Don't just get "a chair". If you're going to be in it a lot, get something good. Two common options are the Steelcase leap or the Herman Miller Aeron. I have them both.
Install F.lux to minimize eye strain, or get tinted screen glasses.
We had a zoom conference with a 3rd party this week. The lady on the other side was kept feeding back and getting echos. She kept claiming it wasn't her. This happened two days in a row. On the 2nd day, her supervisor came on and politely asked everybody on the call to mute themselves one by one until there was no doubt it was her. She still couldn't admit it or figure it out or get a new audio device.
In the end the executive on our end sent an email to the other company asking if that person could be replaced. Easy way to lose your job out of tech incompetence.
Don't just get "a chair". If you're going to be in it a lot, get something good. Two common options are the Steelcase leap or the Herman Miller Aeron. I have them both.
Install F.lux to minimize eye strain, or get tinted screen glasses.
Almost every modern OS and monitor has low-blue light modes now, you don't need F.lux.
What are you rocking in the background? I just use the "blur" setting on Teams (which hides the fact that I'm in essentially a back corner storage room) but perhaps I'll step things up in the new year.
If your GPU supports it, use the greenscreen feature of Zoom - you don't actually need a physical greenscreen if your hardware is good enough. It detects where your body is and replaces the background via AI.
Many people have a nice corporate logo background now.
If you are comfortable with the other parties, put on joke backgrounds like The Office.
We had a zoom conference with a 3rd party this week. The lady on the other side was kept feeding back and getting echos. She kept claiming it wasn't her. This happened two days in a row. On the 2nd day, her supervisor came on and politely asked everybody on the call to mute themselves one by one until there was no doubt it was her. She still couldn't admit it or figure it out or get a new audio device.
In the end the executive on our end sent an email to the other company asking if that person could be replaced. Easy way to lose your job out of tech incompetence.
This has happened to coworkers of mine. It has nothing to do with incompetence and from what I recall, they can’t hear it. It’s usually just a faulty headset, often the crappy cheap one the company supplied.
Sounds like a pretty ####ty company if they fired someone because of a tech issue they likely caused and took no steps to fix for their employee. She’s paid for her expertise, not to be her own tech support.
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This has happened to coworkers of mine. It has nothing to do with incompetence and from what I recall, they can’t hear it. It’s usually just a faulty headset, often the crappy cheap one the company supplied.
Sounds like a pretty ####ty company if they fired someone because of a tech issue they likely caused and took no steps to fix for their employee. She’s paid for her expertise, not to be her own tech support.
Its been almost 2 years of remote work and knowing Zoom etiquette. People who can't figure it out won't last in client facing roles IMO. If someone says you are causing annoying feedback and you waste 2 hours of expensive consulting time with multiple people and irritating all parties on a call and breaking down the ability to communicate, it doesn't fly.
The right etiquette is to apologize, mute yourself (even if you doubt it is your end), and contact your tech support to get it identified/fixed before you have the 2nd meeting rather than show up again on day two with the same issue claiming ignorance.
It's akin to an in-person conference meeting where the combined man-hours of everybody in the room is hundreds of dollars an hour and you keep rolling around on a squeaky chair annoying everybody and claiming it's not you. Instead of fixing the chair before day two, you show up and sit in the same chair and squeak through the whole meeting again.
Last edited by Hack&Lube; 12-09-2022 at 10:06 PM.
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If your GPU supports it, use the greenscreen feature of Zoom - you don't actually need a physical greenscreen if your hardware is good enough. It detects where your body is and replaces the background via AI.
Many people have a nice corporate logo background now.
If you are comfortable with the other parties, put on joke backgrounds like The Office.
A friend of mine filmed a long video of himself coming into the room, standing behind the chair and setting a drink down. So he’d be in a meeting on zoom and he’d green screen the video. He’d wear the same shirt and even look up and whisper thanks to “himself”. It was hilarious.
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If you are working for a large enough company, see if your benefits include an ergonomic assessment. My wife took advantage of this and it was great. Insurance company will send a rep to your house and measure things up, and order products for you that are required. It was a bit like Christmas the week or two after the assessment was completed and things started arriving: Keyboard tray, keyboard, monitor risers, foot rest, number pad, chair, monitor. It was crazy.
As was noted above lighting is a good thought and making the room comfortable where you want to work in it. For her home office we painted and put up some decorative wallpaper she liked. We also organized some things like shelves and storage spots.
My office was less involved but being in the basement lighting was a consideration. The one really good thing I got was a usb/Bluetooth speakerphone. It helped make a day of meetings more comfortable as I always find after a couple of meetings my ears/head are hot from over the ear cans or tired of ear buds. I did get a set of bone conduction earphones but that was after I stopped working. I could see them being really good though. The speakerphone was my fav though.
If you are working for a large enough company, see if your benefits include an ergonomic assessment. My wife took advantage of this and it was great. Insurance company will send a rep to your house and measure things up, and order products for you that are required. It was a bit like Christmas the week or two after the assessment was completed and things started arriving: Keyboard tray, keyboard, monitor risers, foot rest, number pad, chair, monitor. It was crazy.
