Key drivers for me to work at office

[shootingstar]

My arrangement (which has to be signed on form) is working at office main bldg. only once/wk.  Some other team members have same, while others it's 2-3 times/wk.

Since my job doesn't require working with paper records (vs. 1-2 other folks), it's not an issue. I remote directly into my office computer from home.

Honest I go into office to: sometimes reboot my computer for some software and security updates, print off some complex documents which simply are easier to markup/brainstorm instead of scrolling linearally through many pages, do work as normal (as if at home), and attend any arranged meetings in person. Sometimes that is literally a coffee  break where the other employee just wants to chat about some work stuff.  

I can say all this, because I already have established face to face work relationships for last 9 yrs. prior to covid in same organization.  Also I'm not a corporate climber at this point in life.

 

[Wilbur ★]

"the" is a helpful article.  It makes English sentences infinitely easier to read.  

Yes, I am being a grammar Nazi.   

[Ralphie ★]

7 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

"the" is a helpful article.  It makes English sentences infinitely easier to read.  

Yes, I am being a grammar Nazi.   

I start to wonder sometimes since I work with a lot of Indian engineers who seldom use it so I am getting used to it being AWOL.  Sometimes it does seem unnecessary or superfluous.  

[Wilbur ★]

3 minutes ago, Philander Seabury said:

I start to wonder sometimes since I work with a lot of Indian engineers who seldom use it so I am getting used to it being AWOL.  Sometimes it does seem unnecessary or superfluous.  

It is a fine line between superfluous and illiterate.    I suspect they don't use it because they don't understand its use. 

[Ralphie ★]

 https://englishbasics.net/do-all-languages-have-articles/

[Wilbur ★]

11 minutes ago, Philander Seabury said:

 https://englishbasics.net/do-all-languages-have-articles/

I found Russian interesting because of its lack of articles and Italian because of its many. 

[Ralphie ★]

Something I find interesting aboot languages is Englich has the adjectives before the noun they modify.  Spanish seems more sensible, to put it after since the noun is the most important part.  The sad part is I took two years of French and I could tell you which it is.  From Moulin Rouge or better yet lanterne rouge, I would guess like Spanish.

[Airehead]

I never considered working from home. 

[shootingstar]

In all frankness, for some internal corporate directives with instructions and date deadline(s), to over internal 41 depts,, I've eliminated "the" where possible without compromising on comprehension.  I strip as far as possible too much formality which overuse of "the" article, can deaden a message.

It made our group email much more direct, active voice  (use transitive verb, imperative voice) and less turgid message.

When I see it in our Powerpoint presentations, where we want to send a strong message to audience, I eliminate where possible,  "the' across a 10-15 point Powerpoint slides. It is superfluous, when you wish a person to take action or focus on a critical point.

When I write manuals,  I eliminate often "the",  where possible, since the instructions are written in imperative voice.  These manuals ranged from 50-100 pg. manuals each with screen shots on nearly every pg.  They are master manuals for the entire organization.  IT in our organization, does not write manuals because their job is technical design and support.  Not figure out right business language and instructions for customized applications.   Our group creates and tests the support learning materials on a corporate-wide basis.

Then other depts. can take our master learning content and take parts of it for self-learning or re-use in shortened ways for their own customized business applications.

[shootingstar]

10 minutes ago, Airehead said:

I never considered working from home. 

One wouldn't expect that, would they?  Given the client population and nature of things that may/do happen on a daily basis?

 

 

[Airehead]

6 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

One wouldn't expect that, would they?  Given the client population and nature of things that may/do happen on a daily basis?

 

 

Correct. I have maybe worked from home five days. 

[shootingstar]

2 hours ago, Wilbur said:

"the" is a helpful article.  It makes English sentences infinitely easier to read.  

Yes, I am being a grammar Nazi.   

I'm not picky of others, on a personal internet forum nor personal emails. 

I'm sorry Wilbur, in the workplace, I do have a paid job which requires me to write well for a very broad range of literacy levels corporately .  Some of this work is quite intensive (after also doing software testing and thinking how features apply for different business uses), and time spent on simplifying understanding of software features, but also marry concepts of information systems design to business needs, process as well as change management.  I teach courses on the latter also.

Yes, my English degree to me, was not a waste of time.  I've had to draw upon imagery and metaphors to simplify understanding for learners.  Then on top of all this, I have to teach it in courses to employees.  I enjoy this part of my job.

[shootingstar]

19 minutes ago, Airehead said:

Correct. I have maybe worked from home five days. 

I wouldn't recommend my office attendance (in)frequency to a recent graduate or someone very new to our organization. 

When I am in the office, I find myself naturally spending up to half an hr. or more during the day informally chatting with whoever is available on-site.  That personal face to face sharing, either non-work or work-related, is helpful to maintain team work spirit.  As hokey it might sound, it is important.

[bikeman564™]

I have one option, go to work, or don't get paid

[shootingstar]

2 hours ago, Philander Seabury said:

 https://englishbasics.net/do-all-languages-have-articles/

Since I never learned to read and write Chinese (beyond 15-20 characters), I wouldn't know if there were definite or indefinite articles in Chinese. This is the experience of someone where the spoken mother language, cannot be transliterated into the original written language. So in my head, when I speak Chinese, they are word sounds attached to concepts that I utter.  I don't think in my head at all, anything written in Chinese. 

