July 16, 2016 at 1:43 pm
I have been dreaming of working from home since 2002. No work place allows it because others (not in IT) would complain.My last job had one day a week work from home, which was great. New job nobody can do it ever but I followed my boss from my previous job to this one so I want to stay at my current job. It's a horrible commute. I don't know what I will do when the roads are icy.
They just gave me my own office so that really motivates me and it helps me to stop wishing I was working from home so much.
I don't get distracted at home. I am in the zone when I work at home. My plan is to be super productive (I've only been in my new job three months) and then when January and first big icing or snow storm comes ask to work from home for the day. Hopefully by then I can.
July 18, 2016 at 12:08 am
kerry_hood (7/15/2016)
However, for all the reasons above (person-to-person contact, the chores staring at you, etc) I really don't like working at home: mostly because I like the social side of working in a team in an office, and because I like to separate my home and working lives (and ditto on social media: linked in for work, FB for home), perhaps it's the OCD side coming out.
I worked at home 2 days a week and hated every moment of it. My wife expected me to do certain things for her when I am at home and she at work. I work much harder at home than the office, better production in other words, but yet the boss do not think I am working as hard as I should. Splitting work and home life as Kerry stated is important. Working at home one is going to suffer, either work or home life. I also very much like the social part of working in the office with a team.
Manie Verster
Developer
Johannesburg
South Africa
I am happy because I choose to be happy.
I just love my job!!!
July 18, 2016 at 6:16 am
I could work from home one day a week, but I prefer not to.
Not because of meetings, or face-to-face time, or such, but because I'm one of those people who needs background noise. If I'm in the office, I've got the aircon system, other people rattling around, etc. When I do WFH (generally once a month to patch the servers OSes,) I'll typically fire up something on Netflix (TV series are best) then tune it out and work on my laptop. It gives me the noise, it gives me something to focus on for those brief breaks (you know the ones, you stop staring at your monitor and look out the window, or take a few minutes to glance at the news, or post on SSC 😀 )
I've been kicking around requesting WFH for one day a week, mostly because there's some ideas I'd like to test out and potentially deploy to our environment (various reports in SSRS,) which I could use my home lab to do the work on (they're death on any form of development work on-network, devs actually have laptops with aircards to do a lot of work, and dedicated development VMs on another network for that purpose, it would take longer for me to get anything like that, than it would to get a WFH plan approved...)
I think one of the bigger roadblocks for me WFH'ing is, right now our VPN blocks port 1433, so no SSMS to the servers through the VPN, instead I have to RDP into one of the servers...
July 18, 2016 at 7:47 am
I'm a developer, not a DBA, but figured I would chime in with my thoughts on WFH.
My team (as it were) is geographically diverse. We use Lync/Skype for IM and calls. Technically there is no reason for me to come into the office except for face time with my boss when she's around.
However my boss's boss has a thing about 'butts in seats' and likes to see his people busily typing away and talking on phones. I will say that we're on the executive floor so it doesn't look great to have a bunch of empty seats in the area.
Personally I would like a 3/2 or 2/3 split of WFH and office. The commute takes me about an hour each way on the train and that's time I would like back if I could get it. I don't have a need to physically be in the office for 98% of what I do and when I'm in the groove I find the office distracting even with headphones and other ways to negate the noise.
If I worked with a local team then I would want to be here more. Since everyone around me reports to a different manager and does completely different work there's not a lot of reason to be physically available.
July 18, 2016 at 8:40 am
I agree with you, JustMarie. My office environment sounds much like yours I'm in a fairly large office with many cubicles. Most people here are in technical support, so there's a lot of phone calls, people on the phone constantly throughout the day, conversations as other people come into my office area to talk with the technical support people, etc. Getting into the zone is like winning the lottery. I'm predominately a developer, so this working environment isn't working for me. But it ain't gonna change, either. I've been wearing earbuds constantly in an effort to try and drown out the distracting noise. Now my hearing is beginning to suffer.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
July 18, 2016 at 9:00 am
(see below :cool:)
July 18, 2016 at 9:03 am
Rod at work (7/18/2016)
... wearing earbuds constantly in an effort to try and drown out the distracting noise. Now my hearing is beginning to suffer.
Rob, in that situation, I'm told that listening to 'pink noise' does the trick?
July 18, 2016 at 9:17 am
JustMarie (7/18/2016)
However my boss's boss has a thing about 'butts in seats' and likes to see his people busily typing away and talking on phones.
This kind of attitude drives me insane, but (I think) it also points to insecure management. They don't trust their workforce, or they don't feel empowered to manage any issues that might arise from their employees working from home, so they just dictate that everybody must be visible at all times instead. A good manager should judge their employee on the quality of their work, not the vague observation that they're always at their desk. It's insane.
July 18, 2016 at 10:02 am
Rod at work (7/18/2016)
I've been wearing earbuds constantly in an effort to try and drown out the distracting noise. Now my hearing is beginning to suffer.
Try switching to sound canceling headphones. They're less stress on your ears and I find them more comfortable than ear buds. They're also a not so subtle sign that you're trying to block out noise in the area.
July 18, 2016 at 10:03 am
Rod at work (7/18/2016)I've been wearing earbuds constantly in an effort to try and drown out the distracting noise. Now my hearing is beginning to suffer.
Sorry to digress, but if you are trying to block out noise (and wear them for hours at a time without discomfort), I recommend getting some nice over-the-ear headphones! Possibly noise cancelling, but definitely some with large enough cups to completely cover your ears.
Back on topic, I'm enjoying this, seeing the variety of opinions. There are so many different environments and temperaments out there.
July 18, 2016 at 10:05 am
Beatrix Kiddo (7/18/2016)
JustMarie (7/18/2016)
However my boss's boss has a thing about 'butts in seats' and likes to see his people busily typing away and talking on phones.
This kind of attitude drives me insane, but (I think) it also points to insecure management. They don't trust their workforce, or they don't feel empowered to manage any issues that might arise from their employees working from home, so they just dictate that everybody must be visible at all times instead. A good manager should judge their employee on the quality of their work, not the vague observation that they're always at their desk. It's insane.
Preaching to the choir here. That attitude is about 15 years out of date. And it's going to cost them future talent when they're told that they have to be in the office 100% of the time. The underlying assumption you point out - that they can't trust their employees to work if they're not in the office - comes out very clear when telecommuting is taken off the table for no reason.
July 18, 2016 at 11:15 am
When I suffered this attitude (you were expected to struggle in even in artic conditions) I believe the person did not trust others because when he was working from home you could seldom contact him. This ultimately cost him his job and then people could start working from home. Actually one other person worked from home but they were at school together - say no more! 😀
July 18, 2016 at 11:22 am
Even for those DBAs who work 8am - 6pm from the office, we bring our laptops home for on-call support. If we can handle emergencies remotely, then it's not that big of a stretch to suggest that our daily routine hours can be worked remotely just the same.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
July 18, 2016 at 1:07 pm
Brian J. Parker (7/18/2016)
Rod at work (7/18/2016)I've been wearing earbuds constantly in an effort to try and drown out the distracting noise. Now my hearing is beginning to suffer.
Sorry to digress, but if you are trying to block out noise (and wear them for hours at a time without discomfort), I recommend getting some nice over-the-ear headphones! Possibly noise cancelling, but definitely some with large enough cups to completely cover your ears.
Back on topic, I'm enjoying this, seeing the variety of opinions. There are so many different environments and temperaments out there.
I used earplugs, and then over the ear headphones with pink noise or whatever I felt like listening to. Extended use of the earplugs can get irritating but for me it was worth it.
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