Coronavirus may have cracked the telecommuting code

#76
#76
NorthDallas40 said:
The millenial engineers I know hate it just as much as the rest of us. But to your pinky maybe they’re happier that the senior engineers and mgrs are miserable too. That would fit the model.

But... that backfired a bit. I’ve still got my ivory tower and most likely will until I retire (knock on Herman Miller modular fake wood).

And they’re being forced to go back in and rip out some open areas and install walled/doored offices.... because senior engineers and mgrs won’t sit in their goat pens and find ways to modify their work schedule to avoid it. Score one for the passive aggressive high priced over educated and EXPERIENCED prima donas.
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Hate to stereotype, but they might have hated it because they're engineers. Most engineers I know are kind of "leave me alone and let me do my work."

The more creative types (think like graphic designers, marketing people, etc.) that want to swing by your desk and discuss everything before getting to work and "have an impact" love it.
 
#77
#77
05_never_again said:
Hate to stereotype, but they might have hated it because they're engineers. Most engineers I know are kind of "leave me alone and let me do my work."

The more creative types (think like graphic designers, marketing people, etc.) that want to swing by your desk and discuss everything before getting to work and "have an impact" love it.
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The new norm is limit face to face interaction, telecons rather than conference room meetings, being left alone to do my work. This is MY time.

Source: I are a engineer
 
#78
#78
05_never_again said:
Hate to stereotype, but they might have hated it because they're engineers. Most engineers I know are kind of "leave me alone and let me do my work."

The more creative types (think like graphic designers, marketing people, etc.) that want to swing by your desk and discuss everything before getting to work and "have an impact" love it.
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No the stereotype is a perfect fit. We’re not the social misfits of the previous engineer generation and if you’re caught with a pocket protector you’re publicly pummeled.

But when we’re on the hunt of a technical issue we largely put on blinders and try to wall off interruptions. It’s just a matter of self preservation.

I’ve never been a good multitasker. I’ll try to attack about two things at once max. It’s the only way to attack deep into a problem for me. I’m a bit jealous of the engineers who can seamlessly juggle many things at once, they make great Chief Engineers. But that isn’t my cog in the machine. I am purely technical and mostly a fire stopper.
 
#79
#79
vader said:
The new norm is limit face to face interaction, telecons rather than conference room meetings, being left alone to do my work. This is MY time.

Source: I are a engineer
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And the damn scheduled conf calls are frigging never ending now!!! Make it stop!!😭
 
#80
#80
NorthDallas40 said:
No the stereotype is a perfect fit. We’re not the social misfits of the previous engineer generation and if you’re caught with a pocket protector you’re publicly pummeled.

But when we’re on the hunt of a technical issue we largely put on blinders and try to wall off interruptions. It’s just a matter of self preservation.

I’ve never been a good multitasker. I’ll try to attack about two things at once max. It’s the only way to attack deep into a problem for me. I’m a bit jealous of the engineers who can seamlessly juggle many things at once, they make great Chief Engineers. But that isn’t my cog in the machine. I am purely technical and mostly a fire stopper.
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Eh, multitasking is BS. It's rapidly shifting back and forth between different tasks, and anybody who says that they are great at it is probably lying to you.
 
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#82
#82
hog88 said:
When I hear someone say "I'm good at multi-tasking" my first thought is "you don't get anything done".
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Yep. They might be working on 8 different things at any given time, but none of them get done.

Kind of similar to the guy who's always talking about how busy he is. My first thought about those people is that they actually aren't busy at all, or at the very least is exaggerating how busy they are and stretching tasks out to fill time and make themselves look busier.
 
#83
#83
hog88 said:
When I hear someone say "I'm good at multi-tasking" my first thought is "you don't get anything done".
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My newish boss continually drops drive by taskers while I’m in the middle of three things already. When I point out I’m busy and can’t service her latest shiny hot topic she replies that I just need to get better at delegating and multitasking. Last time that tidbit was offered up I’d had enough and said no you need to leave me alone and let me finish the other stuff you’ve already queued up.

I do know a few people with great organizational skills that can track a bunch of things going on at a high level. Like I said they make great chiefs and they don’t have to dive into the details that’s why they’ve got detail people like me. But on the whole I don’t think the engineering mind is assembled in a way that facilitates juggling lots of things at once.
 
#89
#89
DC_Vol said:
I don’t see a stigma with it at all (not disagreeing that many people do). I encourage people who work from me to work at home whenever they want. As long as they deliver the goods...that’s all I care about.

If you have a person working for you who doesn’t get the job done from home, bringing them into an office to micromanage doesn’t really fix the root cause.
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That has been the over riding reason why supervisors and big wigs have frowned on working at home before now. It was an opportunity for them to micromanage and keep their thumb on their employees.
 
#91
#91
NorthDallas40 said:
I’ve never been a good multitasker. I’ll try to attack about two things at once max. It’s the only way to attack deep into a problem for me. I’m a bit jealous of the engineers who can seamlessly juggle many things at once, they make great Chief Engineers. But that isn’t my cog in the machine. I am purely technical and mostly a fire stopper.
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Postit notes, emails to yourself and carrying around a notepad. These practices have kept me going.

