Working from Home: Would you be more or less productive? (If possible.)

[joeyrupption]

(This poll assumes your type of job can be done from home. If it can’t, choose “Not Possible.”)

I feel like I’ll be as super-productive as Seinfeld when he delivers the mail for Newman.

 

[Blueisbest]

Where I work at, the possibility of working from home is seriously being considered. It would be difficult to co-ordinate this but it could be done. It would be nice to be able to stay in my pajamas while I work though.

 

[Glenn's Take]

I would be stunned if 95 percent of our corporate office will be working from home starting Monday with JCPS closing down. I've done it before and the answer is about the same. Fewer distractions but technology limitations (not having 2 monitors, slower running speeds).

 

[-Mav-]

Much less productive b/c, of course, internet porn.

 

[WildcatFan1982]

less productive for me. Not having 2 monitors is a huge pain. Same as ya know having my TV here, and internet that isn't being snooped on by my boss

 

[KRJ1975]

less productive for me. Not having 2 monitors is a huge pain. Same as ya know having my TV here, and internet that isn't being snooped on by my boss

Buy a port replicator for the house.

I’m about the same. I start earlier and work later at home though.

 

[UKwizard]

Oh my TV with Netflix built in is just in the other room!

 

[rqa]

You need a “Same”.

It doesn’t matter where I am as long as I have internet connectivity. I go to the office because it’s close to my home and it lets me separate the two.
My director is in the same office as me but he only comes to the office 2,3 days a week. Everyone that works for me or with me is either in Florida, Missouri or middle TN. Not counting the offshore teams in the Philippines and India that do our QA testing.

Looks like I’ll be working from home for at least the next few weeks as they have asked everyone who can work from home to do so.

 

[krazykats]

I can work from home every day right now and have been given a laptop to do so. As a matter of fact when I first started I ruptured my Achilles and worked from home for 3 months.....

That said, now it would be impossible to be as productive negotiating deals and trying to close contracts with my 3 year old in the background screaming “I farted” or “dada dodo dada dodo”.

 

[joeyrupption]

You need a “Same”.

It doesn’t matter where I am as long as I have internet connectivity. I go to the office because it’s close to my home and it lets me separate the two.
My director is in the same office as me but he only comes to the office 2,3 days a week. Everyone that works for me or with me is either in Florida, Missouri or middle TN. Not counting the offshore teams in the Philippines and India that do our QA testing.

Looks like I’ll be working from home for at least the next few weeks as they have asked everyone who can work from home to do so.

Good call!

 

[joeyrupption]

I can work from home every day right now and have been given a laptop to do so. As a matter of fact when I first started I ruptured my Achilles and worked from home for 3 months.....

That said, now it would be impossible to be as productive negotiating deals and trying to close contracts with my 3 year old in the background screaming “I farted” or “dada dodo dada dodo”.

I had a conference call today, and when they asked who was on I said me and “Daniel Tiger’s dad,” because it was playing in the background.

 

[TortElvisII]

(This poll assumes your type of job can be done from home. If it can’t, choose “Not Possible.”)

I feel like I’ll be as super-productive as Seinfeld when he delivers the mail for Newman.

I have done this some. Some things I'm way more productive at when home. With the job I have I also need to be in the office and out in the field. There are far less distractions for me at home.

 

[Bill Cosby]

As much as I’ve tried, I cannot get away from paper. I’d rather use my employers printers than trying to read/review docs on a computer/iPad screen. Sure as **** not buying printer ink.

 

[joeyrupption]

I have done this some. Some things I'm way more productive at when home. With the job I have I also need to be in the office and out in the field. There are far less distractions for me at home.

My officemates are great, but I’m doing cool-looking computer modeling all day, so everybody stops by a lot just to ask what I’m doing and chat. At home, I can blaze through stuff endlessly and have to make myself take breaks to walk around every few hours. The nature of my work isn’t punctuate by much back-and-forth communication, so I can achieve a nice flow state at home.

I have the same issue with monitors, but I’m planning an ultrawide purchase!

 

[GYERater]

Have worked from home for about 2 years now, definitely more productive.

 

[TortElvisII]

My officemates are great, but I’m doing cool-looking computer modeling all day, so everybody stops by a lot just to ask what I’m doing and chat. At home, I can blaze through stuff endlessly and have to make myself take breaks to walk around every few hours. The nature of my work isn’t punctuate by much back-and-forth communication, so I can achieve a nice flow state at home.

I have the same issue with monitors, but I’m planning an ultrawide purchase!

I have been making models the last few days as well. I'm very productive at work making models because I get very much in a zone.

 

[MrKentucky]

I already work from home.

I get more work done in ~6 hours than I used to in 10.

 

[Crushgroove]

As much as I’ve tried, I cannot get away from paper. I’d rather use my employers printers than trying to read/review docs on a computer/iPad screen. Sure as **** not buying printer ink.

