Beats not getting paid, but “working from home” sucks.

I feel your pain. I'm on the parent side of the deal, with my wife and I trying to concentrate on work at home while helping 3 kids with homework and zoom meetings and watching a toddler.

Not surprised that alcohol sales are way up...

My cousin and her husband both teach–and they have two kids at home.

Vent away. We're all here for ya. 

I am the manager, the other side is figuring out how to keep in contact with 10 people, none of whom ever worked from home before.  I have my own responsibilities plus making sure I stay in touch enough that I don't make it sound like they are all just on vacation and not really needed.  I have a terrific team and they all are doing a great job, but it's still on me to make sure the perceptions by the ownership don't go sideways.

I used to work from home one day every couple of weeks to get peace and quiet and work on the projects that needed a couple hours of uninterrupted time to think through, plan and write.  Even being used to this, I can tell you that after 8 weeks, I'm ready to be back in an office setting.

This event is taking a toll on everyone, even those that used to be relatively independent.  All the rules have changed and every interaction is different.  The first few minutes of every call with a customer or supplier is to talk about the world around us rather than the real intent of the call.

Add the teaching aspect on top, yikes, I can understand your angst.

Sorry. There are people worse off than me, no one needs to hear me bitch and be all negative. 

Stupid question, but you said you're a teacher and then it sounds like you're working for a company?  Do you mind my asking what that arrangement is like?  Around these parts, teachers are all employed by either the local school district or a church/diocese and I've never heard of the operator of a school being referred to as a "company".  Just tremendously curious about that, is all - I hope that doesn't offend or overstep!

Working from home is really tough - especially if you have to interact with other people.  Before the coughpocolyse, I worked from home all the time already, with a lot of what I do easier to do sitting at home than being in a busy office.  Putting together a presentation or writing a business case or writing some code and stuff like that is prime activity for the isolation of home.  But if I needed to sit down and have a conversation with someone - especially multiple someones - I always prefer to drive up to the office and get a conference room.  People are way more prone to "multi-task" (or as I like to call it, "ignore you") when you're just a voice on a speaker, and even video doesn't help that much with that.  It's almost impossible to catch on to all the little microexpressions and cues that you don't even realize you're seeing normally.  And trying to get a word in edgewise on a conversation is harder, too.  Add in all that other stuff you're talking about, and it's really tough.  So, nothing to add really, just an acknowledgement that you're not alone out there!

Carbon (Forum Supporter) said:

Sorry. There are people worse off than me, no one needs to hear me bitch and be all negative. 

There's always going to be someone else with a bigger problem.  Just because your problem isn't the biggest one in the world doesn't magically fix the emotional toll that it takes on you.  Bitch away!

You can always come join us and risk your life being an expendable essential worker. We're hiring.

Working from home is a huge bonus, I love it.

I was talking to a fellow GRMer yesterday about how this feels.  We're both social people that like a lot of in face interaction.  My job forces it even though we're trying to limit it as much as possible.  His job doesn't let him right now.  I can see how that'll really affect someone.

I've been working part time in a sort of experiment to see if I can do anything productive outside of work. What I've learned is that working by myself is nice, staying at home all day is not.

It's worse now because you're much more restricted when you do leave home. You can't grind away work for 5 days and then go camping on the weekend.

I don't envy people who are working from home right now.

I've worked from home for the past 6 years. The biggest change for me work-wise is that I typically travel every 3-4 weeks for a few days, but haven't had to do that since I returned home on March 13th. So, I'll count that as a blessing in disguise. 
 

The other change is dealing with people who are not used to working from home and still getting used to it. 

I haven't worked for soon to be 2 weeks. The joys of being essential contract labor. Yalls need to get sick so the jobs come back!!!

Sorry everyone, I just can’t right now. I’m not in a good place. 

I'm not liking working from home full time at all.  I normally work from home 2-3 days per week anyway, but doing it 5 days per week every week isn't my cup of tea.  It's funny to see me typing that, because I generally don't think of myself as a huge "people person".  I'm happy to be left alone and be quiet, but I have to say I miss being in the office with my staff and my coworkers.  I feel like an independent contractor doing this, not a part of a bigger team.  I find it harder to be motivated then I do when I'm in the office. 

