Working from Home

Although it seems quite amazing, it is 50 weeks since I last went to work in the office in the Laycock Personal Development Centre. 

On March 12th 2020 I left the office and was then told by email as I have underlying conditions that it would be best for me not to travel to work by public transport and sit in the office with Covid becoming the demon virus.

So I have worked from home ever since.  Firstly using my personal Dell laptop until that decided to fail all the time as it was never designed to be used 8 or 9 hours a day.

One of my colleagues collected my work Lenovo and packed it up and had it couriered to me. Although a Windows 7 Pro machine it worked okay and I was able to work.

I made one trip up to the office to clear my locker and to trade the Lenovo in for a new HP Elitebook - the one I am currently using. That was back in mid-October 2020.

But what about the logistics of working from home?

I share a small two bedroom house with my wife, Claire, and a dog, Reggie.  We have only two rooms downstairs. a lounge/diner and a kitchen,  and no room to create an office. This means no space to add any desks or office equipment.  

Incredibly, the HP wireless printer is upstairs in the front bedroom on top of a cabinet. Luckily the council's IT team have disabled many of the Windows functions so that I can't use it anyway! Bad luck when I need to print documents to work from!  So much for security though. I simply email them to my Yahoo! email and print from my phone!

My workspace is in the conservatory. At the dining table in fact.  Since working in this area I have moved several times.  From one end of the table to the other.  From my back to the garden, to having my back to the house. By the end of the day the dining chair I have to sit on can cause back and buttock problems.  I have some sort of RSI in my right forearm from wrist to elbow.

Anyone that has a half brick and glass conservatory will probably be aware that in summer it can get very hot and in winter below zero.  I talk in centigrade. 

There's a lot of talk on the TV and social media about the mental health issues surrounding lockdown and working from home. Personally, I don't think my mental health has been affected at all.  I do miss not being in the office chatting to my nearest workmates and generally socialising. 

We have a small office based team supporting schools with their MIS and often during quiet periods it a seemed a waste of time and money travelling into the office.  Spending money and an hour and a half each way on trains and tubes when it could be done from home.

Until the pandemic there seemed to be the feeling among us that management thought working from home was a chance for us to skive off and play hooky.

For me the working day starts around 0745 and ends around 1600.  If I was travelling into the office I would be probably still be in the car at that time to catch the 0756 train from Folkestone West, eventually arriving in the office around 0910. I'd leave around 1710 for the return journey.  Having a 30 minute lunch hour means I can still get my hours in and arrive home none to late.

Working from home means I am available to pick up calls on our helpdesk over an hour earlier than working in the office. I have an hour for lunch. I finish earlier. I am more productive.

Employers started to pick up on the work/life balance idea some years ago.  Or rather most looked at it, thought it sounded good and then promptly binned the idea.  There has to be trust.  And trust from employers and employees. 

I think the pandemic has forced employers' hands, whilst also saving them loads of money.  No offices to heat and light. No power requirements for all the computer equipment being used.... All that passed to the employee who is working from home.  My electricity bill is higher. I have to heat the conservatory over the winter and that's not cheap.  

The government is shelling out millions to companies to pay staff that have been furloughed.  They allegedly cover 80% of the salary. What it has meant is that something like 7.5 million people have been on holiday for nearly a year.  On 80% pay and not having to go to work at all, not even at home!  Where do I sign up for that?

As a sweetener individuals working from home can claim £5 a week back from the tax authorities to cover some expenses. This is back dated from the date you started wfh.

Would I want to go back to the office?  

At the moment the UK government's plan is to start relaxing the lockdown from the end of March, with pubs and restaurants opening for take out services. From April 12th the same establishments having customers onsite but outside in gardens and I assume tables and chairs in the street.

It's not until May 17th that indoor service is planned and June 21st before lockdown completely scrapped.

I am waiting some communication from senior management to find out when we are going back to the office.  I'd hazard a guess it will be after June 21st.

To answer the question.  I am happy working from home. I am enjoying not getting up and driving to the station to sit on a crowded train for 59 minutes and then get on one of Transport for London's polluted underground trains mixing with people that may be carrying this virus and spreading it.  

Long live WFH!