Working From Home. Torture

[anonymous-user]

lothianjim said:

Running a business tends to be front heavy if all goes to plan. 80 hours a week for first decade, then 8 hours a week thereafter....

Ignoring the extremes of course. Always nuts at either end

That is exactly what I mean.

If you do it well and have a viable profitable business, you will work really hard for the first few years or decade, but after that you should have systems and people in place that mean you can maintain or grow the business without having to personally be there 24/7.

If you are flogging your pan in doing 60-90 hours per week then you are either pressing on hard because you are making millions per year, or you just haven't managed to organise your business properly.

[anxious_ant]

lyonspride said:

anxious_ant said:

davidc1 said:

I have loved the wfh but today was a nightmare. I had a project to do and needed a printer. Badly.
So 1st bad day for me.
What took all day would have taken 2 hours with a printer.
Oh well.

Don't you have a printer at home? Or are we talking commercial grade printers here?

Why does everyone assume that people have printers at home? I've had 3 in the last 20 years, all of them packed up, all of them cost me about £10 to print a few A4 sheets, then the ink cartridge bunged up permanently.
I wouldn't buy one now, it'd just be the same thing, buy a cartridge, print a few sheets, 6 months later try printing something and need another new cartridge.

I MIGHT consider a small laser printer, but that's about it.

That's a fair point. I have kids so we have a Canon printer to print homework etc. I also occasionally scan documents and print photos (the Canon is pretty good printer for this).

[randlemarcus]

anxious_ant said:

lyonspride said:

anxious_ant said:

davidc1 said:

I have loved the wfh but today was a nightmare. I had a project to do and needed a printer. Badly.
So 1st bad day for me.
What took all day would have taken 2 hours with a printer.
Oh well.

Don't you have a printer at home? Or are we talking commercial grade printers here?

Why does everyone assume that people have printers at home? I've had 3 in the last 20 years, all of them packed up, all of them cost me about £10 to print a few A4 sheets, then the ink cartridge bunged up permanently.
I wouldn't buy one now, it'd just be the same thing, buy a cartridge, print a few sheets, 6 months later try printing something and need another new cartridge.

I MIGHT consider a small laser printer, but that's about it.

That's a fair point. I have kids so we have a Canon printer to print homework etc. I also occasionally scan documents and print photos (the Canon is pretty good printer for this).

Find a small local stationery shop. Come to an agreement to email them stuff, they print, you collect later. Like a works print room, but nicer, and gets you some fresh air.

[Piersman2]

lyonspride said:

anxious_ant said:

davidc1 said:

I have loved the wfh but today was a nightmare. I had a project to do and needed a printer. Badly.
So 1st bad day for me.
What took all day would have taken 2 hours with a printer.
Oh well.

Don't you have a printer at home? Or are we talking commercial grade printers here?

Why does everyone assume that people have printers at home? I've had 3 in the last 20 years, all of them packed up, all of them cost me about £10 to print a few A4 sheets, then the ink cartridge bunged up permanently.
I wouldn't buy one now, it'd just be the same thing, buy a cartridge, print a few sheets, 6 months later try printing something and need another new cartridge.

I MIGHT consider a small laser printer, but that's about it.

My impression of printers is exactly as you've summarised above, over the last 10 years two cheapie inkjet POS have met their end at the toe of of my boots, literally.

So I bought a laser last year, cost a bit more, but it sits in the front room unused for weeks/months... then I want to print something, and it just DOES!

A revelation!

One of those things where spending just a bit more money has saved me hours and of stress, hassle and anger every time I wanted to print even a single sheet of A4.

[anonymous-user]

I've only had laser printers at home for the last 10 years or so.

Would never go back to having inkjet. They are a form of torture.

I currently have a Brother 2310D compact A4 laster printer. It is brilliant and I recommend it.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessorie...

[davidc1]

anxious_ant said:

davidc1 said:

I have loved the wfh but today was a nightmare. I had a project to do and needed a printer. Badly.
So 1st bad day for me.
What took all day would have taken 2 hours with a printer.
Oh well.

Don't you have a printer at home? Or are we talking commercial grade printers here?

No printer at home. And we locked down in a hurry.... needed to tick something back. 20 different entries and the paperwork was all over the place in different attachments. Not easy from a laptop. Was a 1 off but very slow
Today was a better day thank god.!

