Page 3 • Working from home - the new normal? • Non-Gaming • General Non-gaming • Eurogamer.net

Decks 7 Sep 2020 09:48:15 31,013 posts
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I can definitely see them pushing this hugely soon despite the spike in cases. We're pretty much guaranteed a no deal brexit at this point which they know is going to utterly decimate the economy, so they're going to be pushing everyone to "get the economy moving" before that. I'd like to see a some kind of incentive scheme. Like all your funeral expenses paid for if you catch it while at work or something. Or a free memory foam mattress if you're bed ridden long term from the disease.

Tomo 7 Sep 2020 09:53:08 19,565 posts
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nickthegun wrote:

fontgeeksogood wrote:
I fucking hate it, I'm a peacock, ya gotta let me fly
I'm the guy who sits with his headphones on for seven hours a day. The only thing that's really changed for me is not having to drive nearly 60 miles a day and my lunch is now a lot worse.

Yeah same, albeit replace driving with sniffing pits on the London Underground or playing dodgems with traffic on my bike.

Tomo 7 Sep 2020 09:55:12 19,565 posts
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rice_sandwich wrote:
Dominic Raab says wfh is damaging the economy. Surely the conservatives should be happy for the market to respond to its new conditions? Market forces are king and businesses that are out of fashion should repurpose themselves.

It's not like the money saved from commuting etc. won't be spent. Expenditure will shift from train fares and cafes into other areas. Local economies could benefit although it will take a while for the market to adjust.

This was my maybe cynical reaction to Raab this morning too. I guess the stacks of job losses will look bad for them, regardless of where the market/workforce might shift.

Deleted user 7 September 2020 10:18:45

I love working from home... I love that the 3 hours I spend getting fo work every day is replaced with 2 1/2 hours of spending time with my son and he is enjoying it too.

But my work are going to push us back to 5 days because that’s what the government are saying. I feel a move coming on.

Dirt3 7 Sep 2020 10:33:03 1,775 posts
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The main driver of this will be the accountants.

If it is felt that businesses can operate just as efficiently using wfh, then surely the office space with its associated costs will be ditched. I don't know what the usual overhead for an IT worker is, but I bet it is a significant fraction of salary, and most of it probably goes on rent.

I suspect what businesses will do is reduce office space, and just have meeting room space for meetings that are seen to be vital.

There may be some money in investing in meeting centres, which just provide rooms for hire where people can get together.

The businesses will need to make some cost savings to pay for all the taxes Rishi is going to come up with.

And fair to say whatever people like Dominic Raab say, unless businesses are forced into bringing people back (and its hard to see how), they won't do it if it costs them money and they don't see a need for it.

MrFlay 7 Sep 2020 10:38:03 4,670 posts
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I live about 10 minutes from work. If anyone is sick and we can maintain social distancing, I get called in. I don't really mind. Working remotely is a bit awkward. The web based VPN doesn't leave a lot of screen space. The restaurant at work is very good too.

BurnoutJunkie 7 Sep 2020 10:38:56 1,222 posts
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Before lockdown, my company started getting all of us to work from home to prep for it. As a contractor though, I was one of the first to be cut, so at the end of April my contract ended. Thankfully I was able to be furloughed via my own limited company. I wasn’t expecting to find any work until next year, to be honest, but was fortunate to be approached for a role and started in early August, all working from home. I see the benefits but I really do miss the hustle and bustle of the office and the exercise I got during my commute. I don’t think permanent working from home is for me, though a few days a week may be okay. I also find that I’m just working through my normal commute time, quite often, so feel like I’m working even more than before.

Tonka 7 Sep 2020 10:54:58 31,979 posts
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I'm like everyone else it seems.
I love that I don't have to commute, I don't mind wfh and get as much done as in the office, but I miss getting out and seeing my friends in the office, and I hated that my livingroom turned into my office.

So I do one day a week in the office, more if there are meetings I need to go to, and I've put my computer in the guest room instead of the living room.

I'm lucky that I'm in a position to influence how we do our work and I've started to pull some strings to do something proper about it all.

As a partner I'm worried that it will become harder to get new employees to be a part of the team, and also that my colleagues will find it easier to swap jobs. Hiring and retaining good people is tough enough, now that fringe benefits like great chairs, friday breakfasts, stand up desks, multiple screens, beer in a fridge, snacks in the cupboard, centrally located office etc are going away, I'm thinking it might be even harder.

