“Hybrid” working is turning out to a utter bullshit. At least in my department non-supervisors can’t work in-house unless a supervisor is on duty, and so far that’sonly been happening once a month when the entirelical leadershipteam is on site, . Even then it’s a largely empty building. I hate remote work so fucking much. I’m sick of this bullshit. I was hired during the pandemic, but REMOTE wasn’t part of the job description, it was something they were doing because of the pandemic. They were working on flexible options to give people a choice, there’s no fucking choice. And I’m constantly hearing about empoyers wanting staff to come in-house, even trying to mandate. Why aren’t there any employers like that around here? Who do I need to suck off to get one of those jobs? I’m alone all day, every day in my apartment. Most days I’m so emotionally exhausted I just want to bing eat and go to bed. It’s making me happier that the sun is setting sooner. This is not natural; this is nit healthy. I just want to leave my apartment everyday and go to work in a place where otger human beings are also working.
You need to get out, among people. Now.
The closest coffee place to me is full of people who use it as an office. It’s well known for that, and everyone knows that if you want silence you won’t get it there (over half the customers are on business calls/zoom meetings).
One guy’s an architect who occasionally has client meetings, at which they have plans rolled out on the longest table. He’s also made friends with other “Office à la Carte” people. They now take a break about 10am, get a second cup and breakfast, and kvetch with each other.
There are also co-working spaces where others in your situation hang out. I know people who value even the “Hey, how’s it going?” that they get in the common kitchen/break areas.
So get a routine where you can actually “leave for work” every morning. And figure out how you can fit your home office in a backpack (if you have to buy a laptop, it’s cheaper than years of therapy), and GET OUT!
Amazing how different people are. I had wanted to work from home for YEARS. Now that I have it, it’s great for me. I don’t need people mumbling to me all day long (send me and email or Slack). I don’t have to waste 1.5 hours a day on the road back and forth.
I had the best office/cube in the building. Very nice corner office, beautiful views. They can have it. The office space has been redesigned so I don’t have an office there any more. Yay!
I also have to plow my drive (and sometimes the road to my house) during out long winters. Man, it is so much easier to do during a long lunch, than doing it in the dark.
I have my own space at home. My Wife did too when COVID first struck, but she is back in the office. She’s fine with that. If they ever want me back in the office, well retirement is getting closer and closer…
As I said, people are different. I think digs has good advice though. Make a routine of going out every day. I walk my dogs every day, come back and finish up work.
It is! My brain just does not equate home to work. Even when I set up different areas, get dressed and put on shoes, start on time, etc. I just can’t switch my brain from Home to Work if I don’t like actually leave the house. It seems that’s the transition. So I’m glad I have a place to go to work.
Not that I could go there today. My daughter’s babysitter quit partway through the day yesterday. But that’s a rant for another thread.
For this thread - our Accounts Payable department is messing stuff up again. I followed their process after they booked an invoice incorrectly. And now, a month later, it is still not fixed. It’s like I need to open a new ticket every time. And the answer to each ticket is one sentence in, maybe, the right direction. I’m exhausted.
I can understand that. My Wife didn’t really like working from home. Set her up with a private office, desk and stuff but she didn’t like it, or didn’t really care. My cousin did for a time and loved it, but is not allowed to anymore. She works for a tax prep company, and carting peoples paper documents around is a big security risk.
I often have to do server work that can’t be done during business hours. Being able to go up to my office in the loft over our bedroom in the evening is great. I sure as shit am not going to drive to the ‘office’ to sit at a computer at night when all I have to do is click an icon on my own computer at home and connect up to the very same computer. Nuh ehh. Not going to happen.
I’ve purchased a 43 inch monitor and a 30 inch monitor for my home office on my dime. I also bought a new desktop tower and installed a Starlink sat dish for faster ping, also on my dime. I’m fine with that. I would not have expected my employer to set me up with my own home office. I guess I’m saying that I’m no slacker when it comes to setting myself up for what needs to be done (not suggesting you are).
There aren’t any coworking spaces in my city, and I’d never be allowed to use a public wifi network or work somewhere were random members of the public could see my screens or overhear my calls. 
. Our systems have enough trouble wifi in general that it’s easier to plug my computer directly into my router.
Wifi is disabled by default on computers issued by my company. We have wifi at work, but it’s for guests only. So yeah, working at home means sitting near the router so I can plug in the computer.
