Coronavirus

You will always get one. Social distancing isn't law, but being rude, abusive and in my personal space could result in that person having a chat with the law.

If you have been out from the beginning you have adapted to the social distance, it's changed every week for me, and as some people are only just setting foot outside I would think they are getting a shock.
You might for the first week benefit from having someone point the people in the right direction, I am not saying people are stupid, but when I walked into a shop and some of it is blocked off you actually don't know where to go although it looks obvious, because nobody has ever had a system in place like this bar the airport.

Some larger supermarkets still have marshal outside to help the queue, though that could be to stop people being run over!
 
@Ale that's really horrid for you, shame on that rude man. As for the taking masks off so they think they can hear you better - it's like the British abroad (tarring everyone with the same brush here sorry!) our voices just go up an octave or two thinking that if we are louder we can make someone in their own country understand us! !!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrA
@Trewsers to be fair some people don't realise they have poor hearing and unknowingly lip read help "hear" what's being said, if that's the case then masks are effectively a set of earplugs.
 
The masks do muffle the voice.
The one thing I have noticed is that I am speaking louder, the other person is two metres away for a start. Now if a ruddy car goes by you actually can't hear the other person.
We are losing part of our communication, we do read faces. Now we just have a set of eyes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: carthorse
On the upside I can stop worrying about how wonky my teeth look:p(that's a joke - not meant to be serious !!!) Yes masks do muffle. Wonder if we will start to communicate more with other body parts? Bit like the horses ? Not saying I am capable of flicking my ears back or anything........................
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Kite_Rider, newforest and carthorse
newforest said:
@Bodshi this isn't from Facebook, this is actually from the PM article in the Sunday Mail.

The message is: work from home if you can but travel to work if you can’t. And avoid public transport if you can, but use it if you can’t.

No wonder some countries see our lockdown as a comedy.
You can exercise all day but stay alert, but the message is still, stay home I think.
I am home except when I am out and then I am not.
Click to expand...

And I know they say use 'common sense' but it doesn't always work like that. Take my office, for instance. I work in a hospital but in admin and not customer facing. So myself and a couple of colleagues have been working from home perfectly successfully since lockdown started. Now our Manager wants us to return to work ( he hasn't asked me yet, I've been warned by one of the other team members). Government advice is clear that you can only go to work if you can't work from home, even our weekly video roundup from the CEO said that clearly you should work from home if you can, but our Manager would argue that we can't work from home because we are required for 'collaborative working'. TBH I wouldn't mind going into work again, I'm missing my colleagues and feel like I'm copping out a bit when so many of them are still working in the hospital. But Government advice is clear and I think my boss is wrong to expect us to go in. There must be loads of people in a similar situation.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Trewsers
Bodshi said:
And I know they say use 'common sense' but it doesn't always work like that. Take my office, for instance. I work in a hospital but in admin and not customer facing. So myself and a couple of colleagues have been working from home perfectly successfully since lockdown started. Now our Manager wants us to return to work ( he hasn't asked me yet, I've been warned by one of the other team members). Government advice is clear that you can only go to work if you can't work from home, even our weekly video roundup from the CEO said that clearly you should work from home if you can, but our Manager would argue that we can't work from home because we are required for 'collaborative working'. TBH I wouldn't mind going into work again, I'm missing my colleagues and feel like I'm copping out a bit when so many of them are still working in the hospital. But Government advice is clear and I think my boss is wrong to expect us to go in. There must be loads of people in a similar situation.
Click to expand...

I was discussing the working from home aspect with mr t the other night and we both said it will change the way things are done forever. I see it like this: if you are working from home now, and it's "working" and things are running just as smoothly then why can't that continue? Surely from an employers point of view it's better for them in the long run? Things like having to pay out employee insurance, public liability (though they'd have to still have that obviously for Joe public), I'm sure there are other costs that would be saved - even down to heating bills! But I can see it wouldn't suit everyone long term. I don't think you should feel like you're copping out - you're just doing as you're told.
 
  • Like
Reactions: carthorse and Bodshi
Your heating bill will go up in the winter beyond what it is now, because you will be home.
I think short term work from home is fine, or perhaps one day a week in to talk, catch up, pick things up etc etc. The workplace needs to be covid safe for a start.
Personally if I wanted to work from home, I would have chosen that, I was only wondering last night how isolated those working from home could be feeling, bearing in mind we are still distancing and only just allowed to actually see someone outside our household.

People are falling through various cracks imo, I know of people who would have been furloughed due to health, but no up to date gp records so doctor won't write the necessary letter.
Business's that haven't furloughed they've shut up shop for good and staff are redundant. Premises already sold on.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: Trewsers
carthorse said:
@Trewsers to be fair some people don't realise they have poor hearing and unknowingly lip read help "hear" what's being said, if that's the case then masks are effectively a set of earplugs.
Click to expand...
I get this as I lip read alot. But it was when they didn't hear me speaking they would then take their masks off when I spoke again. I think it's just the brain being confusing in the way the brain sometimes is
 
  • Like
Reactions: Trewsers and carthorse
Its tricky working from home. In some ways it gives you the freedom, but some companies require you to login to the system from home so they can see when you are actually working as its clocking you. But you also have to be dedicated, as its easy to become distracted especially if you aren't being monitored.
I work for several people who do work somedays from home. They use to spend alot of time on conference calls. I think it will be even more popular now for some of my other clients.
 
