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BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Not all things COVID are so bad. I barely saw my kids last two-three years, between long commute from NJ suburbs to NYC, my kids were one of the first to get to daycare and one of the last to leave. Wife work had weird and crazy long shifts. Weekends were super packed with home choirs and lack of cooking time ended up being heavy on my wallet buying tons of prepared meals.
This year however I work from home 100% from March. In April I switched jobs after nearly 3 years at the last company things are getting tiresome. A new job brought with it a decent bump in salary, which came very useful as the wife took extended work leave and basically getting nothing but un-employment money, but with no money spent on daycare, it somewhat balances things out.
But, the payoff I get to save tons of money commute and buying lunches (was buying lunch at work daily, since again no time to do prep). Also, kids eat mostly home prepped food. I am buying very little to no prepped or half-prepped meals now as we have more time to buy raw produce and cook at home.

The best part is this summer we used nearly every opportunity to spent time outdoors with kids, like going to NJ shores several times a week, including weekdays. Yes, I racked up tons of extra miles on my car, but I don't care - it was worth it. We even went yesterday, I was a bit chilly, around low 70s, but due to 12-15mph winds - felt much cooler. Still even 1-2hours there, kids play in the sand, adults drink tea - nice time :)
 
Trell

Trell

Audioholic Spartan
BoredSysAdmin said:
Not all things COVID are so bad. I barely saw my kids last two-three years, between long commute from NJ suburbs to NYC, my kids were one of the first to get to daycare and one of the last to leave. Wife work had weird and crazy long shifts. Weekends were super packed with home choirs and lack of cooking time ended up being heavy on my wallet buying tons of prepared meals.
This year however I work from home 100% from March. In April I switched jobs after nearly 3 years at the last company things are getting tiresome. A new job brought with it a decent bump in salary, which came very useful as the wife took extended work leave and basically getting nothing but un-employment money, but with no money spent on daycare, it somewhat balances things out.
But, the payoff I get to save tons of money commute and buying lunches (was buying lunch at work daily, since again no time to do prep). Also, kids eat mostly home prepped food. I am buying very little to no prepped or half-prepped meals now as we have more time to buy raw produce and cook at home.

The best part is this summer we used nearly every opportunity to spent time outdoors with kids, like going to NJ shores several times a week, including weekdays. Yes, I racked up tons of extra miles on my car, but I don't care - it was worth it. We even went yesterday, I was a bit chilly, around low 70s, but due to 12-15mph winds - felt much cooler. Still even 1-2hours there, kids play in the sand, adults drink tea - nice time :)
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Working from home also makes it easier to increase exercise as less is time spent on commuting, but extended time working from home is not that efficient in the long run for me and also a bit boring. On the other hand there is much more acceptance for working from home large parts of the week, which suits me fine, as I can exercise (running about 65 miles a week on average) when there are very few people around.
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Trell said:
Working from home also makes it easier to increase exercise as less is time spent on commuting, but extended time working from home is not that efficient in the long run for me and also a bit boring. On the other hand there is much more acceptance for working from home large parts of the week, which suits me fine, as I can exercise (running about 65 miles a week on average) when there are very few people around.
Click to expand...
The flip side of working from home is that it seems that coworkers "just expect for you to be available at any given time".

It makes it more difficult to separate from work and decompress!
 
Trell

Trell

Audioholic Spartan
slipperybidness said:
The flip side of working from home is that it seems that coworkers "just expect for you to be available at any given time".

It makes it more difficult to separate from work and decompress!
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That too, and it really takes some time to "set" one's own availability to others, and I work for a company that has world wide business so there are time zones involved as well.

As a software developer I have it easier than my wife that works as a researcher in a hospital research centre where she has to be physically in the lab to guide/do the biological experiments. At home in afternoons and weekends she uses VPN to work on documents, mail, analyse results, what-not. I think her workload has increased but she has not said anything about that.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
I hear you guys and WFH downsides, but working in IT comes with a side dish of being available near 24/7 anyhow. I do see meetings getting set up in very early morning hours due to our international offices, but my work/life balance is generally improved with WFH.
 
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slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
BoredSysAdmin said:
I hear you guys and WFH downsides, but working in IT comes with a side dish of being available near 24/7 anyhow. I do see meetings getting set up in very early morning hours due to our international offices, but my work/life balance is generally improved with WFH.
Click to expand...
At the peak / beginning, I was WFH 2 days a week, and onsite for 3.

Now, I'm onsite 4 days a week and WFH 1 day.

I find that people will set up meetings when they are onsite. So even though they were available and WFH at the beginning of the week, they will wait until the end of the week when onsite to set up a meeting.

I think you just have to set your boundaries and when you are / are not available. It's the same onsite or off, but it just seems that people respect the boundaries less.

I have even hear the boss say, "give him a call, it isn't like he can go out to the bar at night anyway". But, that completely misses the point!

The point is....I have MY time, and I have my time that I sell for WORK purposes, and I need a clear distinction or I start to get irritable.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
I've been working from home for over 4 years at this point and I'd never go back to an office environment. Granted, with my job there is no schedule anyway. If I need to be on the phone at 6am for a customer, I am. If I'm needed at 8pm, there I am.

That doesn't happen often and my job has lots of down time, but I have to research during that down time. The up side is that if I want to watch TV for a bit, I can. If I want to go get a snack, it's there.

I used to do what @BoredSysAdmin did with the commute and I don't miss it one bit. It just sucks the life out of you.

I didn't mid a short commute that I had with a few jobs ago, but still. Working in that office was pointless. It was so hard to get things done with people coming to bother me every few minutes.

Now it's my kids bothering me every few minutes (when they aren't doing school work). Wife started work again too which is nice, but she has to be glued to her desk the entire time so I get to do all the fun school stuff and anything else that needs doing. No big deal, but it's a lot.

Wife ended up quitting her retail job last year simply because the stress was too much and the hours were awful. I quite my job that required me to travel all over the place because it was too much.

I don't see how people can be away from their family so much. It just sucks. Especially since I had to go everywhere alone.
 
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