Working From Home Blues

[Prudie]

Is anyone in the same situation as me and can offer some support and encouragement? I normally go to work all week, I have my own office and spend a lot of time on a PC but also attend lots of meetings and interact with a lot of work colleagues face to face. There's the usual laughs and banter and gossip at the smoking shelter. I am really down about having to work at home, it's really hard to sit in a room on my own with only a laptop and a phone. I've only done it for just over a week but each day is worse than the previous, finding it very hard to come to terms with especially as we are bombarded daily with this going on for months. Anyone else not enjoying working from home?

[TheDevil]

Are you able to video call your friends? That may help. Especially if you could have a group call

[Tuvok]

I have to be near my computer as we're using Skype to communicate! Have you thought about using that or Facetime?

[Tuvok]

PS you've always got AB to turn to!

[JimF]

Facetime is not available on any device other than an iPhone.

[Prudie]

Yes we do lots of multi skype calls (work calls) but it's not the same, especially as everyone tries to talk at once and the signal is poor so they are not that productive. Just to clarify this is about missing the working environment - not friends or being lonely (my husband is doing the same in another room and in theory I can stop anytime and do what I like for a while as long as I take my phone with me). It's more the psychological loss of the routine, even to the point of missing getting in the car and driving there.

[Prudie]

Tuvok I always kept an eye in on AB but with half the workforce WFH we have already had a director's warning that inappropriate internet use (the example was youtube and streaming services)is all being monitored so I'm more wary.

[albaqwerty]

I'm not in a similar situation but would it be possible to change/alter the routine of driving to work?
Do your normal morning routine before leaving, open front door, walk to bottom of garden, walk back and enter house as if it's office?
(attempting to trick your brain - sort of?)
It's not much consolation to say this will pass though xx

[bednobs]

i have never enjoyed wfh. i've been on sick leave since January but i'm going back this Wednesday and dreading it

[Prudie]

After what you've been through bednobs I'm sure you're dreading it, wishing you well, take it one day at a time.
Makes what I'm moaning about seem a bit superficial but I am really having a hard time dealing with it, I just want it all to be back to normal.

[Zacs-Master]

Have a read about Terry Waite’s isolation and get some perspective.

[TonyV]

Do you have another PC or laptop you could use for personal stuff?

[calmck]

I have FaceTime on my ipad

[bednobs]

prudie thats really kind of you but in no way meant to belittle your feelings. I truly always hate WFH, and it's going to be worse now because i will also have to homeschool. I dont have an office per se and i hate the way work intrudes on my personal home life.

[bednobs]

also, i read that as people are more productive at home you could actually do shorter days

[sherrardk]

I’d be absolutely useless working at home and don’t envy you one bit. If it makes you feel any better I only started my new job in a shop on 20 February (yeah, go good timing) so now I’ve got the three youngest to ‘home school’, a stroppy 16 year old who’s had his GCSEs cancelled so has nothing on the horizon until September at the earliest, and boy #1 who is bitterly disappointed at being home from uni and having his freedom taken away. I’m also doing all the house crud and trying to sort meals that the kids can manage on their own (I work a lot over tea time) and a husband who thinks because he works part time (erratic hours) that he’s some sort of hero (sorry for the rant).

[rockyracoon]

I’m similar to you, pretty much solo in the work office but with plenty of intrusion. Trying to work from home is a nightmare. The kids are home, OH is in and out like a yoyo and the dog has just realised that we have neighbours so he’s persistently growling and barking at the back window. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can go back in 3 weeks.

[Zacs-Master]

No chance, Rocky.

[brainiac]

Prudie, I would try to look at the positive aspects of your situation. You have a job where you are able to work from home, so you still have a job, which is very much not the case at this time when so many have lost their livelihoods at a stroke. A woman I spoke to in the Tesco car park was in tears because her husband had lost his job and company car, and she was in despair at the situation her family was now in. Very upsetting to see, as I could not go near her to try to comfort her.

Also, as you are at home you're not exposed to the virus, certainly much much better off than all those poor souls commuting, say, the London Underground - can you imagine that twice a day?

Make sure you go out for exercise, and be glad that you have employment; that spring knows nothing about Covid - the land is greening and the birds are singing, in spite of the sadness all around us.

[royfromaus]

Zacs-Master
Have a read about Terry Waite’s isolation and get some perspective.



Brilliant, I'm sure that tasty little morsel has cheered Prudie up.

[royfromaus]

calmck
I have FaceTime on my ipad




Back of the net.