Return to office

[apastuszak]

I have successfully worked from home for close to a decade now. Prior to the pandemic, I would voluntarily go into the office about twice a month to have lunch with my coworkers.

Well, then the Pandemic happened. And now EVERYONE had to work from home. VPN access increase and only a very amount of our workforce was actually going into the office.

Now the company considers itself "post-pandemic," and they're telling EVERYONE they need to be in the office 2 days a week, to start.

Phase one of that plan is to badge access logs and generate reports to see if people are actually going in 2 days a week.

Phase two (which has not been implemented yet) requires you let your manager know what 2 days a week you will be in. On those two days your VPN access will be disabled, so you will have to work in the office.

We're getting VERY LOW compliance to phase one. The office is a wasteland.

So, this Wednesday, I am going into the office to get a "feel for the landscape."

The entire office is now hoteling desks. You come in and grab whatever desk is available.

One coworker went in and said that they're not providing any items that are "touch and reuse." So the desks have a monitor and a docking station. No keyboard, no mouse and no headset.

This opens up a world of possibilities for me. Since they're not providing a keyboard for me to use, I need to bring one from home. And with the office being a ghost-town, I don't have to worry about a coworker complaining about my keyboard making too much noise. Though in the past I regularly carried an Unicomp Ultra-Classic and no one ever complained.

My first thought was to bring my Matias Quiet Pro keyboard. But then I realized I don't need to worry about coworkers, so now I am packing the Tactile Pro instead.

I checked in with a coworker, and he said in the whole building there might ne 25-30 people in, and they're all using a mech.

I'm looking forward to hearing people in the offcie typing away.

[JP!]

Since the office is a wasteland then you can use any loud keyboard you like Additionally if you annoy enough co-workers they may decide to not come

[ntv242ver2]

I bring a modern custom to work. Just a cheap one, nothing fancy, I never spent much on modern custom anyways.

The reason being that I can part with it for 5 days a week and I dont really care that much. And it looks normal enough no one would start small talks over the keyboard.

[Muirium]

Bring in a Beamer. In the afternoon: switch on the solenoid.

[apastuszak]

My experience with people that complain about keyboard typing noise, are people that can't mind their own f*cking business. My wife has a coworker that will complain about ANY noise my wife makes.

In the office, she uses the HP rubber dome keyboard that came with her PC. That's too loud for her.

When my wife makes a phone call using her headset, that's too loud for her.

My wife used to have a radio on at a very low volume. That was too loud for her.

But when one of her coworkers comes over gossip, the two of them speak so loud my wife can't hear people on her conference call. And when my wife tells them to "keep it down, please," they complain she's being too sensitive.

My old boss was a very heavy-handed typist. On the standard lenovo/HP keyboard; he could make it sounds VERY loud. I didn't care. But people on conference calls would constantly complain about how loud his typing was and how he needs to get a quieter keyboard.

He went out and bout a Logitech Roamer G keyboard and people actually stopped complaining.

I think there's a lot to be said for the frequency of the noise. Cherry MX Blue switches will get picked up by a headset mic and amplified no matter how good the noise cancelling is. Model Ms, less so.

Unless you're using a Beamspring with the solenoid turned on, people have no reason to complain.

[wobbled]

HHKB
Job Done

[Falkenroth]

I guess it's a good place to be if nobody at work can tell you what keyboard you can or can't use. I choose a New Model M Unicomp with gray keys seeing my keyboard gets a little dirty with my line of work. Its perfect for what I need it to do.

[apastuszak]

The New Model M is a great keyboard. I bought a PS/2 one and use it with a Soarer's Converter.

[TheInverseKey]

Bring an AT&T mag separation keyboard.

[depletedvespene]

In my job, up to March 2020 B.P., we had an office with an "open floor plan" (plus a ears-sensitive cow orker, albeit not a gossipy git), so my set-up included a WASD keyboard, modified to make it as silent as possible. Every now and then I'd bring a Model M or a pingmaster keyboard for the day, just to be a pest and joke about a bit.

