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Work from Home Life Pro Tips

everyone hates web cams but they do help you stay engaged on calls. i've made it mandatory for my team

other tips- keep calls as short as possible and schedule breaks
schedule your own downtime and block it off your calendar. even if it's 15 minutes to take a walk it makes a big difference.
 
everyone hates web cams but they do help you stay engaged on calls. i've made it mandatory for my team

other tips- keep calls as short as possible and schedule breaks
schedule your own downtime and block it off your calendar. even if it's 15 minutes to take a walk it makes a big difference.

Scheduling breaks seems good. You take lots of little breaks at the office when you socialize. You don’t think about those when you’re there, but the lack of them at home is tough.
 
everyone hates web cams but they do help you stay engaged on calls. i've made it mandatory for my team

other tips- keep calls as short as possible and schedule breaks
schedule your own downtime and block it off your calendar. even if it's 15 minutes to take a walk it makes a big difference.

Oh yes, this x1000. I'm in the minority that makes their default meeting time a half hour instead of an hour. Every meeting notice begins "The purpose of this meeting is to.....", and I include an agenda. During the meeting I timebox topics. If you know someone needs to share info with the team, tell them ahead so they can research and report.

Too many times you get invited to meetings where you barely know the topic, not sure if you are really needed, and basically spitball, which requires someone to go out and research and report back at another meeting. An ounce of preparation and discipline can save pounds of everyone's time. But most people are lazy and just slap meeting invites out there...
 
Pro: not going to the office candy bowl
Con: I would love some candy right now

Have one of your neighbors buy a dozen donuts, break into your house, and leave them in your kitchen. Boom, office donuts!
 
We are pushing the Web Cams hard right now.

Also two monitors and a laptop docking staying/ Keyboard is clutch.

I have a guest house office I use to stay away from distractions and the dog, but I would also recommend putting the dog on the other side of the house when you are on call if he is a barker.
 
I also borrowed a keyboard to take home from our office technology graveyard.
 
We are pushing the Web Cams hard right now.

Also two monitors and a laptop docking staying/ Keyboard is clutch.

I have a guest house office I use to stay away from distractions and the dog, but I would also recommend putting the dog on the other side of the house when you are on call if he is a barker.

Damn. Must be nice having a home office that’s actually a home office.
 
+1

I'm camped out in my living room, often engaging with our 5yo and 2yo. At least I have my docking station, second monitor, wireless keyboard etc. that's all been super helpful WFH.
 
+1

I'm camped out in my living room, often engaging with our 5yo and 2yo. At least I have my docking station, second monitor, wireless keyboard etc. that's all been super helpful WFH.

How are you making it work with a 2yo. AWAR working from home too?
 
We're both at home, so we alternate taking on kid-duty at certain times of the day. Right now, she has the home office :)

With the 2yo, we're trying our best to give her things to do that mimic Daycare activities and avoid screen-time (when possible). 5yo starts e-school tomorrow, and allegedly there's going to be 3 hours of content a day.

It's far from ideal, but we're making it work just like many others. How's your young one?
 
We used to have a full home office set up when my wife was working from home full time. Once she transitioned back to a traditional office job we converted that room to some sort of yoga hippie retreat with a ton of plants, huge like lounge pillows, and a setup with her record player/records/books. She like hangs out in there smoking weed and drinking wine with her friends and listening to records. Not working out so well now.
 
We're both at home, so we alternate taking on kid-duty at certain times of the day. Right now, she has the home office :)

With the 2yo, we're trying our best to give her things to do that mimic Daycare activities and avoid screen-time (when possible). 5yo starts e-school tomorrow, and allegedly there's going to be 3 hours of content a day.

It's far from ideal, but we're making it work just like many others. How's your young one?

Well wife and I both got food poisoning yesterday so the idea of working went out the window. My office is still open for the time being, but there’s no way my wife can work from home with an 18 month old, so we’re trying to navigate that.
 
I feel like I'm back on maternity leave, but now with a full-time job added on PLUS a semi-mobile kid. Baby can roll back-to-front, but then gets pissed when she can do nothing from the prone position. Not exactly conducive to getting work done. Big kids are about to be back over from their mom's house, too, and though they're more self-sufficient, there will still be a reasonable amount of fielding questions/giving direction to them.
Husband is currently considered "essential" at his work, so I'm doing all this at home. Work is reasonably understanding, but it's not like that lessens my workload or makes any kid stuff more manageable.

I am keeping myself in good spirits by thinking of the kids as my coworkers and imagining all the HR violations they'd be racking up. "My coworker repeatedly smacked me in the boobs and then fought wearing pants for the better part of an hour."
 
If my coworker climbs on his god damn train table one more time...
 
And of course the internet in my office went down.... Fucking spectrum.

Cant catch a break.
 
I feel like I'm back on maternity leave, but now with a full-time job added on PLUS a semi-mobile kid. Baby can roll back-to-front, but then gets pissed when she can do nothing from the prone position. Not exactly conducive to getting work done. Big kids are about to be back over from their mom's house, too, and though they're more self-sufficient, there will still be a reasonable amount of fielding questions/giving direction to them.
Husband is currently considered "essential" at his work, so I'm doing all this at home. Work is reasonably understanding, but it's not like that lessens my workload or makes any kid stuff more manageable.

I am keeping myself in good spirits by thinking of the kids as my coworkers and imagining all the HR violations they'd be racking up. "My coworker repeatedly smacked me in the boobs and then fought wearing pants for the better part of an hour."

holy shit i laughed so hard at this.

my boys are those assholes that eat all the snacks that people bring in but never provide any themselves
 
We used to have a full home office set up when my wife was working from home full time. Once she transitioned back to a traditional office job we converted that room to some sort of yoga hippie retreat with a ton of plants, huge like lounge pillows, and a setup with her record player/records/books. She like hangs out in there smoking weed and drinking wine with her friends and listening to records. Not working out so well now.



What a great room.
 
finally ordered a desk chair for myself. my "desk" is a table that's like halfway between normal desk height and a standing desk and the chair I had been using was too low so I pretty much just have been sitting on the couch.

but I've got a monitor, dock and keyboard so I should be more productive.
 
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