Now that we've been at this for a while, what would you say is your ideal amount of working from home if you could choose?
For me, unless I have classes or labs, I'd say now that about 2 half days a week or one full day at work and the rest of the time working from home would be my preference. I'd be interested in hearing other forumites' insights on this.
I hate working from home because I get too distracted there. However, distractions are building at work too for various reasons, and I don't want to get sick in the fall either when we more or less have to start with an "open" position, not a "closed and online" one.
Whatever the absolute minimum is, unless it's research (which I'm happy to do for however long at home, but which is harder to do at the office because the commute eats up so much spare time).
Overall, I'd like to only have to go in once or twice a week. So, if I'm being reasonable, two full days at work, and two half-days at home would be great.
I used to go in every day - I found it too distracting from home. But now I'm getting used to it. Not sure how well I'll do now that the structure that accompanies teaching is ending.
I am looking forward to being able to go back to work most days. The separation of work from home is really important in maintaining a bit of balance for me.
But I'm in a discipline and at a school where most of us are in our offices working all day every day.
I'd very delighted never to have to go in to work again. I love working from home. I have now even separated my outfits into nighttime pajamas and daytime pajamas.
I dislike working from home immensely for the reasons others have stated including not being able to do certain, important research activities at home. Those projects are way, way behind at this point.
I miss my office as a place where I could work a lot with minimal distractions. My home office is good for the occasional, few hours when I have to get something done and need to be home, but it cannot take the place of a real office that is only for work.
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on May 04, 2020, 08:38:43 AM
I used to go in every day - I found it too distracting from home. But now I'm getting used to it. Not sure how well I'll do now that the structure that accompanies teaching is ending.
Same here. I like to have structure in my day, and the act of going to campus gives me some. I think going forward, two days a week on campus is sufficient.
Ideally, three or four days on campus a week. I miss my dual monitors and project whiteboard and access to laser printer, even though I don't print often. I also miss my walking partners, because those daily 5-10 minute walks talking about our research both held me accountable and stimulated my brain.
I'm not looking forward to campus parking. Or to wearing shoes all day.
I normally work on campus 5 days per week. I am ready to go back to the office 3-4 days/week. My new colleagues are much more difficult that my usual colleagues. (I say this with love. Between a young toddler, elementary school kid who would prefer to be on summer break rather than virtual school for the academic year, and spouse with limited work opportunities given the circumstances, we are doing pretty well).
Quote from: Hegemony on May 04, 2020, 09:29:39 AM
I'd very delighted never to have to go in to work again. I love working from home. I have now even separated my outfits into nighttime pajamas and daytime pajamas.
+1 It's kinda fun "attending" a meeting while going commando.
Quote from: secundem_artem on May 04, 2020, 07:30:57 PM
Quote from: Hegemony on May 04, 2020, 09:29:39 AM
I'd very delighted never to have to go in to work again. I love working from home. I have now even separated my outfits into nighttime pajamas and daytime pajamas.
+1 It's kinda fun "attending" a meeting while going commando.
What is the appeal of not being fully dressed while working? I understand not wanting to wear shoes because that limits the positions I can have for my feet/legs.
Why would you want to be doing professional activities in pajamas or commando? Just get more comfortable regular clothes as a standard practice.
My pajamas are as comfy as clothes get. I never did like climbing in and out of clothes that much, and the bonus to the PJs is that if I get too tired, I just climb into bed in my daytime PJs. Ah, bliss.
I am clearly more of an introvert than 99.9% of the nation, because I'm having a whale of a time sitting home. Not having to show up anywhere, not having to be perky at specified times, doing what I want when I want ... pretty darn nice. I have an affable offspring who is trying all kinds of new cooking experiments, and we watch movies and play board games and listen to Patrick Stewart recite the Shakespeare sonnet of the day on Twitter. And I teach online and write articles, but in a less harried way than usual. This would be great stuff if it weren't for the raging pandemic.
Quote from: polly_mer on May 05, 2020, 05:04:09 AM
What is the appeal of not being fully dressed while working? I understand not wanting to wear shoes because that limits the positions I can have for my feet/legs.
I overheat easily.
I'm something of an introvert and homebody as well, but I am glad that I still have to go in to work each day. I greatly appreciate the structure and routine. I'm even more glad to be able to keep home and work strictly separate. Of course having the library shut down and only one or two staff members here with me at a time appeals to the introvert in me. I'm still hoping that we can reopen before much longer.