After the public health issue hit, we were all told to work from home, which meant I could go wild with my Model F and M keyboards, plus large monitors, with abandon... and since last November, we are working from home four days of the week and in the office for one. Since we're supposed to take our laptops with us and nothing else... there's nothing on our desks but an electrical current plug. Everyone hates this arrangement, as (besides the travel time, which ain't low) we're supposed to work with just the laptop's screen and the laptop's keyboard, with no way to even store a keyboard and monitor in the office the rest of the days, should we bring those in. Productivity is low, to the point that my direct boss told my group to work in the office only in the morning and return home at lunch time.

[apastuszak]

At least we get 2 24" monitors and a USB-C dock. I don't mind the lack of keyboard and mouse. It lets me bring in my own. The lack of a headset is annoying. Supposedly I can ask for a wired headset if I can find the "IT Guy."

Kind of funny, because I am an IT guy, just not the "IT Guy" for the building a sit in.

Open floor plans are HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE. It's not just because everyone can hear you type on a mech. It's because you can hear everyone do everything. Coworker comes over to chat. 20 other people are part of the conversation whether you like it or not. On a conference call? So is everyone around you.

Now the big push is to take meetings in conference rooms and not at your desk. Which is REALLY ANNOYING because we are a super meeting-heavy company, and there just are not enough conference rooms for all the meeting I need to attend. When I ask for a headset to use in the office, they tell me use a conference room and the "telepresence devic" in it. I don't need a headset.

They don't care about making people more productive. They just want them to take up a seat to justify the rent they're paying for the building.

I still want to see a company buy everyone a New Model M and force them to use it. I'd love to see if anyone even cares about keyboard noise after getting used to everyone's racket for a month.

It would help to teach people to MUTE when on conference calls also. I'm seeing of being on calls and hearing people answer the door or take a personal call and having a half dozen people yelling "Someone needs to mute!"

[Findecanor]

How the hell do people think it is appropriate to do conference calls in an open floor plan office?
A proper office should have small rooms especially for doing meetings, phone calls — and conference calls!

[Muirium]

They don't care about making people more productive. They just want them to take up a seat to justify the rent they're paying for the building.

So true. Now just picture the office full of people in VR headsets, blathering with hallucinated cartoon characters around them, all together in that hellish, high rent meatspace.

Spoiler:

Don't worry, the virtual space meetings themselves will all be cool tho.

Spoiler:

[depletedvespene]

How the hell do people think it is appropriate to do conference calls in an open floor plan office?
A proper office should have small rooms especially for doing meetings, phone calls — and conference calls!

For all the shiRt cubicles used to get, they were good at reducing the amount of ambient noise the worker got AND allowed some privacy. It wasn't just "I don't want everyone to see that I'm looking at that "XXX/personal" webpage — sometimes it could be work-related stuff about other workers that shouldn't be easily snooped at (like a manager preparing the workshifts schedule, a spreadsheet with salaries, etc.). In a certain place I worked for a short while, the accountant explicitly asked for a TN LCD monitor (everyone had IPS monitors) because you can't really see what's in them from lateral angles and that let him work on numbers that weren't meant to be seen by all before they were ready.

And then there's the issue of "music". At that same place, the boss liked heavy metal... and he refused to use headphones (he never said so, but it was clear that he considered this as his "boss privilege"). So we'd have to work and try to focus on solving problems while the Cookie Monster gutturally screamed at us about the benefits of human sacrifice and whatnot.

But, of course, the mere thought of a Model M (or any other clicky) keyboard in that open floor plan office was unacceptable.

[apastuszak]

Back in the 1990s I worked as an IT Consultant for Comcast Cable. They set up all cubicles and offices so that the monitor was forced to face the entrance/door. I guess that way, your manager could walk by at any time, and with quick turn of the head, see what you were up to.

It was actually really annoying, because your back was to the door/opening, so people could easily walk in behind you and you'd never known. In today's "active shooter" scenarios, that would never fly.

I much prefer cubicle/bullpen layouts to open floor plans. I've never understood why anyone thought this was a good idea. Back in 2017 I moved from an open floor plan building to one that still had cubicles. The cubicle building was so much quieter than the open floor plan one. Same number of people. Name volume of conference calls and typing. But those cubicle walls do a pretty good job of absorbing sound. In the open floor plan, when one person prints something out, everyone knows it.