[craig_m67]

I blame HP for the printer cartridge lock in dark ages

Have a look at the Epson EcoTank range*. I’ve bought two now (one for the ex and one to replace it). You just fill them up with ink and print. Reams and reams of paper until you need to (cheaply) refill it. It does have a catch of course, some sort of waste ink tank that is coded to the device and not mentioned in any literature, it’s cheap to replace though (after about 6,000 pages)

• other manufacturers available, I’m not associated, just pleasantly surprised. And I hate HP

[CubanPete]

My now traffic free commute is about 7 minutes. I tend to do 1 or 2 full days at home, then the balance as half at home half at work. Suits me down to the ground. I get more done at home and enjoy having lunch at home, but miss the communication / social side and don't move as much as when I am in the office. It is a massive benefit catching the post as missing a parcel is at least an hour out of the weekend by the time you do the round trip.

[Pit Pony]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Tomorrow, my lunch break will be 2 hours. During which time I will walk to the bedroom, where my sole employee, whose job title is often administration manager, or director motivation, or driver of slaves, will join me. Protection will be removed and fluids transferred. It's in the diary. There was confirmation, today that all participants can attend, and that distancing rules are understood. We shall wash our hands before and after this meeting. Later I have to put my clothes back on, join a video conference with people in 5 time zones to discuss something to do with something for a customer in Utah. I will refer to a project plan that makes no sense and be patronized by a bloke who has no business to be So fking serious.

[768]

Just make sure you're muted with video off if you try and relieve the tension while on a zoom call. I bet he's not the only one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-5491261...

[tribalsurfer]

Well the weirdest thing happened yesterday, I got promoted (grade not position) and this now entitles me to a car allowance/company car, in a world where wfh is the norm it does seem slightly humerous.

In terms of printers, Mrs ts has a requirement for vast amounts of scanning sowent out and bought this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LBWZMJY/ref...

Absolutely awesome bit of kit. As stated above would never go back to inkjet purely for the reasons given re cartridges drying up.

[klan8456]

Printer at home would be revelatory as I work much better with paper than on screen, but sadly all remote printing is banned / blocked by IT for security reasons.

[21TonyK]

klan8456 said:

Printer at home would be revelatory as I work much better with paper than on screen, but sadly all remote printing is banned / blocked by IT for security reasons.

We had this for "GDPR" until it was pointed out a lot of our documents still have to be physically signed by multiple people and the most sensitive thing I print is a lunch menu!

[Chicken_Satay]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I tend to do my exact hours i.e. 9am to 5:30pm with a one hour lunch break. If I know I've been slacking a bit during the day I may make up for it with an extra fifteen minutes/half an hour at the end of the day. Fair's fair.

Other than that, several times a week, come 5:30pm, I'm bang out of the house door, on the bicycle or motorbike, travelling to a fun location to do a run or other sport of some description. I often travel into central London or somewhere locally to do these things. On the motorbike, the travel is part of the fun. Since I'm now in the house all day, come the evening, I'm desperate to get out!

[Woodrow Wilson]

Looking ahead to a time when things are not so limited and the economy picks up again, I'm wondering what reasonably remunerated and stimulating (and not requiring years of study)alternative employment there could be that won't require sitting at home staring a screen all day with frequent brews to relieve the tedium?

[randlemarcus]

Woodrow Wilson said:

Looking ahead to a time when things are not so limited and the economy picks up again, I'm wondering what reasonably remunerated and stimulating (and not requiring years of study)alternative employment there could be that won't require sitting at home staring a screen all day with frequent brews to relieve the tedium?

I reckon there's reasonable money to be made in phlebotomy and injections in the coming year or so Out and about, meeting folks. All depends on your idea of reasonable remuneration though.

[Woodrow Wilson]

randlemarcus said:

I reckon there's reasonable money to be made in phlebotomy and injections in the coming year or so Out and about, meeting folks. All depends on your idea of reasonable remuneration though.

Not a lot of creativity involved either

[Dog Star]

I love it. Previously I would get up at 5.45 still exhausted. I would leave home at 6.15 on the dot and drive to Leeds and get there at around 7am. I would tip my seat back and go to sleep til about 5 to 8 then go into the office. I would grab another hours sleep at lunch. Leaving work would be a few minutes before 4 (there's a BAD set of lights and the 3 or 4 minutes makes all the difference) and be home for 5. I would then go and have a nap. While at work I would communicate with Slack, Bluejeans and Teams as my team are all overseas - I'm the only one in the UK. Going to the office - what the hell for?

All this regime was to avoid the horrendous jams on the M62. It's not an especially long commute at 35 miles each way, but it's a dreadful road. Leaving after 7am was a complete non-starter as by then there would have been a crash and traffic would be backed up for 20 miles or more. Public transport would be 2 hours plus each way at least. In my experience of doing this commute for most of my working life since 1992 is that lorries cause a lot of the aggro - they're either elephant racing and causing huge bottlenecks or tailgating. I had a big crash (aquaplaned) in 2016 and closed the motorway and wrote off a brand new E class.

