Downsides of Working From Home

[Ralif Redhammer]

An unmuted person crunching away at chips is an irritation in both an online meeting and an online D&D game.

We have 18 people on my team and we do a call every morning. Only one person speaks at a time, everyone mutes their mic when not speaking. Everyone shuts off their camera if they are eating at their desk. You just get used to the WFH life after a while I guess.

 

[The Green Hermit]

An unmuted person crunching away at chips is an irritation in both an online meeting and an online D&D game.

And an in-person game/meeting. Listening to chip crunching when you aren't said cruncher is ALWAYS annoying.

 

[Janx]

I've been doing WFH for a decade. Nobody has ever done a camera meeting. Every client hasn't bothered with that. Why waste bandwidth?

 

[Umbran]

Why waste bandwidth?

Because, if you are doing it properly, it isn't wasted. Especially for a group of people who are trying to work as a team, or otherwise collaborate.

Go figure, a species that has an oversized chunk of its brain capacity tasked with facial recognition... actually works together better, and understands each other better, if they can see faces.

 

[Blue]

Because, if you are doing it properly, it isn't wasted. Especially for a group of people who are trying to work as a team, or otherwise collaborate.

Go figure, a species that has an oversized chunk of its brain capacity tasked with facial recognition... actually works together better, and understands each other better, if they can see faces.

I was going to say this, but you said it better. There's a huge amount of communication bandwidth in our faces and motions.

I will add that putting faces to voices helps humanize the people on the other side as well. Better for developing/strengthening relationships.

I've only WfH for 5 years, half of @Janx whom you were replying, but I've been working for well over two decades with a global company not headquartered in the my country. Orders of magnitude being "more real" to corporate moving from email to voice, and then again voice to video. And I tell you that for non-English speakers I am able to pick up more of what they are saying in a videoconference than just voice. (Though most put me to shame with how good their English is vs. my ability with other languages.)

 

[tomBitonti]

I was going to say this, but you said it better. There's a huge amount of communication bandwidth in our faces and motions.

I will add that putting faces to voices helps humanize the people on the other side as well. Better for developing/strengthening relationships.

I've only WfH for 5 years, half of @Janx whom you were replying, but I've been working for well over two decades with a global company not headquartered in the my country. Orders of magnitude being "more real" to corporate moving from email to voice, and then again voice to video. And I tell you that for non-English speakers I am able to pick up more of what they are saying in a videoconference than just voice. (Though most put me to shame with how good their English is vs. my ability with other languages.)

We have both voice and video, but usually the video isn’t important, and is often off for individuals. When it’s on it’s often just a small thumbnail for each person.
That may be because most meetings have either presentation material — a design document, or a list of issues — or meeting notes, for example, scrum notes — which have focus. Also, folks will often split their focus, say, to a side chat, or to check e-mail, or to other work if they are just monitoring a meeting.
Be safe, be well,
Tom Bitonti

 

[Janx]

We have both voice and video, but usually the video isn’t important, and is often off for individuals. When it’s on it’s often just a small thumbnail for each person.
That may be because most meetings have either presentation material — a design document, or a list of issues — or meeting notes, for example, scrum notes — which have focus. Also, folks will often split their focus, say, to a side chat, or to check e-mail, or to other work if they are just monitoring a meeting.
Be safe, be well,
Tom Bitonti

exactly. Plus, some of these people don't have great bandwidth. I'd rather HEAR clearly than get a garbled video and voice.

Sure all that facial feedback is great. But there are reasons it's not used and it's not holding them back.

 

[Blue]

exactly. Plus, some of these people don't have great bandwidth. I'd rather HEAR clearly than get a garbled video and voice.

Sure all that facial feedback is great. But there are reasons it's not used and it's not holding them back.

Really, in today's day and age when we can deliver HD movies to everyone's houses all day, there really is no technical reason why it's not used.

If you have garbled video when you are doing it, my guess is you are using wireless. Or have a crappy home internet and other people using it. Because with a good wired internet connection, todays solutions will give you both at high quality. Even transcontinental - known from doing regularly. Or maybe you're using some cut-rate service, or thru a VPN and routed badly. Basically, if it's not good, there's some mess up going on that you can fix instead of living in the past where there were legitimate technical concerns about it.

 

[MGibster]

Working from home presents some challenges to employers and employees alike. I've been working from home since mid-March and I haven't been as productive as I would have been in the office. I feel disengaged, have a difficult time with motivation, and am not satisfied with work as much as I was before Covid-19. My company is extremely supportive and I don't have to jump through any unnecessary hoops like emailing my boss my minute-by-minute activities throughout the day. She doesn't micromanage at the office so why would she start now?

I'm a little better about it now. Work has slowed down quite a bit but I've taken the opportunity to enroll in professional development courses online. So, hooray for that. I've also softened by stance on working from home. I was okay with it for other people but firmly against it for myself. I'd still rather work in the office but I can work from home if I have to.

 

[Blue]

Working from home presents some challenges to employers and employees alike. I've been working from home since mid-March and I haven't been as productive as I would have been in the office. I feel disengaged, have a difficult time with motivation, and am not satisfied with work as much as I was before Covid-19. My company is extremely supportive and I don't have to jump through any unnecessary hoops like emailing my boss my minute-by-minute activities throughout the day. She doesn't micromanage at the office so why would she start now?

I'm a little better about it now. Work has slowed down quite a bit but I've taken the opportunity to enroll in professional development courses online. So, hooray for that. I've also softened by stance on working from home. I was okay with it for other people but firmly against it for myself. I'd still rather work in the office but I can work from home if I have to.

If your situation is anything like mine, there may be two factors contributing to this.

First, when I started working at home it took a bit to get up to speed. We were not used to jumping on IM or a call to each other much more readily than previously, and felt a bit adrift. I was used to casual collaboration - even just explaining what I was planning on doing often could shake lose issues or improvements even before other's feedback, and I didn't notice that lack immediately. My work (IT) often needs late or off-hours, and I'd find myself checking emails because I heard the "ping" of it coming in after dinner or whatever, and that lead to me never really feeling I was off and getting a bit burnt. All of these were solvable, but we needed to adopt a more work at home culture.

That was back in 2015. COVID-19 has brought it's own issues. Without differentiators the days blend together and the weekends dont' have much special to break up the work week psychologically, when we are used to a clear differentiation. When we do talk to coworkers we aren't as cheered, we can hear the stress and anxiety in their voices as well. Assuming we're not passing around stories of those sick, of family who has passed, or those laid off. For me this was a major hit, and if I had been doing it at the same time I had expereienced the early Work-from-Home issues it would have been a really nasty one-two punch.

That's just my experience, yours may differ. But a whole new way or working that will take time to acclimate to, on top of months that seem to go forever of stress and anxiety is frankly, an ugly place to be stuck in.

I wish you the best of luck in sorting things out and finding your personal solution.