Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[D Angelo Barksdale]

[craigkillie]

21 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

I've said it before but 80% of the British public genuinely believe their own life is the most incredibly challenging tribulation any human could possibly go through, and no one has an appreciation for just how hard they have it.

I quite liked commuting tbh - 20 minutes door to door with the headphones in, serving as a good bit of separation between the workplace and home, giving me a bit of a chance to wake up before I had to interact with anyone in a professional sense.

Not everyone will agree with that of course.

Same for me, a chance for a bit of personal time with absolutely no danger of distractions. Fair enough I'm about 30 minutes door to door and my train season ticket is £500 for the year, maybe I'd see it differently if it was a bit longer.

[BaaBaaBlackSheep]

19 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

I've said it before but 80% of the British public genuinely believe their own life is the most incredibly challenging tribulation any human could possibly go through, and no one has an appreciation for just how hard they have it.

I quite liked commuting tbh - 20 minutes door to door with the headphones in, serving as a good bit of separation between the workplace and home, giving me a bit of a chance to wake up before I had to interact with anyone in a professional sense.

Not everyone will agree with that of course.

Me too.

Half an hour of my headphones in before I get home to the wife is just the ticket.

Boss has decided that the commute is a bad thing though, so needing to fight to get heard when the topic of  eventually going back to the office comes up.

[ICTChris]

I can understand people commuting into London etc might have a pretty grim commute but I Just can’t see any commute in Scotland being that bad.

[Wee Bully]

What’s more likely is that there will be flexibility on where you work, rather than a strict “it must be here”. Most firms will end up with “if you want to be in the office, fine. If you want to work from home, fine”. There will be a requirement to get people together, but that might be one or two days a week, or less.

Obviously, this is for jobs where it isn’t a requirement that you are in a single place.

[vikingTON]

1 minute ago, Wee Bully said:

What’s more likely is that there will be flexibility on where you work, rather than a strict “it must be here”. Most firms will end up with “if you want to be in the office, fine. If you want to work from home, fine”. There will be a requirement to get people together, but that might be one or two days a week, or less.

I'm not convinced that many firms will be paying for the same office space so that workers can swan in whenever they want. There'll be a downsizing to accompany it as well and therefore a fairly strict regiment again.

The best of both worlds would involve having office space available in each town to use, rather than commuting to a city to have a meeting that could be done remotely. There have been some hotels etc. already trying to do this but there needs to be a more specialised service to see that getting rolled out. 

[Ron Aldo]

I can understand people commuting into London etc might have a pretty grim commute but I Just can’t see any commute in Scotland being that bad.

You obviously haven't had to commute between Motherwell and Glasgow on a regular basis. For a relatively short journey you encounter a high ratio of jakies and general roasters.

[Todd_is_God]

1 minute ago, Ron Aldo said:

10 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

I can understand people commuting into London etc might have a pretty grim commute but I Just can’t see any commute in Scotland being that bad.

You obviously haven't had to commute between Motherwell and Glasgow on a regular basis. For a relatively short journey you encounter a high ratio of jakies and general roasters.

Motherwell to Glasgow is fine (until you have to leave Central)

Glasgow to Motherwell, though, is horrible. Because you are going to Motherwell.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

2 minutes ago, Wee Bully said:

What’s more likely is that there will be flexibility on where you work, rather than a strict “it must be here”. Most firms will end up with “if you want to be in the office, fine. If you want to work from home, fine”. There will be a requirement to get people together, but that might be one or two days a week, or less.

Obviously, this is for jobs where it isn’t a requirement that you are in a single place.

I expect this is what will happen with my Local Authority. We will probably end up doing a couple of days in the office a week, 3 at home. I could deal with that. One of our Tory Councillors of course spotted the potential for savings by stating at a meeting that all Council staff should work from home and the offices could all be sold off. This is the same tube who two years ago had a tantrum at the prospect of Council committee papers being PDFs on a device instead of having a fucking ream of fucking A4 sitting in front of him.

I think i posted this earlier in this thread but there are a few downsides to WFH. As just mentioned not having the break between work and home, but also the impact on our families. Not everyone is in a domestic set up conducive to WFH. I feel sorry for the Council's customer contact staff who are working from home. Spending all day having to deal with aggressive threatening dickheads having tantrums because their bin got missed or their wee street didn't get gritted, whilst in your own home must be pretty demoralising. Usually you can leave that shite in the office. 