Quote from: polly_mer on May 05, 2020, 05:04:09 AM
Quote from: secundem_artem on May 04, 2020, 07:30:57 PM
Quote from: Hegemony on May 04, 2020, 09:29:39 AM
I'd very delighted never to have to go in to work again. I love working from home. I have now even separated my outfits into nighttime pajamas and daytime pajamas.
+1 It's kinda fun "attending" a meeting while going commando.
What is the appeal of not being fully dressed while working? I understand not wanting to wear shoes because that limits the positions I can have for my feet/legs.
Why would you want to be doing professional activities in pajamas or commando? Just get more comfortable regular clothes as a standard practice.
Think of this as the male equivalent of taking of your bra the second you get home.
Quote from: smallcleanrat on May 05, 2020, 07:56:33 AM
Quote from: polly_mer on May 05, 2020, 05:04:09 AM
What is the appeal of not being fully dressed while working? I understand not wanting to wear shoes because that limits the positions I can have for my feet/legs.
I overheat easily.
Yes, that can be an issue for some. And then some of us are the opposite. I was conditioned growing up to always get fully dressed after rising or bathing. However, since I'm cold-natured--and don't care to burn the huge amounts of gas needed to keep the house toasty all winter--I wear a robe over my clothes while I'm around the house.
Quote from: secundem_artem on May 05, 2020, 08:00:02 AM
Think of this as the male equivalent of taking of your bra the second you get home.
I wear a bra at all times unless I'm in the shower or bath so that's not a useful analogy to me. I purposely shop for bras that are comfortable enough to wear all the time.
I am also cold nearly all the time, so it's not appealing to wear fewer clothes. Indeed, I am currently wearing multiple pairs of socks with my heavy jeans, and am contemplating getting a sweater to wear over my T-shirt.
Quote from: Hegemony on May 05, 2020, 07:22:39 AM
Not having to show up anywhere, not having to be perky at specified times, doing what I want when I want ... pretty darn nice. I have an affable offspring who is trying all kinds of new cooking experiments, and we watch movies and play board games and listen to Patrick Stewart recite the Shakespeare sonnet of the day on Twitter. And I teach online and write articles, but in a less harried way than usual.
I'd be having a better time, too, if I weren't still on the hook to work essentially the same amount as normal to legitimately charge my time to the various projects and yet somehow do so without access to all the resources I need to do the work. In many cases, I've been able to make adjustments, but that means more start-up time and futzing with the beginning-to-be-ready-to-commence-to-start parts on a different computer system* instead of doing the interesting and satisfying research.
If this were paid vacation, then I'd be having a better time and wouldn't miss the office.
However, since this is still essentially the same work required, but under harder conditions with effectively duct tape, bailing wire, and chewing gum for good enough for now, I'm mentally ready to go back to the office and get the work done more efficiently.
* Oh, zoom isn't installed on this computer so before I can participate, I have to install that and apply all the extras required by my employer. Oh, the latest Python isn't installed on this computer, so I have to set up all the environments before I can resume working on this code. Oh, I don't have any of the command line shortcuts I've been working on for three years on this computer, so I have to recreate them here. Oh, I don't have that particular repo on this computer so let's go clone a copy. Oh, I don't have this computer set up as a certified user for the repo server, so let's spend an hour finding out how to do that and troubleshooting when it doesn't go smoothly.
Quote from: polly_mer on May 05, 2020, 04:11:27 PM
I purposely shop for bras that are comfortable enough to wear all the time.
So do I, but I've never found one! The ones that came the closest have of course been discontinued.
On topic, 4 days (or partial days) a week at the office is probably my ideal, since I need the structure.
Quote from: polly_mer on May 05, 2020, 04:16:40 PM
* Oh, zoom isn't installed on this computer so before I can participate, I have to install that and apply all the extras required by my employer. Oh, the latest Python isn't installed on this computer, so I have to set up all the environments before I can resume working on this code. Oh, I don't have any of the command line shortcuts I've been working on for three years on this computer, so I have to recreate them here. Oh, I don't have that particular repo on this computer so let's go clone a copy. Oh, I don't have this computer set up as a certified user for the repo server, so let's spend an hour finding out how to do that and troubleshooting when it doesn't go smoothly.
I can relate to all this. I got a chromebook a couple of months before all of this. It's been an ongoing learning experience to figure out what the chromebook is great for (battery life, email, browsing, etc.), what it's awkward for (editing non-googledocs files), and what it simply won't do (working with certain kinds of USB devices). So sometimes it feels like I'm working with oven mitts on.
