Coronavirus = empty roads
Discussion
There are some fundamental changes going on. This social experiment is really changing things and how we adapt. Instead of being able to talk to everyone in an open plan office I have been meeting my team by driving to their village and then going for a walk with some space.
The roads being clear of traffic, an Italian tune up, windows open is just what the doctor ordered. I dont have the radio on as they just talk about covid so a real opportunity to collect my thoughts about specific tasks and meet up again rather than sifting and bumping into them at the coffee machine.
I dont see us going back to 100% how they were
The roads being clear of traffic, an Italian tune up, windows open is just what the doctor ordered. I dont have the radio on as they just talk about covid so a real opportunity to collect my thoughts about specific tasks and meet up again rather than sifting and bumping into them at the coffee machine.
I dont see us going back to 100% how they were
sisu said:
There are some fundamental changes going on. This social experiment is really changing things and how we adapt. Instead of being able to talk to everyone in an open plan office I have been meeting my team by driving to their village and then going for a walk with some space.
The roads being clear of traffic, an Italian tune up, windows open is just what the doctor ordered. I dont have the radio on as they just talk about covid so a real opportunity to collect my thoughts about specific tasks and meet up again rather than sifting and bumping into them at the coffee machine.
I dont see us going back to 100% how they were
You wonder how many job losses are going to come from this when they realise alot can be done from home.The roads being clear of traffic, an Italian tune up, windows open is just what the doctor ordered. I dont have the radio on as they just talk about covid so a real opportunity to collect my thoughts about specific tasks and meet up again rather than sifting and bumping into them at the coffee machine.
I dont see us going back to 100% how they were
Sell the offices, lay off the cleaners and maintenance staff etc.
Reciprocating mass said:
That’s why the armed forces have been put on standby
To deal with the inevitable idiots and help out the police
Not a chance - what do you think they'd be doing? They'll be helping with logistics and so on, not dealing with the public, whatever they are doing.To deal with the inevitable idiots and help out the police
sisu said:
There are some fundamental changes going on. This social experiment is really changing things and how we adapt. Instead of being able to talk to everyone in an open plan office I have been meeting my team by driving to their village and then going for a walk with some space.
The roads being clear of traffic, an Italian tune up, windows open is just what the doctor ordered. I dont have the radio on as they just talk about covid so a real opportunity to collect my thoughts about specific tasks and meet up again rather than sifting and bumping into them at the coffee machine.
I dont see us going back to 100% how they were
Largely I think we will be going back - there are certain types of company and certain types of manager and these will want the bums back on the seats as soon as possible. Sadly these places are all too prevalent.The roads being clear of traffic, an Italian tune up, windows open is just what the doctor ordered. I dont have the radio on as they just talk about covid so a real opportunity to collect my thoughts about specific tasks and meet up again rather than sifting and bumping into them at the coffee machine.
I dont see us going back to 100% how they were
sisu said:
There are some fundamental changes going on. This social experiment is really changing things and how we adapt.
I dont see us going back to 100% how they were
The only thing I hope comes out of all this, the ONLY thing, is self isolation. Too many people bring their viruses etc to work when they could quite happily stay at home.I dont see us going back to 100% how they were
Dog Star said:
Largely I think we will be going back - there are certain types of company and certain types of manager and these will want the bums back on the seats as soon as possible. Sadly these places are all too prevalent.
That’s exactly what will happen at our place. I am finding it easier to concentrate on the job working from home, without the distractions of inane conversations in the office. (I’m even spending less time on PH because I’m focused on my work.). But the boss wants to see people in the office, regardless of whether that’s the most productive place for us software developers. Been watching this topic to get people's opinions on getting out for a drive amid this chaos. Kind of wish I hadn't just bought a new M340i given I won't have much time to drive it now!
I pondered this last night and have deduced that my driving will be limited to - driving to the supermarket (possibly taking the long way round to make it more fun) and doctors to pick up medicine and that's probably it.
I run every other day and will still do that as part of my '1 a day' and it has to be in the evening as we have a 4 year old a toddler in the house, that plus working and home schooling means a daytime run is out of the question. Was thinking I could drive somewhere remote and then do my run, probably less risky than running around the local neighbourhood as I wouldn't see any one....
Interestingly I did a walk with my 4 year old this morning to get her out, only a few people about and we kept away from each other, surprisingly more traffic on the roads than I expected...
