Couch 230: Decent Communications

Isnt that mama goose in the background, maybe with her eggs nearby? Mans fault for being unaware. I have to give wide berth on our apartment plaza when a duck is nesting there.

Not entirely. Before the pandemic hit they had just bought two new buildings actually. The WFH policy is apparently role-driven. I think most of the company will be WFH 2 days a week, or at least that's what the latest proposal was. I work for an apparel/footwear company so there are some roles that need to be more hands-on and therefore in-office. I work in IT and we don't necessarily need to be in the office. But I need some human interaction. Who knows what'll actually end up happening, but I'm feeling really down about the idea of 100% WFH. And I've already been feeling pretty low. I ended up emailing my therapist after I'd cried for an hour asking for some supportive words. We'll see if he's too busy to get back to me.

Maybe you can find human interaction elsewhere? Book groups, coffee shops, volunteer work, that kind of thing.

I hope you hear back from him soon, NP. I wonder if they could still at least have periodic on-site meetings, so you could interact with other people? Or maybe you could arrange to meet some of the IT team for lunch or coffee periodically during the workday (or perhaps dinner after, depending on where people live)? Otherwise, ATAT's suggestion is good.

NP- is it a COVID response, or something they're considering permanently? Either way, maybe you could advocate for being the "on-site" person a couple days a week to meet the needs of (whoever you're providing IT support to) who do better face-to-face? You'd know the language that would work best to fill in the blanks.

What are they going to do with those desk? Sell them? In this market?!

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They're considering this as a permanent change. My job isn't really as IT support. I'm a programmer, so the extent of my contact with our users is usually very minimal. What I miss is being around the others on my team - about 6 of us on our dev team and another 9 business analysts that we work very closely with. Our cubes were all clustered together. If everyone is working from home, there won't be anyone to interact with even if I were to go into the office.

Bah again — the apartment building I’m living in is really not well-managed. They never gave me a tour or instructions on how things work, my crap got stolen and they were useless, the driveway gate is always breaking, they still haven’t fitted the missing handle on my cupboard, etc etc.

The thing that is currently driving me crazy is that there is a fire panel in the lobby of the building, and it has an alarm that keeps going off. It isn’t the overhead fire alarm but it is loud and piercing and it keeps me awake. It goes off for days at a time. I talked to the office and they said it was an issue with the phone line and they were working with Comcast to fix it; it actually stopped for a week or two. But I came home tonight and it’s going off again.

Honestly, if it weren’t so much trouble to move all my crap again I would be seriously considering breaking my lease. These people suck.

My wife.

Got an axe handy?

This is what happened at my company. I got the initial approval from senior management by becoming completely honest how being stuck at home has impacted my eating disorder.

Now I have to get VP approval to get an assigned desk. It's been a headache and a half to do so.

Hugs. I hope you get a favourable reply soon.

Optional filter to the cloth mask should work. Some people find those less uncomfortable than the surgical masks.

Hopefully he'll be alright. Hugs if wanted.

Ugh. I'm sorry. That super sucks.
Short-sighted on their part, too, imo. Working from home has some benefits, but you miss all of those little pop-down the hall with a question/informal batting around different solutions to problems/social bonding niceties that lead to team cohesion moments.

Plus not one of my work nightmares over the past 20 years was WFH.

Not the same thing but could you work in a coffee shop?

Oh I didn't consider this.

My job moved to much less desirable office space like a year before we all started WFH. I had to share an office with three other people, including my boss (which was fine) and the office manager who had everybody and their brother coming in to see her all day for work-related things (which was not fine). My job requires a lot of focused concentration and little interaction with anybody except my boss and our director who is remote anyway. So basically we're never going back to the office, and I'm mostly okay with that. My wife went into the office for the first time yesterday, and the silent house was glorious. I don't think I've been home alone by myself for an entire day since this all started.

I enjoy working from home, had been for a good while before covid started, and we have a team chat going every day so we can feel as connected as possible to each other. While I do love working at home, I also still miss seeing my friends from when I was in-office, going to lunch with them, stuff like that. To partly make up for that, me and 2 of my teammates who are in the same town used to meet for lunch once a month but we haven't done that since covid came. Most of our team is in other areas of the country, so I've never actually met them! My team is spread out between California, Arizona, Oregon, Indiana, and Florida. (Yes, I work for a huge company.)

Ugh. My Diagnostic Mammogram and Diagnostic Ultrasound got cancelled for today. (Still taking a half day from work though. I might as well go do something fun!) Now they aren't scheduling until Late October. I really hope this isn't cancer because they are wasting time here. The lady said she was going to see if she could double book me to get me in sooner which is nice but makes me a little worried that it is cancer, or at least they are concerned that it is cancer, or because of my previous dx they want me in sooner. I'm very annoyed.

Oh that sucks--is it because of Covid, or some other reason? It seems like they should get you in sooner because it's diagnostic rather than screening. Hope she can schedule you soon. Hugs...

Pro tip for therapists: Anytime you start something with, "Not to be tit for tat, but...," you're probably about to be a d***. I mean, I ultimately get why Dr. T said it, but...

Yikes, LT. I'm sorry he went about it that way.