[TheInverseKey]

Spoiler:

Back in the 1990s I worked as an IT Consultant for Comcast Cable. They set up all cubicles and offices so that the monitor was forced to face the entrance/door. I guess that way, your manager could walk by at any time, and with quick turn of the head, see what you were up to.

It was actually really annoying, because your back was to the door/opening, so people could easily walk in behind you and you'd never known. In today's "active shooter" scenarios, that would never fly.

I much prefer cubicle/bullpen layouts to open floor plans. I've never understood why anyone thought this was a good idea. Back in 2017 I moved from an open floor plan building to one that still had cubicles. The cubicle building was so much quieter than the open floor plan one. Same number of people. Name volume of conference calls and typing. But those cubicle walls do a pretty good job of absorbing sound. In the open floor plan, when one person prints something out, everyone knows it.

God dammit!

[Muirium]

Screenshot 2023-03-14 at 1.55.45 pm.png (84.28 KiB) Viewed 5999 times

[apastuszak]

I remember dot matrix printers. They were quieter than impact printers.

[fohat]

I remember dot matrix printers.

I actually have a new-in-box Epson FX-86e in the store room. It is just like the one that served me like a true workhorse from the mid-1980s until the mid-1990s - and when I sold it, it was still going strong.

The only reason I keep it is my fantasy that one day it will come in handy for reproducing vintage-looking labels.

[Muirium]

The first printers I ever used.png (13.43 KiB) Viewed 5939 times

[daemonspudguy]

Back in the 1990s I worked as an IT Consultant for Comcast Cable.

My condolences. Comcast has consistently ranked as one of the worst companies in America since the 90s.

[apastuszak]

Back in the 1990s I worked as an IT Consultant for Comcast Cable.

My condolences. Comcast has consistently ranked as one of the worst companies in America since the 90s.

To it's customers, yes. But they actually treat their employees well. At least they did while I was there.

[DMA]

Since all desks are hotel desks - do they provide lockers for your personal stuff, or you're now required to lug everything with you every day?

[depletedvespene]

Since all desks are hotel desks - do they provide lockers for your personal stuff, or you're now required to lug everything with you every day?

A couple years after I had left a certain workplace, they implemented that. "Hot desks" for all users (except some bosses); laptops must be stored along with your stuff in a provided locker. The system was a disaster: the lockers were too small, almost everything required a visit to the locker area, producing congestion, there were fights for the "good" desks and separate fights for the good chairs. The work required a lot of paper, but the official policy was that the office was paperless (even though that idea was FAR from being fulfilled). And then I saw a picture of the lockers...

Had I been still there, I would have vetoed the idea with EXTREME prejudice.

[DMA]

the lockers were too small, almost everything required a visit to the locker area, producing congestion

GLORY TO ARSTOTZKA!

Had I been still there, I would have vetoed the idea with EXTREME prejudice.

Well, This Time It's Different - all the desks are hotel desks anyway, so lockers are the necessity. As for fights for the better desk.. Just haul your lazy ass to the office earlier! Early bird gets the desk (and the chair! And the hatred of everybody else!)

Also, obviously, everybody will bring their laptops with them every day - it's a common knowledge nobody actually works from home, but if you don't have laptop with you at home it just becomes too obvious.

[DMA]

Re: paperless office - what, no toilet paper even?

[DMA]

The first printers I ever used.png

Drum printers is where it's at. The paper literally stands couple feet up when it's printing!

[depletedvespene]

Re: paperless office - what, no toilet paper even?

Oh, don't get me started with the restrooms at that particular place! (OR the Elevators Saga).

[DMA]

Oh, don't get me started with the restrooms at that particular place! (OR the Elevators Saga).

Let me guess - you had to card in?

[apastuszak]

We solved are printing problem at work. We implemented a printing solution where you print one to one generic printer driver. Then you walk up to any printer and put your ID badge against a sensor on the printer and your stuff comes out of that printer. It's pretty convenient because you can move between building, or even US states and you will easily be able to print.

After that was done, they rolled out phase 2. Every page you print is now centrally managed and they charged back departments per printed page with itemized lists of who printed and how many pages they printed. 90% of our printing stopped within a week.