To want to know when WFH will end ?

[fizzypop100]

Because this has dragged on for so long

@IcedPurple Immediate family fine. Flatmates/neighbours slightly more iffy but most likely fine. To be honest I couldn't care less about strangers that I'll never meet knowing information about me! I don't know the customer service person from their flatmate anyway. My neighbours probably overhear everything I say on the phone as well.

[quote PattyPan]@IcedPurple Immediate family fine. Flatmates/neighbours slightly more iffy but most likely fine. To be honest I couldn't care less about strangers that I'll never meet knowing information about me! I don't know the customer service person from their flatmate anyway. My neighbours probably overhear everything I say on the phone as well.[/quote]
But my point is, you don't know. If someone is in an office you can be fairly confident that only colleagues will be around. If someone is WFH anyone could be listening in. They may not even be at home. And it's not just customer service. It could be financial info. You or your children's health record. Details of your tax status and so on.

You may not personally care, but surely you can see that there could be issues here? Or was all that Data Protection stuff just for show?

I am not wearing headphones in our HOME

I don't mean you. Of course you shouldn't. I meant your DH. He should wear headphones when conducting online meetings.

But my point is, you don't know. If someone is in an office you can be fairly confident that only colleagues will be around. If someone is WFH anyone could be listening in. They may not even be at home. And it's not just customer service. It could be financial info. You or your children's health record. Details of your tax status and so on.

You may not personally care, but surely you can see that there could be issues here? Or was all that Data Protection stuff just for show?

The only stuff I can really understand is if people are hiding from former partners etc and their whereabouts needs to be kept secret. For me the only data protection I really care about is companies not spamming me. I can't see what bad would happen to me if someone got hold of my medical records or financial info. Slightly higher risk of fraud from the financial stuff but a determined fraudster could get it all anyway I'm sure.

We will always work from home to s degree now and I'm completely fine with it

For me the only data protection I really care about is companies not spamming me. I can't see what bad would happen to me if someone got hold of my medical records or financial info.

Which could happen much more easily in someone's home than in a properly equipped office.

Meh, not on the scale I’m concerned about. People don’t tend to have more than 5 or 6 housemates. Many offices are not secure either. I used to work in an open plan warehouse type office shared by dozens of organisations and there were no dividers of any sort so you were just sat next to someone from another company.

I like WFH, but DH and I each have space to work privately so it's not an issue. I can totally empathise with those who are having to work at a kitchen table. I do hope that more companies will look at giving employees more of a choice as to how they work in the future.

@MajorCarolDanvers

I am not wearing headphones in our HOME

I don't mean you. Of course you shouldn't. I meant your DH. He should wear headphones when conducting online meetings.

But I can hear what he is saying and see what's on his monitors.

My job involves speaking to staff at various manufacturers, some of which are WFH! Imo it’s not productive, half of them sound like they’re working from their bathroom, rubbish signal, every questions takes so much longer to answer as they’re not in an office with their colleagues, or in the same building as production, warehouse, planning.

This results in our customers being frustrated as I can’t answer their queries in a timely manner!

I also witness various ndn WFH and if you’re telling me it’s more productive than working from a dedicated office space with management overseeing their staff, well, I would beg to differ! One ndn’s window reminds me of meerkat manor, heads bobbing up every time something happens in the street, follow up Fb posts confirming this, their desk and pc situated looking out from their livingroom window. Maybe they’re working for neighbourhood watch?

@MajorCarolDanvers

I am not wearing headphones in our HOME

I don't mean you. Of course you shouldn't. I meant your DH. He should wear headphones when conducting online meetings.

Should her DH also not speak at all? Because that can be overheard.

I personally am also not going to stop my children using their home as a HOME and having friends round when they want etc. a lot of stuff I do needs to be confidential so I need to be in an office to do it where it is a secure environment.

[quote anothersmahedmug]www.forbes.com/sites/adigaskell/2021/05/31/how-productive-have-remote-workers-been-during-covid/?sh=3a2bb8ab639e[/quote]
And here’s another article from the same publication saying wfh is less productive
www.forbes.com/sites/tracybrower/2021/01/17/think-productivity-with-work-from-home-is-improving-think-again-heres-what-you-must-know/?sh=7e3844c52d67

MajorCarolDanvers
I am not wearing headphones in our HOME

I don't mean you. Of course you shouldn't. I meant your DH. He should wear headphones when conducting online meetings. 
Should her DH also not speak at all? Because that can be overheard.

