How effectively Can you WFH

[Lisa_Lollipop]

I'm currently doing my full time job working from home whilst looking after a 2 year old. As much as I am trying to stay as professional as I can, it is extremely difficult to juggle given the demands of a small child that needs entertaining. It's certainly not a situation I would choose to be in that's for sure but me and OH are making it work as best we can.

[Ellelledee]

I was sent to work from home about 6 weeks ago. Initially I hated it - I brought home a laptop, I cannot access any archive emails or anything so cannot refer back to any customer queries I was dealing with - I think if it had been a more permanent thing there would’ve been a way to get my archives onto my laptop but it was rushing the whole floor out of the building in two days so it wasn’t happening! There was some programme required to allow us to access the server - and it kept “going down” so that was stressful. I could not send anything to the works printer, I couldn’t access our online card payment system or anything so it was quite frustrating. If all those wrinkles were ironed out I actually really like working from home - I did it for 10 years as a childminder - I’m quite disciplined and need to have structure so I stuck to a routine (I did work over my hours though as being in lockdown there wasn’t really much else to do and I had a lot of work). The only thing I missed was my colleague/friend and the noise of being in an office - really having no distractions but also being able to ask my colleague questions etc though we did text and ring.
I’ve been furloughed for a month and am back “in work/working from home” on Friday but my colleague is being furloughed - THAT I am dreading because I’ve been totally out of the loop for a month. I know nothing of what’s been happening, you aren’t really allowed to give notes or hand anything over and I cannot contact her to ask her anything so I really am dreading it and feel out on a limb.

Just to add a note before we got sent home they interviewed us all asking if we had any vulnerable people at home (meaning they would be priority out if the building) and would the school closures affect anyone’s ability to WFH - perhaps they would keep those people at work so as to maximise work? But it didn’t pan out anyway as they literally got everyone out in about 2 days.

[Melbatb]

For me it is fine but I don’t have young children. I have my computer set up in the spare room and work pretty normally. The only noise anyone may hear is the dog barking.

I think companies are being relaxed because people have had to adapt very quickly with not always ideal working conditions or even space. I accept that not everyone has spare rooms to shut themselves away in.

[Mexy02]

Originally Posted by duchy

The broadband infrastructure has held up extremely well. NI has a big outage last week and of course Virgin had problems this week but overall it has held up very well and no capacity issues. An awful lot of people though have wireless that could be set up better with a few tweaks and assume it’s the pressure on the system when it actually isn’t !
I get a lot of calls about this, sometimes it’s an old hub , sometimes it’s too many devices all trying to access really limited broadband (had one with 18 devices on a 3 meg connection the last week ) , sometimes a line fault that slows the speed and is easily fixed and sometimes wireless settings. Don’t struggle on , talk to your broadband provider ! You may be suffering for no reason.

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Good to hear you are ok and well set up but You obviously haven’t tried ringing a broadband provider recently at all. I the real world you are talking at least an hour on hold . Our office uses virgin and had a major failure at the weekend . As I said we were thrown into this so employers cannot expect a perfect office environment .

[GoldenAvalanche]

No of course they don't feel that way, but they're accepting that's the way it is at the moment. My employer does not allow you to have childcare responsibilities while WFH but this has obviously been relaxed for the moment. They acknowledge we will be working at a lesser capacity and have readjusted our annual outputs tor reflect this. We have been given a time code to reflect when we are unable to work (still paid). This isn't just because of children, they're aware we will struggle for a variety of reasons, largely mental health.

i would expect our old rules to apply as soon as able, no I cannot work as well with children around me. I am trying my best, thankfully I have a compassionate and understanding employer. It enrages me to hear of all these employers who are expecting normal outputs from people working in abnormal times.

[Mexy02]

Originally Posted by GoldenAvalanche

No of course they don't feel that way, but they're accepting that's the way it is at the moment. My employer does not allow you to have childcare responsibilities while WFH but this has obviously been relaxed for the moment. They acknowledge we will be working at a lesser capacity and have readjusted our annual outputs tor reflect this. We have been given a time code to reflect when we are unable to work (still paid). This isn't just because of children, they're aware we will struggle for a variety of reasons, largely mental health.

i would expect our old rules to apply as soon as able, no I cannot work as well with children around me. I am trying my best, thankfully I have a compassionate and understanding employer. It enrages me to hear of all these employers who are expecting normal outputs from people working in abnormal times.

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A lot of us have become carers as well with parents having to shield/isolate so our employer has factored all that in as well. A three hr trip to the supermarket 3 times a week For 3 different people doesn’t help at all .

[Princesa]

I’m a secondary teacher so it’s very different for me. I’m used to planning at home and the students who are engaging have adapted well to online working, but for disengaged students it’s difficult to support them. I know the ones not doing the work in year ten now will struggle when they come back.
I haven’t done any online video lessons yet but I possibly will soon and I’d make sure they were as professional as possible. No distractions or people in the room with me and I’d have nothing personal out. I’m less concerned about the staff video calls with the department as they’re my friends, but I have the living room to myself as DH is working at the dining table and my daughters are in their room. I’m still showered and dressed early enough in case something pops up. I also haven’t called any parents yet but if I did, again I’d do it away from other people and make sure the girls didn’t walk through the room while I was in the phone.

[GoldenAvalanche]

Originally Posted by Mexy02

A lot of us have become carers as well with parents having to shield/isolate so our employer has factored all that in as well. A three hr trip to the supermarket 3 times a week For 3 different people doesn’t help at all .

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Absolutely, I think people forget there are a lot of other reasons why working can be difficult beyond childcare. Thankfully my employer acknowledges this, people without children often get sidelined at times like these for not having such an obvious and visible issue.

[lizzie145]

Just to add that your employer still has a duty of care to ensure that you have the equipment you need to work from home safely - if you connect a laptop to a screen in the office then you should do this at home.
You need a decent desk area - not sitting on the sofa on a laptop - this includes a chair, ideally an office chair.
Not everyone will have the space to work from home fully so if you can't work safely then perhaps you shouldnt be working.
Adjustments in hours may also be necessary

[Guest]

I am not working at home (although I am at home) but DH is WFH. We don’t have children in the house but I get out of the way and ensure there is no background noise when he has a call. He took a few video calls in the garden last week and I think one of the dogs joined in the weekly social video chat.

His colleagues seem like they are quite a chilled out group, a number of them are having to balance child care and home schooling and I think they all understand that and make allowances for it at this time.