Exposure/Immersion Therapy (somewhat forced)

[boltnrun]

Annnddd...so it seems the honchos aren't being required to work in the office. Only lower level management and us worker bees. 

Hm.

[boltnrun]

I got in the office this morning. The upstairs office area where I work is completely deserted. I am the only one up here. In fact, the motion detector lights were all off.

This is why I chose Friday as one of my in office days. It's likely to be very sparsely populated up here on Fridays.

[catfeeder]

21 hours ago, boltnrun said:

Annnddd...so it seems the honchos aren't being required to work in the office. Only lower level management and us worker bees. 

Hm.

Hmmm. I’d probably stay emotionally neutral on that while putting it in my pocket. I’d learn over time whether it prompts me to start commuting less while increasing my productivity from home a bit more.

Not suggesting you ‘should’ do that—it’s a private thing, and I know that my work ethic wouldn’t be impacted either way. But hustling for those who won’t do the same? Not sure how long or how hard I’d pretzel myself for a commute I never signed up for when I accepted the job.

Dunno, and that’s easy for me to say from the cheap seats.

[boltnrun]

So, I'm not unproductive or less productive when I work remotely, so I don't need to "increase" my productivity when I work from home.  I am very productive no matter where I'm working from.  I get all of my work done and have even taken on additional responsibilities outside of my standard scope of work. As I mentioned earlier, we got an email a week before the "back to the office" order that said overall our productivity was the best it's ever been while we were working remotely.  And I don't have the option to commute less.  It's a mandate, not optional.

It's just ironic that the worker bees are mandated to come into the office while the higher ups who are ultimately responsible for the overall performance of each department are allowed to remain at home.  It doesn't make sense except to illustrate that working in the office isn't really necessary but is being mandated in order to appease SOMEONE who may or may not be aware that upper management is giving themselves an exception to the rule.  My brother said "rank has its privileges", which is BS.  Yeah, they "worked hard" to get where they are, blah blah blah, but it's a bad look when they grant themselves allowances their employees don't get.  When I was a manager I NEVER ordered my employees to do anything I wasn't doing.  Lead by example.

However, I don't blame my manager or my direct coworkers for that.  So of course I will continue to be as productive and make as much of an effort as I always have. But when I walk the office floor and see the corner offices with large windows that are dark while the cubicle occupants are at their desks, it does rankle a bit.

Going in on Friday was a good decision.  Most of the people chose other days to work in the office so it was only me and two engineers present on my floor.  Nice and quiet.  The commute home sucked big time (took an extra 15 minutes) but I didn't have to rush home to get ready for the next day in the office.

[Starlight925]

I agree that optically, it's bad for the higher-ups to get to work from home in comfy yoga pants with a 30-second commute from bedroom to home office, while everyone else has to come in.

Where even they admit that productivity is not affected.

Rules for thee, not for me.

This would annoy the crap out of me, and I get your frustration.

[boltnrun]

I decided to forego wearing a mask at the grocery store today.  I went to the closer store (which my son refers to as the "fancy" store) instead of the one further away that has better prices.  The closer one is usually less crowded and there doesn't seem to be a proliferation of people who are obviously sick (sneezing, coughing, hacking, throat clearing, nose wiping, etc.) like there is at the further away store that is also usually a lot more crowded.

I figured if I get sick that would give me a perfect excuse to not go into the office 😜

[boltnrun]

Yesterday I was at the office.  I walk around every hour and a half to two hours because I'm not used to just sitting still for 8 hours.  On Wednesday one of the engineers asked me if I minded if he moved into the room I work in.  He gave some reason that he thinks since we work in the same department we should be in the same room.  Whatever.  I said it was fine with me.  So yesterday I was looking at some of the office equipment that I thought he might need.  Another engineer saw me and asked if I needed anything.  I explained what I was doing.  He followed me into the room I worked in and we had maybe a ten minute conversation.  But during that time he picked up and was paging through a notebook I'm transposing onto a spreadsheet.  Now, I still don't like people touching my things but most of the time it's really fine.  But this guy has been sneezing all week and I had just seen him blowing his nose and didn't see him wash his hands after.  Now, I realize it's probably just allergies (the flowers have been riotously blooming here, it's truly beautiful and amazing) but that doesn't mean I want his mucus all over my things.  Gross.  So when he left I got a disinfectant wipe and wiped down the cover and spine of the notebook.  Then set it upright to dry.  Fortunately it was only about an hour before I left for the day, I had done a lot of entries earlier in the day and I could leave the notebook there because Monday is a holiday so it'll sit until I get back on Tuesday.  By then it should be OK to handle although the thought of someone's dried mucus on it is pretty disgusting. 🤢  Thanks, dude.

Being in the office is mostly fine.  It's still not super crowded upstairs where I work.  I still hate the commute but I'm getting used to getting up at 4:30 am.  And I'm at the point where if someone comes in sick and gets me sick I'll just work from home until I'm better. 

[Batya33]

I too would be grossed out. I agree.

[boltnrun]

My manager had us pose for a department group photo. Before the pic was taken he told us to place our left hands on the railing of the staircase we were posing on. I do not like to touch frequently touched surfaces such as door handles and railings for obvious (although maybe not entirely logical) reasons. But I wasn't going to say "No, can't, COVID!!!" So I did, then as soon afterward as possible I washed my hands. 

Things like that trip me up a bit, but I power on 😉

[boltnrun]

The local morning news has a story today about how companies can "entice" their employees to come back to work in the office, including providing them with free food and free beverages. In my company's case they didn't bother "enticing" us. They just told us straight out that we WILL be working in the office three days a week. Not optional. Sure, they have free snacks available in the break room once a week, but with the current situation I am not really into communal food. Everyone reaching into a box of donuts or bagels with their bare hands. No thanks. 

[boltnrun]

I don't intend to treat this thread as a journal but there are some updates.

The "back to the office" order does not seem to be applied across the board. There are some employees who I have not seen a single time in the six weeks since returning. Others I've only seen once. And the HR lady said she refuses to come in more than two days a week because her commute is long. Um, excuse me? My commute is long too, can I get that?

I've seen a small number of employees wearing masks. And I say, good for them for wanting to remain healthy. I don't wear one but I surely won't look sideways at anyone who chooses to. 

I still don't like touching things outside my work room with my bare hands and I don't eat communal food or use communal utensils. I just bring my own. And I still do the Howard Hughes Kleenex door handle thing. Ah well, I can't stop everything all at the same time. 

So in summary, I am more annoyed at the inconsistency than anything else . If some people in some departments can just refuse to come in or are allowed to work remotely if they choose, why can't we? None of our work requires in person interaction so I just don't understand. My office days are LONG and it's so hard to try to fall asleep at 9:30 pm. The drive is long and tedious and creates stress. I still love my job but this commute blows.