Coronavirus prep

1604605607609610747

Replies

  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,427 Member
    33gail33 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    We went back to 50% in office (20 hrs per week) back in January. We go back 100% July 1 which is the start of our new fiscal year. We have an exception form for people with kids that will be in effect until school goes back in August as summer programs for kids were very limited this year. Going forward we will have more flexibility to work from home when kids are sick and stuff like that, but otherwise WFH ends July 1.

    I've heard a few times (not sure how accurate it is) that people are saying they will quit rather than go back to the office full time.

    I can kind of see it tbh. At my work we are not paperless so it was a LOT of hassle to work fully from home - especially during the stay-at-home orders because there were people who wanted to work in the office, but only alone. So we had to work around that. Personally I went into the office every Sunday for 5 months to get some office time, and had to do pick up and drop off of files during non working hours (like at 7 AM or 9 PM).

    It would be pretty *kitten* for my company to tell employees who were bending over backwards to keep the business going that we were expected to be flexible for them, but they won't be flexible for us going forward. Doesn't sound like my firm will be doing that, but some might.

    I tentatively plan on working Monday and Friday from home, and in the office Tues through Thursday.

    I've seen several articles stating the bloded that x% won't go back to the office. I'm sure that number will change when the employer says that's fine, I'm taking that as your resignation.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,427 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    33gail33 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    We went back to 50% in office (20 hrs per week) back in January. We go back 100% July 1 which is the start of our new fiscal year. We have an exception form for people with kids that will be in effect until school goes back in August as summer programs for kids were very limited this year. Going forward we will have more flexibility to work from home when kids are sick and stuff like that, but otherwise WFH ends July 1.

    I've heard a few times (not sure how accurate it is) that people are saying they will quit rather than go back to the office full time.

    I can kind of see it tbh. At my work we are not paperless so it was a LOT of hassle to work fully from home - especially during the stay-at-home orders because there were people who wanted to work in the office, but only alone. So we had to work around that. Personally I went into the office every Sunday for 5 months to get some office time, and had to do pick up and drop off of files during non working hours (like at 7 AM or 9 PM).

    It would be pretty *kitten* for my company to tell employees who were bending over backwards to keep the business going that we were expected to be flexible for them, but they won't be flexible for us going forward. Doesn't sound like my firm will be doing that, but some might.

    I tentatively plan on working Monday and Friday from home, and in the office Tues through Thursday.

    About 95% of our workforce are front line workers that can't really do much remotely...they have to be here and they work directly with the public. During the throws of the pandemic most of them had to be here in person though we kept their numbers down by having them alternate some days at home, but we also had to basically give them busy work to do that wasn't necessarily directly related to their primary functions because they can't perform their primary duties remotely.

    The bulk of the people who were able to WFH are people like me who are in some kind of administrative capacity. Now that we are fully open to the public and things are moving again, our front line people have to be here...and it would be very unfair to them if management and other administration were just able to continue to WFH. I can personally do most of what I need to do from home or frankly anywhere in the world as long as I have internet...but it would be a bad look to have 95% of our workforce having to be in person and 5% of the workforce working at home.

    We are similar. Our factory hourly employees (and direct management support) have been at work all this time as an essential business. Office working from home. As you say I think we will also come back to people being back in the office.
  • 33gail33
    33gail33 Posts: 1,155 Member
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    33gail33 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    We went back to 50% in office (20 hrs per week) back in January. We go back 100% July 1 which is the start of our new fiscal year. We have an exception form for people with kids that will be in effect until school goes back in August as summer programs for kids were very limited this year. Going forward we will have more flexibility to work from home when kids are sick and stuff like that, but otherwise WFH ends July 1.

    I've heard a few times (not sure how accurate it is) that people are saying they will quit rather than go back to the office full time.

    I can kind of see it tbh. At my work we are not paperless so it was a LOT of hassle to work fully from home - especially during the stay-at-home orders because there were people who wanted to work in the office, but only alone. So we had to work around that. Personally I went into the office every Sunday for 5 months to get some office time, and had to do pick up and drop off of files during non working hours (like at 7 AM or 9 PM).

