CORONA Today's photo -- Today. Boston. Rush hour.
- Thread starter mzkitty
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Blacknarwhal
Let's Go Brandon!
And this is why we're hearing Trump talking reopening. We CANNOT go on like that indefinitely.
Fake Shemp
Banned for resurrecting the mayonnaise thread
MZK, others, I'm thinking/hoping that if something comes of this, maybe telecommuting will become the norm. At least maybe to a certain degree. If company's see their bottom line is in parallel with folks showing up at the office, well hopefully we can reduce the headaches and bottlenecks associated with long, high traffic commutes. 
Intestinal Fortitude
Have Faith
Greta Thunberg is very happy
et2
TB Fanatic
nothing like that here in Mi. Cars driving everywhere
223shootersc
Veteran Member
Wow, good for them!
Blacknarwhal
Let's Go Brandon!
Oh yes. Enough of this "you have to be here 40 hours a week or more" nonsense. Marissa Mayer's ghost needs to be expunged soonest.MZK, others, I'm thinking/hoping that if something comes of this, maybe telecommuting will become the norm. At least maybe to a certain degree. If company's see their bottom line is in parallel with folks showing up at the office, well hopefully we can reduce the headaches and bottlenecks associated with long, high traffic commutes.
I want to see people go back to work, and that first day back, demand telecommuting at an all-hands meeting. It was good enough for the peons who just saved the company's collective backside, it will be good enough AFTER there's no more virus threat. All those cheap excuses about "we're stronger together" and "we need people together to have good ideas" mean NOTHING in the face of actual, quantifiable data. Telecommuting has SAVED a range of businesses from disaster. It's time we kept it.
Blacknarwhal
Let's Go Brandon!
Telecommuting requires a lot of self-discipline. It also requires agreements about when you are available to work and when you are not. You become salaried usually rather than paid by the hour. Or, you get paid by the completed project.
Technically work from home is how we operate our office. We have a home office and then we have field work. My husband is very disciplined. The problem is the work takes over your life and your home space. The boss uses the cell phone like a leash. You have to have adequate internet connection for your job and be prepared to do a lot of face-time and that sort of thing. You'll find that they aren't happy if your phone rolls over to voicemail because they'll think you aren't working.
Some telecommuters are monitored by camera or by bots on your computer so they can make sure you are working.
Trust me, telecommuting isn't the nirvana some would make it appear to be.
Technically work from home is how we operate our office. We have a home office and then we have field work. My husband is very disciplined. The problem is the work takes over your life and your home space. The boss uses the cell phone like a leash. You have to have adequate internet connection for your job and be prepared to do a lot of face-time and that sort of thing. You'll find that they aren't happy if your phone rolls over to voicemail because they'll think you aren't working.
Some telecommuters are monitored by camera or by bots on your computer so they can make sure you are working.
Trust me, telecommuting isn't the nirvana some would make it appear to be.
h_oder
Veteran Member
My company sent everyone home to work 2 weeks ago (Insurance brokerage firm). I've had the ability to work from home (a day or two at a time), where others wanted to, but weren't allowed. I'm hoping that this proves to be a successful event for my company. Two years ago - this never would have happened. We are considered an "essential business" - and in the past, people would have been required to go to work.
One thing I've noticed (at least personally) - working from home when you want to is one thing. Working from home with no option is not as easy. I just count my blessings that we have the ability. It could be worse for many of my fellow employees.
One thing I've noticed (at least personally) - working from home when you want to is one thing. Working from home with no option is not as easy. I just count my blessings that we have the ability. It could be worse for many of my fellow employees.
Blacknarwhal
Let's Go Brandon!
I've been telecommuting for the last 15 years. Freelance writing. It USED to be very conducive to telecommuting, before for some reason everyone started demanding people show up.
You don't HAVE to use a cell phone like a leash. You don't HAVE to do facetime until you drop.
Those things only HAVE to be in an environment run by immature sociopaths that must control their peons at all costs.
Silverfox
TWTFS
No she's not.
Silverfox
TWTFS
Until it isn't.
Silverfox
TWTFS
Hey dumba**, you're supposed to be inside!
Understood but there are people, managers, that are very controlling. Especially in industries that are production driven. They want more and more of your time rather than the number of hours per day that was originally agreed upon.
If it is a completed project pay scale that is usually better because no one cares as long as the project is completed on time.
Worked from home a couple of days a week from 2015 thru 2019. Granted permanent work from home starting in 2020.
Now, because of the virus, thousands of us are working from home "permanently" for the last 2-3 weeks. HR has sent out a survey. The questions lead me to believe they may go toward allowing or even requiring much more work from home after this is over. I think they are relatively pleased with how well we have all handled it.
Now, because of the virus, thousands of us are working from home "permanently" for the last 2-3 weeks. HR has sent out a survey. The questions lead me to believe they may go toward allowing or even requiring much more work from home after this is over. I think they are relatively pleased with how well we have all handled it.
MEH
Work from truck
16hrs & 550mi before I found a site to get horizontal at.
Now I'm in a 12x16 room with 2 snoring German Shepherds...and can't sleep.
Better than a job, I guess.
Work from truck
16hrs & 550mi before I found a site to get horizontal at.
Now I'm in a 12x16 room with 2 snoring German Shepherds...and can't sleep.
Better than a job, I guess.
Freeholder
This too shall pass.
That image of Boston’s streets is mind-boggling. Traffic there is usually bumper to bumper in all lanes, from early in the morning till late at night. When we still lived in central NH, my sister flew out to visit with her two-year-old. I had them come in late; their arrival time was around nine pm. I thought by then the traffic should be lighter and not so scary to drive in. Not! I couldn’t tell any difference between then and rush hour, though maybe a native could have. The picture in the OP looks like the apocalypse has hit.
