Choo choo! All aboard the Complain Train!

[Dirty Hipsters]

I have a friend who was hired for full work from home, less than a year later he's doing a full 5 days back in the office. I really don't know how he does it. He lost a ton of weight.

I also had another friend who quit his job just because of that. The CEO of their company quite infamously publicly demanded they return to the office. My friend went to the office, took one look at the parking lot that was essentially all reserved for upper management, saw that it was empty, and decided to quit.

I've gone to the office voluntarily once or twice since I started my first job, and it truly was awful. Everything in the business district is overpriced, gas and toll alone is the cost of a pretty expensive meal. I wish you the best in dealing with that hassle, hopefully they'll be lax in implementing the policy.

Am I crazy because I actually like coming into the office? I like the people I work with, the office is close to my house, and we get free food there. I voluntarily come into the office twice a week just because I want to.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Am I crazy because I actually like coming into the office? I like the people I work with, the office is close to my house, and we get free food there. I voluntarily come into the office twice a week just because I want to.

You're not crazy. I live 30 mins to 2 hours (yes, the traffic is that variable) from the office. If I could just walk there? Or reliably commute? Hell yeah I'd be coming in every week. I enjoy the feeling of dressing up and interacting with actual people. But not more than I despise paying for parking or slowly dying in traffic.

 

[Summerstorm]

Am I crazy because I actually like coming into the office? I like the people I work with, the office is close to my house, and we get free food there. I voluntarily come into the office twice a week just because I want to.

As terrible as it is i NEEDED to get back to the office. I had startet a new job when corona hit and had worked half a year in the office up to that (IT-Support)
after that i was 1.5 years in home-office. First off it was all going well, since i needed to do stuff when tickets and alarms went off, but than a few months in i had to do a long-term project.

And it got mentally so bad for me. I just didn't do anything anymore. Just started the day, tried to get motivated enough to survive lying on the daily progress meetings, stopped meeting friends (Only sometimes online-roleplaying). Totally lost like a year of my life. Just: pretending to work, staring hours at end at the screen unable to start the easiest of tasks (The terrible bureaucracy and fragmentation of responsibilities didn't help), buying food, sleeping, back to staring at the screen... sometimes crying...

So yeah, i fricking LOVE driving to work - even if my depression and procrastination just got "barely" better. It just isn't that lonely having some people around and i need the pressure of other's eyes or i just can't work anymore after burning out twice.

But yeah, other people i know had the opposite experience, good for them (Had way more time with the children and way relaxed time overall). I am totally on "Work from home if possible and good for you- train"

 

[Absent]

Covid has shown both the possibilities and limitations of work at home. Possibilities, because it's (often) feasible and there's (often) no technical reason not to. Limitations because it blurs the line between work and home, especially schedule-wise, it removes the rite of commuting (which, like all journeys, serves as a good buffer between two spaces and mindset), and it damages group cohesion when it's a thing (or even socialization in some cases).

What I've noticed around me is people settling for an easy going mix of both. With the pros and cons in mind, it's still a new field of freedom that has been revealed, one more parameter to decide at will, depending on circumstances and moments. Work has become more adjustable, which is great in itself, whatever the preferences. No mode has to be objectively better than the other (apple and oranges, and all that). What's cool is that this freedom seems here to stay.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I'm 40.

 

[Absent]

I'm 40.

Don't worry, it won't last.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Don't worry, it won't last.

Tell that to my 40's.

 

[Absent]

Tell that to my 40's.

Oh I do.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Am I crazy because I actually like coming into the office?

You're not crazy.

Don't listen to @Bob_McMillan, @Dirty Hipsters; you ARE crazy. You're BOTH crazy.

But seriously, my main hang up is that I work in a corporate environment, and I absolutely detest corporate culture. Without going into too much detail, I can honestly say I didn't chose to be here; it was kinda thrust upon me as an opportunity that seemed too good to pass up 13 years ago, then it evolved into much more than I signed on for, but I ended up being good enough at it that they kept me around and paid me well. I'm basically Walter White from Breaking Bad minus the high criminal stakes and threats of violence (from them, anyway.) Working from home has been perfect for all involved; this pending hybrid schedule just adds discomfort and inconvenience for me.

 

[Absent]

Off topic, but damn. Cranston is a good actor, White is not. I'd have arrested/shot him right there on the spot. This may be the very single clip of White at his most transparently loathable.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Off topic, but damn. Cranston is a good actor, White is not. I'd have arrested/shot him right there on the spot. This may be the very single clip of White at his most transparently loathable.

White is a guy with nothing left to lose. I'd offer that at that point in the series, he's so dug in, even HE is amazed he'd not been found out yet. He knows what he's doing is wrong; he knows it's not going to/shouldn't last forever, or even much longer. That scene wasn't about his "acting;" it was about his willingness to give up and let the DEA take him down and end the spiraling madness. But when the bait isn't taken, even when so blatantly put before them... "welp, guess I still gotta clock in tomorrow." Like someone seriously contemplating suicide who sees an opportunity to be killed by someone else. Just sayin' the show is well written, and I feel every scene is very intentional.