    It would be pretty *kitten* for my company to tell employees who were bending over backwards to keep the business going that we were expected to be flexible for them, but they won't be flexible for us going forward. Doesn't sound like my firm will be doing that, but some might.

    I tentatively plan on working Monday and Friday from home, and in the office Tues through Thursday.

    I've seen several articles stating the bloded that x% won't go back to the office. I'm sure that number will change when the employer says that's fine, I'm taking that as your resignation.

    Yeah that's why I said I wasn't sure how accurate it was. I am 56 and don't particularly "need" my job at this point in my life, so personally I might just consider retiring. But not everyone has that option and I'm not sure what the job market is going to be like the next little while.

    I mean my son had his whole job description unilaterally changed recently, and it's fine to say they are not allowed to do that and it is basically a "constructive dismissal", but in reality if you need the job you have to balance that as well.
  • 33gail33
    33gail33 Posts: 1,155 Member
    edited June 2021
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    33gail33 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    We went back to 50% in office (20 hrs per week) back in January. We go back 100% July 1 which is the start of our new fiscal year. We have an exception form for people with kids that will be in effect until school goes back in August as summer programs for kids were very limited this year. Going forward we will have more flexibility to work from home when kids are sick and stuff like that, but otherwise WFH ends July 1.

    I've heard a few times (not sure how accurate it is) that people are saying they will quit rather than go back to the office full time.

    I can kind of see it tbh. At my work we are not paperless so it was a LOT of hassle to work fully from home - especially during the stay-at-home orders because there were people who wanted to work in the office, but only alone. So we had to work around that. Personally I went into the office every Sunday for 5 months to get some office time, and had to do pick up and drop off of files during non working hours (like at 7 AM or 9 PM).

    It would be pretty *kitten* for my company to tell employees who were bending over backwards to keep the business going that we were expected to be flexible for them, but they won't be flexible for us going forward. Doesn't sound like my firm will be doing that, but some might.

    I tentatively plan on working Monday and Friday from home, and in the office Tues through Thursday.

    About 95% of our workforce are front line workers that can't really do much remotely...they have to be here and they work directly with the public. During the throws of the pandemic most of them had to be here in person though we kept their numbers down by having them alternate some days at home, but we also had to basically give them busy work to do that wasn't necessarily directly related to their primary functions because they can't perform their primary duties remotely.

    The bulk of the people who were able to WFH are people like me who are in some kind of administrative capacity. Now that we are fully open to the public and things are moving again, our front line people have to be here...and it would be very unfair to them if management and other administration were just able to continue to WFH. I can personally do most of what I need to do from home or frankly anywhere in the world as long as I have internet...but it would be a bad look to have 95% of our workforce having to be in person and 5% of the workforce working at home.

    ETA: we are pretty small with a total of 135 people. We don't have any kind of corporate HQ or anything where management and administration are more or less invisible to the rest of the workforce...we're all under the same roof. We do have some people who are disappointed about coming back in full time but thus far I haven't heard of anyone saying they'll leave. And like I said, going forward there will be more flexibility to WFH when things come up whereas before the pandemic, there was no such thing as WFH here.

    It's also one thing to say, "if I have to go back in full time I'll quite." It's quite another to actually follow through on that.

    Yeah for sure. My office is quite different, it is a professional setting with only 7 people, so it's not like we have "front line" workers in that sense. We are considered an essential service (financial sector) and technically could have kept the office open throughout I guess, but we didn't.
    In my particular situation them saying now, after we have been flexible for them for over a year, that they aren't extending us some flexibility would be a bit of a slap in the face. But they aren't doing that anyway. Not sure how many people my scenario applies to.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    edited June 2021
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    33gail33 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    We went back to 50% in office (20 hrs per week) back in January. We go back 100% July 1 which is the start of our new fiscal year. We have an exception form for people with kids that will be in effect until school goes back in August as summer programs for kids were very limited this year. Going forward we will have more flexibility to work from home when kids are sick and stuff like that, but otherwise WFH ends July 1.