Kathleen
Kathleen
medic38572
TB Fanatic
The air has never been cleaner in a 100 years....
mzkitty
I give up.
You got that right, LOL. In the 70's I lived in Cambridge for about 3 months. Traffic was insane at all hours. On top of that, they are all crazy. They always drive too fast, and make maneuvers all the time. It is actually scary. You have to learn to drive like them. LA Freeway driving is nothing because it's always SLOW because of all the people on it. All the time. Not Boston !!
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WriterMom
Veteran Member
I have "telecommuted" in one of my jobs for 15 years (freelance writing), and I love the freedom. But, as a writer, I can work wherever and whenever I want. I am also now teaching high school science from home (PA schools closed a couple of weeks ago), and it is a LOT more work than actually being there in the classroom! I'm probably putting in at least 1.5 times my "normal" hours. I agree that telecommuting takes discipline. If that's a long-term option for anyone, I think that setting up a regular schedule and setting goals is really important to help keep you on-task and on-track.
Rucus Sunday
Veteran Member
I can second this. It has its benefits, but I worked longer each day telecommuting than I did going to the office.
Blacknarwhal
Let's Go Brandon!
Of course, we're going to have to up our internet access capabilities. Some reports already suggest that the internet's getting strained a bit trying to keep up with all these new users on all the time. But that's the ISPs' fault for trying to nickle-and-dime their way to profitability.
Blacknarwhal
Let's Go Brandon!
Countrymouse
Country exile in the city
He's probably been PAYING. ATTENTION. to what happened in China.
Anyone who believes the figures from China about 80-something-thousand total falling ill (coughliberalsandtheirlackeyscough) I've love to sell you my oceanfront property in north Georgia.
China got to 80,000-something and then STOPPED REPORTING new cases--that was about the time they welded people shut into their apartment buildings, managed to shut down the leaks into social media of their people face-planting and their medical workers having meltdowns over too many patients and not enough supplies/beds/ventilators, and WHOLE CITIES being shut down (Wuhan, Beijing, Shanhai,--even Hong Kong to some extent).
NO WAY did the figures stay at 80-something thousand infected and what-ever-it-is China is saying died.
Their population prior to this epidemic for 2019 was listed as 1,433,783,686 (googled it)---and their infected was probably in the MILLIONS, and death in HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS.
Trump KNOWS how bad this could get.
I was just reading an article from FEBRUARY 11, 2020---it is VERY INTERESTING to see that China's leaders were saying, in light of what Trump is saying:
The restart of business poses a risk of further spreading the virus, but the country has little recourse, said Cong Liang, secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s main economic planning body.
“Without the reopening of businesses, in the short term, it will affect the supply of medical material and ... in the long run, it will affect the supply of all kinds of production and life materials and will make the control and prevention efforts on the front line unsustainable. The target of defeating the epidemic will not be reached,” Cong said at a news conference.
(From "China Still Mostly Closed Down as Deaths Pass 1000", from China still mostly closed down as coronavirus deaths pass 1,000 )
But look at what they had to do in LATE February---that is when (on this thread) we monitored their BARRICADING Wuhan roads to prevent people entering / leaving, their police literally attacking people on the street for not wearing a mask or breaking quarantine, and the incredible lines at the hospitals.
The New Yorker is coming out (dated Mar 30, 2020) with an article about life inside China during this time; I found the following quote very enlightening:
The reaction of medical staff in Wuhan was sometimes angry. I frequently exchanged messages with a Wuhan hospital pharmacist whom I’ll call Zhang, who had seen a dozen colleagues fall sick. One remained in critical care. “We didn’t have enough protective devices and we weren’t cautious enough,” he wrote. When I asked about the root cause of the epidemic, he was blunt:
I think what Trump knows is that we could EASILY become another China---but he also knows we don't have the docile population that China does. He's trying to ride the tiger here between controlling the virus, saving our economy, and preventing mass chaos in the cities.
I wish him luck & pray for him.
Blacknarwhal
Let's Go Brandon!
Like I said, "immature sociopaths." Sounds like businesses need to thin the middle manager ranks as detrimental to morale.
I have been doing it off and on for years as an IT worker. Some days it is nice and others it is a pain. Never had to deal with cameras or bots as that would be a deal breaker, but then I have never been asked to have them installed. Probably depends on line of business maybe.
I will say that if you are working from home, you do need to be disciplined and have a routine. I always get dressed just like I was going to office, I work the same hours and when I am at the end of my day, I make myself walk away from computer. That took a while to learn because there is always one more thing you can do. Can't speak about hourly pay as I have always been salary. And the key to it all, is do you job and complete your task for each day. You do that and all of the companies I have worked for are quite happy.
All that being said, I do enjoy going to the office and chatting in person some days and other days, especially if I have a deadline to meet, prefer to work from home where I am left alone (less meetings and interruptions) to focus on my task. Most of those I work with are in the same boat about getting more done by working remotely.
I guess it depends on the industry. Personally I find bosses that have that attitude usually want you in a chair in the office so they can see you, and usually I find that those types have a higher turnover rate because with experience software engineers can pack their bags and move to a new gig for more cash pretty quickly depending on how picky they are and how much they hate their current gig.
Last company I was at, very small firm, got bought and the new owner had that opinion. Now he has no IT staff with any experience as we all left, most to the company I am currently at, as they liked the first guy they got and came back and made offers to the rest of us that were to good to pass on.