Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak

[tlr]

Thankfully my job lends itself to quiet and very long periods working alone, so WFH suits me for now. That said, I am not anticipating being formally asked back to the office before autumn, by which point I probably will have gone spare. 

[MUFC]

 

[nudge+]

I love working from home and wouldn't change it for anything else. Granted, it's not for everyone, but for me, it's the best thing ever. 

[Bluewolf]

8 hours ago, Stan said:

It's not always so rosy. There are plenty of advantages as there are disadvantages to working from home. 

Agreed, my mate currently does about 2 days in and the rest working from home and he said it's a ball ache... Trouble is in his type of role in logistics he needs to be having access to figures and paperwork to do his job properly and now he spends pretty much all his time ringing around asking questions to which no-one has the answers for so he has to wait until he is due in next and try and catch up with people that are in and checking paperwork for the week, he hates it, You can just see him slowly eroding away and I can't think of anyone I know off hand there that doesn't have a more positive outlook on life than him... It's almost as though he is suffering from depression so although for a lot of the people he normally interacts with are just dossing about at home deciding if they are or are not going to bother answering the phone or replying to e-mails you have him struggling to do his job for the business with mostly guess work... 

It's not for everyone... 

Edited May 19, 2020 by Bluewolf

[Bluewolf]

7 hours ago, Burning Gold said:

I hate it. Both in terms of barely speaking to anyone, and in terms of it being that much harder to get things done. I've seen a lot of people saying that a positive of this situation is that maybe we'll all get to work from home by default in future.

Our place has been telling people that they may well keep office staff working from home until the end of the year... 

[Stan]

6 hours ago, nudge said:

I love working from home and wouldn't change it for anything else. Granted, it's not for everyone, but for me, it's the best thing ever. 

Same. Knew we had something in common

Also, one of the best things about working from home isn't even the work anyway. It's so fucking good to be able to watch all the sport tournaments usually in summer without feeling guilty

6 minutes ago, Bluewolf said:

Agreed, my mate currently does about 2 days in and the rest working from home and he said it's a ball ache... Trouble is in his type of role in logistics he needs to be having access to figures and paperwork to do his job properly and now he spends pretty much all his time ringing around asking questions to which no-one has the answers for so he has to wait until he is due in next and try and catch up with people that are in and checking paperwork for the week, he hates it, You can just see him slowly eroding away and I can't think of anyone I know off hand there that doesn't have a more positive outlook on life than him... It's almost as though he is suffering from depression so although for a lot of the people he normally interacts with are just dossing about at home deciding if they are or are not going to bother answering the phone or replying to e-mails you have him struggling to do his job for the business with mostly guess work... 

It's not for everyone... 

Yeah some roles lend themselves to always being in the office or having capability to do it or not. The company needs to have infrastructures to do it as well. No use asking everyone to work from home when you need to access work systems but connectivity through work VPNs are rubbish (had that experience many a time). Ironically, the logistics of it all need to be adequate enough to sustain that productivity the company would want... 

[Bluewolf]

4 minutes ago, Stan said:

Same. Knew we had something in common

Also, one of the best things about working from home isn't even the work anyway. It's so fucking good to be able to watch all the sport tournaments usually in summer without feeling guilty

Yeah some roles lend themselves to always being in the office or having capability to do it or not. The company needs to have infrastructures to do it as well. No use asking everyone to work from home when you need to access work systems but connectivity through work VPNs are rubbish (had that experience many a time). Ironically, the logistics of it all need to be adequate enough to sustain that productivity the company would want... 

Trouble is that a lot of the staff are at home on a permanent basis and he suggested that maybe some of those key workers he needs to interact with could come in maybe a couple of times a week on rotation so that he can at least be passing the information he needs back and forth etc without the place being overcrowded, They set up a large porta cabin office that holds 8 people with desks etc but he is the only one using it at the moment because everyone else has been told to stay off... That's a huge underused expense for the company on a monthly basis.. 

When the organisation isn't there to start with it all becomes a huge pain in the arse... 