In terms of my own job, not being in an office setting is a bit shite. I miss the social aspect as most of my colleagues are sound, there were a couple of absolute MILFS and it was generally a pretty good place to work. Also given the nature of our jobs, everyone has a different background or specialism so no matter the issue you could easily bounce ideas off each other. The process becomes a little more tedious when you're all in separate places. We also had the hell of HMCTS bringing forward what was initially an utter shambles of a video hearing process. It's still not great, but has the added bonus of occasional hilarity and not having to travel to Dundee for hearings, which was utterly spirit crushing. 

 

[Granny Danger]

Wasn’t there a poster on here who claimed we should all live close to our place of work?  That would negate the need for commuting.

Edited February 12, 2021 by Granny Danger

[realmadrid]

7 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

Wasn’t there a poster on here who claimed we should all live close to our place of work?  That would negate the need for commuting.

I know someone who went an advert to help with  African water shortages  was shown on TV suggested why don't they all move near the well. 

Personally id not want a commute of more than 30 minutes but I know a lot of people in Perth who work in Edinburgh or Glasgow. 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

1 hour ago, Henderson to deliver ..... said:

This is incredible work. They've even managed to make the good Cap'n look stoned. Outstanding. 

[super_carson]

1 hour ago, ICTChris said:

I can understand people commuting into London etc might have a pretty grim commute but I Just can’t see any commute in Scotland being that bad.

I used to do that, stayed in Shepherds Bush and had to commute out to the south east every day, it was absolutely brutal.

Once I moved back to Edinburgh I used to quite enjoy my commute, but then it was much shorter and nowhere as crammed. Added to that you’re not underground for most of it, and you usually get some decent scenery.  Like a few folk have said, a short commute is a good barrier between work and home and a good chance to fit in some podcasts.  

One of the problems I find with WfH just now, there’s no real switch off between home and work, made worse by my colleagues sending emails at all hours. 

 

 

[specsaver]

49 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

We also had the hell of HMCTS bringing forward what was initially an utter shambles of a video hearing process. It's still not great, but has the added bonus of occasional hilarity and not having to travel to Dundee for hearings, which was utterly spirit crushing. 

 

Totally understand your issues with HMCTS, I've had fun and games with them as well!  

[Honest_Man#1]

1 hour ago, ICTChris said:

I can understand people commuting into London etc might have a pretty grim commute but I Just can’t see any commute in Scotland being that bad.

I had to commute from the West side of Glasgow to Edinburgh for a while before moving through. About an hour and a half/hour and three quarters each way. Leaving the house at 6am and getting back at 7pm was fucking miserable tbh.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

9 minutes ago, specsaver said:

Totally understand your issues with HMCTS, I've had fun and games with them as well!  

It's a bit of a double-edged sword tbh. On the upside there's a far better chance of landing a decent panel than pitching up at Dundee for a face to face hearing, on the downside we still all too often land one of the Dundee judges who is atrocious.  

[Left Back]

50 minutes ago, super_carson said:

I used to do that, stayed in Shepherds Bush and had to commute out to the south east every day, it was absolutely brutal.

Once I moved back to Edinburgh I used to quite enjoy my commute, but then it was much shorter and nowhere as crammed. Added to that you’re not underground for most of it, and you usually get some decent scenery.  Like a few folk have said, a short commute is a good barrier between work and home and a good chance to fit in some podcasts.  

One of the problems I find with WfH just now, there’s no real switch off between home and work, made worse by my colleagues sending emails at all hours. 

 

 

Went from Shepherds Bush to Canary Wharf.  This was before the JLE was built.  Usually 90 minutes each way minimum.  Fucking Horrific..  DLR was an unreliable mess back then.

Moved to Edinburgh and had a 7 minute journey from South Gyle to Haymarket.  Loads of people exited the train at the Gyle so I always got a seat.  Bliss.  Only downside was having no time to read a book.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

3 hours ago, Marshmallo said:

I've said it before but 80% of the British public genuinely believe their own life is the most incredibly challenging tribulation any human could possibly go through, and no one has an appreciation for just how hard they have it.