I have worked from home for over 20 years and it is hard. A lot of people think that because you are at home, you are available....Even though our business is technically doing nothing at the moment as our client base are events and conferences therefore first out last back, I am still working at least part of the day to keep the Mon=Friday routine and weekends off. There are loads of things I can still do in terms of trying to develop new products i.e. we have a range of covid-19 stuff, if you can get supplies. And also update contact lists and you still have to do vat and accounts. If home working is working within companies then if they continue it, you save on travel costs, congestion, air pollution, your heating and electric home bills will rise but you won't have the same travel costs and should have extra time. I can see it being sensible to work 3-4 days at home and 1 day in and that would enable offices to be smaller, creating more space for those who need it or for other uses, and also take the strain of the road and rail networks. Though for the rail it may create issues as they will have less revenue if they don't have sardine trains every day.
 
Ale said:
I get this as I lip read alot. But it was when they didn't hear me speaking they would then take their masks off when I spoke again. I think it's just the brain being confusing in the way the brain sometimes is
Click to expand...
There actually is a connection in what we hear and how the brain processes things. That's why ENT in hospital is together - ear, nose, throat.
Your nose can taste believe it or not, I wouldn't recommended trying anything spicy!
 
diplomaticandtactful said:
I have worked from home for over 20 years and it is hard. A lot of people think that because you are at home, you are available....Even though our business is technically doing nothing at the moment as our client base are events and conferences therefore first out last back, I am still working at least part of the day to keep the Mon=Friday routine and weekends off. There are loads of things I can still do in terms of trying to develop new products i.e. we have a range of covid-19 stuff, if you can get supplies. And also update contact lists and you still have to do vat and accounts. If home working is working within companies then if they continue it, you save on travel costs, congestion, air pollution, your heating and electric home bills will rise but you won't have the same travel costs and should have extra time. I can see it being sensible to work 3-4 days at home and 1 day in and that would enable offices to be smaller, creating more space for those who need it or for other uses, and also take the strain of the road and rail networks. Though for the rail it may create issues as they will have less revenue if they don't have sardine trains every day.
Click to expand...
The office space could work with less people, except they don't want you hot desking. I liked the sound of the four day week though.
I don't think the government has fully grasped we have 66 million people living in this country though. 85 thousand people went to work in London on the train instead of the usual one and half million.
You can't have 85 thousand on a bike either. These are the people who cannot work from home currently and we haven't got hospitality, schools, shops open yet.
I have seen 85 thousand people, that was the volume at Badminton one year. I can't imagine putting that onto a train though.
 
I'd hate to have to not work from home, I've worked from home now for about eight years and I'd hate to go back to either dealing with the public or an office full of other people. I've done both and wasn't happy doing either. I much prefer this and feel very lucky that I have the opportunity. It works well for me with the horses too, I couldn't have kept madam going if we still had went out to work rather than being here. We keep to set days off though - mainly because our main client does too so it works well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kite_Rider and Huggy
I work from home two days a week anyway, so didn't think the move to fully working from home would be very dramatic. However, at first I did feel very isolated, mainly because I had FOMO about what was going on at work as most people continued to go into the hospital. I've got more used to that now, but I'm still looking forward to going back and catching up with my work mates. If I could be teleported from here straight into my office I'd go.

I find I get far more work done at home because I'm not distracted by chatter, nor do I bump into people who are suddenly reminded that there was something they thought of that I could do for them. Out of sight, out of mind and all that ;) I need to concentrate while I'm working and I enjoy what I do, so I often work extra hours for the love of it, because I'm emotionally involved in a task :p I do stick to my core office hours though (apart from the extra hours), I don't just please myself when I work, so really it's just like I'm sitting at my desk in the office except that I'm 30 miles away with my dogs at my feet and finding myself a little too close to the fridge ...

The extra heating costs will be far outweighed by what I save in fuel and parking, and calling into shops on the way back to the car to pick up bits and pieces and coming out with twice as much as I went in for.

To me it makes a lot of sense for employers to allow their staff to work from home if they can. It's good for the work-life balance - apparently studies have shown that employees are more productive working from home - and it would be hugely beneficial for the environment, as well as for those people who have to go into work, as the roads and transport links would be much quieter. I suppose there will always be some who take the proverbial, although it's so easy to monitor when people are at their desk that really it should become second nature to be at your desk when you're supposed to be.

And yes @chunky monkey we homeworkers are monitored by the organisation I work for - not actively but we are all connected to the hospital systems and also via Skype, which tells you when someone is at their PC. If you don't touch your keyboard or move your mouse for more than 5 minutes it says you are 'away'. Of course no-one is sitting there watching you, but I suppose if there was an issue with an employee it would be possible to go back through the logs and check their activity. Fair enough though, if you're getting paid you should be working.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kite_Rider, carthorse and Trewsers
I can't do my job from home, so not an option for me, having said that as I'm 'shielding' apparently my employer should furlough me (which they are right now) BUT, I don't miss work one bit! My job is quite insular anyway, apart from many random strangers coming in to view show home/view homes I'm very much left alone to get on with it, which is why I do the job, other than the site manager I have very little contact with colleagues anyway, so no one to miss chatting to, I've always been a friendly person and people seem to like me, but I'm far happier with my own company and that of my few close friends to be honest.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Trewsers and Huggy
Kite_Rider said:
I can't do my job from home, so not an option for me, having said that as I'm 'shielding' apparently my employer should furlough me (which they are right now) BUT, I don't miss work one bit! My job is quite insular anyway, apart from many random strangers coming in to view show home/view homes I'm very much left alone to get on with it, which is why I do the job, other than the site manager I have very little contact with colleagues anyway, so no one to miss chatting to, I've always been a friendly person and people seem to like me, but I'm far happier with my own company and that of my few close friends to be honest.
Click to expand...
I think I am similar. I love chatting to the tourists but it's nice to go home and equally nice when they do.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Trewsers and Huggy
newrider.com
Top Bottom
Back