But yes, Cranston is an amazing actor.

 

[Absent]

White is a guy with nothing left to lose. I'd offer that at that point in the series, he's so dug in, even HE is amazed he'd not been found out yet. He knows what he's doing is wrong; he knows it's not going to/shouldn't last forever, or even much longer. That scene wasn't about his "acting;" it was about his willingness to give up and let the DEA take him down and end the spiraling madness. But when the bait isn't taken, even when so blatantly put before them... "welp, guess I still gotta clock in tomorrow." Like someone seriously contemplating suicide who sees an opportunity to be killed by someone else. Just sayin' the show is well written, and I feel every scene is very intentional.

I saw it as the opposite. His first glance (which alone would have been received as evidence in court), the brief squint, the lips corners, felt like pure haughty vanity ("you little shit you have no idea"), even a hint of threat ("don't poke me I could destroy you you wouldn't know what hit you"). And then the dismissal, because "lol". Pure manipulative deflection. The nerve of concealing something under a joke about it - implying it's hilariously unthinkable.

For me, it's White indulging in the peak of his self-satisfied power trip, after a fast threat assessment. The opposite of being close to confess.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I saw it as the opposite. His first glance (which alone would have been received as evidence in court), the brief squint, the lips corners, felt like pure haughty vanity ("you little shit you have no idea"), even a hint of threat ("don't poke me I could destroy you you wouldn't know what hit you"). And then the dismissal, because "lol". Pure manipulative deflection. The nerve of concealing something under a joke about it - implying it's hilariously unthinkable.

For me, it's White indulging in the peak of his self-satisfied power trip, after a fast threat assessment. The opposite of being close to confess.

I think we're saying the same thing from different angles. Remember, his power trip is also due to his potentially terminal condition, i.e.: what were they going to do? Put him prison for several years when he's only got months to live? It can be taken either way, but the simple fact that he made that "joke," to me, implies he's just going with it; "either you catch me or you don't" vibe. Sure, there's some self-satisfaction if only because a mere high school teacher is able to "confess" to a bloodhound of a DEA agent that he's behind a substantial meth ring without any actual fear of being caught, but at the same time, he is confessing, i.e.: he was jokingly accused, so he "jokingly" confessed; both parties were speaking truths, only one without knowing such.

Not quite the same, but I kinda see it as the scene from Se7en where (spoiler, if you've not seen it) Kevin Spacey walks into the police department and actually has to publicly demand the attention of the detectives who've been running in circles hounding him. I know that was his plan all along, but in White's case, his timeline had already been extended exponentially beyond his initial plan, so his "fuck it" mentality kicked in. Why not take a moment to be cocky since shit is already out of control?

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

...and it damages group cohesion when it's a thing (or even socialization in some cases).

This is probably the number 1 reason I'm perfectly fine with working from home: I don't socialize with coworkers. They're the people who I know from work and nowhere else.

 

[Gordon_4]

I'm 40.

I am genuinely surprised.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I am genuinely surprised.

... Compliment?

 

[Xprimentyl]

We had a few fairly decent-sized sheets of mirror glass we put out for bulk pickup today, but turns out the city doesn't pick up glass, so as we're trying to think of ways to dispose of them, this is the conversation we had:

Her: "Can't we just break it all into smaller pieces and put it in the trash?"
Me: "Yes, but we'll need a glass cutter; there's no reliable way to break glass without scoring it first. We'll end up with a hundred shards of glass in the alley."
Her: "Ok, do we have a glass cutter?"
Me: "No, but I'll run to Home Depot here in few minutes and get one."
*Seconds later*
Her: "I have an idea."
Me: " About what?"
Her: *gets out of her chair, and exits the patio*
*A minute latter, the sound of glass breaking*

I go out to the alley where she's standing over A HUNDRED SHARDS OF GLASS IN THE ALLEY with a crow bar and rubber mallet.

Her: "I thought I could just break into smaller pieces!"
Me: "Y'mean exactly like I said you couldn't?"

FFS, the only way to convince her of anything is reverse psychology. The more you insist you're right, the more she's convinced she knows better. I should have told her to grab a hammer, break it all into dust, and let the wind carry it away, and she probably would have brought them back inside and hung them on a wall.

 

[Gordon_4]

... Compliment?

Yes, you always struck me as someone in their late 20s

 

[Casual Shinji]

Yes, you always struck me as someone in their late 20s

Sweet!


To be fair though I actually stopped maturing when I was 15.

 

[Xprimentyl]

New kitten has been climbing on my chair while I work. Fine; it's cute. New kitten decided just now to jump from the back of my chair onto MY back, claws fully extended. I've now got about 6 welted scratches and some blood on my back. Shit hurt like a m*therfucker. At least I don't have to explain them to my girlfriend. New kitten no longer allowed to climb on my chair while I work.