It should be an option!! For goodness sake, some people work better that way. You’d think more people in management would realize that.
What I find ironic is the push over the years from offices to cubicles to open plans to not even having your own desk. Then a deadly virus comes along and makes cramming people together really dangerous (not that all managers care).
My “Works At” location is a data center that we will be vacating next year.
That will relocate us to our overly crowded corporate site where I think we’ll have enough seating for about 20% of the headcount that currently works out of the data center. So…we will have to be primarily WfH in about a year.
Add to that, several people moved to more remote places with the understanding that if they had to come back to the office full time, they’d find a new job. Hell, people who still live where they did pre-pandemic have voiced they will quit before working full-time at the office.
I don’t think there will be a big push to bring my location back to the office full time. It would be chaos.
Yeah, it’s weird. When I got into career work, the few offices were already reserved for sales and executives. First career job was open-plan and it actually seemed kinda ok. It was a very small company (like we could all fit in a van to go somewhere for lunch small). Then we grew and moved and went to cubicles and that was somehow worse. Then the next job was open-plan hot-desking and at first I thought it’d be better (like that first career job), but it was significantly worse.
One of my coworkers said she never even bothered bringing her laptop since she wouldn’t get anything done at the office anyway. Another always asked me if I could get anything done, because he barely ever got anything done there. People always had trouble with their laptops connecting to the network in-office (they worked fine at home) and stuff like that.
So office days ended up being just for meetings, socializing with people in other departments that you rarely talked to or your coworkers that you rarely saw in person, or reading/learning time. Any actual work was homework. Gradually, more and more of us just stopped going and/or moved away.
We still had a small office crew when Covid hit, so I’m curious to see what happens if/when they decide to reopen it. We have so much office, and it’s a big expense. Maybe for some people it’s a getaway from home, structure and a different environment, no screaming children or loud neighbors or whatever, but I don’t know how many or how long that will be worth it.
I expect a number of companies keeping an office presence might go back to having actual offices.
So weird!!! Honestly sometimes I wonder if the “open plan” contributed to the early fast spread of COVID. I know three people who worked for an employee-owned company. Somehow they got sold out to a huge company – maybe through a vote, though they said a lot of the founders really wanted it. Their stock more than doubled when they sold it. But it immediately went from offices to open plan. Two retired about the time, and the third couldn’t wait to get out of there. Corporate culture just went from good to bad to terrible. From what I hear, at any rate.
Tee-hee!
As a former office drone, I’m finding this to be rather amusing, in a peculiar way. How things have changed!
Don’t I bloody wish!
Or:
Journal of the Corona Year
6/13
It’s been two weeks since my second shot. Actually two-and-a-half weeks. I’m supposedly immune now. So I’ve made some changes.
I’m feeling better since I got the second shot. I’m not so depressed, I’m getting more done and I’m sleeping better. I’m not sure if this is psychological or physical.
For the first time I bought a cloth mask. There’s a small fabric store a few blocks north of here that makes them. I still have two or three KN95-type masks, but I will keep those in reserve for the next pandemic, which might be coming his fall.
There are a number of reasons why I bought the cloth mask. If I’m outside and decide to take it off, I can stash it in a pocket or shopping bag without worrying about bending the nose brace. Because it’s cloth it should stand up to daily hand-washings. It should hopefully be more “breathable” for hot summer weather. And, I’m hoping it will be easier on my ears.
Although I fell safer, I’m still working remotely. It’s partially a matter of habit. But I’m also waiting to see what happens with these new “variants” that are in the news.
Over the weekend I had to get on a crowded D train. It was about 50% full. I haven’t been on a train that crowded since November. I have been careful to avoid crowded trains. But time, since I now have immunity, I didn’t feel like I was risking my life.
Almost everyone on the trains are still wearing masks. There are always a few people who consider themselves too smart for such things.
As I exited the Hindu festival in Washington Square, I took off my mask and proceeded up 5th Avenue. It felt great. My cloth mask folded neatly in my coat’s inner pocket. By the time I got to about 10th Street I started encountering larger groups of people. People harder to avoid. So the mask went back on again. Most other people were doing the same. No, things are not back to normal yet.
At this point I’m actually kind of looking forward to going back to the office next week. I mean, probably I’ll want to go back to WFH after a week or less, but there’s the variety aspect of it.
It could just be because I have a jury summons for mid-July than I’m now fretting about instead. They supposedly are doing social distancing, partial capacity and mandatory masks for all in the courts (which probably doesn’t help the already WAY backlogged court system any) but it’s something I’d be nervous and annoyed about even if there were no pandemic.
The local vaccination rate is up to about 50% of adults (and may not get much better). Community spread is still “moderate” but generally trending downward. Hopefully there won’t be much of a bounce from the relaxed restrictions.
We did some shopping errands this weekend, including an outdoor outlet mall. I was amazed to see people waiting in line, really not six feet apart, largely without masks, on a scorching 95 degree day, just to get into some outlet store or other (Nike if I remember right?) The sort of line I would look at on a more pleasant day with no pandemic and say “eff that.”
Thank you for the clear explanation!
Everything you say is true. Good reminder. Let’s say I was using the term non-scientifically.
But it seems to me the vaccination center was throwing around terms like “immune” or “immunity.” That does seem deceptive or at least overly simplistic.
Did anyone see Jon Stewart on The Late Show? Did that seem irresponsible?
I saw some noise about it, but haven’t watched it yet.
Can you give a TL;DW or should I just watch it?
I couldn’t watch the entire thing. I started jumping ahead to see if there was a punchline. Yes, you might as well watch it.
it’s not long, you should watch it. i can’t decide if it was a bit, or if he’s been infected with some form of the Qanon virus.
I’ve seen similar billboards in Indiana.