How many of you are still working from home

[PeterN]

I am retired so not affected by work requirements, except housework. My wife is still working though. She was furloughed for seven weeks on the first lock down and has been back at the office since then. Some of her colleagues are working from home but most are back in the office. She works for a kitchen unit manufacturer. When the builders went back to work, so did she.
Regards
Peter.

[RDC]

I have worked from home since we went into lockdown last year. Since, I have visited site once for the printer, twice to pick up IT equipment, and twice for work necessity.

I expect working from home to become to norm, with one or two days on site as required once the pandemic is a distant memory.

Working from home has been hard in one way because I started a completely new role middle of last year and getting up to speed is much harder when everyone is at home than if we were all in the same room. However it has also been a godsend for me, especially recently as we have had a baby and it's allowed me to be around more in the day to look after her. I adjust my hours to make sure I am always doing my weekly hours, something working from home facilitates.

[DaveB]

Since my job now consists of answering technical questions about ammunition, and writing technical documents and publications, working from home was an easy transition for me. I have been working at home for a year now, and with only three months to go to retirement I do not foresee that changing.

The biggest challenge I have are our five (yes 5) cats (Maine Coon/Norwegian Forest Cat crosses) , many of whom delight in walking on my keyboard. They have managed to log me put of remote access to my server, and made all kinds of changes to documents. On Facebook I had to spend a half-hour deleting posts because they managed to post a bunch of gibberish 70 times just be sitting on the keyboard. I had to open each of the posts individually and then delete it.

[daman]

For the last five years, I've been working from home and/or at customer sites. What changed for me is I no longer travel to see customers.

I don't miss the office / commute at all.

I do miss getting to go to Moscow, Paris, Munich, San Francisco, Durban wherever every few weeks though. Somehow I doubt I'll ever get to travel as much for work again now that we have proven that we're willing to do back-to-back zoom calls all feckin day!

-daman

[Chuck]

Not doing zoom sh1t - it's a fad and Chinese - and it is NOT secure! Plus with the lousy internet service here - it would be a disaster!

When I leave one appointment I can go knock on the guy next door so to speak, you cannot do that with Zoom etc. Travelling to see a client in any area lets me see what opportunities are in the area....or not!

[Dark Skies]

I make sculptures from recycled metal. I don't even remember what work is. I think it involves getting up in the morning and stuff.

[Lever357]

I heard it described today as not working from home, but living at work!!!

[daman]

When I leave one appointment I can go knock on the guy next door so to speak, you cannot do that with Zoom etc. Travelling to see a client in any area lets me see what opportunities are in the area....or not!

I couldn't agree more. Those 'random' meetings, bumping into another customer when grabbing a coffee etc. All not happening with blooming Zoom.

[Plecotus]

Zoom is just one product/brand. Video conferencing has been aroud for 20 years, if not more. I can remember running it over one or more ISDN lines. Collaberative remote working technologies have been around for a similar period.

As to it being Chinese....have a look inside the device you use to access this board.

I've worked from home for ten years. I love it. No commute. No traffic, no parking and fuel costs and, best of all just now, no having to interact with the pox-ridden!!

[Alpha1]

I was furloughed at first. Then the company installed a office in my home and gave me remote access to the Companies site. I can access everything I could access at work. They have installed all the programs I need to do my job including Auto cad, Visio. Project etc.
I am now going in to work on a Tuesday and a half day on Friday. All our meetings are done online. Most of the people who work for the Company are the same. When and if we ever get back to normal I don't think the working from home will go away. It seems to work fairly well as it is for the Company I work for. The laboratories have introduced a split shift system. The Pilot Plants are running as normal 24 hours a day with reduced manning and Covid precautions in place. As its a research facility The Labs and Pilot plants staff are classed as key workers. I have to say the Company has spared no expense to create a safe environment for the guys and girls who have to go in. They have spent a fortune and the equipment they have installed is un real