It's an interesting study to be sure, but I'd love to see the same data collected about in-person meetings, and see the comparison of the impacts. Knowing it's harmful is good, but I didn't get a sense that the study touched on whether that's "more harmful" than other ways of doing things, or "less harmful".
I really hope that a bunch of employers don't grab onto that study as proof that WFH is unhealthy and try and move it back to all in person meetings and such.
@sunny In some sectors the cat is out of the bag. It's too late to demand a return to WFO, since basic rules of supply and demand will create a worker shortage. And those who do will find their employees seeking other options.
@ganymede Sorry. I deleted it.
If you want, I can bring it back.
I mean, just because I have reservations about methodology and application doesn't mean I object to its link to this board. But for the reasons Sunny stated, I am a little suspicious as to the timing and the conclusions made.
Anecdotally, I can tell you that the use of Zoom in the practice of law has been invaluable and welcome.
@ganymede said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
If you want, I can bring it back.
No thank you.
Every interview I have attended recently (except two!) has been through Zoom. And thank God for it. For once I'm not being judged on my makeup (I don't wear any), or how well-tailored my clothes are (my weight fluctuates enough to make all my clothes look vaguely ill-fitting), or how awesome my hair looks (I haven't had the time nor money to get a haircut in the last three months). We talk and alot of the times the cameras aren't even on! We're just... talking. Which is... so nice.
As an overweight female with anxiety, I cannot tell you how much I hated in person interviews. They made me want to cry. I have nailed every interview in the past year thanks to Zoom.
@sunny said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
It's an interesting study to be sure, but I'd love to see the same data collected about in-person meetings, and see the comparison of the impacts. Knowing it's harmful is good, but I didn't get a sense that the study touched on whether that's "more harmful" than other ways of doing things, or "less harmful".
Exactly. Zoom meetings suck, but in-person meetings mostly suck too. On balance I'd rather be online.
As a side note, it's not the most robust study - only a few hundred participants with a subjective questionnaire.
I prefer remote work. I didn't use to, but I do now.
The main reason is that despite it all, I have better control of my life.
I'm at home - that means I eat at home because I've access to my own kitchen. It means sparing 1.5-2+ hours of travel time per day simply commuting, which is huge. It means less wear and tear on my car plus a smaller chance for an accident; lots of tired, stressed, distracted drivers around at rush hour. Especially in the Canadian winter when the roads are icy and not everyone has proper tires on.
I'm also working from my own office, no one's staring over my shoulder (except my cat), no one bugs me while I work (except my dogs) and I can wear comfortable pants, fluffy slippers and no socks while I do it. I don't need to worry about walking into a terrible public bathroom situation, and if I need a shower after I'm done there's one waiting for me 5 minutes later. Hell, even brushing my teeth at lunch feels nice - having a toothbrush around at the office always felt... dirty to me.
Is it less social? Yeah, by far. Do I have a worst work/life balance sometimes since it sometimes feel I'm never quite off the clock? Yes.
I love working from home, but I think I probably love it too much for my own good. As an introvert and somebody who's had issues with anxiety and panic attacks, being able to work from home has probably made it far too easy for me to avoid going outside and interacting with people. While that may be a good thing in some respects given the pandemic situation, having a routine that forced me to go out five days a week was helpful in forcing me to push back against agoraphobia and made it so much easier to go out and be a social person. Being able to work from home, have groceries delivered, etc. has made it far too easy for me to withdraw and be a hermit.
@crayon UberEats and whatnot have probably made a goddamn killing during the pandemic.
@arkandel Doordash has gotten so much of my money. >.> Groceries delivery alooooooooooone has made them rich!
I specifically looked for jobs that were permanently work from home. Between my auto immunes, the dog, and other things, I prefer working from home. I'm still going out and being social (albeit on a limited pandemic basis), so I'm not too worried.
@arkandel said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
Do I have a worst work/life balance sometimes since it sometimes feel I'm never quite off the clock? Yes.
