The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

[Bunni]

Rolling out daily covid testing for staff in my work. The weekly testing is already a time sink for us, so in discussions with management they've decided on a method that will only take 4 hours. Bear in mind, I've been working alone regularly due to staffing issues and never make it out on time so I really don't have another 4 hours to spare. My colleague and I agreed (knowing we'd not follow their instructions)and did a test run where we just went rogue, did it our way we tried to argue out in the meeting and got it done in an hour (including briefing staff on the changes individually and inputting barcodes and results to a spreadsheet) which is much more manageable. Obviously they were delighted with the results.

Better to ask forgiveness than permission in some cases.

[Qikz]

Made the mistake of trying (and failing because apparantly the not booking more than a year in advance doesn't apply to some people) this week off next year and got told no, while trying to find time to take the rest of this years holiday off I stupidly looked at some work emails/our work slack and it looks like even though the year changed it's still the same old gooseberry fool. Really can't wait for Monday.

[Dual]

I work on my second screen during those pointless meetings. Put my mic on mute and just carry on with the ding dongs going on in the background. I'm very productive during those meetings!

[Cuttooth]

So Dual are you alright to take that on? When do you think you'll have it delivered?

[Jenuall]

Can I just remind everyone prior to this afternoon's all hands meeting that the office dress code still applies when working from home. We've seen a few people on recent Teams calls who have been letting standards slip and HR may start issuing warnings if this continues.

Thanks for all the hard work everyone!

[Dual]

So Dual are you alright to take that on? When do you think you'll have it delivered?

Er, yeah no problems this end. I'll set up a Teams Meeting with Commercial to run through the details.

[Cuttooth]

So Dual are you alright to take that on? When do you think you'll have it delivered?

Er, yeah no problems this end. I'll set up a Teams Meeting with Commercial to run through the details.

OK I think we can wrap up there, good meeting everyone, have a good one.

Dual do you mind staying on the line a sec? Thanks.

[Victor Mildew]

Let me just share my screen

*spends 5 minutes sharing the wrong thing*

[Dual]

Let me just share my screen

*spends 5 minutes sharing the wrong thing*

Can you all see that? It's usually a bit slow haha

We can't see anything

Now?

No

[Dual]

So Dual are you alright to take that on? When do you think you'll have it delivered?

Er, yeah no problems this end. I'll set up a Teams Meeting with Commercial to run through the details.

OK I think we can wrap up there, good meeting everyone, have a good one.

Dual do you mind staying on the line a sec? Thanks.

I can't reply to this Cuttooth because I'm getting serious anxiety thinking about every time this has happened to me

[Cuttooth]

It's ok, doing this eventually does the exact same thing to me.

[Victor Mildew]

Let me just share my screen

*spends 5 minutes sharing the wrong thing*

Can you all see that? It's usually a bit slow haha

We can't see anything

Now?

No

Or the other one:

"You've gone really quiet Dave"

"Oh sorry I just took my headset off, is that better?"

[Dual]

Let me just share my screen

*spends 5 minutes sharing the wrong thing*

Can you all see that? It's usually a bit slow haha

We can't see anything

Now?

No

Or the other one:

"You've gone really quiet Dave"

"Oh sorry I just took my headset off, is that better?"

That's a nice background Dave, where are you Spain!? Haha how did you get a flight to Spain Dave!?
Wish I was in Spain Dave!

[Green Gecko]

Have to agree that calls and meetings are mostly discussing a load of crap that can be opined in email or some other structured solution, especially if the structure of the organisation is didactic anyway and nothing is likely to be taken on board by superiors. I'd only say meetings are beneficial where there is an actual creative decision to be made or "synergy" or whatever you want to call it, because the employees have any power to change how things work. This is usually not the case, rendering a pretend two way conversation or presentation pointless.

[Jenuall]

My experience has been that meetings tend to be very helpful when any form of decision needs to be made, creative or otherwise.

The number of times I've seen pointless back and forth email exchanges going on for weeks and making little or no progress toward a solution that are then easily solved by getting people to sit down and actually talk about it is ridiculous.

Generally the frustration I find is people using the wrong tool for the wrong situation - email exchanges that could have been fixed by a quick call, rambling meetings that would have been better served by a clear email etc.

[Green Gecko]

That's true. I use creativity in the utmost broadest sense.

I've had customers that phone up for no apparent reason to just talk about gooseberry fool going on in their business. I've definitely known meetings to end and being a similar thing. I mean, that's fine, but can do that whenever.

In terms of time investment, it's a great way to watch the revenue on a job just bottom out, those customers don't miraculously come back because they appreciated the company!

And then there's the in person meetings where I bring all my gooseberry fool and they just never turn up and had no idea there was a meeting. Yeah, sure.

[Jenuall]

Obviously it will vary across jobs/industries etc. where some situations mean that effectively "just chatting" to customers is probably a good thing, but yeah I've been in similar situations where I'm stuck on the phone with someone for what feels like a lifetime and we really haven't achieved anything tangible from a work perspective!

[Green Gecko]

Of course, I do it because I think it will help me develop a rapport with the customer, or just get them to like me and pay for stuff, which is very basically how sales works. I've never in my life just shut down a conversation with anyone. Sure I'm more mutually beneficial than that and I make constant concessions however when I look at the time spent on jobs that equate to under £100 on revenue and it's literally 5, 10, 20 hours. Or whole accounts, sub £500 nevermind £1000, and it's hundreds of hours. That there is a problem.

[Red]

Passed my initial training so got a 3 month contract extension and a pay rise

[Rocsteady]

Of course, I do it because I think it will help me develop a rapport with the customer, or just get them to like me and pay for stuff, which is very basically how sales works. I've never in my life just shut down a conversation with anyone. Sure I'm more mutually beneficial than that and I make constant concessions however when I look at the time spent on jobs that equate to under £100 on revenue and it's literally 5, 10, 20 hours. Or whole accounts, sub £500 nevermind £1000, and it's hundreds of hours. That there is a problem.

Can you not:

- Charge more
- Use billable hours for any out of scope calls that arise
- Send reminders and clarify if people aren't turning up for in-person meetings. That isn't normal so I assume if it's repeatedly happening it's miscommunication on your part