However, all of that has to be balanced with being about
2 orders of magnitude less interruptible now. Since most of what I do is labs, my schedule lately has often meant there was at least one lab
every half day while classes were running. (A few years ago, there was usually at least one time, such as Friday afternoon, when I didn't have any labs, but enrollment increases have eliminated that.) Add in students (or colleagues) stopping in to chat, or to ask where the person in the next office was, and you wind up with
no chunk of even
a couple of hours without interruptions.
Now I can work all day without interruptions. Nobody calls, and even emails I can reply to at my convenience. Realistically, there is probably about 20% of what I do (other than actually teaching labs) that is possible or even much easier in person. Probably 50% is about equally easy here or there, but about 30% (including grading and designing new or updated labs) is vastly easier here without the interruptions.
Quote from: marshwiggle on May 06, 2020, 05:27:07 AM
However, all of that has to be balanced with being about 2 orders of magnitude less interruptible now.
That's not the case for me at home. We were required to give our home phone numbers out or get company-provided cell phones. We are required to be available by phone during normal working hours--to the same level we were while at the office.
I was scolded via email at one point because I didn't return a voice message left by my manager in a timely manner. When she called a second time, I was literally on the phone with a colleague and therefore let it roll over to voicemail. I was then notified that I was out of compliance because I didn't give a good enough phone number to be contacted.
When I emailed that I was on a conference call during the first ping, spent the rest of that day on conference calls, and was currently on my third conference call of the day, I was told to call her as soon as I had a spare minute.
We do all our meetings via conference call now and my schedule is almost as full now as it was when we were at the office since we can't do casual drop ins and we're in the middle of trying to hire for several positions as well as still working on our research projects.
In addition, I don't live alone and thus I'm interrupted by those folks for things like helping move the table so they can do their Skype interactions because they need the table, but it is heavy enough that both adults are required to move it and it cannot live full time in the position necessary for Skype.
In the office, I could close my door and mute the phone for several hours at a time as long as I put a note on the door. That's not really possible in the same way here.
Quote from: polly_mer on May 06, 2020, 05:40:32 AM
Quote from: marshwiggle on May 06, 2020, 05:27:07 AM
However, all of that has to be balanced with being about 2 orders of magnitude less interruptible now.
That's not the case for me at home. We were required to give our home phone numbers out or get company-provided cell phones. We are required to be available by phone during normal working hours--to the same level we were while at the office.
Eeeuw. That's a drag.
We don't have any small children at home, and I pretty much have a floor of the house to myself, so I'm much more autonomous here. My boss only emails me, (which was typical at work), and probably only once or twice a week, usually covid-response-related, so I have days without a single work contact (other than institution-wide notices and things like that which don't require any response.)
Quote from: marshwiggle on May 06, 2020, 06:12:09 AM
Quote from: polly_mer on May 06, 2020, 05:40:32 AM
Quote from: marshwiggle on May 06, 2020, 05:27:07 AM
However, all of that has to be balanced with being about 2 orders of magnitude less interruptible now.
That's not the case for me at home. We were required to give our home phone numbers out or get company-provided cell phones. We are required to be available by phone during normal working hours--to the same level we were while at the office.
Eeeuw. That's a drag.
We don't have any small children at home, and I pretty much have a floor of the house to myself, so I'm much more autonomous here. My boss only emails me, (which was typical at work), and probably only once or twice a week, usually covid-response-related, so I have days without a single work contact (other than institution-wide notices and things like that which don't require any response.)
Everything I do is projects with 3-50 other people. That's why I laugh hard every time I encounter the idea that college classes shouldn't include group work. My whole professional life is group work. The only jobs I ever had where group work was only a small percentage of my tasks was professor at a teaching college.
I don't spend a lot of time with my manager, but it is more time now when she has been tasked with having at least one check-in every week with all of us than when our offices were next to each other and she traveled so much that I only saw her for even a "Hi, how's it going?" in the hall once per month.
Quote from: eigen on May 04, 2020, 09:03:45 AM
I am looking forward to being able to go back to work most days. The separation of work from home is really important in maintaining a bit of balance for me.
But I'm in a discipline and at a school where most of us are in our offices working all day every day.
I'm with you on this one. I had achieved a beautiful separation of work from home life so that my home is a sanctuary and minimal work is done there. I've struggled to get a new home office set up and am still not nearly as productive at home as I am when going to work.
In the future, my preference would be to work at least four long days in the office and have one half-day working from home.... most likely on Friday.