Dirt3 7 Sep 2020 10:58:03 1,775 posts
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MrFlay wrote:
I live about 10 minutes from work. If anyone is sick and we can maintain social distancing, I get called in. I don't really mind. Working remotely is a bit awkward. The web based VPN doesn't leave a lot of screen space. The restaurant at work is very good too.

So the question is, is your business going to pay 1,000's per year to rent business space, or is it going to buy you another monitor or get another app ?

smoothpete 7 Sep 2020 11:13:52 37,743 posts
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I sent my team to work from home about 2 weeks before it was mandated. Just seemed to be the right thing to do at the time

beastmaster 7 Sep 2020 11:26:24 22,373 posts
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Love working from home. It's a 30 minute commute each way, which isn't a hell of a lot but I go near a very problematic motorway stretch (J16-19 M6). When I worked in Crewe it was a fucking nightmare as I was on there daily. Now I just go to the roundabout and cut right across and carry on. Even so though, no having to do that drive is bliss. Especially as autumn/winter are coming in.

Another bonus is when working on a late shift (that can vary in time when it finishes) I don't have to worry about locking the building up, checking the backup generators and a whole host of other things I'd have to do before I could leave.

Motivation varies but I'm getting things done. Some of the service request tasks are like wading through treacle.

In no hurry to get back. Don't think I ever will. Even if COVID were to somehow magically disappear. Company is fine with that.

Edited by beastmaster at 11:26:52 07-09-2020

MrFlay 7 Sep 2020 11:26:47 4,670 posts
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Dirt3 wrote:

MrFlay wrote:
I live about 10 minutes from work. If anyone is sick and we can maintain social distancing, I get called in. I don't really mind. Working remotely is a bit awkward. The web based VPN doesn't leave a lot of screen space. The restaurant at work is very good too.
So the question is, is your business going to pay 1,000's per year to rent business space, or is it going to buy you another monitor or get another app ?

Local authority. So I suspect they will. Quite a conservative corporate culture and they probably have a long-term lease on our office.

alt-cmd-esc 7 Sep 2020 11:42:49 713 posts
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Yep, the painfully slow pace of remote data transfer is why I am back in the office these days. I don't have a bad home network connection, but stuff that took minutes on-site was taking hours from home. I looked into relocating the servers to my home office, but the cost for my home network would have leapt up (static IP needed). It's still something I might consider if we go into a second lockdown, though.

I didn't do much binge-watching, but did manage to finish Ghost of Tsushima quite quickly due to loooooong data-transfer sessions

nudistpete 7 Sep 2020 11:56:58 1,273 posts
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ZuluHero wrote:
What are you guys binge watching?

Youtubes. Techmoan, Retromancave, Modern Vintage Gamer, 8 bit show and tell amongst others.

Dirt3 7 Sep 2020 12:10:33 1,775 posts
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alt-cmd-esc wrote:
Yep, the painfully slow pace of remote data transfer is why I am back in the office these days. I don't have a bad home network connection, but stuff that took minutes on-site was taking hours from home. I looked into relocating the servers to my home office, but the cost for my home network would have leapt up (static IP needed). It's still something I might consider if we go into a second lockdown, though.

I didn't do much binge-watching, but did manage to finish Ghost of Tsushima quite quickly due to loooooong data-transfer sessions

What you post doesn't make any sense to me.

If you want a static IP then you can get one for a few pounds a month.

If the business is willing to contemplate relocating its servers to your house then you must be positioned at a significant level in the business. Therefore it should not be too difficult to arrange it so that the business pays the cost of the home network improvements, the electricity costs and space rental.

I can see how it may not be possible to get the same bandwidth or uptime. Or that if you have racks and racks of servers then you might be unwilling to have them pumping out heat in your bedroom, or re-inforce the floors to hold them all. There are some physical limits to what you can do in a home environment.

