If Work From Home becomes a thing...

Mrs OBumble · 25-08-2020 12:57PM

strandroad wrote: »

Remote does not equal completely on their own though, you're still having conversations and check-ins with whoever you're supervising

This is exactly the kind of "floor-walking " middle management that an earlier post claimed isn't needed with online working.

In my experience its more critical to have when there's online working.

Sunny Disposition · 25-08-2020 01:03PM

There are some disadvantages to remote working, in some industries at least. But it's surely 'a thing' now and going to be here permanently. Mad how the pandemic has turned things upside down. Seems to me that the initial antipathy to working from home in certain companies has kinda cooled now, there must be very few people who don't accept it can be done effectively.

MrMusician18 · 25-08-2020 01:11PM

Blanco100 wrote: »

WFH purely works for me as usually its a 4 hour daily roundtrip to work.

If my office was 10 minute drive id have different opinion.

But being up at 8am (instead of 5.30am) and logged off at 5.30/6pm (instead of back home at 7.45pm) makes a huge difference to my life.

Not paying for the train is another massive perk. Cannot stress enough how this has benefited me and my young family.

Id say it would give me another 10 years of my life.

Actually 4hrs a day works out to almost 5 years over a 40 year career.
I get your point, just illustrating how much time is actually wasted with commuting

beauf · 25-08-2020 01:31PM

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

This is exactly the kind of "floor-walking " middle management that an earlier post claimed isn't needed with online working.

In my experience its more critical to have when there's online working.

There is a difference to watching to see if someone is at desk and actually managing productivity, even then there is a difference between, managing a project and micro managing people.

As a manager you should be tracking the work, not the person.

25-08-2020 04:34PM

On the management discussion, it really depends on whether you have a good manager or not.

In my past job, my manager didn't know anything about what the team did day-to-day. They couldn't have a conversation about the detail, they didn't know much about our products or what conversations with our clients looked like. Since there was such a large chunk of the role of the team they couldn't/didn't contribute on, they would focus on the parts of my (when I say my, take it as anyone in my team) job they were able to contribute and tried to micro-manage. They would store up things you'd done 'wrong' and dump them on you at annual/mid-year review time rather than having an ongoing discussion, they were totally unwilling or unable to take feedback. They were one of the worst managers I've ever had and I believe actively held me back, if they weren't there I would be more productive than when they were there. That manager was one of the biggest reasons I left the role, and several of my colleagues have left with the exact same issues that I had.

But that was a bad manager, it doesn't mean managers in general are unnecessary. I feel very happy with my current manager, I feel they will help me in my career in my current company and my work would be more difficult if they were removed from the equation.

into_the_wild · 25-08-2020 04:48PM

Koda Loose Cone wrote: »

On the management discussion, it really depends on whether you have a good manager or not.

In my past job, my manager didn't know anything about what the team did day-to-day. They couldn't have a conversation about the detail, they didn't know much about our products or what conversations with our clients looked like. Since there was such a large chunk of the role of the team they couldn't/didn't contribute on, they would focus on the parts of my (when I say my, take it as anyone in my team) job they were able to contribute and tried to micro-manage. They would store up things you'd done 'wrong' and dump them on you at annual/mid-year review time rather than having an ongoing discussion, they were totally unwilling or unable to take feedback. They were one of the worst managers I've ever had and I believe actively held me back, if they weren't there I would be more productive than when they were there. That manager was one of the biggest reasons I left the role, and several of my colleagues have left with the exact same issues that I had.

But that was a bad manager, it doesn't mean managers in general are unnecessary. I feel very happy with my current manager, I feel they will help me in my career in my current company and my work would be more difficult if they were removed from the equation.

Totally agree. I have been in the same boat as you. Definitely think that the right managers can be very helpful and wrong ones can be highly detrimental to your work life.

limnam · 25-08-2020 05:42PM

into_the_wild wrote: »

Totally agree. I have been in the same boat as you. Definitely think that the right managers can be very helpful and wrong ones can be highly detrimental to your work life.

The problem is IMO. The working from home makes the already poor ones even worse. But I guess they're also easier to avoid

M256 · 27-08-2020 07:39AM

WFH is an inflection point. If you don’t want to change, then retire. If you work in an environment where people need to be micromanaged, that does not mean that every place is like that. WFH was a trend even before, the pandemic is just making it mainstream faster. It’s the new norm and individual opinion does not really matter.

