Coronavirus in Massachusetts (antenna, pink, daycare)

[msRB311]

My company sent out an email saying we'll be remote until June 30 2021. My dept has sent emails basically saying we are never returning to the office.

[jtolpin]

Some companies that will allow WFH forever (or a long time) is real nice. I read something in the paper (or online) yesterday, where an owner of a company said 'I pay rent. I expect people there'. (from the globe).

Im in the office, but when I get a laptop, Ill be remote for some. No reason to be in the office, if you can do work at home/teams meetings, etc....

As for college kids causing the higher numbers. Im not sure of that. Limited college campus, multiple testings.... Seems like thats not the issue.

Perhaps its the college kids at home getting together with friends over the weekend (I know mine at home goes out on the weekend, and I wouldnt get a straight answre of how many people she saw/wore mask full time, etc..)

My youngest in high school, doesnt see anyone. Period.

How do you stop 20+ somethings from going out? No clue. If you have an answre, enlighten us.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by msRB311

My company sent out an email saying we'll be remote until June 30 2021. My dept has sent emails basically saying we are never returning to the office.

My fiancee got the same email. Anyone working remote now should plan on working remote until the end of June.

[msRB311]

I don't miss the commute at all, but it has been weird being completely remote. I also have a lot of distractions here at home with the kids. I think I'm someone who does a bit better with some structure in my life-like someone telling me you need to be here at such and such a time and stay here until 5. I don't have any of that now really.

That's the thing about Covid I guess. It doesn't care about anyone's wants, needs or feelings.

[charolastra00]

My office isn't even bothering with a return date. We can be in the office if it's better for us (i.e. people with wifi issues at home, computer needs that can't be met with a laptop, need to gather content on campus) but we were all given offices if we were previously in cubicles so we can be alone and shut the door.


About half of my office is working out of bedrooms or sharing a kitchen table with partners and roommates. Very few have dedicated workspaces to allow for work from home. I don't see this being a permanent move for most of us unless we are paid enough to upgrade housing so we have a designated office, which is unlikely.

[msRB311]

We can't even go into the office if we wanted to. We need special permission if we need to pick something up.

[brightdoglover]

Originally Posted by jtolpin

Really?

As far as I know. I asked my friend who was home "recovering at home" for five months how the others were and she couldn't say.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by msRB311

We can't even go into the office if we wanted to. We need special permission if we need to pick something up.

My girlfriend is in the same boat. She's in a 40 story building downtown with several tenants sharing elevators. There's no way to even have limited capacity and ensure that people distance. So if she wants to grab something from her office, she needs to set it up in advance and one of the few remaining facilities people will bring it down.

I'm only a few blocks away, but my employer is the building's only tenant. It's only 4 stories and we have several entrances and multiple stairwells if you want to avoid the elevator. We're allowed to come in if we want. I'd say about 25-30% of my coworkers are opting to come in at least semi-regularly. I've been doing Tues/Weds/Thurs and occasionally Monday to give my girlfriend space in our condo. We have a second bedroom/office, but it's still tight with two people.

[NewfieMama]

I would not mind going back in the office since my office is only 15 minutes from our house and it would be a nice change of scenery, but the school schedule makes it really tough. We are hybrid with remote learning in the afternoons, so it feels like we need all hands on deck in case one of us is in a meeting and there are computer issues or somebody needs a tennis racket for PE class or something. Usually they need something when we are both in meetings and I'm giving the death glare and mouthing "go away" in a way that looks subtle on video. Plus it's always "MOMMMM! I need help with my math homework!!" in the middle of the afternoon and my husband and I try to divide and conquer as best we can depending on work schedules. If one of us isn't physically here, it's harder on the other.

We won't be returning to the office anytime soon--my company has said nothing and my husband's has given a date of June 2021, but who knows. At some point, though, I think we will both be spending some time in the office again. Maybe not until 2022, but I do think it will happen eventually.

[charolastra00]

My office is on a college campus where 90%+ people are working from home, especially in my building. We are strongly encouraged to work from home, but since campus is open and everyone is tested frequently, as long as the headcount is low we can come in. We just clear it with our office manager to make sure no more than 3 people are on the floor at a time. Most people haven't been in since March.



Since I work in communications and marketing, there's just some stuff (like photos, video) that we can't do from home even if we had the equipment. And equipment is challenging. One of my coworkers in particular has a very unconventional living arrangement (he lives on a boat) and space for a desktop computer and other equipment just isn't possible in his very small space. Much of his work can't be handled well by a laptop in the best of circumstances, so he's in the office regularly. Working on a laptop is inconvenient to me, particularly since I'm used to 2 monitors and almost always have at least 3 Adobe products open, but my only option would be to have my desktop permanently on my kitchen table which is absolutely a no-go. If I have heavy video editing work to do, I have to go into the office to do it.