The working from home thread: tips and advice

yep!

ooh yes, was hoping something i could stick behind the monitor, USB even better as I can plug it into monitor directly, need to find an off amazon supplier

Setup looks great, what's the quality of the pebble speakers like?

Here is mine:

Messy, but it works ok for now.

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You could get white LED light strips like below, the detachable bar style light seemed more functional, so that you could mount it in different places.

https://ebay.us/1A3Zmx

https://crazy-long-url

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253250108485

Thanks, ninja edited once I saw the ridiculous URL.

Actually really good for the money.
USB C powered, decent sound and bluetooth built in and low profile for £28 felt like an incredible deal to me.

Enjoying all these set up threads. I'm still sat at the dining room table until I renovate and can fit a desk in.

Side question - has anyone moved jobs during lockdown?

I'm about to start a new position/ new company on Tuesday and outside of visiting the office the first day, HR stuff and receiving all kit it will all be WFH. Just wondering if anyone has gone through similar and would have any pointers. Cheers

I started a new role in May.

I've never been to the office, never met any co-workers, and only had one video chat to confirm my identity.

It has been blissful...

Your experience may, of course, vary wildly.

My only pointer would be to avoid reading any sort of tone into emails from people you barely know, and assume that everyone is doing everything in good faith.

Got a new 34" wide-screen to replace dual 22" monitors. Much neater (particularly with a single USB c cable for everything) and great for massive spreadsheets.

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great for massive spreadsheets

That's what PHE thought too.

ok bought some

Boast post.

Yep, and I haven't been into the office at all. I met a lot of the team when interviewing before lockdown started, but it feels like a long time ago.

I feel like it's taken longer to get productive than it would if I were sitting with everyone and could grab their attention easily for questions. Equally, their productivity has probably been less affected by onboarding me, and no-one seems unhappy.

I think my biggest mistake was feeling relatively tied to my desk for the first few weeks, because I didn't have my phone set up for their mail & instant messaging. Sort all that quality of life stuff out asap, is my advice.

I started a new job in August. I’ve never been to the office or met anyone in real life.

I’d largely say I’ve also found it to be awesome. No awkward introductions as you’re parades through the office or any of that. The onboarding stuff where they give you a stack of crap to read was much more bearable sat on my sofa.

Some people emailed me to set-up ‘virtual coffees’ (lol) which actually were quite good so tried setting up some of my own which everyone who I asked very happily obliged.

I also had people keep telling me that it must be so difficult starting a new job remotely but honestly it’s been fantastic. Although that may just be the awesomeness of WFH completely skewing my perspective.

Oh only negative is definitely a slight feeling of imposter syndrome sometimes

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I'm not quite in the same boat, but I was only at my new job for a month before I went away for a week's holiday and returned to full WFH.

If you can, ask to be set up with a buddy/mentor other than your manager who you can go to with all the finding-you-feet questions, help you find contacts etc. It's much easier to ask those questions to someone who has signed up to help you than have to decide if it's important enough to bother your manager/teammates. Plus, having a mentor is always good.

Due to a reorg my current team was only created in the Summer and out of 6 of us, 4 joined the company since WFH started. Over the summer we had two on-site days where we reserved a large conference room and spent the day planning our roadmap. Meeting for work is allowed under the Covid rules in tier 3 but of course your colleagues have to be comfortable with the idea including transport. We made ours a short day (10am start, 3 pm finish) to avoid peak travel times. If you will be working with a team and it's at all possible to do something like that I recommend it - just that one day made a huge difference.

ha!

Suffered from this while I was in the office, so no change there!

Thanks for the pointers guys, I guess starting a new job and having the usual nerves seems even more so apparent when you're doing it at home!

I'll let you know how I get on, I'm excited to say the least!

Good luck for Tuesday!

Cables are controlled!

With plenty of spare sockets for the future

Tidy.

I'm currently looking for a tray thing to go under the desk that could hold my work laptop (23cm x 40cm with cables sticking out). I only rarely (once a month) need to actually open it so it can be hidden out of sight. Small sticking point is current headphone cable won't be long enough but 4-pole extension cables exist (since I want the inline remote to keep working).

It'll be more urgent once the wireless keyboard and mouse arrive next week.

Also need to put my old Ikea Galant desk up for sale here as it's not selling on the school marketplace. [EDIT] - Done, it's over in the classifieds.

Let me know if you find something as I'm looking for something similar to have the smallest amount of stuff on desk