On the odd occasion, I might envision a written word in English, especially if I seldom use it or it's new to me.

I probably did more of that when I learned English as a child and building my English language vocabulary which the English language easily does allow, by moving from root words to variants. English language and some other European languages are based on phonetics, where alphabet letter combinations represent word sounds for consonants and vowels.

This is why to me, learning to read and write Chinese, is so much harder.

[shootingstar]

13 minutes ago, bikeman564™ said:

I have one option, go to work, or don't get paid

We've tried asking people if they would attend in-person classroom courses.  Low interest so far.  That's what we used to do, in-person teaching with some blended virtual teaching.

[BuffJim]

I don’t have a key driver. I have to drive myself approximately 20 minutes each way. 

[shootingstar]

7 minutes ago, BuffJim said:

I don’t have a key driver. I have to drive myself approximately 20 minutes each way. 

I bike whenever there's no snow /ice. Around our building and on transit, sometimes it's just more folks with mental health issues who can be occasionally disruptive.

[shootingstar]

So tomorrow, a sr. manager has booked coffee break just for 2 of us to chat...about anything. It's her way of knowing each of us since no one from our team reports to her.  I did learn that she is fluently French-English bilingual from originally northern Ontario. French is her mother tongue.

[Mr. Beanz]

3 hours ago, shootingstar said:

So tomorrow, a sr. manager has booked coffee break just for 2 of us to chat...about anything. It's her way of knowing each of us since no one from our team reports to her.  I did learn that she is fluently French-English bilingual from originally northern Ontario. French is her mother tongue.

Sounds like you have a fancy job,  I don't. 

But tomorrow,  we'll have a safety meeting with about 14 of  us eating breakfast together. 😋 

Not a fancy job but plenty of benefits and rewards. 

[Longjohn ★]

5 hours ago, Wilbur said:

I found Russian interesting because of its lack of articles and Italian because of its many. 

Sometimes when you ride your bike to work you forget certain articles or they fall out of your panniers on the way. That’s when you discover that certain articles are not really necessary.

[shootingstar]

28 minutes ago, Mr. Beanz said:

Sounds like you have a fancy job,  I don't. 

But tomorrow,  we'll have a safety meeting with about 14 of  us eating breakfast together. 😋 

Not a fancy job but plenty of benefits and rewards. 

We only get free coffee...and 1 of the rare depts. that get it. 'Cause that same automatic machine serves the councillors and mayor as well as staff who take minutes for public meetings/hearings, etc. and work into the evenings when council meetings drag on.

Our safety meetings include: precautions for dealing with unexpected belligerent members of the public, fire alarms, etc. Ordinary office stuff.

[sheep_herder ★]

5 hours ago, Airehead said:

I never considered working from home. 

I did not think your job would allow that option. Most educational institutions provided the students that option, but not teachers and administrators. In your case, giving that option to students does not seem possible.

[Wilbur ★]

39 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

unexpected belligerent members of the public,

There has to be a lot of them nowadays. 

[shootingstar]

8 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

There has to be a lot of them nowadays. 

Sadly that's very true. It really must be a combination of many things in past 2.5 yrs., depending on person:  social isolation, political divisiveness, drug abuse/pushing, much higher cost of living, etc.  And it doesn't matter whichever city. I don't know how it is in small towns and villages.

[Ralphie ★]

I am on the bikeman program.

[shootingstar]

7 minutes ago, Philander Seabury said:

I am on the bikeman program.

Why do you think you can't even work 1 day / wk. at home?

[Mr. Beanz]

1 hour ago, shootingstar said:

We only get free coffee...and 1 of the rare depts. that get it. 'Cause that same automatic machine serves the councillors and mayor as well as staff who take minutes for public meetings/hearings, etc. and work into the evenings when council meetings drag on.

Our safety meetings include: precautions for dealing with unexpected belligerent members of the public, fire alarms, etc. Ordinary office stuff.

Very  strange. 

We get rice Krispy marshmallows treats  coffee,  tea  , Pedialyte,  oreos white and chocolate, granola bars, frozen pizza,  Gatorade,  power ade.  Donuts, bbqq,   tacos   burritos  .muffins.  

So much I think it supplements our income. 😄

[BR46]

Work from home was not a option for me 

[shootingstar]

Lest folks here, think we can't be monitored working from home:

It's easy: 

Our primary enterprise system that we support and train employees, also tracks every document any employee added, changed or moved within the system.  So there is an audit user history on every single document in the system. Search my name, put in date range for the documents I edited or newly added into the system. Can see any new document versions I added.

Much more superior than shared/networked drives.  However not all employees, services are using our system. There are other systems and then some areas haven't yet changed over to our system.

There's other mechanisms to indicate productivity /availability of an employee for our central online system...it's been established for past....18 yrs.

[Ralphie ★]

57 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

Why do you think you can't even work 1 day / wk. at home?

Company policy. Thats ok - I have a car pool that helps a ton. 

[Further]

When I mentioned bringing the cranes over and parking them in my driveway...well it didn't fly..