I personally am also not going to stop my children using their home as a HOME and having friends round when they want etc. a lot of stuff I do needs to be confidential so I need to be in an office to do it where it is a secure environment.

MajorCarolDanvers
I am not wearing headphones in our HOME

I don't mean you. Of course you shouldn't. I meant your DH. He should wear headphones when conducting online meetings. 

Should her DH also not speak at all? Because that can be overheard.

Yes he should sit there mutely like a numpty. 🙈. Or he could be professional, pop on some headphones for these confidential conversations to minimise what the rest of the household are listening in to. Normal behaviour for most people who've been doing this for the last 2 years. Easy and simple little thing to be professional and minimise the disruption to others in the household.

I personally am also not going to stop my children using their home as a HOME and having friends round when they want etc. a lot of stuff I do needs to be confidential so I need to be in an office to do it where it is a secure environment

Awesome. I don't recall saying anything about you or your children. If you prefer to work in an office then that's smashing. Sounds like restrictions will lift soon. Enjoy.

Or he could be professional, pop on some headphones for these confidential conversations to minimise what the rest of the household are listening in to.

Him wearing headphones doesn't magically make the process more professional, when his comments can be heard by family members.

Many people don't have the kind of set up where it's possible to minimise what the rest of the household are exposed to. We need to be more candid about this, it's not an ideal set up for particular jobs and particular households.

If someone is WFH anyone could be listening in

Well I don't know about the rest of you, but the only person in my house other than me, is my husband. Where on earth do you all live that "anyone" could be listening in? Do you all work in the garden with a megaphone on? If you have people in doing work in the house I would imagine they're too busy to listen in and usually they bring their radios with them so are listening to that anyway.

One ndn’s window reminds me of meerkat manor, heads bobbing up every time something happens in the street

if she was in the office her head would be bobbing up every time someone walked past her desk

@Ginger1982

I like WFH, but DH and I each have space to work privately so it's not an issue. I can totally empathise with those who are having to work at a kitchen table. I do hope that more companies will look at giving employees more of a choice as to how they work in the future.

Exactly. The best employers will maintain hybrid arrangements with decent office space for those who prefer to be in the office and allowing those with decent working conditions at home to continue working there if they prefer.

@JuergenSchwarzwald

If someone is WFH anyone could be listening in

Well I don't know about the rest of you, but the only person in my house other than me, is my husband. Where on earth do you all live that "anyone" could be listening in? Do you all work in the garden with a megaphone on? If you have people in doing work in the house I would imagine they're too busy to listen in and usually they bring their radios with them so are listening to that anyway.

The point is that if people are WFH there is no control over these factors. There could be nobody around, or there could be several people in earshot. If you follow the suggestions of some here to work in a cafe or library, you could be in a public place.

So it kind of makes a mockery of confidentiality requirements. So you may be in a confidential environment. Or you may not. What's the point in having confidentiality regulations if they can be discarded for the convenience of the employee and/or employer?

Working from home ended in September 2020 in my company thank goodness.

@JuergenSchwarzwald

If someone is WFH anyone could be listening in

Well I don't know about the rest of you, but the only person in my house other than me, is my husband. Where on earth do you all live that "anyone" could be listening in? Do you all work in the garden with a megaphone on? If you have people in doing work in the house I would imagine they're too busy to listen in and usually they bring their radios with them so are listening to that anyway.

But the normal approach to confidentiality and data security policies isn't to go 'meh, it'll probably be fine most of the time', is it? And anyway you were the one loftily telling people who live in bedsits that they should just all pay for co-working spaces (because that's why people live in bedsits - because they're got hundreds of spare pounds a month), where there could indeed be anyone.

During lockdown there were four of us in teh house. As a head of Dept Dh was having to have meetings about confidential issues related to his students. Dd attends his college. He was talking about her classmates, him wearing headphones stopped her hearing what others said but not what he was saying.

dd now lives in a small room in a shared house. No room for working from home.

Yesterday @fizzypop100!

And now many of the staff in DH's office are saying they don't want to return to the office .....

@fizzypop100

And now many of the staff in DH's office are saying they don't want to return to the office .....

Surely it’s up to their employer, not them? Their employer is who pays them after all.