The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

[Oblomov Boblomov]

I'm tasked with putting together a model that sees at least 40% attendance on-site, so obviously 2 days a week for a full-time person. It's considered a trial until September by the sound of it, after which point we expect to be thinking about possible restrictions again over the winter.

I've already made quite a bit of fuss about it being an arbitrary, ideological nonsense that I won't be able to rationally justify to the team, the vast majority of whom (I took the opportunity to again remind them) are very keen to maintain a high level of remote working, as am I.

Feel a bit of a spoiled brat about it, to be honest. Imagine being offered three days a week WFH before all this, with the knowledge that everything could continue to operate smoothly. You'd have thought you'd hit the jackpot!

[Rocsteady]

I'm tasked with putting together a model that sees at least 40% attendance on-site, so obviously 2 days a week for a full-time person. It's considered a trial until September by the sound of it, after which point we expect to be thinking about possible restrictions again over the winter.

I've already made quite a bit of fuss about it being an arbitrary, ideological nonsense that I won't be able to rationally justify to the team, the vast majority of whom (I took the opportunity to again remind them) are very keen to maintain a high level of remote working, as am I.

Feel a bit of a spoiled brat about it, to be honest. Imagine being offered three days a week WFH before all this, with the knowledge that everything could continue to operate smoothly. You'd have thought you'd hit the jackpot!

It sounds like you're doing the right thing though.

In a highly competitive work environment those who offer truly flexible arrangements (i.e. from home whenever viable rather than some random %) will win out. Unless you're already someone like Deloitte, whose name carries enough clout to get away with whatever you want.

[Lagamorph]

We're currently discussing one day per month in the office just after pay day to go out for lunch together.

[Wrathy]

I've been talked into going to the office two days a week... honestly it seems so inferior lol, sharing screens on Teams and talking people through the things I'm working on is just is far better for a lot of what I do than having face to face meetings. Plus I have to commute and such, which is downright awful - when WFH I get up at 8, when going to the office it's 6:30, cos otherwise the traffic is appalling. And let's not even start about the covid guidelines. It's now, after moving to a new building, in a big open plan office with about 100 people coming and going at will, with no ventilation, and the mask policy is that you wear one moving about but can take it off at your desk. Completely pointless. Plenty of hand sanitiser though.

I don't dislike the people I work with or anything so it was kind of nice to be there for the novelty, but eh. I've adapted well to WFH over the last few months since I moved to my new flat, and I don't really see enough of a benefit from being on site to want to be there. They gave me a 6.1% pay rise backdated to January so I thought I should play nice but going in to the office just feels like a bit of a step backwards.

[Drumstick]

Heard today from my head of department that there are plans to allow people back into the office over the summer on a limited basis. Doesn't seem like they're going to try and strong-arm us.

[Pancake]

Strongly suspect we will move to a flexi model towards the end of the year, no full time WFH. I am very much OK with this though, there are many things I miss about being in the office so a mix of both would suit me well. We also have to be a bit careful, and I'm sure this applies to many people, because I work for a big company that already has large support teams in places like Warsaw. If we push too heavily for full-time WFH and they decide to scale down the UK office then it's only a matter of time before jobs are relocated to a cheaper country.

[Green Gecko]

I'm going from WFH to WFH back to WFH again.

Might get an office a day a week if I can find one for those miserably unproductive days where I could use getting out of the house but that's it.

[Zilnad]

Here we go again.

[Jenuall]

♫ On my own! ♫

[Kezzer]

I am going into the office on Friday to collect stuff from my desk and steal some supplies - Also need to do a quick inventory check on some equpment we got and used all of twice. It's worth around £300,000.00 So the plan is to see who in the company we can punt it to so it is more effective.

[Zilnad]

♫ On my own! ♫

Got my wife as the guy in the chair so she's keeping me grounded. The fight is well and truly on now. It's going to be bloody

[Qikz]

I forgot to do one ticket this morning because I got lumbered with another big thing that had to be done, customer complained over something really dumb and they're trying to get me in trouble.

Apparantly the client is thinking of leaving us
a) how the strawberry float am I supposed to know that.
b) I made an honest mistake and forgot because I was doing other project work which is costing another big client of ours money while it isn't sorted.
c) I literally got 5/5 feedback from that exact same client within an hour of being moaned at for another ticket I did and I've never had bad feedback from them.

Why is it you can do 1000s of things right and make 1 mistake and that's all people care about.

[Jenuall]

Someone shared this at work today, data from an informal LinkedIn poll about people's preferences for WFH after the pandemic:



Great to see the vast majority of people wanting most of their time to be remote going forward, hopefully this level of pressure/demand results in real world changes!

[Green Gecko]

It's only on the day I finally am about to submit my vat return I spot on some random accounting blog I can go back up to 4 years from the "effective date of registration" (a simple fact that seems to be impossible to define). Which means because HMRC accepted my back registration to 2017, it's four years back from that, rather than the date I really, literally registered. Which means 3 more years of accounting to go through. Jesus strawberry floating christ.