I quite liked commuting tbh - 20 minutes door to door with the headphones in, serving as a good bit of separation between the workplace and home, giving me a bit of a chance to wake up before I had to interact with anyone in a professional sense.

Not everyone will agree with that of course.

paraphrasing inglorious basterds here but i respectfully disagree... but i can also sort of agree at the same time. A commute in good weather to a job you enjoy that's fairly short is absolutely fine generally, and I would definitely agree with you and DotL about having a separation of work/home having its advantages... but!

I'm a lazy toad that very firmly enjoys a long lie, and having the option to lay in my pit for significantly longer each morning is huge, as is potentially getting into my bed half an hour earlier than normal. That's honestly a pretty major factor for me, which alas might say more about me than anything tbf, ha. Especially when the weather is pish outside and I end up doing an Eric Cartman bit, wrapping myself up all snug and warm, it's one of the best bits of the day before everything usually falls apart from there. Anything making that part longer is fine by me.

It probably will vary on a lot of factors; whether you properly enjoy your work which can be a variable thing too so whether you're having a good/shite time of it (i.e. month end to meet a bonus target for sales if that's the qualifying period and you're under pressure to meet it, or approaching April for the tax year ending if you're in a finance department can apparently be a living nightmare for certain job roles) can make the commute a thoroughly miserable place to be if you're having to jump on a dirty subway train or the like to compound matters. At least if you're at home you can maybe fling on music at full blast for a bit or go and pet the cat/dug. Rubbing the cats tummy when I've been stressed has been a revelation.

Cash AND time savings can add up a fair bit too; it's one of those back of a fag packet things but you can extrapolate out to a whole year for both,

so if by walking from home you aren't spending even, say, 30 minutes walking in pishing rain/waiting at traffic lights/waiting on a train/sitting on a train/whatever commuty things your commute is commuting you to, then:

30 * 5 day working week * 48 weeks of the year assuming you have 4 weeks of holiday entitlement = 7200 minutes a year, or 120 hours, and that's just a 30 minute travel in total each way.

ditto if you save an average of, say, a modest £2 a day on travel, so £1 there and £1 back; £2 * 5 day working week * 48 weeks a year = £480. not chump change especially if it's a low paid service job done from home i.e. contact centre stuff. That £2 is potentially a bit low too the further out you're getting or how limited your options are for getting in.

Missing out on brutal, unexpected traffic jams is a side effect for driving can be hugely welcome. Avoiding catching anything else from the general public, let alone covid, is welcome.

The flip side is that while I tend not to enjoy commuting, to a large extent that time can just end up being spent on a smartphone arsing about anyway which you might well be doing at home with the extra time. Another part is that, tbf, sometimes you'll see amusing/entertaining little slices of life on a commute that you wouldn't get otherwise, even little things like some movie getting filmed or something like that.

I think at the end of the day it's better having the extra time saved from not travelling and not always needing it, than not having the extra time and needing it for something.

 

tl;dr Permanent furlough on even 60% of my wages would've been my choice tbqfhwy 

 

Edited February 13, 2021 by Thistle_do_nicely

[SlipperyP]

9 hours ago, Tynierose said:

Tomorrow's headline in the Sun.

Outrage as lags get jags...

Followed a quote of indignation from Kelly-Marie whose 82 year old maw still husnae hid the jag or heard fae anyone but they're getting it...

Later it will be discovered that said lady either didn't go for it or isn't actually registered with a practice.

Question for you.

As I live in Thailand and the vaccine is not going live, until later this month and will take all year and next year for them to get to the magic 70% herd.  The Thai government saying it is only available to Thai nationals, even though I am registered with the local NHS (card carrier).

My question is. I left Scotland in 2008, while registered at my local GP, I have never offically declared I left the UK, if you can even do that. Would I still be registered at that said GP?  Therefore on the list for vaccination?

0

[Left Back]

22 minutes ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

tl;dr Permanent furlough on even 60% of my wages would've been my choice tbqfhwy 

 

 Nae bother.  Put your feet up.  PM me your bank details and I’ll transfer my wages straight to your account.

what you describe there is the best defined benefits pension.