Rant; Winter 2013/14

[planet planet]

It's just such an old school way of thinking. Does it require babysitters in the office as well to make sure everyone's doing what they're supposed to be doing? Like FB said, he has no choice but to work hard if he stays home due to weather. I'm sure it would be glaringly obvious if he didn't. There are other ways to keep employees accountable than them being in the office. I say that as someone who's worked from home for five years in the past. Take the debatable severity of the weather/wuss factor/can you most likely make it to work out of the picture. The bottom line is are you able to fully do your job at home/out of the office? If so, I would hate to work for a company that makes you take PTO when there is inclement weather a few days a year.

[tlombard]

It's just such an old school way of thinking. Does it require babysitters in the office as well to make sure everyone's doing what they're supposed to be doing? Like FB said, he has no choice but to work hard if he stays home due to weather. I'm sure it would be glaringly obvious if he didn't. There are other ways to keep employees accountable than them being in the office. I say that as someone who's worked from home for five years in the past. Take the debatable severity of the weather/wuss factor/can you most likely make it to work out of the picture. The bottom line is are you able to fully do your job at home/out of the office? If so, I would hate to work for a company that makes you take PTO when there is inclement weather a few days a year.

When I am at work, it is all work. When I'm not in the building, work doesn't exist in my brain.

I could fully do my job from home just as easily as I could in the office. My problem is that I know I wouldn't be nearly as productive at home when I have the DVR, Xbox, etc. to distract me. I have no problem focusing and getting things done in the office but I can't get into the work mode at home. I know people who can, I just can't so I don't even try anymore. I flat out told my old boss when they offered work at home days on a regular basis that I didn't want in on the rotation because I wouldn't get anything more than the bare minimum done. Sure, I could sit at home and act like I was working to the point that nobody would know that I wasn't since my job isn't something that can be measured in daily transactions or phone calls or whatever and most of what I do may as well be magic to the people I work with (I am the only one who does what I do in a department of nearly 100) but I can't bring myself to take advantage of that. I like my job. I need my job. I've got 16.5 years in here and they've been good to me. I don't want to let myself get lazy and screw it up.

[Fat_Bulldog]

A lot of my job overlaps with personal time due to the nature of what I do. So, I work from home almost 30% of the time. At least it's been that way so far at my new place.

[jim]

I get 5 weeks vacation per year. I take a week in the winter, a week late spring/early summer, a week late summer, and still have 2 weeks left to piss away. But why piss days away when I can "work" at home? I just got back from the gym where I "work"-ed out.

Fortunately I have a job where if I disappeared from the planet for 6 months nobody would notice. I do absolutely nothing and provide zero value. I am a manager.

[IMADreamer]

I want to be Jim when i grow up.

[jim]

60" of snow for the year at O'hare, 62" at Midway. 45 days since Dec. 1 we have had at least 1" of snow on the ground. They just did a news report on what I was talking about earlier - the mounds of snow causing traffic dangers because you can't see around the corner. The 7 day outlook has no temperatures reaching 20.

Am I complaining?

No no no no no. Not at all. I do want want to go up to a random stranger, kill them, and take out their still beating heart and eat it while laughing at the moon.

But I am NOT complaining.

Absolutely not.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Great attitude Jim. Keep it up. You're an inspiration to your community.

[docellis]

i want to grab winter by the neck, drag his skull to the ground and beat it into the pavement until the bone in that skull becomes dust.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

This isn't so much a complain, well it is, but a question especially for those with kids. What do people do when it is so cold, for so long, all the damn time? AW jr loves going on walks (being pushed in a stroller). We would run and then walk the dogs basically every night in the summer, spring, fall and even winter when it's not too cold. But, it's been a couple weeks now, and he will go over to the stroller and try to push it to the door. It's pretty cute and all, but I feel bad. I'll take him outside, show him it's too cold and he'll just look at me and go 'MehhWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'. Not crying, just [expletive] pissed. I agree.

Anyway, what do people with kids do?

[stlouie_lipp]

Tomorrow is garbage day. At this point I am basically placing my cans in the middle of the street because of all the snow piles.