[Harry]

In working from home I'd have to say:

I've never been busier or more productive. 

I've never been less physically active

I interact with a much smaller circle of employees than in the office.

I love being able to take my kids out for a bike ride in my lunch break

The high point that comes at the end of the week, with Friday being a social lunch at work, and talk of beers after, and generally being psyched about the weekend has all disappeared.

 

[Bluebird Hewitt]

Hit and miss for me working from home. 

I like being able to get up slightly later than normal and practically rolling to my work desk, while being able to have more freedom as well. Not needing to drive into work has been great as well as it cuts down on my fuel costs, as well as the general travel to and from work. 

At the same time, the colleagues I work with were a good laugh and we can bounce off each other so that doesn't help. As @Harry mentioned as well, the likes of social lunches and possible beers after work are gone as well. 

Edited May 19, 2020 by Bluebird Hewitt

[Inverted]

I like not having to travel, but having to phone or email to get support is terrible. Normally I'd just spin my chair and run a difficult scenario past a colleague or my supervisor, whereas these days I'm quite often totally stuck with customers.

[Stan]

24 minutes ago, Inverted said:

I like not having to travel, but having to phone or email to get support is terrible. Normally I'd just spin my chair and run a difficult scenario past a colleague or my supervisor, whereas these days I'm quite often totally stuck with customers.

Agree with this. If there's one thing I miss about working in an office it is the ability to just chat to a colleague about something work-related that you might not have come across, or just to get some guidance/advice about it all. 

Technology helps with that and it's always there anyway if we do need to speak to someone but sometimes it's not the same at all. 

[Bluebird Hewitt]

On 17/05/2020 at 21:00, Bluebird Hewitt said:

Remember when I said that the Welsh Government have a habit of doing things differently for no real reason other than 'to be the first' or 'to stick it to Westminster', even if it makes no sense whatsoever? 

Wales decided to go its own way in regards to an online portal for booking coronavirus tests for key workers due to the system 'having limited value' as it would only provide information on whether someone had a test. This is despite Scotland and Northern Ireland signing up to the UK wide system. 

The Welsh Government has now decided that 'data issues' have now been resolved and will now scrap its own online portal in favour of the UK Government system. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-52697923

When asked about the length of time spent setting up the website, Vaughan Gething mentioned in the article that he was 'really not bothered about getting into how much we spent on developing a different portal at a point in time'. 

So that's time and likely money wasted for a system to now be scrapped and not giving a rat's arse.  

I wonder if this gets brought up in my meeting tomorrow regarding the Amazon link as I think my system was meant to link in with them for demographic reason. 

This got mentioned in our daily meeting and when I asked for clarification, I had confirmation that a colleague of mine in the same department as me was working flat out for three weeks to get it up and running to link up with Amazon, only for Vaughan Gething to scrap it in favour of the UK wide one. 

Nice of Vaughan Gething to show his appreciation and dodge the question as well. 

If this was Matt Hancock, he would have been absolutely slaughtered by the media and opposition.

[Stan]

11 minutes ago, Bluebird Hewitt said:

This got mentioned in our daily meeting and when I asked for clarification, I had confirmation that a colleague of mine in the same department as me was working flat out for three weeks to get it up and running to link up with Amazon, only for Vaughan Gething to scrap it in favour of the UK wide one. 

Nice of Vaughan Gething to show his appreciation and dodge the question as well. 

If this was Matt Hancock, he would have been absolutely slaughtered by the media and opposition.

Rightly so!

[Bluebird Hewitt]

Just now, Stan said:

Rightly so!

Not sure if you're trying to fish here or simply ignoring everything else but it basically proves my point that the UK Government gets heavily criticised (which is fine as they're the main lead for the UK, even with healthcare devolved to the other nations, and should be scrutinised when needed), yet Vaughan Gething and the Welsh Government gets off scot free once again, despite waiting unnecessary time and money (which Vaughan Gething doesn't care about). My colleague (the one that Gething basically gave the middle finger to) was not happy in the slightest, as you cna imagine. 

