers want to go back to 5 days a week in the office? It's going to be interesting to see what happens from the fallout.
Indeed, and organisations are likely to realise they do not need so much expensive office space to operate, especially those who maintain standby "seats" for business continuity purposes.
same for me.. It got so that I required input on things I knew others on the team wouldn't get to until much later in the week..
Congrats on getting the job despite not knowing in what form it may take!
I truly hope that after this is all over companies re-assess how they look at home working. We are still getting things done and yet I know that it rankles with people that we are all working from home. MAnagers in particular. As you say, if you produce results then that speaks for itself.
Thanks, it will do for the moment but I may move quickly if something better comes along. I'm hearing about 20% rate cuts, so I may have to settle in the one. It is 2009 all over again.
Oh it does. There seems to be two bands of mindsets about it.
It's the old school, as you said. If they can't set you staring at a screen then you ain't doing anything!
Congrats, grab it first and then see what's happens next.
Look in the bright side, you can still mess about on Hive 😎
Yeah, I can, I'll keep quiet about all this. The less they know the better, just like @meesterboom!
I am still getting used to the whole working from home thing. There are just too many distractions that I don't have in my office at work. I feel like my focus is better there. I am sure I will figure it out eventually. That is great that you found a new gig though.
I know some people feel this way, but I'm not one of them. I get more distracted at work, with all the office chattering. It all depends on what your job is I guess.
I have an enclosed office all to myself, so when I know there is no one else there I usually keep the doors locked and the lights off!
I hope!
Although I did see a policy once on working from home that said something akin to what you mention above for the office: "…'in the office, 9-5 sharp every day, 1-hour lunch, no compromise'…"
Please ensure you are taking your 15 minute breaks and having a one hour lunch break
Companies need to look at how much money they can save in salaries. When I worked there seemed to be one supervisor for every 10 workers, sometimes less. Then those supervisors had a supervisor, so now they can do away with most of the supervisor slots that did nothing other than tell employees no. So no first level supervisors anymore, with automation the secondary level supervisor should be able to track at least 30-40 people. After all school teachers kept track of that many.
Employees are worse than kids?
Businesses are so set in their old ways that they don't realize that they are slowly becoming obsolete... working from home is the future, especially when we automate all the physical jobs with bots and other such things. Unless the jobs really need you to be physically at a location or to spend time with other team members to build the team's relations, it makes no sense to not work at home.
I once met a guy that worked in servers maintenance in the UK, he spent most days at home and only had to reset the servers once a day for some reason at 3 am, he only had to go to the server room every couple of months to actually solve some issue.
There is the problem of a physical reboot if you get what was the BSOD. Someone needs to do it!
The first time I worked from home (many years ago) was because I lived on a mountain and cause too much snow I couldn't go to my office, so my boss thought it was good if I could continue part of my work at home. It was good for me and good for my boss, but not for the other collegues who thought it was just a way to stay out of the office and so that experience was just for a couple of days. Just to know, the most part of my performance was based on results (I was the fundraiser and the project planner in the office where I used to work) and so I could work everywhere and everytime I needed to work just thanks my laptop and an internet connection ^_^ ). After I decided to go away from that office, I worked as project planner directly from home for about 5 years without problems and, just sometimes, I continue to do the same. I hope this strange time help people to know that to work from home is something good.
To work from home all the time? I do like a little interaction with my colleagues, it's just when the distance is prohibitive it makes little sense. Hope you are doing OK there, Italy is still in our news.
My work has been of the 'if you get it done we are all good' type. But since we are working from home for a bit we have to send in daily reports on what we are doing. I expect it is to prove that we are doing something to keep getting payed for.
I remember boss screens in some games. I have worked in places where you have to beg or blackmail to work from home. This was when I was spending 3 hours per day on the road. It seems to be partly about control, but results should be what matters. Circumstances are making it more normal, but I still don't have the gear to do it in the current job. It is on order.
It's all about control, I wonder if COVID-19 is going to change attitudes? I think it may help.