Monday 30 March 2020

Working from Home

We are hearing a lot about working from home right now, aren't we? This morning I was reading a probably only slightly tongue in cheek article about online meetings and how our colleagues will be judging us when they see us at home. Or when they see our homes. Or whatever.

The piece went on to talk about raising your screen so you aren't looking down during meetings, wearing decent clothing, checking what's in the background and so on.

I'm not working from home because my role is facilities/ hospitality. We can't really do hospitality while all face to face work is on hold and it's not really possible to look after facilities from home so  I toddle off to work each day just for long enough to receive the mail and attend to anything else that comes up but it didn't stop me from thinking about how I would look in an online meeting. 

You can see I didnt take the advice about raising the screen but I don't think you can see tooo far up my nostrils!

Please feel free to tell me your best working from home story (or webcam story or weird stuff in the background story)


28 comments:

  1. Never mimd about your nostrils, have a look at those 'village of the damned' eyes!!
    Stay well Kylie and always keep Harry's advice at the front of your mind.
    Alphie

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    1. haha yea, I wonder if clean glasses would improve it!

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  2. Yes, it is a pity that I can't see tooo far up my nostrils!

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  3. Some women have been caught out on BBC news with only half their eye make-up done - i.e. one eye shadowed and mascara-ed, the other eye naked. In many cases I can't help but think that the unmade-up eye looks better! It's nice to be distracted from what they're saying [usually doom and gloom].
    Sx

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    1. I'm not sure how one forgets to make up one eye!
      Yesterday I saw a colleague sans makeup and couldn't figure out why she looked different

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  4. I can see you have fancy coving on your ceiling. I think you look very professional, and slightly scary! Haha.

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    1. Haha I always say I'm not scary but of course scariness is in the eye of the beholder. I'm soft as butter but have no patience with stupid 🤨

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  5. Yes, I've thought of this one. It comes up when I try to take a photo of something in my room.

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    1. I don't have a lot of good backgrounds, I'm too untidy

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  6. You look a heap better than any photo of me working from home could achieve. The ambience of our home is probably best described as cluttered and dusty (like the inside of my head).
    Working from home is a bitter sweet term for me at the moment. My age and chronic illness means that I have been stood down from the bulk of my (increasingly needed) voluntary work and I feel bereft.

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    1. I'm so sorry you feel bereft, your generous and compassionate heart will be extra valuable when you are allowed to use it again.

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  7. A few years ago my husband did a job interview from home using Skype. Our cat jumped up on the arm of the computer chair in the middle of the interview. I don't THINK it had any bearing on the fact my husband didn't get the job, though :)

    I've read that the switch to at-home working is something that would have come eventually but that the virus has forced what would have been a multi-year change into the space of a week or two. I wonder if it will be discarded "afterwards" (whenever that will be) or if companies will accept it or employees demand it.

    You look fine and very presentable! I didn't know about the raising of the monitor but it makes sense.

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    1. I think a pet in an interview would encourage me to employ somebody!

      I do agree that the way we work will probably be forever changed and there is already talk of companies shedding real estate as they realise they can reduce office space.

      All the young'uns taking selfies would tell you that a photo from above is more flattering, I need to raise the monitor rather a lot :)

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  8. I keep the camera blocked. No one has asked for us to include our faces yet.

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    1. I actually took the photo on my phone because there is a sticker on the laptop camera!

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  9. You could always cheat and have a huge print of some funky contemporary lounge or study propped up behind you. That would be amusing actually.

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    1. I read about some guy who did that and had his colleagues wondering how he afforded a luxury apartment!

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  10. Having retired almost two years ago, I'm not working from home, I'm just enjoying my home and amusing myself. But I'm told working from home is very difficult if you have a family because you're constantly interrupted and struggle to concentrate on anything for longer than about five minutes.

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    1. Yes, with young children it can be bedlam and more so right now given that they are never at school

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  11. As an English teacher, I frequently worked from home. How many lines of children's writing did I process? Often into the early hours or through weekends. Millions of lines of writing. How did school inspectors or parents or the kids themselves imagine that the marking would get done? After all, there was no time to do it during the school day. So unseen and unthanked you devoted countless home hours to a job that intruded so greedily into my home life.

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    1. Teaching is undervalued for sure and English of course is so reading heavy

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  12. You look great. A doctor today wanted a face to face using the computer. I did not have the program, nor was I aware he expected it. He gets paid less for a telephone call than a computer appointment. This is new since doctors never got paid for anything less than an office visit.

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    1. yes, video calls with doctors would have been a complete no-no just a few weeks ago if for no other reason than they like to maintain their status as special

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  13. I am so, so happy that my work has limited our meetings to conference calls. No video required. Half the time I'm literally still in bed with the phone on the pillow next to me.

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    1. my boss told me she gets dressed every day just in case somebody hits the video option!

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  14. When a friend brought her baby home from the maternity hospital 30+ years ago, her husband's parents were at the house to greet her on arrival. She sat down to feed the baby, her elbow hit the TV remote and "ecstatic sex scenes" filled the TV screen to the horror of her in-laws and the embarrassment of her husband who had obviously been "enjoying himself" while she was in the hospital!

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    1. what a fabulous story!!! i love it

      probably wasn't great on the day, tho :)

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