I check drawings. Tell me about it. Redlining in A/Cad isn't as easy as it sounds. I am the zoom/pan command and the edit text dialog box from 9-3ish everyday.

Nearly everyday I wish I had just a c-sized plotter, but I realize it'd just eat up profit in paper that only gets shredded after I re-enter values in cad. So, I go until my eyeballs feel like they're about to fall out and I stop.

Been at home on contract since before ITT shut the doors on me. Same company I'd been with since the 90s. I'm not sure other employees with less company experience could do as much for them from home as a guy like me can, but it's a mutually great setup and I plan to milk it dry (Thank God my wife has great insurance). I rarely have to drive down there for anything, they rarely have to spend time communicating with me outside of project notes on the approvals. I get an email full of .dwgs every morning and I send them an email back every afternoon, trying to get it in to the CE in time for him to get it back to the designers/engineers to revise before the next day.

You have to be disciplined to both keeping your nose to the grind and to taking breaks. I don't venture off course (internet) during the day b/c there's a better chance than not that I'll forget and won't find my way back to work in time, screwing up my schedule for picking up kids and cooking dinner and other stuff in the evening.

I could not have relied upon my 20-something self to adhere to this level of discipline.

 

[Crushgroove]

I already work from home.

I get more work done in ~6 hours than I used to in 10.

Absolutely. Other than taking the dogs in and out 12 times, zero distractions.

You guy swonder why I complain so much when it rains. That's 12 muddy feet times 12. That'll get right into your workflow.

 

[WonderBraa]

Less by 10000000%

 

[joeyrupption]

I check drawings. Tell me about it. Redlining in A/Cad isn't as easy as it sounds. I am the zoom/pan command and the edit text dialog box from 9-3ish everyday.

Nearly everyday I wish I had just a c-sized plotter, but I realize it'd just eat up profit in paper that only gets shredded after I re-enter values in cad. So, I go until my eyeballs feel like they're about to fall out and I stop.

Been at home on contract since before ITT shut the doors on me. Same company I'd been with since the 90s. I'm not sure other employees with less company experience could do as much for them from home as a guy like me can, but it's a mutually great setup and I plan to milk it dry (Thank God my wife has great insurance). I rarely have to drive down there for anything, they rarely have to spend time communicating with me outside of project notes on the approvals. I get an email full of .dwgs every morning and I send them an email back every afternoon, trying to get it in to the CE in time for him to get it back to the designers/engineers to revise before the next day.

You have to be disciplined to both keeping your nose to the grind and to taking breaks. I don't venture off course (internet) during the day b/c there's a better chance than not that I'll forget and won't find my way back to work in time, screwing up my schedule for picking up kids and cooking dinner and other stuff in the evening.

I could not have relied upon my 20-something self to adhere to this level of discipline.

I have a fun submittals nightmare for you. At my last job I was the project architect for a high rise, conceptual design through turnover. There were maybe 4 standard window wall module for apartment units, but they were mirrored. And the module ran wild at the resultant corners, so those were oddballs, but still repeated.

The window wall fabricator got the shops to us way too late, didn’t understand the modules and drew every individual window. And by the time we got it, it was too late to have them redo it all. So, I bucked up and checked all 25 dimensions on 500+ windows to 1/16” on 11x17, by hand. And then noted it up in Bluebeam and sent it back. Same deal happened with all the ACM panels.

 

[Crushgroove]

^That's really cool. I can't even imagine that level of headache. I just do easy stuff like cranes, trolleys and runways, lol.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

WFH 1 day a week for about a year now.

I'm not going to lie, I spend half of the day doing personal **** that I need to get done, and It's kind of an unwritten rule at the company. Everyone uses their day to take care of other ****.

 

[joeyrupption]

^That's really cool. I can't even imagine that level of headache. I just do easy stuff like cranes, trolleys and runways, lol.

It was worth it, but it was legit grind. I worked 50-60 hours a week for six months straight and had a 1yr old and 3yr old. But the office was six minutes from my house.

Weekdays: Work from 9-5, go home for family time, put my kids to bed, head into the office from 9pm-mightnight. Too wound up to sleep but too fuzzy to do meticulous work Go to bed around 2.

Saturday: Spend morning with family. Leave after breakfast work until dinner (no lunch). Put them to bed, go back to work, 9pm-midnight.

Sunday: Spend the day with the family. Go to work if they nap and get home when they wake up. Put them to bed - go work from 9-12. Same deal.

Once a week I would fall asleep while putting them to bed, just exhausted.

And also, at least once a week, I would face a barrage of problems to solve for 3 owners, building officials, county officials, my bosses, and hundreds of tradesman who wanted their problem (that I or my team had created or not forseen others creating) ASAP. I couldn’t solve most of these problems by myself, so I had to coordinate experts to do it and then asses it and re-explain how to execute it.