We now have the capacity for 5,000 tests a day (which, if you remember, was scrapped in mid April and any targets abandoned), yet struggle to hit even half that amount. 

There is a Daily Mail article which has mentioned what I said in the past but, because it's the Daily Mail, it'd most likely be discarded as 'an attack on Labour'. 

This is not intended to be an attack on Labour, but it really annoys me how the Welsh Government can literally do anything it pleases without the slightest of scrutiny by comparison. 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

9 hours ago, nudge said:

I love working from home and wouldn't change it for anything else. Granted, it's not for everyone, but for me, it's the best thing ever. 

What do you do and what does your house have in it? I need interior photos, exterior photos, nudes, ect ect 

[Stan]

13 minutes ago, Bluebird Hewitt said:

Not sure if you're trying to fish here or simply ignoring everything else but it basically proves my point that the UK Government gets heavily criticised (which is fine as they're the main lead for the UK, even with healthcare devolved to the other nations, and should be scrutinised when needed), yet Vaughan Gething and the Welsh Government gets off scot free once again, despite waiting unnecessary time and money (which Vaughan Gething doesn't care about). My colleague (the one that Gething basically gave the middle finger to) was not happy in the slightest, as you cna imagine. 

We now have the capacity for 5,000 tests a day (which, if you remember, was scrapped in mid April and any targets abandoned), yet struggle to hit even half that amount. 

There is a Daily Mail article which has mentioned what I said in the past but, because it's the Daily Mail, it'd most likely be discarded as 'an attack on Labour'. 

This is not intended to be an attack on Labour, but it really annoys me how the Welsh Government can literally do anything it pleases without the slightest of scrutiny by comparison. 

No, no fishing or ignorance. Apologies it came across like that. It was in relation to the Hancock comment. Some of the actions of the government have been shameful when the truth is wormed out - they have the newspapers wrapped around their little finger at times so sometimes the spin for it becomes so pro-government (in England) and therefore the heavy criticism lasts less than a day. Take the news about Ferguson breaking lockdown. Newspapers (Telegraph?) knew of the breach since April 8th when it happened. If I remember correctly (and will happily be corrected if not), the day that news was actually broken was when testing targets were not met (coincidence?).

It sounds like the actions of Gething are quite snidey, not only just to your colleague but just in general. Politicians have money at the heart of their decisions, rightly or wrongly. There's been occasions where they've made decisions, astonishingly, in their own financial interests or because they have investments in a friend's business so they choose that line instead of one that can actually do the job. And that's wrong. 

It still seems that there's no culpability or accountability from politicians here - but maybe in the middle of a pandemic and a global crisis perhaps it's not the time to point the finger. Hopefully an inquiry/investigation will be carried out and will truly identify where mistakes were made. 

Any government should be held to scrutiny for now and in future. Regardless of circumstance or scenario. I've seen the current government be heavily defended in some parts purely because it is a pandemic. As if that's a reason to let them off for any mistake or wrongdoing.  

I can't answer why the Welsh Government doesn't get more scrutiny or criticism here. Even after England it appears Scotland and Sturgeon get more attention.

[nudge+]

55 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

What do you do and what does your house have in it? I need interior photos, exterior photos, nudes, ect ect 

Data research (medical field). I'm independently contracted, so no fixed working hours, no supervision, no stupid chats with work colleagues, no meetings. I changed houses at least 7 times in the last 6 years, so that question is a bit complicated but generally, when it comes to work, I just need my laptop and internet connection, so choosing houses always comes down to just personal choices, unrelated to the work I do. 

[Bluebird Hewitt]

40 minutes ago, Stan said:

No, no fishing or ignorance. Apologies it came across like that. It was in relation to the Hancock comment. Some of the actions of the government have been shameful when the truth is wormed out - they have the newspapers wrapped around their little finger at times so sometimes the spin for it becomes so pro-government (in England) and therefore the heavy criticism lasts less than a day. Take the news about Ferguson breaking lockdown. Newspapers (Telegraph?) knew of the breach since April 8th when it happened. If I remember correctly (and will happily be corrected if not), the day that news was actually broken was when testing targets were not met (coincidence?).