M256 · 27-08-2020 08:18AM

Koda Loose Cone wrote: »

On the management discussion, it really depends on whether you have a good manager or not.

Not everyone understands the difference between managers and leaders.

BrianD3 · 16-10-2020 04:42PM

Article about WFH plans in the Irish Indo today
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/workers-will-have-right-to-ask-to-work-from-home-under-new-government-plans-39632288.html

What is the point of this, sounds like worthless nonsense. Wow, employees to be given the legal right to request WFH which can be refused.

Before this plan:
Employee: Can I work from home
Manager: No

After this plan:
Employee: Can I work from home
Manager: No

As I said in another thread, if the state wants to encourage WFH for climate action and other reasons, it needs to start with the civil and public service which it has some semblence of control over. Take the decision making out of the hands of useless managers and senior people with a 1970s attitude to work practices.

maneno · 16-10-2020 08:27PM

BrianD3 wrote: »

Article about WFH plans in the Irish Indo today
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/workers-will-have-right-to-ask-to-work-from-home-under-new-government-plans-39632288.html

What is the point of this, sounds like worthless nonsense. Wow, employees to be given the legal right to request WFH which can be refused.

Before this plan:
Employee: Can I work from home
Manager: No

After this plan:
Employee: Can I work from home
Manager: No

As I said in another thread, if the state wants to encourage WFH for climate action and other reasons, it needs to start with the civil and public service which it has some semblence of control over. Take the decision making out of the hands of useless managers and senior people with a 1970s attitude to work practices.

who would make the decision in your case?

jmlad2020 · 17-10-2020 07:37PM

Ultimanemo wrote: »

In many places in Ireland you can't work from home because the Internet is not fast enough.

What constitutes as fast enough? I live in the back ass of nowhere with ok broadband. Believe it or not I can still get emails and have teams meetings. No hiccups. Not every job requires high speed internet although some might.

riclad · 17-10-2020 07:56PM

My Friend lives in a new build one off house ,about 14 minutes drive from
a large town .
she used a 02 3g modem to acess the web ,
she applied to eircom,sky etc no one could provide broadband in that area.
if you live in rural area,s theres a chance you simply can not get broadband , unless you maybe use a satellite provider.
if you are x distance from the exchange you will not get a good quality signal which is needed to provide fast broadband .
i think an app like zoom needs
quote ;
Zoom Overview Zoom Technical Requirements
Minimum bandwidth is 600kbps (up/down) and recommended is 1.5 Mbps (up/down). Check your Internet bandwidth using Speedtest.

if i use tethering on my 4g phone i get 20meg per second on it if i download a podcast.
emails will work on a 56k modem,
or 1 bar signal on a phone .
its apps like skype or zoom or youtube that require at least 3meg per second to work as normal .

an email is just a txt file .

Most broadband ads i see online quote 20-50meg per second at least.

Jim2007 · 17-10-2020 08:14PM

riclad wrote: »

Most broadband ads i see online quote 20-50meg per second at least.

I use what seems to be the Swiss equivalent of this plan: https://www.eir.ie/store/mobile/mbbdevice/bill-pay/

On average I get about 120Mbps on it. Because of the nature of my work, I'm required to have three alternatives, so I also have broadband and a satellite connection. Of the three, I find the 4G to be the most consistent.

Perhaps someone Ireland can comment on such plans.

riclad · 17-10-2020 08:58PM

The new tesla satellite network could provide a choice for people in rural area, s or areas where's there's no 4g signal.
It's fast and not too expensive, the problem it will be limited to about 300,000 users around the world.
In America millions of people have zero acess to broadband.
Comcast , Att do not think its worth while building fibre in rural area.s
It's cheaper to have a network in city's or large towns where's there's millions of potential customers
I think it will take 3 years to have 5g available
in most city's and towns in Ireland
Each cell tower needs to be connected to high speed fibre

PommieBast · 18-10-2020 09:55AM

Jim2007 wrote: »

On average I get about 120Mbps on it. Because of the nature of my work, I'm required to have three alternatives, so I also have broadband and a satellite connection. Of the three, I find the 4G to be the most consistent.

Oh Jees.. What sort of RTT latency does that thing have? Wouldn't want to use an SSH connection over it..

If Work From Home becomes a thing...

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