When will this shit end?

[Zoo Music Girl]

3 minutes ago, st dan said:

I do miss ‘chatting shit’ with work colleagues in the office though. Talking about last nights football, news event etc. That type of release you can’t get WFH, and the only interaction you get is of a more serious nature, on calls and meetings etc.
So I feel I do lack from that social side in my current set up. 

Yeah I miss that side of things too. Most of the work meetings I have I just sit there silently! We've done a few work social things but it's so difficult to have a social chat with 15 people at once so usually just a few people chat and everyone else just sits there. It doesn't really work.

[Ozanne]

1 minute ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

Yeah I miss that side of things too. Most of the work meetings I have I just sit there silently! We've done a few work social things but it's so difficult to have a social chat with 15 people at once so usually just a few people chat and everyone else just sits there. It doesn't really work.

We’ve found that too at my work with big team Zoom meetings.

[fraybentos1]

So in summary, there are upsides and downsides to both and a compromise between between company needs and employee desires should and can probs be struck.

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

Just now, Zoo Music Girl said:

Yeah I miss that side of things too. Most of the work meetings I have I just sit there silently! We've done a few work social things but it's so difficult to have a social chat with 15 people at once so usually just a few people chat and everyone else just sits there. It doesn't really work.

Depending on your work and how your business / team opperates. You potentially lose some creative thinking / solutions because you don't over hear things, you can't see the body language if a colleague who might be struggling etc... 

The ways of working need to change to work with the remote workplace. 

[Ryan1984]

1 minute ago, fraybentos1 said:

So in summary, there are upsides and downsides to both and a compromise between between company needs and employee desires should and can probs be struck.

Pretty much. For me, flexibility is key. Hopefully the days of having to book half-days off to go to an appointment are long gone. My previous place seemed to have one wfh rule for anyone with a manager title and another for all the minions.

[Ozanne]

1 minute ago, Ryan1984 said:

Pretty much. For me, flexibility is key. Hopefully the days of having to book half-days off to go to an appointment are long gone. My previous place seemed to have one wfh rule for anyone with a manager title and another for all the minions.

Most definitely to your last sentence. I noticed it last year when The Daily Mail kept going on about workers returning to offices whilst writing from their permanent home office. I thought for some like that it was a status thing they are high up enough to have the WFH privilege yet the workers below them have to go into offices. Now everyone has their privileges they don’t feel as special anymore. 

[Fuzzy Afro]

5 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

Here is a real thing...

Unlimited annual leave

When you consider most people will use their annual leave to go on their annual two week holiday eating British food in Costa Del Shithole...  and the rest of their allowance usually to cover appointments, kids nativity, kids sports day and so on...

If people are WFH and basically doing their hours to suit - the concept of annual leave becomes much reduced.  

We are doing a unlimited annual leave offer with a just don't take the piss clause.  So book your holidays and then just sort your life around your job or vice versa.

I am friends with a girl who has this setup (she works for a company who manage Airbnb’s)

 

What they find is that people actually use less annual leave. The average Brit probably has one two week holiday in costa del shithole every year and then maybe a couple of long weekends away either in the UK or a European city. That leaves them with still 11-16 days of annual leave which they feel the need to piss away for the sake of it, so they take days to sit at home watching telly, because, well, they can.

 

Bring in unlimited annual leave and people will literally just book the time off when they’re actually going away. 

[steviewevie]

B.1.617

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/15/covid-variant-first-detected-india-found-uk

[efcfanwirral]

20 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

I am friends with a girl who has this setup (she works for a company who manage Airbnb’s)

 

What they find is that people actually use less annual leave. The average Brit probably has one two week holiday in costa del shithole every year and then maybe a couple of long weekends away either in the UK or a European city. That leaves them with still 11-16 days of annual leave which they feel the need to piss away for the sake of it, so they take days to sit at home watching telly, because, well, they can.

 

Bring in unlimited annual leave and people will literally just book the time off when they’re actually going away. 

And for those of us on here the day after festivals that people drag themselves in for but don't actually do any work on would be dealt with (edited that as my first post made no sense!)

Edited April 16, 2021 by efcfanwirral

[Mr.Tease]

2 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

Its getting a bit interesting where I work as some people have been going in throughout (maintenance staff, catering etc) and some half working from home and half in office and some 100% working from home.