I don't think it's helped my cause that the rest of my normal life has come to a grinding halt.  Our lives were built around our kids lacrosse schedules.  We ran around like maniacs 5-6 days per week taking them to practices, games, tournaments, etc...  We were almost never home, it was an exhausting schedule.  All of that has come to a dead stop.  There is nothing going on right now.  No lacrosse for any of them, no school.  It was nice to have a break for the first week or so, but now it's boring as hell.  I'm not used to sitting around night after night and it's driving me crazy, I'm not enjoying it.  I don't want to get into another hobby or long term project because eventually lacrosse will start again and life will go back to our "normal".   So the kids are bored out of their skulls, I'm bored, my wife is bored...though she's better at finding things to fill her time than I am.  I'm definitely not enjoying this time. 

I'll end my rant here.  As others have said, I know there are plenty of people who are in far worse situations.  I'm bitching about first world problems.  My wife and I still have our jobs, we're all still healthy, so from that perspective life is good.  Just bored and don't enjoy working from home.

I already worked from home 2-3 days per week. But this in combination with not being able to do much the last 8 weeks is really not doing me any favors as far as mental health. We have been doing Zoom coffee breaks/happy hours, etc, but not the same. And I've definitely been spending too much time hitting the sauce and playing video games out of boredom.

My girlfriend got a new job that she starts next week, and while it will be a pretty cool/chill gig where she actually gets to do what she went to school for, it also means her being back in an office. Even though it's a small office, I don't like it. She has RA and is on two immune suppresant drugs. 

No idea when my group will be back in the office, I suspect at least another 4-6 weeks.

Klayfish said:

I'm not liking working from home full time at all.  I normally work from home 2-3 days per week anyway, but doing it 5 days per week every week isn't my cup of tea.  It's funny to see me typing that, because I generally don't think of myself as a huge "people person".  I'm happy to be left alone and be quiet, but I have to say I miss being in the office with my staff and my coworkers.  I feel like an independent contractor doing this, not a part of a bigger team.  I find it harder to be motivated then I do when I'm in the office. 

I don't think it's helped my cause that the rest of my normal life has come to a grinding halt.  Our lives were built around our kids lacrosse schedules.  We ran around like maniacs 5-6 days per week taking them to practices, games, tournaments, etc...  We were almost never home, it was an exhausting schedule.  All of that has come to a dead stop.  There is nothing going on right now.  No lacrosse for any of them, no school.  It was nice to have a break for the first week or so, but now it's boring as hell.  I'm not used to sitting around night after night and it's driving me crazy, I'm not enjoying it.  I don't want to get into another hobby or long term project because eventually lacrosse will start again and life will go back to our "normal".   So the kids are bored out of their skulls, I'm bored, my wife is bored...though she's better at finding things to fill her time than I am.  I'm definitely not enjoying this time. 

I'll end my rant here.  As others have said, I know there are plenty of people who are in far worse situations.  I'm bitching about first world problems.  My wife and I still have our jobs, we're all still healthy, so from that perspective life is good.  Just bored and don't enjoy working from home.

 

No kids or lacrosse, but that's basically EXACTLY how I feel about not going and at least getting a bit of face time with the coworkers. Especially the ones I don't work with directly, so we don't interact outside of "stop and chats" in the office.

Carbon (Forum Supporter) said:

Sorry everyone, I just can’t right now. I’m not in a good place. 

Don't worry; we'll still be here when you are.

We're doing much better than many others.

My wife was worked in aftercare at an elementary school. She's still getting paid through the end of the school year (end of May), but it's part time, low pay.

I've been the main provider, but I'm not working. I took off in mid-March, and have told management that I'll return on June 1st. I was lucky to have some PTO available, and the company has provided up to two weeks of extra PTO for those that are sick, need to care for a family member, or are high risk. Since I'm 64, I qualify for the latter category.

All of the PTO has run out, so nothing coming in for the rest of the month. We've got a small rainy day fund, so we're okay for a few weeks. If I get sick when I go back to work, we're going to be in trouble, though. Unfortunately, it's going to still be circulating in the community, so I've got a pretty high risk of being infected once I go back.

