I have spent two days, one this week, one last where I was in the office for about 5 hours. That is the most time I have been there in over a year.

As staff start to come in working short bursts, I have started to do the same. We still wear masks in the common areas but not at our desks or in conference rooms alone. We also wear masks when visitors are in, today our IT guy was in so we all wore a mask as did he.

Some of us in smaller teams have agreements that we are ok without masks when working together as all of our staff are vaccinated.

Still, I am really struggling with going back full time. I find that I can get up very early and work on spreadsheets at home, update data with quiet and no interruption.

I go to the office when I have less critical things to do and then offer up my spare time to join the teams in other issues (today was helping to unplug a sink drain in the commercial kitchen...glamorous! Good thing I don't wear 'office' clothes!)

So we have all been offered any options we want.

My plan is to spend time in the office but at this point I am not sure what that looks like. Full time 3 days? Everyday for 5 hours? We shall see.

I never anticipated struggling so with this. I thought I would leap at going back. But now I am realizing that sometimes I am more productive at home alone.

What does 'going back to work' look like for you?

quote:

Originally posted by BeeLady:

What does 'going back to work' look like for you?

My worst nightmare.

Seriously, though....I think after the pandemic shutdown a lot of people have found great value in WFH....it's great if you can tailor your workday and location to your individual needs....

I never really left the office. I taught most of my zoom classes from my office computer. But we didn't mingle as we once did in the hallways and in seminar rooms.

I am the only member of my management team still working remotely. And that’s the way how it’s gonna be.

I was originally told this interim assignment would be at most a couple of months. So far it’s been two months plus, and they haven’t started interviewing a replacement for me. The last thing I wanna do is actually do a good job and encourage them to keep me…

I don’t work in an office, so I’m not going back to one!

I have taught more this past year (Zoom) than I usually teach in person. It will be interesting to travel to teach again.

I’m writing a book, with a short timeline, so it’s nose to the grindstone time for me. Knit your fingers to the bone, what do you get? A book this fall, if all goes smoothly!

My office is 1493 miles away. It'd be a long commute.

I was hired to work remotely, pre-pandemic. The pandemic was helpful to me in that everyone else was suddenly working remotely, so I got to know many colleagues over Zoom who I might never have met otherwise. Plus, all our department meetings have been over Zoom; previously, at best, I'd have been able to attend by speakerphone only.

Now, management has become convinced that remote work is an acceptable alternative, so others have been hired to work remotely, too (I was a special circumstance previously, one of only two who had received remote dispensation).

Early in the pandemic (whenever it was they said they were going to be disabling all of our key cards so we would have no way of accessing our buildings) I took a car load of books home so that I'd have what I needed here for work stuff. later in the pandemic, when we had limited access to our offices, I went back and brought even more books home.... Now, I am not keen to go to work in my office because none of the stuff I need is there.

Separate from that, I fully expect to be teaching in the classroom 100% when fall semester starts.

In other news, the program that I'm director of had an alumni happy hour event today, which I was planning on attending until I found it was going to be inside.

I did not attend. I don't think my chair was happy about that...

quote:

Separate from that, I fully expect to be teaching in the classroom 100% when fall semester starts.

Has your uni decided on a vaccination mandate?

Not yet, but I expect the final proclamation will be super wushu washy and useless.

Has yours?

I'm scheduled to teach one class in person this fall, a night class that meets one night a week.

Another class will be fully on Zoom, online and synchronous.

The third class is a tutorial where I meet individually with the students. Historically, I've done this in my office, but it has worked perfectly fine on Zoom, so I may keep it that way forever.

There is zero chance that my institution will not be fully back to pre-pandemic conditions.

I'm waiting for Uncle Sam to order us all back to the office.

I've been maskless the last few weeks -- ever since major stores dropped their mask requirements. I do not think this places me or others at any risk, and the scientists agree.

What I'm not happy about is the prospect of getting back on the metro this fall when my vaccine is 6 months old and could be wearing off. Fifteen minutes on a bus and thirty minutes indoors in tight quarters does not feel safe, but I may not have a good option. I don't think I could even get a parking spot downtown if I wanted to foot the bill for one -- hundreds a month.

We have been in and out of the classroom all year. We were in person September to December (except for a two week stint when I had cases in my class so we all had to isolate). Then online for five weeks in January/February. Then in person for seven weeks. Then back online from April til now. We expect to be back full time in person in September, but likely with some Covid restrictions in place, since elementary aged kids are not likely to be vaccinated.

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
I'm waiting for Uncle Sam to order us all back to the office.

I've been maskless the last few weeks -- ever since major stores dropped their mask requirements. I do not think this places me or others at any risk, and the scientists agree.

What I'm not happy about is the prospect of getting back on the metro this fall when my vaccine is 6 months old and could be wearing off. Fifteen minutes on a bus and thirty minutes indoors in tight quarters does not feel safe, but I may not have a good option. I don't think I could even get a parking spot downtown if I wanted to foot the bill for one -- hundreds a month.

Would you consider masking for the commute?

Coincidentally, I ended up going into the office yesterday for about five hours. I surprised myself by actually enjoying it. It felt so "normal," even though we're on a restriction in terms of how many people can be in the building, so it was relatively empty.

Parking was a breeze.

We reopen on Sept 7th, but there is a "hybrid" expectation, where most folks will have the option of working remotely for at least a portion of their work week. At this point, it looks like me and my group will be 3 days in, 2 days remote, but we may also massage what "in" means, so people may be fine coming in for, say, an afternoon but work from home that morning. We've gotten limited guidance and been told we can be flexible, so I'm taking them at their word.

FYI, our campus is mask-required, vaccine required (though there are various options to opt out of the vaccine requirement based on established criteria).

quote:

our campus is mask-required, vaccine required

It would make me so happy if I could say the same. Sigh.

We'll see, there's still more time for them to do the right thing...