    I've heard a few times (not sure how accurate it is) that people are saying they will quit rather than go back to the office full time.

    I can kind of see it tbh. At my work we are not paperless so it was a LOT of hassle to work fully from home - especially during the stay-at-home orders because there were people who wanted to work in the office, but only alone. So we had to work around that. Personally I went into the office every Sunday for 5 months to get some office time, and had to do pick up and drop off of files during non working hours (like at 7 AM or 9 PM).

    It would be pretty *kitten* for my company to tell employees who were bending over backwards to keep the business going that we were expected to be flexible for them, but they won't be flexible for us going forward. Doesn't sound like my firm will be doing that, but some might.

    I tentatively plan on working Monday and Friday from home, and in the office Tues through Thursday.

    About 95% of our workforce are front line workers that can't really do much remotely...they have to be here and they work directly with the public. During the throws of the pandemic most of them had to be here in person though we kept their numbers down by having them alternate some days at home, but we also had to basically give them busy work to do that wasn't necessarily directly related to their primary functions because they can't perform their primary duties remotely.

    The bulk of the people who were able to WFH are people like me who are in some kind of administrative capacity. Now that we are fully open to the public and things are moving again, our front line people have to be here...and it would be very unfair to them if management and other administration were just able to continue to WFH. I can personally do most of what I need to do from home or frankly anywhere in the world as long as I have internet...but it would be a bad look to have 95% of our workforce having to be in person and 5% of the workforce working at home.

    We are similar. Our factory hourly employees (and direct management support) have been at work all this time as an essential business. Office working from home. As you say I think we will also come back to people being back in the office.

    I used to be an auditor at a large regional CPA firm. That is definitely one industry that I could see doing away with the office. Most of the time I was in the field with my team anyway and my office days were generally pretty few. I know in some of our more expensive cities we were in (San Francisco), office space was limited to a conference room and a handful of offices that you had to check out if you needed the space...I could definitely see them doing away with in person office. They would save a ton on overhead and if you are an auditor or even a tax accountant, there's really no need this day in age to be in an office.

    But really, I think that only works with industries like that who are 100% white collar professionals.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,048 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    33gail33 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    We went back to 50% in office (20 hrs per week) back in January. We go back 100% July 1 which is the start of our new fiscal year. We have an exception form for people with kids that will be in effect until school goes back in August as summer programs for kids were very limited this year. Going forward we will have more flexibility to work from home when kids are sick and stuff like that, but otherwise WFH ends July 1.

    I've heard a few times (not sure how accurate it is) that people are saying they will quit rather than go back to the office full time.

    I can kind of see it tbh. At my work we are not paperless so it was a LOT of hassle to work fully from home - especially during the stay-at-home orders because there were people who wanted to work in the office, but only alone. So we had to work around that. Personally I went into the office every Sunday for 5 months to get some office time, and had to do pick up and drop off of files during non working hours (like at 7 AM or 9 PM).

    It would be pretty *kitten* for my company to tell employees who were bending over backwards to keep the business going that we were expected to be flexible for them, but they won't be flexible for us going forward. Doesn't sound like my firm will be doing that, but some might.

    I tentatively plan on working Monday and Friday from home, and in the office Tues through Thursday.

    About 95% of our workforce are front line workers that can't really do much remotely...they have to be here and they work directly with the public. During the throws of the pandemic most of them had to be here in person though we kept their numbers down by having them alternate some days at home, but we also had to basically give them busy work to do that wasn't necessarily directly related to their primary functions because they can't perform their primary duties remotely.

    The bulk of the people who were able to WFH are people like me who are in some kind of administrative capacity. Now that we are fully open to the public and things are moving again, our front line people have to be here...and it would be very unfair to them if management and other administration were just able to continue to WFH. I can personally do most of what I need to do from home or frankly anywhere in the world as long as I have internet...but it would be a bad look to have 95% of our workforce having to be in person and 5% of the workforce working at home.