I used to use Microsoft Outlook's calendar feature to send me reminders, but after 2 months or so, I started ignoring all of my calendar reminders because it started to just pile up and become noise. "Dismiss All" was the first thing I did every morning when I opened my email. Postit notes on my monitor/screen, or notes on my steering wheel and rearview mirror, too.
 
#92
#92
Rasputin_Vol said:
That has been the over riding reason why supervisors and big wigs have frowned on working at home before now. It was an opportunity for them to micromanage and keep their thumb on their employees.
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I don’t understand that mindset. It’s counterproductive. I hire people to make my life easier...not increase my workload.
 
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#93
#93
DC_Vol said:
I don’t understand that mindset. It’s counterproductive. I hire people to make my life easier...not increase my workload.
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I've worked for several managers that won't let go of work to save their lives. They think the more things they give away the easier it will be to get canned. What it means for the rest of us is we can't progress because there's a logjam in front, and our managers aren't going to advance if all they're doing is manager level work with no sort of advanced projects. But many people are content to land in position and ride it out until retirement and couldn't care less about advancing or doing harder things.
 
#94
#94
How many of you all have made your way back to your daily commutes to the office? Are your offices at half capacity or less than that? Does your gut feeling see this as temporary situation or something that could be trending towards going away from office environment?

I got to thinking about this because I was wondering about the failed Nashville light rail bill from a couple of years ago and wondered how that would have been affected with coronavirus.
 
#95
#95
DC_Vol said:
I don’t understand that mindset. It’s counterproductive. I hire people to make my life easier...not increase my workload.
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In the government thats harder to do. You basically are told who you are hiring and eventually get a mixture of good and bad. Its almost impossible to get rid of the bad due to job performance. They usually have to do something like break the law a few times, pop positive on a drug test, etc. The job I have we can do all from home. The only real issue is those sh!tbag workers who I can normal yell at across the room are now hiding out in their homes being slackers. Our metrics have shown that are work efficiency has dropped off a cliff for the workers who were average or below average.

Some people just have to be told what to do and micromanaged constantly. Geez..kind of sounds like a certain political party in the USA..
 
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#96
#96
Rasputin_Vol said:
How many of you all have made your way back to your daily commutes to the office? Are your offices at half capacity or less than that? Does your gut feeling see this as temporary situation or something that could be trending towards going away from office environment?

I got to thinking about this because I was wondering about the failed Nashville light rail bill from a couple of years ago and wondered how that would have been affected with coronavirus.
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My office was already set up to do this. My team is spread out across the world. My boss is on a different continent. At any given time, half of my office is not there, either traveling or working from home.

I enjoy going to my office because it’s quiet and I can get a lot done, but it’s been shut down since March. Still no indication when they will open it again and when they do it’s going to be full of new ridiculous rules.

We’re going to leave here. No reason to deal with the high taxes and Democrat policies if there is no office to go to. We will be out by the end of the year hopefully. Already shopping around elsewhere. The plan is to cancel out LG and Septic’s votes.
 
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#97
#97
FLVOL_79 said:
In the government thats harder to do. You basically are told who you are hiring and eventually get a mixture of good and bad. Its almost impossible to get rid of the bad due to job performance. They usually have to do something like break the law a few times, pop positive on a drug test, etc. The job I have we can do all from home. The only real issue is those sh!tbag workers who I can normal yell at across the room are now hiding out in their homes being slackers. Our metrics have shown that are work efficiency has dropped off a cliff for the workers who were average or below average.

Some people just have to be told what to do and micromanaged constantly. Geez..kind of sounds like a certain political party in the USA..
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This would drive me nuts.
 
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#98
#98
Obviously this doesnt apply to blue collar guys like myself....

But traffic has been cut down by AT LEAST 25% here in Charlotte since the virus hit. Maybe some of these folks will continue to work from home and traffic wont be as bad..
 
#99
#99
Rasputin_Vol said:
How many of you all have made your way back to your daily commutes to the office? Are your offices at half capacity or less than that? Does your gut feeling see this as temporary situation or something that could be trending towards going away from office environment?

I got to thinking about this because I was wondering about the failed Nashville light rail bill from a couple of years ago and wondered how that would have been affected with coronavirus.
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I know some people at my company are working from home but it wasn’t doable with my job. And it’s for the best in my area. Some co-workers are slugs at work or make highly questionable decisions. At home they would be useless if not have a negative impact.

But I could definitely see work from home being a trend if they trust their people to do the job. And not just due to virus concerns. Company spends less money on office space. Employees with kids may spend less money if they don’t have to pay for childcare. I could see it being popular.
 
#100
#100
Rasputin_Vol said:
How many of you all have made your way back to your daily commutes to the office? Are your offices at half capacity or less than that? Does your gut feeling see this as temporary situation or something that could be trending towards going away from office environment?

I got to thinking about this because I was wondering about the failed Nashville light rail bill from a couple of years ago and wondered how that would have been affected with coronavirus.
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I still only go in when I have to work directly on hardware. Mostly still work from home if I can. And our company is prepared for that to extend at least thru the end of the year I think.
 
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