They moved HQ from the Bay Area to Austin, our founder will now be working permanently from his private island in Hawaii, and we can now work from home permanently if we wish.
On the one hand it's pretty cool, on the other, there will be some people I miss seeing at the office a few times per week.
And the Miata will really never be driven, I've already only put maybe 500-600 miles on it since I got it from Jeremy back in April. Which does have me seriously considering selling it. I'm not sure I'm going to dedicate the funds to HPDE for it. Not that it needs any real prep besides a roll bar for HPDE, but just entry fees/tires/gas/etc.
Would a mod fix my horrible typo in the title?
This could be the new normal for many, especially tech. Any word if they're planning to adjust salary based on employee location?
In my job we have a certain amount of work that has to be done in office, so they split us into two groups, and we alternate weekly from wfh and in office. I like the setup. Both home and office have their pluses and minuses. At home I can dress how I want and my wife makes me bacon and eggs, I can sleep a little longer and I use almost no gas. In office the computer system works better and I get more human interaction. I honestly dont know what I'd pick if they wanted us to choose one or the other.
So many government employees are now being told that this will be the new norm. A lot of county and state offices are being told to not renew leases. At some point an adjustment for bandwidth, printing and supplies will be necessary for our household. Between the kids and the wife our good digital service is taxed from 8a-3p!
State Govt Employee here. 90% of my work can be done from home, the only reason we were always in the office is to be available in case anything happens. I doubt we go back full time in the office. It will save me an 80 mile round trip. We are currently still working from home until April and i bet that gets extended til August or later.
Our son is the northeast portfolio manager for several vineyards on the left coast. When all this is over he would have to drive to a train station, leave the car alone all day and take a train into NYC. His handlers are now seeing how silly that is considering how well things are going with video meetings etc. It moves faster.
Enjoy it maniac, but no private island offers huh?
QuasiMofo (John Brown) Forum Supporter said:
So many government employees are now being told that this will be the new norm. A lot of county and state offices are being told to not renew leases. At some point an adjustment for bandwidth, printing and supplies will be necessary for our household. Between the kids and the wife our good digital service is taxed from 8a-3p!
I worked from home before the pandemic, and my I.T. employer doesn't provide any $ for cellphone, internet service or other home office needs. They eliminated a big rent payment, but wouldn't help everyone who went home with the increased costs they suddenly had.
914Driver said:
Enjoy it maniac, but no private island offers huh?
I thought OK was already a private island 
Now would be a good time to get out of commercial real estate.
Yup all my CBRE friends jumped ship in early sept
QuasiMofo (John Brown) Forum Supporter said:
So many government employees are now being told that this will be the new norm.
And some of us not so much...We started back right after July 4th 50% on 50% off alternating each week. Went back to 100% at work the day after Labor Day and have been PROHIBITED from working from home since then. Other agencies in our state are still 100% WFH with no set date to return. Puzzles me as to the inconsistency.
Edit: I do understand that some jobs can't be done from home. You can't do landscaping, fix a pothole, inspect or repair a piece of equipment, catch a poacher, etc. on a computer...
I'm hoping my company does the same. Still WFH right now and expect to be through most of 2021. I think they will be pretty slow to go 100% WFH as some of the IT issues are pretty crippling.
I would lot to not be tied down to one location.
I’m surprised this hasn’t devolved into a “tell me more about the Miata for sale” thread.
WFH was good to me. Lots more of the in-between time was spent with my little ones. I LOVE to be ultra productive too though and so being back at the office with the new job has had that perk.
We’re phasing the employees home already yet I’ll be one of the last to go home, and I’m not sure how I’ll like it this time. There’s a lot more work to be done at the new job and I think I’d prefer to be “out” if I can’t even see my kids. Better than wearing an infuriating mask all day long, if nothing else, though.
I used to manage field service techs in Europe. The ones on France got a stipend for internet, rent for their home office, phone and office supplies. Ohh and a car. In England they got less but we're compensated for internet, mobile and car expenses.
