My kids had bad reactions to flu shots and S had bad reactions to allergy shots. Both were relieved to get the 2 dose mRNA covid shots and so glad their reactions to the shots were very mild.
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Microsoft pushed its return to the office date to âwho knows when.â
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft-return-to-u-s-offices-delayed-indefinitely/
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My S is going back to his fed office again after a 2 year leave of absence. I hope he stays safe! It should help when all fed employees are required to be fully vaxedâhe has been.
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During his leave of absence, he spent one year at our house in HI, helping us clean and re-organize our home, my parentâs home, move my nonprofit stuff into a storage unit, pass the PE exam, and all sorts of other things, in addition to running his part-time job and moving himself from his apartment into his GFâs apartment. All in all, he kept pretty busy and I think he was happy for this time to figure out what he wants and his next steps.
He has bought masks that he likes that are disposable and shaped so that it doesnât smush against his face but he finds them breathable enough to wear as long as needed.
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Lots of people on the train platform into NYC yesterday morning. Certainly not pre-COVID level, but I did have to look to find a seat that wasnât immediately next to someone.
I just quit my job because they wanted me to be back in the office 3 times a week. I took another job closer to home that had better remote work policy. I told my current employer that they were crazy with their policy. After I resigned, a peer colleague got covid after being fully vaccinated. The office policy was if you were fully vaccinated you didnât have to wear a mask. If I had gone back to the office I would have been exposed to this colleague.
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I decided not to go back to teaching this semester. The students at my college are required to get vaxxed and wear masks, but the classrooms they had me in are tiny and over-filled. Iâm going to write and babysit grandkids. Thankfully H is on board with thatâhe is going back to teaching, but in the HS, he has much more power to scold students than I had at the college. And Iâm burnt out from teaching, but itâs his second career, so heâs not. Win/win, I hope.
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I am sorry to hear that but donât blame you at all.
Our company was supposed to reopen this week on a hybrid schedule. Reopening is now delayed to November 1st. Although working in the office was voluntary this summer, the company president is anxious to get more people back in the office. Apparently he has been receiving complaints internally and externally about inconsistent quality of service due to remote working.
Call me cynical but how is it possible for food service workers,teachers, police and firemen and most other professions to do their job 40+ hours a week for the past 18 months in person in situations far more at risk than an office but yet you canât go back only a few days a week?
Well, if she is working from home, our oldfort is not using the subway and/or streets to get to the office. Leaving more space for those who must go to their jobs physically. At my company, there are folks who have to be in the âofficeâ and there are folks who sit at their computer all day long no matter where they are. So if the computer sitters donât come to the office, it makes the office less crowded for the rest of the team. Some team members really enjoy the wide open kitchens and more space to roam in general. 
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If the people who can work remotely do work remotely, that reduces crowding and virus spread in the places where the people who must work in-person have to be in, so they benefit as well in terms of reducing their risk of exposure. In addition if the people working remotely are less likely to get the virus, they are less likely to give it to someone else when buying food, sending their kids to school, or needing police or fire / rescue services.
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Hope she works in a facility that accepts medicare/medicaid and is not required to get the vaccine. WTH is wrong with these healthcare workers?
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I think others have answered your question. I am a non essential worker at a manufacturing company. If my company only has essential workers onsite then it also protects essential workers.
I would go back to work if I thought it was necessary for my job, but truth of the matter is when I have been in the office I was working in my office doing zoom calls.
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According to my work friends (I retired a few months ago) itâs similar in my old office. But itâs maybe a bit easier when you are an executive working in a large private office with a door. My friends who are in open âworkstationsâ donât feel quite the same.
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My daughterâs company has open workstations, although there are conference rooms available. At some point this summer, they would allow workers back into the office under certain conditional- show proof of vaccination, reserve a spot (only so many spots per day were available,) you were only allowed to reserve 2 or 3 times a week, ass well as others I do not remember. My daughter only went in a couple of times; while she was excited to be back in the office, she said it wasnât the same, and she realized she didnât need to be physically present to do her work. Until everyone is able to come back into the office, she will stay home. This is my child that loves work, and working with people. She misses being with people, and getting out of her house, but she will wait.
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Well the OSHA involvement do even more to get rid of the â it has to be negotiated by the unionâ mantra. OSHA Regs arenât subject to collective bargaining. And in any event courts have already found that mandates arenât subject to CB. But this takes one more arrow out of the quiver.
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D1 works for a good sized PR firm and has been WFH for the last 18 times only in the office a handful of times. I think they were encouraged to start coming into the office a couple days a week after Labor Day but current conditions seem to have curtailed that. She was in the office yesterday though to meet a new employee she is âtrainingâ. She expressed how crummy it is for a new employee starting out in a largely empty office. Every job place scenario can be different of course, but itâs one thing to be the employee who knows the office culture/people/routines/traditions and can largely maintain that over Zoom (to a degree).
Itâs another thing to be the new employee who has no history of the new office, no face to face people relationships, no âremember whenâsâ or âthis is how we do itâ to physically experience.
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Been back in the office since August 2nd. Still feeling salty about it. A few observationsâŠ
My unvaxxed coworker got Covid on August 13th and due to a lingering cough, was not allowed back in the office until 2 days ago. My employer had made some big noise that unvaxxed employees who needed to quarantine would have to do so using their own PTO, no remote accommodations allowed. Of course, when it really happened, they realized they couldnât be without this employee for so long, so he was allowed to work remotely the whole time.
Although I wholeheartedly believe that my entire department could do our jobs remotely just as well as being here, I do see a down side to not having uniformity now. When we were all remote, we were all in constant contact and continued to collaborate as effectively as we did when we were all in person pre-Covid. NOw, I have noticed that the one person who did receive an accommodation to be remote (and who is continuing to be productive) is sort of suffering from our âout of sight, out of mindâ syndrome. I hold a weekly zoom check in with him, but for the day to day things that spontaneously pop up, Iâm more likely to go talk to the person a cube or two away than to contact him.
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Separate thought:
I STILL very much believe that there are people who just donât want to go back to the office. They like working from home and not dealing with office games/stress/blah blahâŠso they do use the pandemic as an excuse for not returning to work. I just wish people would admit to this!
I am pretty thankful that a result of the WFH during the pandemic and for us, a return to the office has resulted in our university being open to hybrid schedules, individually approved. I for the most part love my days in the office and love my days working from home. Win win.
(Final comment for now: I DO think our small office has suffered ill effects from the different schedules of people, the coming and going of people on different days, etc. I think we are less bonded, less âthe left knows that the right is doingâ, etc.)
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