I can't practice without being in an office, so I don't have any other options. I've tried to work from home while doing some other work. It's really hard to stay focused enough to sit in front of a computer and stay on task for hours at a time.

z31maniac said:

I already worked from home 2-3 days per week. But this in combination with not being able to do much the last 8 weeks is really not doing me any favors as far as mental health. We have been doing Zoom coffee breaks/happy hours, etc, but not the same. And I've definitely been spending too much time hitting the sauce and playing video games out of boredom.

My girlfriend got a new job that she starts next week, and while it will be a pretty cool/chill gig where she actually gets to do what she went to school for, it also means her being back in an office. Even though it's a small office, I don't like it. She has RA and is on two immune suppresant drugs. 

No idea when my group will be back in the office, I suspect at least another 4-6 weeks.

I don't even have video games to play...my boys have Xbox but I just can't get intot it. 

I feel the concern for your girlfriend.  I have Crohns' disease, sort of a "sister" disease to RA.  I'm on immunosuppresants too.  I'm taking precautions, but at the same time I can't just sit here in the house.  It's doing bad things for my mental well being.

After 7 weeks of WFH (in PA), I am back in the construction trailer in NH.  When it comes to the computer part of my job, WFH was great.  But the "getting information" part was starting to suffer from me not being on site.   I work for an engineering company that provides services building pharma facilities and sometimes we need to be at the facilities to do our jobs.  But once I have that information, I don't necessarily need to be at an office desk and it's more comfortable for me to do that work at home.

Essential worker here.  Things have been just a bit slower than usual for the past 8 weeks but otherwise: get up, go to work, come home, watch TV, eat, drink, repeat.

We're REALLY ready to have some outside activities get going again.

(And thank the FSM our kids are all in HS or college and independent studiers, I couldn't handle a needy 9 year old right now.)

Klayfish said:

z31maniac said:

I already worked from home 2-3 days per week. But this in combination with not being able to do much the last 8 weeks is really not doing me any favors as far as mental health. We have been doing Zoom coffee breaks/happy hours, etc, but not the same. And I've definitely been spending too much time hitting the sauce and playing video games out of boredom.

My girlfriend got a new job that she starts next week, and while it will be a pretty cool/chill gig where she actually gets to do what she went to school for, it also means her being back in an office. Even though it's a small office, I don't like it. She has RA and is on two immune suppresant drugs. 

No idea when my group will be back in the office, I suspect at least another 4-6 weeks.

I don't even have video games to play...my boys have Xbox but I just can't get intot it. 

I feel the concern for your girlfriend.  I have Crohns' disease, sort of a "sister" disease to RA.  I'm on immunosuppresants too.  I'm taking precautions, but at the same time I can't just sit here in the house.  It's doing bad things for my mental well being.

Yeah, after they offered her the job on Friday.............she basically said berkeley it. I'm going to have to be around people, so I'm going to Home Depot to get some plants and planters, etc. 

And I mean, she literally left about 5 minutes after she got the written offer. 

wae (Forum Supporter) said:

Carbon (Forum Supporter) said:

Sorry. There are people worse off than me, no one needs to hear me bitch and be all negative. 

There's always going to be someone else with a bigger problem.  Just because your problem isn't the biggest one in the world doesn't magically fix the emotional toll that it takes on you.  Bitch away!

this. Your anger/frustration/pain is just as real as anyone elses. This has taken me a long time to realize it's ok to human and have emotions.

The rant for me is financial. I was due an increase at 1 year, but that was postponed when we were acquired. OK, it will be 6 more months. Then that date was pushed back due to Covid-19, so now it will be 2.5 years without an increase. Then I got a promotion during Covid. More work! More responsibility! More hours! Oh, but no more pay because, you know, Covid. I am definitely not complaining, I am employed and the company values me. But the extra hours means I ignore my kid all day and all night now. That sucks and shifts too much burden to the wife. 

I'd love the opportunity to find out.  I think working from home with little to no contact with the outside world would be AMAZING.  I live close to town, so the only "commuting" I'd have to do would be running errands, meaning most of my driving would be mostly out here in the hills for fun.