California is requiring compensation for internet and phone if not company provided.
Really the internet compensation doesn't concern me much. Lets say 30% of my traffic is work traffic, it would be worth like $20/month?
The square footage concern is higher for me. My work stuff takes up ~1/2 of my office, so thats ~60 sq ft. that I have to own, insure, clean, heat/cool, etc.
Not a big deal for me right now, but it is a bigger deal for those who want to live in an apt, condo, etc. Sometimes that can be the difference between an extra bedroom or not, which equates to big numbers after a while.
I was officially a remote employee before Corona hit, but would travel to the office or customers 2-3x per week. We're 100% WFH for the foreseeable future, and they opened up an option to commit to WFH (only downside is you'll never have a permanent seat in an office), and gave us a $400 one-time stipend for incidentals (chairs, monitors, a proper desk, printer, etc.). I have a cellphone through them and internet is something that I pay for myself.
Overall, so think it's a fair deal, especially since they set me up with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse when I first started with the company. I bought a used Herman Miller Aeron chair, my wife bought me a standing desk for Christmas, and I bought a second refurb monitor for $45. Considering all the time, wear and tear on vehicles, and gas money I'm saving by not commuting, I'm not complaining. And on their end, they've gotten many long days/weeks of extra work, which I know they're happy about.
What's this office thing you all are talking about? It's been over a decade since I had to report to one regularly. Covid has made it only different as I'm not traveling.
I know we are closing at least 20 offices this year and potentially up to 50.
Strizzo
PowerDork
12/29/20 9:13 p.m.
Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) said:
Now would be a good time to get out of commercial real estate.
It's going pretty well if you're working the right line of business.
mr2s2000elise said:
Yup all my CBRE friends jumped ship in early sept
Which office?
Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) said:
Now would be a good time to get out of commercial real estate.
6 months from now might be a great time to get into it, if you can think of alternative uses to draw in tenants.
In reply to QuasiMofo (John Brown) Forum Supporter :
My mother is a retired govt employee on the defense logistics side - all of her former coworkers have been WFH for over a decade.
There hasn't really been an official word yet from my company management. I suspect there will be a good bit of WFH along with some office time. For us, the issue was we had run out of desk space in the office and WFH sort of fixes that. What I suspect will happen next is when things get back to normal, a lot of the desks in the office will be converted to open stations - mostly all the same and if you need or want to be in the office on a certain day you reserve one of them.
Personally, I wouldn't mind going into the office on Friday since some of my friends have a roving pizza night happy hour/evening and the office is closer to most of their houses than my house. Otherwise, I won't miss my commute at all.
I was also advised to change my location from an on premise desk address to "Remote" by my management.
My job has me doing stuff in remote data centers, teleconferences with people that weren't co-located and night/weekend at home, so in most cases me being in the office was really just taking up a desk. I'm sure I'll still be going into the office for meetings and such from time to time once the pandemic is over, but the impact on my job is minimal.
I'm not sad at all. I've got kids in school, so there are no immediate plans to move house, but not being tied down to a physical location in order to be "at work" might mean working while visiting family, being at the beach or such things without having to burn vacation once we're able to travel again.
In manufacturing so I won't ever be WFH. My wife does CSR and production scheduling for a different manufacturing plant. Most of their customers are out of state. She's working 2 days a week in the office and 3 from home each week for the foreseeable future and it works for her.
They gave her a laptop and monitor but no other contribution. Which is fine by us for now, it doesn't really add to our long term costs much.
I work for a defense contractor in a large facility. We have had a core group, including myself, who has stayed in the office the whole time. We work predominantly with physical records, so most of the in office people's time has been monopolized scanning, printing, and otherwise facilitating the work of other employees. Our computers are being lifecycled out in January and they are sending the suttle message that we won't be coming back by issuing laptops. Having been forced into a leadership role during this due to my boss being fired, I can't say that I am looking forward to this being permanent.