Plus I have to find out which services were "extinguished" and which goods are no longer to hand, such as hundreds of items like t-shirts, which means a full stock take of my studio and cross referencing that with invoices from over 7 strawberry floating years go.

And I have to issue vat only invoices for every sale I've ever made. Nobody is going to want a bill from 2014, so I'll simply relinquish 20% of all my sales I've ever made. Except in effect I won't, because the balance on the VAT account will mean I'm still due a refund.

Why do I do this to myself.

[Winckle]

I forgot to do one ticket this morning because I got lumbered with another big thing that had to be done, customer complained over something really dumb and they're trying to get me in trouble.

Apparantly the client is thinking of leaving us
a) how the strawberry float am I supposed to know that.
b) I made an honest mistake and forgot because I was doing other project work which is costing another big client of ours money while it isn't sorted.
c) I literally got 5/5 feedback from that exact same client within an hour of being moaned at for another ticket I did and I've never had bad feedback from them.

Why is it you can do 1000s of things right and make 1 mistake and that's all people care about.

Did you take my advice around LinkedIn? You need to get out there, not just rant and rave about getting a new job. Without putting in any effort, things won't change.

[Drumstick]

Internal email which I've trimmed a bit:

As the government’s roadmap for a gradual return to a new normal is progressing, and in response to internal surveys suggesting most people would welcome a smarter, more flexible working approach, the Steering Group has reassessed our existing working environment.

The team is working on a plan, with our colleagues in IT and Facilities, which takes into account what you’ve said about your preferred ways of working, while ensuring a safe and inclusive working environment, following government COVID-19 guidance.

The plan includes an investment in IT and the rollout of new or improved technology such as audio-video equipment. The Steering Group is also reviewing our office setup to try and make it more flexible and agile.

The aim is to start implementing our new ways of working in the summer after a pilot to be launched on 21 June, following the government’s roadmap. If successful, it’ll be extended across the business from mid-July and become our new normal early September.

[Zilnad]

Just contacted a new agency for a job advert that looked awesome. They gave me some more info and it sounded perfect.

Just Googled the company and two of the directors resigned this year after being found guilty of insider trading and price fixing. On top of their own fines, the company was also fined £25m as a result.

I should avoid this like a barge pole, right?

strawberry float my life

[Qikz]

I forgot to do one ticket this morning because I got lumbered with another big thing that had to be done, customer complained over something really dumb and they're trying to get me in trouble.

Apparantly the client is thinking of leaving us
a) how the strawberry float am I supposed to know that.
b) I made an honest mistake and forgot because I was doing other project work which is costing another big client of ours money while it isn't sorted.
c) I literally got 5/5 feedback from that exact same client within an hour of being moaned at for another ticket I did and I've never had bad feedback from them.

Why is it you can do 1000s of things right and make 1 mistake and that's all people care about.

Did you take my advice around LinkedIn? You need to get out there, not just rant and rave about getting a new job. Without putting in any effort, things won't change.

I need to create a linkedin account - I get what you mean though.

I'm just somewhat worried if I suddenly pop up with a linked in account my company might realise that I might want to leave/not be happy or something.

[Victor Mildew]

I forgot to do one ticket this morning because I got lumbered with another big thing that had to be done, customer complained over something really dumb and they're trying to get me in trouble.

Apparantly the client is thinking of leaving us
a) how the strawberry float am I supposed to know that.
b) I made an honest mistake and forgot because I was doing other project work which is costing another big client of ours money while it isn't sorted.
c) I literally got 5/5 feedback from that exact same client within an hour of being moaned at for another ticket I did and I've never had bad feedback from them.

Why is it you can do 1000s of things right and make 1 mistake and that's all people care about.

Did you take my advice around LinkedIn? You need to get out there, not just rant and rave about getting a new job. Without putting in any effort, things won't change.

I need to create a linkedin account - I get what you mean though.

I'm just somewhat worried if I suddenly pop up with a linked in account my company might realise that I might want to leave/not be happy or something.

That's their problem if they do. Everyone is on there, and if you're open to offers then your employer can't see it anyway.

[Winckle]

I forgot to do one ticket this morning because I got lumbered with another big thing that had to be done, customer complained over something really dumb and they're trying to get me in trouble.

Apparantly the client is thinking of leaving us
a) how the strawberry float am I supposed to know that.
b) I made an honest mistake and forgot because I was doing other project work which is costing another big client of ours money while it isn't sorted.
c) I literally got 5/5 feedback from that exact same client within an hour of being moaned at for another ticket I did and I've never had bad feedback from them.

Why is it you can do 1000s of things right and make 1 mistake and that's all people care about.

Did you take my advice around LinkedIn? You need to get out there, not just rant and rave about getting a new job. Without putting in any effort, things won't change.

I need to create a linkedin account - I get what you mean though.

I'm just somewhat worried if I suddenly pop up with a linked in account my company might realise that I might want to leave/not be happy or something.

Firstly, there are many privacy options. Secondly, having a LinkedIn account is very normal, particularly for those in IT. Lastly, if they do think you aren't happy or want to leave, so what? They may even take you more seriously.