The best part is having a concrete result to stand for that effort, otherwise it would’ve been harder to do - but being able to see the physical progress is always a great motivator.

Then I quit, and now I model self-storage facilities in VR sometimes. And that’s fun too!

 

[Nubb16]

I don’t think I could get a log yard in my living room

 

[812scottj]

If I get the chance to work from home, I will not do a gawd danged thing unless I’m forced. I will however drink copious amounts of beer

 

[MegaBlue05]

It depends with me.

My job is cyclical and deadline driven. If I have tight deadlines I can lazer focus and don’t even mind to work “late” because I know I can take a 2 hour lunch or nap and my boss wouldn’t know or care. In these scenarios I’m more productive.

If I don’t have a deadline for a week or two. I’ve been known to dick around/do personal errands and accomplish very little.

 

[magic8ball]

Less for me by far as I'm a supervisor of manufacturing..

 

[Crushgroove]

It depends with me.

My job is cyclical and deadline driven. If I have tight deadlines I can lazer focus and don’t even mind to work “late” because I know I can take a 2 hour lunch or nap and my boss wouldn’t know or care. In these scenarios I’m more productive.

If I don’t have a deadline for a week or two. I’ve been known to dick around/do personal errands and accomplish very little.

Dude, that's the game. Get way ahead of deadline schedule so you can play video golf for a couple days before submitting. Also builds in some lead time for revisions and corrections.

Don't ever let them know how fast tyou really are b/c then they expect that level of speed all the time.

 

[funKYcat75]

You know who will have the worst job and won't be able to do it from home? The Jackson or whatever tax people that set up shop in the Wal*Mart(s). Not only do they have to work in a Walmart, they have to deal with people who are waiting until the very last second to do their taxes AND who might have a somewhat deadly virus sitting inches away from them handing them wadded up W2s and reciepts.

 

[Crushgroove]

Then I quit, and now I model self-storage facilities in VR sometimes. And that’s fun too!

I almost took a job with a startup bass bait manufacturer in Bham 20 years ago called Zorn lures which has turned into Zorn Molds now, I think. They made injection-molded soft-plastic swim baits/worms. They didn't have much money to offer, but they were already investing heavily in 3d sm software... man that would have been a cool job. No stress, just modeling 3d rubber worms...

When I interviewed there, their cad lab was straight cinder block walls and no windows. 4 desks wedged into a tiny room. It was a dungeon.

EDIT: Lol, so, I just went to find their website. They make a point to let you know that the entire facility is climate controlled... I'm betting b/c of that cinder block sweat box they used to scare people off with, lol.

 

[John Henry]

I worked from my home for most of my career. If you are a self motivator you can produce much more than being in an office. The key is to set up a seperate room for your office, away from most house activities. Especially if you have children. In an office setting you waste hours of time through the day. But you have to be a self motivator or you will get in trouble very quick.

Everybody can not work alone at home. But if you can do it you can save a ton of money over the years.

 

[catlanta33]

Been working from home for about 5 years now. Been more productive because I work while most others commute. I can workout in the morning and still be ahead of everyone else because it's 5 steps to the office. Started a keto diet because I can manage meals easily not having to decide where to go for lunch.

I really don't think I'd ever want to go back to an office. Now that I've seen it from this side, seems nothing is more productive in an office when you factor in ****-shooting, interruptions, 20 min coffee breaks, etc...

 

[wildcatsboston1984_rivals]

Depends on how you measure productivity. Like yesterday was a slow day for me, I got all the work done that I could do, but I spaced it out over 8 hours because that's what I'm supposed to work. If I had been able to work from home, I could have done it in like 4-6 hours then been on with my life. So to me then yes I could be more productive at home. Today is probably pretty much going to be the same scenario because part of my job is being put on the backburner for now as the rest of the company is dealing with the fallout from the coronavirus.

 

[rick64]

I guess I'll get to find out. CEO email just came out for folks to work from home starting Monday until further notice.

 

[krazykats]

If the world is closing down you couldn’t tell it by my job.

I’ve submitted more bids in the last 2 days than I did the previous 11 days this month.

Let’s just skip April and get right to May!

 

[jtrue28]

Healthcare industry is booming right now. [sick]

 

[Crushgroove]

Been working from home for about 5 years now. Been more productive because I work while most others commute. I can workout in the morning and still be ahead of everyone else because it's 5 steps to the office. Started a keto diet because I can manage meals easily not having to decide where to go for lunch.

I really don't think I'd ever want to go back to an office. Now that I've seen it from this side, seems nothing is more productive in an office when you factor in ****-shooting, interruptions, 20 min coffee breaks, etc...

Dude, I'm not going to lie... I do miss people sometimes.

Probably why I post so much. I go hours w/o talking to anybody but dogs. That's hard on a loudmouth like me.