escapedtonz

So, as part of my employers business continuity plan, as many employees as possible trialled a 'Work from home' day today which went pretty good so far as I know. Heard on the grape vine that it might turn in to something more permanent in a week or so.
Anyways CEO wrote out this evening and the board have decided to make the decision now so as of Monday we must work from home until further notice.
Works for me.
Means I'm home all the time. No having to commute 110kms each way and wasting 2.5hrs of my life each day I do it. Also dont have to shell out the cash for petrol, car maintenance etc as much. Wife & kid happy I'll be home all the time.
Can only do it as I'm on a temporary secondment in another department for 6 months so not due back on shift till September.

What about everyone else.....any drama ?

Bo-Jangles

I am trying my best to make people in my office wake up and get themselves prepared to do this but at present it's the typical 'she'll be right' kind of way and bosses are reluctant to respond so far - that is, I guess until one of us gets a sore throat and then people will wake up to reality. By then of course the country will be fresh out of any laptops, monitors and such like.

As I understand it supply chain for laptops and PCs is becoming an issue, as businesses are buying up all they can and shops are doing a brisk trade in home office equipment, printers, desks and such like.

Charismatic

I've always had the option but prefer working in an office.

Companies that aren't set up for remote working or haven't actually tried it for a prolonged period are in for a shock.

MrsFychan

logistically my company could do it for a while for work already in but our work means carrying out estimates which means going into peoples homse which obviously going to cause problems sooner rather than later.

Mishclark

I'm retraining in health care. Seems like it was a good time for a career change.

escapedtonz

Had an online meeting Friday with the team to go through what hardware everyone needs for prolonged working from home.............as an aside topic, we ditched using Skype for Business this time and used the new platform Microsoft Teams which was heaps heaps heaps better.
Anyways the company ordered 100 new monitors last week and apparently there's no more available in the country so they'll be handed out to staff on a priority basis so there'll be quite a few having to struggle along with just their laptop for a while until office hardware supplies filter through. Luckily I set myself up with everything I needed to work from home a couple of years ago so I'm all good, however I should have got myself 3 screens and a different docking station as my Dynadock can't do more than 2....bugger. Having 3 screens and my laptop screen would be awesome and just like being in the office but ce la vie.

Take it easy out there peeps.

Mishclark

Was given a link yesterday from Australian health department, can register for free 30 minute online training for health workers, health industry, medical professional etc for Covid 19.
Going to do it, I have the time now.

Clappy

My workplace also trialed having staff working-from-home last week (it was always OK for some to do that from time-to-time but they thought they would see what happens when everyone does it).

So I will be working from home next week and get one hour back per day by not commuting.

Mrs Clappy already worked from home three days out of five per week but she has now been told to work from home every day for the forseeable future.

escapedtonz

So, the home working has been fine but will be a tad more difficult now the kids are home on lockdown also. Mrs has jotted down a weekday calendar for them both that gives the recommended 2-3hrs per day education and the rest free time as well as allowing parents to get on with stuff. Three times a week the Mrs will be out working on the front line being a nurse so on those days theres no chance I can do 8hrs of work. Have asked my employer what is expected of me in that case and luckily it isn't just me in that boat so they'll have to come up with a compromise. Hopefully that'll be just do what you can when you can and we'll just keep it between ourselves ?

Justcol

We don't have the luxury of being able to work from home, I'm on a ten day stretch at the moment.

we work in a prison , our prisoner numbers have gone up, we don't have the option to maintain a safe social distance
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Apart from extra gloves and hand sanitizer it's business as usual for most prison staff

BEVS

MrBEVs doesn't have the luxury of working from home either. It is shutdown with restricted wages and perhaps then little to no pay when the accrued leave runs out, or perhaps even let go. Even then atm the trade is on the essentials list so he could get called out.

jarv5116

hey col
What prison do you work at?

Justcol

Pm'd you

Charismatic

My partner, unsatisfied with my leaders monthly appraisals, seems to have taken it upon herself to provide in the moment performance feedback to me. Apparently I act polite while "seeming kind of pushy" and thinks that all the automation I've done should mean I can now do more work (why would I make a rod for my own back?) I'm thinking about asking my manager to reassign me to another office to avoid the toxic workplace culture of "productivity bullying" she is creating.

escapedtonz

Ok so, I've been working from home near 3 weeks now and I'm glad to report it's still going well from my point of view.
Quite comfortable in the spare room looking out on the quarry park view. If I'm honest, I'm doing way more hours of actual quality work.
Using the company mobile as a 4G wifi hotspot so not having to use our own limited rural broadband internet and that's working pretty well. Luckily I don't use the company mobile for voice calls/messages as we do all that on the laptop using Skype For Business and Microsoft Teams.
Glad to say this situation has made the company rethink the necessity of anyone needing to work from the office and seems like they're gonna completely change the policy leaving the decision up to the employee which is awesome for me in the short term whilst working in this post till the end of August. After that when I return to shifts I don't have the option and have to go in to the office but the future isn't written yet so timelines may change...who knows?
Hope you're all happy, healthy and staying safe in your bubbles