I had a debate with my team leader who announced that she won't be returning to working full time in the office and I pushed her a little on why.  She is in her mid-20's, lives 15 mins from our place of work, has no children or any other reason that makes working from home easier.  She had no answer for me....funnily enough one of my friends works with her boyfriend and through that connection I heard it was because she prefers to lie in bed till 5 to 9 and sit in her pyjamas all day etc, although obviously she wouldn't admit that to me!

When you've experienced a bereavement or been through a traumatic or life changing event, it's really common to not want to just carry on as before-sometimes you don't know what exactly you want to change, or why, but you just know something needs to be different (because life, or at least your perspective of it has fundamentally changed! ) . 

This past year has completely altered people's reality, bringing up issues of mortality, loss of control and how you feel safe again knowing shit like this can happen (and also shifting your perspective on what's important and what you've been putting up with). 

I cant/don't want to carry on as before as if nothing has happened, but I've no idea yet what that means or what form that will take- I think a lot of people will find themselves feeling that way going forward (though lots of people will feel the opposite and will want to try and restore their life to what it was before, and that's how they'll feel safe again!) 

[DeanoL]

 

2 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

load of tosh mate, she's been working at the college fine for 2 years and there is no social anxiety there whatsoever....like most people I think its because they can get away with doing less at home.

Is she delivering less or lower quality work though? Is she less good as a manager?

That's the big change here. People are going to be judged on what they deliver rather than when they're in the office. Will some people sit and home, do fuck all, and collect a cheque? Yes. But guess what, when those people were coming into work they were also doing fuck all. But no-one said anything because they always "worked their hours". We'll find out who those people are at last. 

[JoeyT]

Really feel sorry for Wales with Drakeford literally mugging them off in regards to guidelines. Surely he has to change things earlier?!

 

[DeanoL]

I think it'll be a whole new world going forwards, and I think there's a lot of complications still to come with the WFH thing. Just as an example I used to WFH a lot as most of my team were based in London (I was in our Midlands office so little point me going in often) - my job has got a lot easier in the pandemic as *everyone* is WFH, so no expectation for in person meetings, so no trying to line up a meeting where everyone can be in the office on the same day. The "hybrid" model only works if people remain available to go in to work every day for meetings where required but stay at home when not. The "hybrid" model we used to have meant X did WFH Mon/Thu and Y did WFH Tue/Wed and so we could only ever arrange in person meetings on Friday... bloody nightmare.

I think short term there's a massive ethical issue if a vaccinated manager is asking unvaccinated reports to come into the office. Which is likely as managers tend to be older than their reports. 

[Ozanne]

6 minutes ago, Mr.Tease said:

When you've experienced a bereavement or been through a traumatic or life changing event, it's really common to not want to just carry on as before-sometimes you don't know what exactly you want to change, or why, but you just know something needs to be different (because life, or at least your perspective of it has fundamentally changed! ) . 

This past year has completely altered people's reality, bringing up issues of mortality, loss of control and how you feel safe again knowing shit like this can happen (and also shifting your perspective on what's important and what you've been putting up with). 

I cant/don't want to carry on as before as if nothing has happened, but I've no idea yet what that means or what form that will take- I think a lot of people will find themselves feeling that way going forward (though lots of people will feel the opposite and will want to try and restore their life to what it was before, and that's how they'll feel safe again!) 

I’m out of upvotes but this is a lovely post. 

[DeanoL]

 

14 hours ago, MrHew said:

It's bloody bonkers. I refuse to regularly buy my lunch so take a packed lunch most days. Buying a lunch is a proper treat to me. Saves me a ton of money to spend on what I prefer too 

I did the same but when I when I started WFH 3 days (pre-pandemic) I actually started to treat myself to a bought lunch the one day I was in our Midlands office, just to sort of balance it out. Could afford it once a week and it was a treat that made up for the commute. Although later on I started just working half an hour extra on WFH/London days so I could start an hour later and finish an hour earlier on my office day.

14 hours ago, sisco said:

I get that others may thrive although I’m pretty sure working from home means most eat and drink at home?! Maybe it’s just me.  

Well at the moment, yeah, because COVID. But that will change when cafes and stuff locally are actually open! We will see a lot more people using them as temporary workspaces when they want a change of scenery too. But yeah, the city centre ones will suffer because fewer people, but we should see more small cafes and such crop up in more rural areas where a large part of the community are working from home.