I pondered this last night and have deduced that my driving will be limited to - driving to the supermarket (possibly taking the long way round to make it more fun) and doctors to pick up medicine and that's probably it.
I run every other day and will still do that as part of my '1 a day' and it has to be in the evening as we have a 4 year old a toddler in the house, that plus working and home schooling means a daytime run is out of the question. Was thinking I could drive somewhere remote and then do my run, probably less risky than running around the local neighbourhood as I wouldn't see any one....
Interestingly I did a walk with my 4 year old this morning to get her out, only a few people about and we kept away from each other, surprisingly more traffic on the roads than I expected...
I did a pilot scheme of working from home about 20 years ago.
I found I started pretty much as soon as I got up and worked on past usual end time. I didn’t miss the rat race one little bit.
Why this hasn’t become the virtual norm in the intervening decades, with the vast improvements in comms since, is baffling.
If we wanted to cut down on emissions, congestion, nightmare commutes, an overcrowded South East and all that, this stuff this has to be made more attractive. Perhaps through carrot rather than stick as is currently the case.
I found I started pretty much as soon as I got up and worked on past usual end time. I didn’t miss the rat race one little bit.
Why this hasn’t become the virtual norm in the intervening decades, with the vast improvements in comms since, is baffling.
If we wanted to cut down on emissions, congestion, nightmare commutes, an overcrowded South East and all that, this stuff this has to be made more attractive. Perhaps through carrot rather than stick as is currently the case.
swisstoni said:
I did a pilot scheme of working from home about 20 years ago.
I found I started pretty much as soon as I got up and worked on past usual end time. I didn’t miss the rat race one little bit.
Why this hasn’t become the virtual norm in the intervening decades, with the vast improvements in comms since, is baffling.
If we wanted to cut down on emissions, congestion, nightmare commutes, an overcrowded South East and all that, this stuff this has to be made more attractive. Perhaps through carrot rather than stick as is currently the case.
AgreedI found I started pretty much as soon as I got up and worked on past usual end time. I didn’t miss the rat race one little bit.
Why this hasn’t become the virtual norm in the intervening decades, with the vast improvements in comms since, is baffling.
If we wanted to cut down on emissions, congestion, nightmare commutes, an overcrowded South East and all that, this stuff this has to be made more attractive. Perhaps through carrot rather than stick as is currently the case.
There is a perception in some organisations that WFH is "skiving". Place where I worked a few years back, my boss had a serious accident and wasn't able to walk. For him to get approve to WFH took 3 months!
The 3 months prior he sat at home not working, all the time on full salary.
SpudLink said:
Dog Star said:
Largely I think we will be going back - there are certain types of company and certain types of manager and these will want the bums back on the seats as soon as possible. Sadly these places are all too prevalent.
That’s exactly what will happen at our place. I am finding it easier to concentrate on the job working from home, without the distractions of inane conversations in the office. (I’m even spending less time on PH because I’m focused on my work.). But the boss wants to see people in the office, regardless of whether that’s the most productive place for us software developers. Thankfully, my current employer couldn't be more different. They took the decision to close all the offices last Tuesday, and instruct everyone to work from home until further notice. Only warehouse, and a handful of critical support staff are in, and then under very strict social distancing rules. We work flexibly anyway (haven't had my own desk for 4 years), so it wasn't a big cultural change. Instead of doing some of my job via e-mail, phone and Teams, I'm doing all of it, or as much of it as I can.
If anything good comes out of this, it will be a review of the way we operate day to day, and a wider understanding among management that people can still be productive, contactable and accountable without being physically present in an office. So much of the 'rush hour' crowding on our roads and public transport is not operationally necessary.
hungry_hog said:
swisstoni said:
I did a pilot scheme of working from home about 20 years ago.
I found I started pretty much as soon as I got up and worked on past usual end time. I didn’t miss the rat race one little bit.
Why this hasn’t become the virtual norm in the intervening decades, with the vast improvements in comms since, is baffling.
If we wanted to cut down on emissions, congestion, nightmare commutes, an overcrowded South East and all that, this stuff this has to be made more attractive. Perhaps through carrot rather than stick as is currently the case.
AgreedI found I started pretty much as soon as I got up and worked on past usual end time. I didn’t miss the rat race one little bit.
Why this hasn’t become the virtual norm in the intervening decades, with the vast improvements in comms since, is baffling.
If we wanted to cut down on emissions, congestion, nightmare commutes, an overcrowded South East and all that, this stuff this has to be made more attractive. Perhaps through carrot rather than stick as is currently the case.