As was noted above lighting is a good thought and making the room comfortable where you want to work in it. For her home office we painted and put up some decorative wallpaper she liked. We also organized some things like shelves and storage spots.
My office was less involved but being in the basement lighting was a consideration. The one really good thing I got was a usb/Bluetooth speakerphone. It helped make a day of meetings more comfortable as I always find after a couple of meetings my ears/head are hot from over the ear cans or tired of ear buds. I did get a set of bone conduction earphones but that was after I stopped working. I could see them being really good though. The speakerphone was my fav though.
The ergonomics assessment reminded me of a friend's situation.
He wasn't allowed to work from home because he had to have his house assessed for health & safety reasons. He lived in an older house and the stairs from his main floor to his den in the basement weren't wide enough. Therefore he either had to setup an ergonomically sound desk in his living room or kitchen or renovate the stairs in order to work from home in a safe manner.
... since his company had to do layoffs he asked to be laid off because he refused to work in office and he refused to pay to renovate his house to be allowed to work from home. He collected SERB and found a new job a few months later. When he was later asked to go back to work at his former job he told them he found other employment because he felt like they didn't want him.
He's still working from home at his new place of employment and they didn't require him to do health & safety checks on his house. I guess they had to check many things, like the person's work area include chairs and the person's path to get into their work area, including accessibility to washrooms and water, etc. etc. A bit overreaching if you ask me.
Does anyone else working from home have to go through this process to ensure their house is a safe place to work? Seems ridiculous to me.
The ergonomics assessment reminded me of a friend's situation.
He wasn't allowed to work from home because he had to have his house assessed for health & safety reasons. He lived in an older house and the stairs from his main floor to his den in the basement weren't wide enough. Therefore he either had to setup an ergonomically sound desk in his living room or kitchen or renovate the stairs in order to work from home in a safe manner.
... since his company had to do layoffs he asked to be laid off because he refused to work in office and he refused to pay to renovate his house to be allowed to work from home. He collected SERB and found a new job a few months later. When he was later asked to go back to work at his former job he told them he found other employment because he felt like they didn't want him.
He's still working from home at his new place of employment and they didn't require him to do health & safety checks on his house. I guess they had to check many things, like the person's work area include chairs and the person's path to get into their work area, including accessibility to washrooms and water, etc. etc. A bit overreaching if you ask me.
Does anyone else working from home have to go through this process to ensure their house is a safe place to work? Seems ridiculous to me.
A year or so ago there was a news story from Germany where a guy injured himself at home on his way from his kitchen to work area. I believe the courts found his company liable. So ya, it's the lawyers fault again.
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A year or so ago there was a news story from Germany where a guy injured himself at home on his way from his kitchen to work area. I believe the courts found his company liable. So ya, it's the lawyers fault again.
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My wife's company just announced that they'll be back in the office Monday to Thursday starting in January, after almost 3 years of remote work. She's pissed.
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My wife's company just announced that they'll be back in the office Monday to Thursday starting in January, after almost 3 years of remote work. She's pissed.
Without knowing the industry your wife is in, all I can say is that I hope the company prepares for the likelihood of high number of employees leaving.
Does anyone else working from home have to go through this process to ensure their house is a safe place to work? Seems ridiculous to me.
My partner works in a role that requires a high amount of privacy and security. She needs to be in an office with a door that can close and provide privacy. That is a requirement from her workplace.
My workplace doesn't care what my workspace is like. We all had to work from home (except onsite calls for emergencies) during the pandemic. I just stayed doing my remote stuff from home. We bought a house that is literally 400 meters away from the office and I still work from home. I have a proper ergo chair and massive dual monitor setup. I'm far more productive at home without the distractions of the office.
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My wife's company just announced that they'll be back in the office Monday to Thursday starting in January, after almost 3 years of remote work. She's pissed.
My partner has to go into the office once a week now as well. Not so bad for us because we don't have kids. But her co-workers with kids are having loads of fun arranging daycare. The day they need to go into the office changes every week. It's really stupid as there is absolutely no requirement to be there.
Hell, they hired a new manager from Vancouver during the pandemic and he was supposed to move to Winnipeg by the end of this year. He's still out there and hasn't set foot in Winnipeg once since assuming the role.
We have to be in the office 4-days a week starting January as well. Really annoying, since I only another month on my contract there. The whole project team is frustrated about this, the project manager refused to come to go back to the office and quit. All because the CEO doesn’t like working from home
Without knowing the industry your wife is in, all I can say is that I hope the company prepares for the likelihood of high number of employees leaving.
My theory is that they're trying to drive attrition.
My wife's company just announced that they'll be back in the office Monday to Thursday starting in January, after almost 3 years of remote work. She's pissed.
Yeah, seems like a lot of places that had hybrid but weren't enforcing it are starting to put their foot down in the new year.
The Federal government just announced yesterday that all civil servants had to be in the office 2-3 days per week.
We all had to work from home (except onsite calls for emergencies) during the pandemic. I just stayed doing my remote stuff from home. We bought a house that is literally 400 meters away from the office and I still work from home. I have a proper ergo chair and massive dual monitor setup. I'm far more productive at home without the distractions of the office.