It sounds like the actions of Gething are quite snidey, not only just to your colleague but just in general. Politicians have money at the heart of their decisions, rightly or wrongly. There's been occasions where they've made decisions, astonishingly, in their own financial interests or because they have investments in a friend's business so they choose that line instead of one that can actually do the job. And that's wrong. 

It still seems that there's no culpability or accountability from politicians here - but maybe in the middle of a pandemic and a global crisis perhaps it's not the time to point the finger. Hopefully an inquiry/investigation will be carried out and will truly identify where mistakes were made. 

Any government should be held to scrutiny for now and in future. Regardless of circumstance or scenario. I've seen the current government be heavily defended in some parts purely because it is a pandemic. As if that's a reason to let them off for any mistake or wrongdoing.  

I can't answer why the Welsh Government doesn't get more scrutiny or criticism here. Even after England it appears Scotland and Sturgeon get more attention.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with all of that tbf. It's not a dig or anything with what I say, it's just frustrating really. 

[Danny]

Gotta day people seem to be ignoring the lockdown the longer it goes on, especially with the governments relaxing of the rules.

Basketball court near me is full (even though it’s fenced off), park is busy, a lot of groups out playing football, the hills I live by are teeming with people and have been for a lot of the lockdown. There’s no way to safely climb them without being surrounded by people.
 

Just went into Lidl as for the first time in ages there’s no queue and it’s always quiet compared to the big supermarkets, normally walk along to a Tesco Express, Polish Supermarket or Asian Supermarket as there’s never a queue and between the three you can do a full shop. Thought with Lidl having no queue it must be empty...wrong it was busy, security not making people queue and people just being dumb. When woman kept trying to lean over or past me for food...as if there’s isn’t currently a G.L.O.B.A.L P.A.N.D.E.M.I.C

I just don’t think the lockdown from the off has been strict enough and nor has the message of how long we’re going to be in this been clear. Government talking about cinemas and restaurants and potential normality as if that’s going to be realistic in the coming months or even years. I can’t not see a second peak tbh but I think as a society, including the government, there is a level of denial that will kill people. This will eventually be blamed on the public alone, their lockdown psychology.

Edited May 19, 2020 by Danny

[Honey Honey]

4 hours ago, Bluebird Hewitt said:

This got mentioned in our daily meeting and when I asked for clarification, I had confirmation that a colleague of mine in the same department as me was working flat out for three weeks to get it up and running to link up with Amazon, only for Vaughan Gething to scrap it in favour of the UK wide one. 

Nice of Vaughan Gething to show his appreciation and dodge the question as well. 

If this was Matt Hancock, he would have been absolutely slaughtered by the media and opposition.

Classic civil service. From a couple of people I've spoken to in Westimster over the past couple of years they have been doing fuck all one week then working mad at scoping an idea that gets ditched the next week. Obviously it depends what department you're in.

[Honey Honey]

Just got an email from Duncan Bannatyne asking me to sign a petition to reopen Gyms

 

 chancer

[Bluewolf]

5 minutes ago, Harvsky said:

Just got an email from Duncan Bannatyne asking me to sign a petition to reopen Gyms

 

 chancer

Surprised you Toons have not been asked to sign up for the re-opening of Sports Direct yet... 

[Stan]

1 hour ago, Bluewolf said:

Surprised you Toons have not been asked to sign up for the re-opening of Sports Direct yet... 

Think Hammers fans might want to pay attention though

[Mpache]

Trump and Bolsonaro have been the worst leaders in this whole thing. They are just insanely arrogant and ignorant. 

Even Nicolas Maduro figured it out. And if I have anything good to say about Maduro, then you have a big problem.

[Bluewolf]

I see George Useless is asking for Furloughed staff to start going out on the farms picking fruit and helping out with the harvest.... they are determined to get people back out there wherever they can...