There is a perception in some organisations that WFH is "skiving". Place where I worked a few years back, my boss had a serious accident and wasn't able to walk. For him to get approve to WFH took 3 months!
The 3 months prior he sat at home not working, all the time on full salary.
Expensive city offices, expensive parking (which is under pressure all the time), pollution etc etc all weigh against it, yet businesses still don't seem to want to make any fast changes. Even in terms of employing the "best" people, imagine if a business wasn't limited to potential employees that were within a commutable radius of their premises.
Good management and adherence to realistic targets is surely something that can be overseen and if someone decides to spend a day on pornhub instead of working, surely the absence of adherence to those targets is measurable whether stood over someone's desk or reviewing the end of day results remotely?
I do hope that one positive we get from this whole situation is that employers realise working from home isn't so bad after all. Instead of chasing the last 2-3% in car emissions, if government allow tax relief for all office based work that allowed 1 day a week working from home we could reduce road deaths, congestions and pollution from millions of journeys not taken. I've been lucky enough to have an employer allow me to work from home 2 days a week, thus saving me 180 miles of travel a week. I've actually had time to go and exercise in the evenings and been able to catch up on sleep on these days too.
Shnozz said:
It still seems madness to my mind that in the modern day, with tech where it is, that droves of people sit in congestion to sit in an office often with the same capabilities as a desk at their home. And in a world of globality where business crosses time zones, even the fact that the business hours are set so that everyone pours on the roads at the same time in the morning and evening seems madness.
It gets worse in my case.In the UK in my team - there is me and one other guy, and the rest of the team are all in Gibraltar.
The other guy in the UK lives ten minutes from the office, yet he is allowed to work from home every day, all year.
We do the same job. I have an hour and a half drive each way. I have to be in the office. I really don't have anything to do whatsoever with the office in the UK aside from exchanging pleasantries with them, I don't work with them.
All my interactions with the rest of the team - and the other guy sat at home a few miles away - is done by Bluejeans and Slack. This works fine. When I am WFH I communicate with the team by Bluejeans and Slack. There is NO DIFFERENCE (although at home my cat sits next to me on his own office chair).
I have taken to simply not going into the office and not mentioning it - nobody cares or has noticed. If I'm having a call with any management outside my immediate small team I leave the camera off.
I know that the manager a couple of levels up isn't too chuffed about my oppo doing WFH all the time, but he can't really rescind it. He's gone so far as to call me and ask if it causes a problem for me. Why he doesn't like it is a mystery to me - he's 1500 miles away and doesn't know where we are. It's presenteeism, pure and simple.
It's a farcical situation - I'm meant to spend 3 hours a day driving, spend a fortune on fuel and parking, get up at 5.45 in the morning etc all so I can go and sit on my own in a big open plan office listening to music with my headphones on instead of sitting at home (in a proper office, I might add) with the exact same setup (same 3 monitors, same keyboard, mouse and dock, same camera etc) listening to music with my headphones. What an absolute joke.
I'll keep on doing this until someone actually notices - they'll either do nothing or make me do the 3 hours commuting, in which case I'm off. Life's too short for this kind of tosh.
The government really needs to incentivise WFH; why spend billions on green eco policies, upgrading roads and so on, when you can probably reduce peak road use by about 15% or so by getting people off the roads who don't need to be there. That way the "bums on seats" bellend companies can actually pay for their practices.
(on this same topic - my car is on 15000 miles a year which I'd normally use up. My year runs to 8th December - so I'm 4 months past that and just hit 14000. It won't be much more by autumn with this virus business).
LeoSayer said:
Is anyone intending to SORN their cars before the end of the month?
I’m thinking about it. I rushed out last night (it’s parked away from the house in a secure lock-up) and stuck the battery conditioner on it. I can’t see me driving for pleasure now for a few months so I can’t see the point of renewing the tax or MOT until all this blows over. Chubbyross said:
LeoSayer said:
Is anyone intending to SORN their cars before the end of the month?
I’m thinking about it. I rushed out last night (it’s parked away from the house in a secure lock-up) and stuck the battery conditioner on it. I can’t see me driving for pleasure now for a few months so I can’t see the point of renewing the tax or MOT until all this blows over. I'm a bit peed off about it in fairness, because I've been waiting all winter for the better weather to reappear and now we've got some...I can't use it!
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