The stress of this, the elephant racing lorries, the jams etc was really starting to get to me and I was just so tired (hence my sleep regime) and I was questioning just how much longer I could carry on doing this. I was starting to WFH more and more anyway.

Covid, while being the sttest thing ever, has been brilliant. My employer has closed my office permanently - and when this is over WFH is order of the day for those that want it (the new office is not even close to big enough). I get up at about 8, I'm online 8,30, got my cat with me on his own office chair, have a lie down, nip to the shop, go in garage and fiddle with car or whatever at lunch, generally knock off sometime after 4 or so.

The difference in my stress levels due to not having to drive is absolutely unbelievable. Getting up 2 hours later is a bonus. I now have a bloody great E class estate in the garage - I've done just under 2000 miles in it this year

[bobbysmithy]

Dog Star said:

I love it. Previously I would get up at 5.45 still exhausted. I would leave home at 6.15 on the dot and drive to Leeds and get there at around 7am. I would tip my seat back and go to sleep til about 5 to 8 then go into the office. I would grab another hours sleep at lunch. Leaving work would be a few minutes before 4 (there's a BAD set of lights and the 3 or 4 minutes makes all the difference) and be home for 5. I would then go and have a nap. While at work I would communicate with Slack, Bluejeans and Teams as my team are all overseas - I'm the only one in the UK. Going to the office - what the hell for?

All this regime was to avoid the horrendous jams on the M62. It's not an especially long commute at 35 miles each way, but it's a dreadful road. Leaving after 7am was a complete non-starter as by then there would have been a crash and traffic would be backed up for 20 miles or more. Public transport would be 2 hours plus each way at least. In my experience of doing this commute for most of my working life since 1992 is that lorries cause a lot of the aggro - they're either elephant racing and causing huge bottlenecks or tailgating. I had a big crash (aquaplaned) in 2016 and closed the motorway and wrote off a brand new E class.

The stress of this, the elephant racing lorries, the jams etc was really starting to get to me and I was just so tired (hence my sleep regime) and I was questioning just how much longer I could carry on doing this. I was starting to WFH more and more anyway.

Covid, while being the sttest thing ever, has been brilliant. My employer has closed my office permanently - and when this is over WFH is order of the day for those that want it (the new office is not even close to big enough). I get up at about 8, I'm online 8,30, got my cat with me on his own office chair, have a lie down, nip to the shop, go in garage and fiddle with car or whatever at lunch, generally knock off sometime after 4 or so.

The difference in my stress levels due to not having to drive is absolutely unbelievable. Getting up 2 hours later is a bonus. I now have a bloody great E class estate in the garage - I've done just under 2000 miles in it this year

Driving to work sleep
Work till lunch then sleep
Home and have a nap!
No wonder you didn’t get enough sleep at night !

[MC Bodge]

Dog Star said:

I love it. Previously I would get up at 5.45 still exhausted. I would leave home at 6.15 on the dot and drive to Leeds and get there at around 7am. I would tip my seat back and go to sleep til about 5 to 8 then go into the office. I would grab another hours sleep at lunch. Leaving work would be a few minutes before 4 (there's a BAD set of lights and the 3 or 4 minutes makes all the difference) and be home for 5. I would then go and have a nap. While at work I would communicate with Slack, Bluejeans and Teams as my team are all overseas - I'm the only one in the UK. Going to the office - what the hell for?

All this regime was to avoid the horrendous jams on the M62. It's not an especially long commute at 35 miles each way, but it's a dreadful road. Leaving after 7am was a complete non-starter as by then there would have been a crash and traffic would be backed up for 20 miles or more. Public transport would be 2 hours plus each way at least. In my experience of doing this commute for most of my working life since 1992 is that lorries cause a lot of the aggro - they're either elephant racing and causing huge bottlenecks or tailgating. I had a big crash (aquaplaned) in 2016 and closed the motorway and wrote off a brand new E class.

The stress of this, the elephant racing lorries, the jams etc was really starting to get to me and I was just so tired (hence my sleep regime) and I was questioning just how much longer I could carry on doing this. I was starting to WFH more and more anyway.

Covid, while being the sttest thing ever, has been brilliant. My employer has closed my office permanently - and when this is over WFH is order of the day for those that want it (the new office is not even close to big enough). I get up at about 8, I'm online 8,30, got my cat with me on his own office chair, have a lie down, nip to the shop, go in garage and fiddle with car or whatever at lunch, generally knock off sometime after 4 or so.

The difference in my stress levels due to not having to drive is absolutely unbelievable. Getting up 2 hours later is a bonus. I now have a bloody great E class estate in the garage - I've done just under 2000 miles in it this year

So you don't actually do any work? Fantastic!