    We are similar. Our factory hourly employees (and direct management support) have been at work all this time as an essential business. Office working from home. As you say I think we will also come back to people being back in the office.

    I used to be an auditor at a large regional CPA firm. That is definitely one industry that I could see doing away with the office. Most of the time I was in the field with my team anyway and my office days were generally pretty few. I know in some of our more expensive cities we were in (San Francisco), office space was limited to a conference room and a handful of offices that you had to check out if you needed the space...I could definitely see them doing away with in person office. They would save a ton on overhead and if you are an auditor or even a tax accountant, there's really no need this day in age to be in an office.

    But really, I think that only works with industries like that who are 100% white collar professionals.

    I agree. I do have some concerns that pressure to continue WFH, from white collar folks in mixed settings (where there's a large contingent of more blue-collar or front-line kind of workers who must be at a job site), could have some dysfunctional side effects, if WFH is used much more than previously in such settings.

    I'm thinking about management/worker disconnects over the span of my working life, which encompassed a time when (among other synergistic things) "promote from within to management" became relatively less common, and the MBA-ification of management with people who'd never done line work in the business became relatively more common. It's an oversimplification, but I think that gradual shift has resulted in somewhat poorer treatment of blue collar/front line employees as a generality, because there isn't the same level of relating or empathy. HQ distant from factories can amplify that effect, and I'm thinking much wider white collar WFH might also.

    If generally everyone can WFH, super limited exceptions, like in all-professional firms, I don't think that would be an issue (though there might be other unanticipated social effects).

    NYT had an article about this. It noted many big firms highly value corp culture and are concerned for new hires, want them in the office to experience (i.e. to be molded by) the culture. DD's 2020 summer internship with a NYC firm ended up online, and it was a meaningful work experience nonetheless. The firm's communications to interns were truly excellent re: expectation setting and values messaging. They were very clear that they wanted interns to have the NYC office experience before deciding on a full-time offer. It didn't happen, but they tried.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    Interesting change in vaccine advice - for Australia anyway.

    Interval between Covid vaccine and any other vaccine was 14 days either side.

    Has now been reduced to 7 and in exceptional circumstances can be given in under this.

    I don't know if the official advice has changed in the US yet, but I remember on TWiV recently they said that the original 2 week buffer was out of an abundance of caution as there was no data, and at this point they don't see any need. Someone had written in because they were leaving the country, had to get one vaccine before they left, but also wanted to get the covid shot because wherever they were going was having supply issues if I'm remembering correctly. And they advised him to load up.

    I don't know if it applies to covid vaccines, but when I was reading up on vaccine intervals for my shingles shots (which do, or at least did at the time, have an interval recommendation with respect to other vaccines), and wanting to figure out when I could get my seasonal flu shot and a tetanus booster that I needed, I discovered that you could get all on the same day and not have to worry about interval spacing. My recollection was that this was a general recommendation (I believe I was on the CDC site) for any vaccinations that require an interval before getting a different vaccine (not all vaccines require an interval -- my recollection is that it wouldn't have been an issue if it had just been the flu shot and the tetanus booster).

    Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor and all of the above is based on stuff I read nearly a year ago, so my memory could be off on details, although I'm confident on my main point about same-day vaccination being an option in lieu of interval spacing.


    That's because shingles vaccine is a live vaccine

    Our standard recomendation in Australia is that live vaccines can be given on same day - but if not, have a 4 week interval.

    Since flu and tetanus are not live vaccines this does not apply to them

    While Zostavax, which you use in Australia, is a live vaccine, Shingrix, what I received in the US, is not.

    Thanks. I didn't think it was, but felt pretty vague on the subject. Thanks for straightening it out.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,427 Member
    My workplace is also scheduling "preparing to return to the workplace to help maintain good mental health through this time" webinars, presented by corporate psychologist. I'm guessing this means there will not be any revolutionary WFH plan lol.