FoxMoody 7 Sep 2020 12:28:02 144 posts
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Working from home since March with wife being on maternity leave taking care of our 10 months old daughter.
It's great that I can spend more time with my girls but also hard to work at home.
I just have a hard time being a bystander if wife needs any help.

alt-cmd-esc 7 Sep 2020 12:41:17 713 posts
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@Dirt3 It's been a while since I looked at the static IP costs, so prices may have come down, but I'll have another look into it and see. At the moment it's just a case of 3 servers, so I can physically house them without too much trouble, and I don't think the electricity costs are going to be huge. Bandwidth etc. I would need to check in terms of how it all performs, so if it really isn't a huge cost for a static IP then I might run some tests on a trial basis. Thanks for the heads up

DaM 7 Sep 2020 12:56:22 17,729 posts
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At the start of this, I asked my staff whether we should just shut down as the orders were disappearing, but there were still a few NHS ones coming through.
We've got cash in the bank, so jobs and wages were not under threat.

But they all wanted to carry on, so we just went big on face coverings (our guys in China were sending us masks as they were worried about us, due to reporting of the UK on their news!).

I asked my staff if anyone wanted to come back to the office, no takers. We've got one person in who deals with shipping in/out. She's happy to be there, as she can avoid her WFH husband, and doesn't want us coming back ruining her peace in the office. Everything we do is online, accounts, admin, VOIP, emails, communication etc. They just plugged their phones in at home, and carried on as usual.

I get the feeling it's not small coffee shops pressuring the UK gov but all the large investment bodies who have ploughed money into building big skyscrapers for rent, property reasons etc.

Official advice in Scotland is still work from home if you can, no one should feel under any pressure to go back to the office.

Nexus_6 7 Sep 2020 13:26:37 6,169 posts
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I quite like my working from home. It saves the commute time which isnt as much as some, and I can do the dishes at lunchtime so its not waiting when I get home for example.
With wage stagnation though over the last 10 years we aren't getting any financial compensation for working from home.
Sounds silly but my carpet is fucked from where the chair is on it for 40 hours a week. The electricity costs have gone up running 3 computers every day. And this is during the summer.
When the winter sets in, energy consumption is going to rise dramatically. None of this is going to get passed on - it's part of the new normal.

askew 7 Sep 2020 13:32:35 24,121 posts
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alt-cmd-esc wrote:
Yep, the painfully slow pace of remote data transfer is why I am back in the office these days.

Heh. Our office connection was notoriously shite, so it's been nice being able to download a bunch of Docker Containers in 30 minutes instead of several hours.

askew 7 Sep 2020 13:34:03 24,121 posts
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Nexus_6 wrote:
The electricity costs have gone up running 3 computers every day. And this is during the summer.

Hopefully the utility bills are still cheaper than the petrol/train fare?

Dirt3 7 Sep 2020 13:36:04 1,775 posts
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Nexus_6 wrote:
I quite like my working from home. It saves the commute time which isnt as much as some, and I can do the dishes at lunchtime so its not waiting when I get home for example.
With wage stagnation though over the last 10 years we aren't getting any financial compensation for working from home.
Sounds silly but my carpet is fucked from where the chair is on it for 40 hours a week. The electricity costs have gone up running 3 computers every day. And this is during the summer.
When the winter sets in, energy consumption is going to rise dramatically. None of this is going to get passed on - it's part of the new normal.

Use advanced tactics to stop your carpet getting fucked.

There are a couple of shops that sell rugs if you know where to look.

RyanDS 7 Sep 2020 13:38:25 14,073 posts
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I am over working from home. New job says I can, but I find it very lonely. Am going in two days a week, but may up it to 3. I am not made for being alone 24 hours a day so pubs, meeting mates in garden for drinks etc are far far to frequent now. Whereas previously I would come home from work and chill, now I close laptop and head for drinks.

Nexus_6 7 Sep 2020 13:44:37 6,169 posts
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askew wrote:

Nexus_6 wrote:
The electricity costs have gone up running 3 computers every day. And this is during the summer.
Hopefully the utility bills are still cheaper than the petrol/train fare?

£17/week on the train is all I was paying. I realise for a lot of people they pay a hell of a lot more than that, but I think £17 might not buy an extra 35hrs of heating.
I think I will just say I am working one day and then do fuck all.

Nexus_6 7 Sep 2020 13:47:12 6,169 posts
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I couldn't possibly confirm or deny....

Working from home - the new normal? • Page 3