I think big cities will be fine - enough people live there it'll work. I think the medium-town high street may actually be in trouble - they'll decline but that'll be matched with growth in those little runs of shops you get, the sort of out-of-town "high street" type thing with a barbers, newsagents, mini-supermarket thing and maybe a Greggs. They've been suffering but I think we'll see a *lot* of cafes opening in those premises and more of that sort of development cropping up.

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

1 hour ago, Barry Fish said:

Here is a real thing...

Unlimited annual leave

When you consider most people will use their annual leave to go on their annual two week holiday eating British food in Costa Del Shithole...  and the rest of their allowance usually to cover appointments, kids nativity, kids sports day and so on...

If people are WFH / WFA and basically doing their hours to suit - the concept of annual leave becomes much reduced.  

We are doing a unlimited annual leave offer with a just don't take the piss clause.  So book your holidays and then just sort your life around your job or vice versa.

The actual wording in the contract will be 25 days + bank holidays + other holidays at managers discretion.  As we don't want to fall foul of employment law.  But the working arrangement in reality is just basically crack on - let us know if your going to disappear for two weeks.

I have a plan to go snowboarding in Feb but will take laptop.  Days on the slopes - evening catching up work for example.

My mate floats around digital start ups in Berlin, unlimited annual leave is very real for him and their developers. Judged on output not hours.

[Matt42]

3 in the office 2 at home is my preference too. As a young person working in the city total remote life isn’t for me.

Might prefer it if I had a fat house in the countryside. But it’s not great for juniors.

I also don’t like that there is a bit of out of sight out of mind culture associated with WFH. Some seniors don’t think they have to train people anymore - and delegate the majority of their work to spend time with their kids.

[Crazyfool01]

fucking hell India 😞 .... becoming the New Brazil 😞 its nuts 

Edited April 16, 2021 by crazyfool1

[JoeyT]

 

[JoeyT]

6 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

Gym report...

Back to being 1/5 full at most and mask use down to 5% if that.  Even I gave up today.

Oldies vaccinated and couldn't care less now.  Young ones generally couldn't of cared less throughout (at my gym anyway).

Life going back to normal ? or third wave in the making ? 

You don't have to wear a mask at the gym? I don't understand what you're getting at?

[Boilingtent]

Between equipment i think you do. In climbing walls you to wear a mask while belaying which seems ridiculous.

[JoeyT]

1 minute ago, Barry Fish said:

You are meant to wear them when not exercising.  So when entering and leaving and moving between equipment.

I didn't even know that (the moving between equipment bit) and can therefore confirm neither me or anyone else at the David Lloyd i'm a member of has been wearing a mask whilst in the actual gym.

Seems like a batshit crazy rule that.

[DeanoL]

16 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

Biggest issue with WFH / WFA is the training of junior staff.

It's something that needs to be solved, it just hasn't been yet as most places weren't taking on new staff during the pandemic. Much like how it was seen to be difficult/impossible to do a lot of things remotely, which we've now found ways to do out of necessity. This is just a problem that hasn't been entirely solved yet because the demand has not been there, not because it's fundamentally difficult.

[JoeyT]

1 minute ago, Barry Fish said:

Careful you will get downvotes speaking like that.  

https://www.davidlloyd.co.uk/news/uk-member-safety

All members over 12 years must wear a face covering when inside the building unless you are exempt.

 

Ha! 

Well yeah, I wear one to the changing rooms and vice versa but as far as I was aware it was fair game once in the gym itself.

[JoeyT]

Just done a quick google and although this is from PureGym's website safe to assume it's the same at all gyms throughout England. Basically masks are encouraged although not mandatory / law.

DO I HAVE TO WEAR A MASK IN THE GYM?

In England, following the latest advice from the Government, members are encouraged to wear a suitable face covering while in the gym (except when exercising). Please wear a face covering when entering the gym, in communal areas and changing rooms, and when moving around the gym. This can be removed during exercise. Please ensure that all used masks are disposed of safely in one of the bins provided.

In Scotland and Wales, face coverings must be worn by law within the communal areas of the gym, but can be removed whilst exercising.

Edited April 16, 2021 by JoeyT