I never trust the Myers Briggs things Kate. The last one I did had me quite far extrovert. It stressed me out, just reading it. I think that the saddest of all, is for companies that don’t take this learning opportunity, and turn it into gold.
- We want to do things like empower those workers on the lower end of the income scale, who live in temporary accommodations quite often, to give them more tools, like not just a laptop, but also support to buy their own kit like a proper VDU and a proper chair !
- I want employers to look at how viable their business is currently, with lockdown. And to talk about ways of making a business not just profitable, but also a living thing. Sometimes those ideas, are going to come from having a more diverse workforce. Companies that have no “mission” get eaten up by other companies in much the way like Uber is eating up taxis and Tesla is eating up electric cars. Every company or team need to have one thing they do well, and to build a mission around something that people really want.
- Lockdown has giving employees new skills, it’s not going to be business as usual. Everyone needs to shift. Shift, or die, we are seeing shopping malls going bankrupt, which issad, because a lot of cool IOT and energy monitoring and more technology goes into highstreets and malls these days, so jobs will be lost in tech too. We need to probably keep things like energy efficiency and deployment costs way down in everything we do in tech.
Where I am now, we get a lot of WFH support from management. business is booming in the remote-working sector I’m in too, but it’s not going to last. We are embarking on a way to use this “time of plenty” to build up a new product. It’s great to be part of the energy, but still stressful because we are remote. I am not happy about the office staying shut until 2021 either, I just hope that more of us come out ready to learn, and stronger somehow.
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Conrad, I don’t exactly trust the Myers Briggs thing either. Depending on the way I feel at the time, I can and have flipped between the two sides for each of the other three scales. But I am an extreme introvert and every time I’ve had to take one I’ve scored the maximum “introvert points”.
I agree with you about learning opportunities, and I think it’s going to be a long time - if ever - before things go back to business as usual. Things like Uber adding in a food delivery service are a pretty good indicator that three months and some of lockdown have irrevocably changed expectations - which will inevitably change what is done and how.
I think perhaps one of the biggest stressors with permanent work from home for those of us who hadn’t really been remote beforehand is that it’s very easy to lose the separation between work and not-work. The daily commute was a way to get into work mode on the way in, and out of work mode on the way home - that’s no longer the case.
I personally use the work laptop as my “indicator”. When I finish the work day, I shut it down and close the lid. If the lid is open, I’m “at work” and need to act as such, where if it’s not, I’m “at home” so what I do is my business. I suspect everyone else has their own mini-rituals to make the distinction.
What I hope is that when my employer reopens our location, they do so with more willingness to allow for a mix of remote and on-site work. I think I’d be fine with 2 or 3 days remote and the rest of the week on-site. All remote all the time does get a bit wearing.
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This is me, too, so I can relate and sympathise.
I was able to work with my employer and persuaded them how having a bad setup was likely a health and safety consideration. The health and safety executive in the UK have more info on working from home during Coronacrisis which you may be able to use (if you’re UK-based).
My employer purchased me the following, which is working great in my small home which has no space for a proper desk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07L64VJPZ. Versus sitting haunched over a laptop, the wee desk is great and I can simply push it away into a corner at the end of the day.
Our company is talking like it’ll be 2021 before we are back in the office in any serious way. Feels like a long way off, but then it has been over 3 months already, so suspect it’ll pass as quickly as working life normally does… In terms of stressors, I think the biggest one for me is communications, or rather lack of same. Teams is great, but seeing and being able to read people is something that’s difficult with it. Also, the watercooler chats aren’t really possible using it, so I miss those…
Still no word of any redundancies for our company … please God there’ll be none! The worry and stress of that would be tough to handle IMHO. That said, there does seem to be a decent level of testing jobs in Belfast at the moment, so if worse came to worse I might be OK. Still, not really an ideal time to start a new job IMHO.
Be safe all! Thanks for your posts! Keep 'em coming 
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Gerard, that desk is awesome. Seriously.
My setup isn’t horrible right now, it’s just… not optimal. I have a desk where my home machine sits, and enough space on it for my work laptop, but having them side by side is a permanent temptation, and makes it more challenging to make the home/work distinction. I miss my ergonomic keyboard, though (yeah, First World Problems).
To my company’s credit, they saw this coming and started planning right away to do everything in their power to avoid layoffs - minimizing costs, up to and including all the executives taking pay cuts up to 100% for 2020 - and so far they’ve been able to keep the company above water for which I am immensely thankful. I don’t need to be looking for work right now.
I know not everyone has that level of job security, but I hope everyone can find it and soon.
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Just to say that even if you’re not in the UK, the HSE guidance may be useful and may be worth citing if it’s better than your local ordinances (and your management will listen).
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