The working from home thread: tips and advice

we have 2 people working from home and 1 child to look after, we're only on fractional contracts (0.7 and 0.5) so we're alternating working and homeschooling/playing in 3hr blocks. ie.9-12, 1-4 - 5-8. We're trying to leave some time for us all to be together and try to enjoy being at home like a holiday too. We'll see how it goes. Just having a timetable for when you're definitely at work is good though, relaxes me a lot knowing I have the time to get things done.

Block in your lunch ride/run with an obfuscating title like “Time/Motion efficiencies forum”

Haha I have these 2hr chunks through my calendar with the suitably vague "TR" and nothing else. (TR = trainerroad)

@aggi, cheers for the radio paradise recommendation, new to me, listening now. It's good

Ok another tip; if you must insist on having a video call, angle the camera so we aren’t looking up your nose.

Day 2 and to be honest most of my past 48 hours has been spent firefighting.

It seems that 9-5 has gone out the window and people are emailing/ calling/ teaming (not sure what the plural is) at any time of the day or night.

I'm hoping that once this excitement tails off things go into a routine a little more.

Surprisingly our company is going pretty well. People are using the tools provided, they're talking to each other and we even launched something in 24 hours which, whilst it won't make a penny for us, will hopefully be of use to our customers during the lock-down. Overall, quite happy.

This is all good advice. I've also been working from home for a few years and would only add...

• it takes getting used to. The initial feeling is that you're somehow not part of everyday working life/society, there's no office banter (fine for me as I'm naturally a bit anti-social anyway!) but you WILL get used to it
• bear in mind that without distractions you'll almost certainly be more productive than in an office environment. At the start, it's tempting to overcompensate, but in time you'll appreciate it means you can take more time out to do housework, go out for a run in the middle of the day and generally take advantage of "off-peak life" (empty cinemas, never having to queue etc) and still get your work done
• definitely agree with getting dressed in the morning and being "work ready" within your nominal working hours. Sitting around in your Y-fronts (we've all done it!) makes it harder to engage
• stay on the phone/facetime with work colleagues - this will help with any feelings of isolation etc

I love working from home now and would really resent going back to the commute/9-5 way of operating. Once people have had a taste of this, it wouldn't surprise me if this becomes much more popular once we're through the other side of this whole thing. In the meantime, stay safe people!

it wouldn't surprise me if this becomes much more popular once we're through the other side of this whole thing

Hoping so. I started doing more and more from home when I went permie and came back from Spain swearing I'd move to Spain as soon as I could. If I could move to Spain and keep my job that would be a nice bonus. Essentially the plan is to just sneak away such they don't notice my home is now a lot sunnier... :D

My main annoyance at the moment is that my music doesn't autopause when I get a Teams call. The first couple of seconds of the call is me trying to listen whilst turning off my music.

An architect working from home this week? What’s the experience like so far?

mate, I have about thirty architects working remotely using splashtop on three complex revit models.. wish us luck. Hope you are well

We tried it’s via VPN from our server this morning with a few guys at home. I was in the office just in case there was any fuck ups (aside from the daily shit we get)

VPN for using any Revit model is completely pointless unless it is a standalone model. Even that you’ll need 1GB of download and upload speed to get the model off the server smoothly.

Long story short, we are using Google Chrome Remote to remotely work from our tower. So far everyone say the testing has been good and was like working in the office again.

In this vein I need to build and run models in Abaqus starting next week. Might look into the chrome remote if you're finding its working.

It runs really smoothly and so far everyone says it much better than TeamViewer in terms of lag and its Free once it is setup and you only need a 6 digit pin to access your computer. Where as TeamViewer requires annual subscription to access it or you need to generate a daily code to use it which can be very annoying.

Thanks!

It seems that 9-5 has gone out the window and people are emailing/ calling/ teaming (not sure what the plural is) at any time of the day or night.

Ignore them. It's still just a job.

WFH Friday 16:30, is it acceptable to have a beer?

Are kneeling chairs any good?

Exercise balls are good, help with posture and core muscles

It's usually mandated

WFH Friday 16:30, is it acceptable to have a beer?

I have to wait until 17:30 because some absolute MELT has scheduled a f-ing meeting at 17:00

wahhhhhhhh

Pour it in a tea mug.

true!

Looks like you're drinking apple tango to me ;)

Looks like you're drinking apple tango to me ;)

Nice!

Don't answer so fast. It takes me 5s to get the headphones on anyway so everyone knows there's a delay before their hero is ready to save the day.

I tried pushing the tunes through my headset during this morning's standup but that was too much.