I don't even mind this part. I don't mind never quite feeling off the clock because I also know that, at the end of the day, I'm expected to produce eight hours of work. And if that means that I'm never off the clock, I get to do it at whatever pace I damn well please.
Racism isn't Tinkerbell. It doesn't need you to believe in it for it to exist.
@derp said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
I don't even mind this part. I don't mind never quite feeling off the clock because I also know that, at the end of the day, I'm expected to produce eight hours of work. And if that means that I'm never off the clock, I get to do it at whatever pace I damn well please.
Due to my role this means I am always checking the second monitor for inbound messages on our corporate communication tool. Am I playing Magic? Chatting on Discord? Just YouTube? It doesn't matter - every few minutes I look at Slack to see if anything is going on.
And there sometimes is. Sure I could ignore it and let it go to the on-call, but if it's serious enough it will come back to me anyway... later. Engaging for half an hour at 8pm means not being in a meeting with multiple Directors and VPs the next day, for longer than that, going over the RCA.
To be honest this works for me (to the extent that it does) for a simple reason: I don't have kids. I can't imagine doing this if I had responsibilities I can't simply get out at a moment's notice.
Absolutely terribly implemented system in Ontario for Covid-19 booster shot scheduling.
For starters there should be one centralized location you sign up for with your health card. Then it would be up to the system to notify you where to go and when to be vaccinated.
On top of it pharmacy web sites are getting hammered by tens of thousands of users, and almost all use a calendar UI where you need to individually click on dates to 'check' if there are open appointments. Not only does that generate millions of extra clicks - each of them making a separate call - but it's counter-intuitive. Why show dates without available appointments at all? Just let us queue up for the closest appointment, then they can notify us when there is one.
For the start of the pandemic I could excuse the lack of proper infrastructure and tooling, but they had almost two years to design something more usable and scalable.
Lol. Liberty University got my email from... somewhere.
So they sent me an advertising email.
And there is just no fucking way I would ever give them my money.
If you haven't listened to Gangster Capitalism about them, do so, and then make sure no one ever ever ever goes there. There are other Christian universities that are better.
So what started out as a joke, has become more of a serious conversation between my fiance and myself. In that, in probably five years or so, we plan on moving to Costa Rica. The why is tied up in a couple reasons, but it more or less reduces down my lack of faith in my country's government and my honest belief that I don't believe it's going to get better without some kind of larger conflict and or societal upheaval. And frankly speaking, I want no part of that. My fiance spent about half a year living in Costa Rica some years ago and wholly loved it there and after doing a particular amount of research, realized that if we saved for a few years, we could pack up and leave.
We've already looked into what the qualifications are for getting citizenship in Costa Rica and my fiance is looking at how feasible it'll be to still work for her company from a remote position and only having to fly in a couple times a year. And with the rate of exchange, with her income alone, we'd be pretty secured financially. I will have to learn Spanish as I don't think my German will get me very far. And as much as I would rather do this in two to three years, I doubt that'll be possible, so five seems more realistic.
Where we'll all be in five years is another story. I simply hope it's enough time.
Well, looks like we're heading towards another lockdown.
Meh. Go introverts! Shame though, I was looking forward to doing Christmas-y stuff with the extended family. Still, better to keep each other alive than, y'know, not.
4th day of vacation and mostly what I can do is sleep. Short bursts of being up and about are possible but then wipe me for a couple of hours or more. It is hard to not feel bad about this. Theres so much to do/catch up on RL and otherwise and all I want to do is pass out.
@mietze Let yourself pass out as much as you need. It's good for your mind to just not be engaging with all the stress that's been dogging you for literal years, and it's healing. I can write you a note for permission if you need one.
It's an interesting study to be sure, but I'd love to see the same data collected about in-person meetings, and see the comparison of the impacts. Knowing it's harmful is good, but I didn't get a sense that the study touched on whether that's "more harmful" than other ways of doing things, or "less harmful".
I really hope that a bunch of employers don't grab onto that study as proof that WFH is unhealthy and try and move it back to all in person meetings and such.
