I mean, I feel like Head of Blah for Australia and New Zealand would totally be a thing.
I guess I’m kind of wondering if in the next ten years you might be Head or Blah for Australia and…I dunno…Equador for an Equador based company while living in Australia.
Sounds fun, but I hope Julian Assange doesn’t also apply. Don’t think I can match him for experience in dealing with Ecuadorian diplomats.
My actual office space commands views of the Tamar and royal park.
It is also always immaculate.
Cause I’m never there.
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Since 2020 I’d estimate I’ve spent 6 weeks in the office. I’m not over it but if I’m being honest that’s not for the best reasons.
New job doesn’t even have an office. I work from my study and occasionally visit clients, attend conferences and other such wank.
End of the day my employer gets what they need. End of the week at worst…
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An example in my case was, my manager and employer said we can’t work from home before COVID, we need to be available for our clients and working from home doesn’t suit that.
I even had to travel to work with a back injury, and wasn’t allowed to have a laptop and do some work from home a few years ago.
Suddenly, COVID arrives, and guess what? We work better and more effectively from home, because we had to adapt electronically, and we are more available to our clients than ever before. Now my boss and company loves hybrid WFH arrangement as long as we attend weekly for at least one or two days a week. Now less parking costs, petrol costs and absenteeism etc.
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Been into the office 3 times in 2 years.
They pulled out my office desk etc. and relocated it to another branch.
It’s probably more about travelling interstate for me. Haven’t been on a plane for 2 years, when previously it was usually a fortnightly occurrence.
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100% this. I speak to a few tradies, couriers and just other people who don’t work from home all the time and they just say “I don’t know how you do it”.
I’m having a better life outside of working hours with the extra time I really pull my finger out to socialise more.
My perspective would change if I lived a long way from my office. I can commute in under half an hour and it’s very leisurely. (Usually a ferry and then a short drive through suburbia with no traffic).
I think there’s probably literally a million workers across mainly Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane and maybe Perth who do not want to return to the office for the commute.
Either because it’s sucked pre covid or because they have made it worse by moving to a better place whilst working from home.
If WFH is really an acronym, how do you pronounce it?
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Our HR are absolutely desperate to sell our flexibility. Perhaps because they can’t sell outright pay, it has to be all about the conditions!
“Woof”
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We already do. I know multiple IT types, and one engineer in that boat
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I have been to the office exactly 2 times in the last 2+ years. Apart from seeing my colleagues I can’t say I miss sitting in meetings in a conference room all day, not having time to eat breakfast, or seeing my daughter for literally a couple of hours at best.
No sir.
I definitely put in way more hours than before (its 10:45pm here now and I just finished an hour of catching up) but feel better about my personal life. Eating breakfast alone has been a game changer. Now I don’t load up on a crappy lunch due to hunger. And, having a standing desk means I attend all meetings standing up. Been great for my herniated disc.
I also realized (at the risk of sounding weird) that I may not be the “people person” people assume I am. It is REALLY hard to pretend to like each and everyone and come across as totally tuned in and present in every face to face interaction.
Quite ok to be able to mute myself in meetings 
My company (tech) is starting to put subtle pressure to have us go in “1-2 days a week”. That is likely my limit now.
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We’re having an office “refresh”. I figure that if I haven’t needed the piles and piles of crap on my desk/in my drawers/in the filing cabinet/on the shelves for 2 years I may as well dump it all. I guess my next 6 weeks worth of “in office” time will be spent at the shredder …
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I am woof today? I am woofing today? I woofed today?
“I am woofy” used to mean something else altogether.
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I don’t have the pleasure of WFH but there is an area on my site that has the acronym WTF. It couldn’t be more appropriate either.
Yeah I know…#coolstorybro
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I had my first (half) day back in the office today. Was meant to be last week but I’m slooooowly transitioning my anxious rescue dog into getting used to me not being at home all the time, so my team lead let me put it back a week.
I spent ~$10 on my Myki, and total commute time for the day was a bit over 2 and a qtr hours. My security card and laptop docking station don’t work, but that’s probably teething issues to be expected cos we moved to a new building over lockdown. In the office, I didn’t have a single face-to-face conversation or meeting that couldn’t have been handled by a Teams chat or a call.
At the moment, we’re one day per week in the office. We’re supposed to be going back three days a week after the Anzac Day long weekend. Everyone I’ve spoken to hates it, but the decision has come down from on high at hq in the USA. It’s been more than a bit pathetic to watch smart and switched-on managers etc who I’ve got respect for, pushing the ‘yay return to office policy!’ barrow and make arguments about how great it is that have logical holes you could sail a cruse ship through. They’ve clearly been told that This Is The Way It’s Going To Be and to make us peons happy about it, rather than actually listen to us.
I’m well paid, but an annual Myki is still over 1% of my annual pre-tax salary. That’s a ‘work from the office’ tax that work is forcing me to pay. Two and a bit hours travel time three times a week is another 7ish hours, which is about a 17% time tax on top of the 40 nominal hours i work. And of course that’s not counting the time when i’m now stuck in the office for lunchbreaks rather than able to do useful stuff at home.
I have a stack of annual leave i don’t want to lose, otherwise I’d be out the door and looking for a full-time remote gig. Life is too short to ■■■■ it away spending hours on the train every day cos some fkg CEO numpty doesn’t like video chat, and the odd freebie cupcake at morning tea doesn’t even the scales. Hopefully things change over the next few months. Everyone hates the return to office policy, just depends on how many are willing to risk being labelled a troublemaker by complaining about it.
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Luxury!
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Freakin myki.
What is it with Melbourne. Probably one of the best public transport systems in the world(without a metro) and you stuff it up with this stupid myki card which doesn’t work half the time.
End rant sorry. 🥹
I’m also impressed not more hipsters end up under trams on their fixy bicycles.
Everything you’ve said is accurate, but, depending on your industry, there’s no substitute for face to face interactions. Of course a company has to understand their staffs individual needs and the company’s needs, but in an ideal world I think a small amount of WFO is a good thing. Finding the balance is critical. If a company is saying "you have to come in on (say) Wednesday, it’s going to be a problem. Companies need to listen and understand and support their staffs needs.
For us it’s critical because we just can’t replace people easily - there just aren’t the people with the skillset, but still there’s a risk that management expectations don’t match with the wants of the rest of the company.
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