Nice! I got tired of hauling my monitors back and forth, so I ended up buying 32" monitor for my work-from-home setup. Most of my work could be done with the work computer/32" combo except for accessing a single program, which was best accomplished via remote access on my Mac (very long story). Now that I’m back in the office full time, the 32" monitor is now connected to my Mac. They look weird sitting on the desk, but the screens line up in a neat way.
I don’t know why but “working at home” workers getting together to have an office coffee break is one of the coolest things I’ve read today.
Probably because it’s a group of people who met each other at random and decided they like each other enough to purposefully take a break together.
When one goes home*, someone else will ask “You gonna be in the office tomorrow?” “Nope, but I’ll be here Thursday at 9.” “Okay, take care!”
*I ran into one of these guys, who’d left the coffee joint… only to set up working in a bar down the street. He explained that he had a deadline, so had to knuckle down where no one knew him.
So a place where nobody knows his name?
Well played. [clap, clap, clap]
Especially because if they did call out his name, it’d be “Norm!”
But they don’t.
Because they don’t know that, see?
.
Besides, his name’s Cliff.
.
.
No, that’s his nom de barroom. He’s Doug.
I pay to use an app that has co-working spaces all-over the country, though I mostly work in one and know many of the people there. It is nice to have an impromptu conversation every once in a while, especially since it is not work related since we don’t work for the same company. I was used to work remotely before the pandemic though, since we were allowed work from home though I would only do so 2 days out of five.
I have actually purchased a monitor that is connected and powered by the USB port. It makes it easy to have a dual-monitor set up with my laptop on the go.
Back to the rants, I saw that evaluations are going to be starting soon. I know that I have done my job, and done it well. But there is this whole goal system that has been set up where you are supposed to come up with goals at the beginning of the year and then evaluate how well you met them. I really dislike that part of the job and having to revisit it during evaluation time brings back the dislike. I really want it to be over with so I can forget about it for another year.
//i\\
My goal is to do my job to the best of my ability.
My job right now is going to school. The government has a program where they pay employees to go to university to become certified health care aides. We have two lab days a week and three zoom days. During Zoom class yesterday there was a ‘hot mic’ incident where three people were badmouthing other students. I was one of the students. We’ll call the person talking about me, Sherrie because that’s her name. The comment about me was “fucking floatygimpy didn’t speak in the breakout room”. Sometimes I speak, sometimes I don’t. Whatever.
Today was lab day so we were all in person and there was a bit of awkwardness about it all. Today we also got assigned our partners for our final skills test. Wouldn’t you know it, my partner is the very one who was talking about me. Lovely.
Then, towards the end of class, some of the students wanted to get a picture taken of the class as we’re just about done with it. The main person pushing the group picture was Sherrie. Some of us just didn’t want to be in the impromptu class photo, so we didn’t. But other people, including the two people I’m actually friends with were acting a bit pissed off at me about not joining in.
The thing that bothers me the most is my friend was one of the other people being talked about and I totally had her back today but I feel like she didn’t have mine.
If someone’s saying “fucking floatygimpy” yesterday, why would I want my picture taken with them today? I’m sure this all sounds whiny but it’s all really bummed me out.
Doesn’t sound whiny to me, at all. I don’t like this Sherrie person.
And this Sherrie person is going to be a certified health care aide??? 
Because some people at my company simply cannot resist clicking on a link, no matter how suspicious the email looks, corporate IT now has all links being sent through Proofpoint. The general idea is nice – any link you click on in an email is routed into what appears to be a sandbox in your default browser – but it’s a royal pain in the ass when you’re dealing multiple Acrobat Sign documents in one day.
I’m on a subcommittee at work; we’re supposed to meet on the second Thursday of each month.
Apparently, today is not the second Thursday in September, on account of last week not being a full week.
Aka, someone is a moron and forgot to prepare for the meeting, and this was the best justification they could come up with.
We had something similar at work - our team all try to make an effort to be in the office on the first Thursday of the month. But we recognised the issue well ahead of time and arranged our office day for Thursday 8 September as an exception. You know, like normal, reasonable people.
I have infinitely more respect for someone who says, “I screwed up, and didn’t count last Thursday,” over someone whose ego is so fragile that they can’t admit to a minor mistake and has to make a flimsy excuse.