Coronavirus in Massachusetts (renovations, attic, photography)

[BostonMike7]

When you’ve been stuck at home since March, I’d be itching to get into the office too.


Traffic volumn was much higher on Tue afternoon. For the first time since March, I sat in about 5 mins of traffic on I-95 where it typically slowed down around I-93 pre Covid. Guess people are starting to trickle back.

Even got an email from day care about reopening.

[porterhouse]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

95%+ of protesters were wearing masks in Boston. 100% of people were wearing masks in the suburban protests.

50% of those wearing masks had them below their nose and mouth in some cases, as they projected their voices and shouted.

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by Taffee72

Wrong. Apparently a number of people wanted to go back and they easily reached the capacity. This tells me people must have horrible home lives and are desperate to get out of their houses.

Or maybe they live alone and are crawling out of their skin by themselves day in and day out. Or maybe they are trying to balance work with small children and they are exhausted trying to do both all the time.


The head of my department let us know that even when our institution starts opening back up that we can stay home long-term. Many, if not most, of us are high risk or have high risk family members, including a few people with special needs kids. My boss and I are both in that boat and are among the people who have the least business being back in the office, and yet yesterday we were talking about how much we wish we felt it was safe to go back. We don't have horrible home lives, but I'm finding it hard to establish a work-life balance living alone and she has to occasionally pause meetings because her tween son gets overexcited playing Fortnight. A physical office creates a bubble in which you can really focus on work.


I also miss my double monitors. Trying to work on a small laptop is challenging for what I do, but I live in a 1 bedroom apartment and don't want to lose my kitchen table to office equipment for months on end.

Originally Posted by porterhouse

50% of those wearing masks had them below their nose and mouth in some cases, as they projected their voices and shouted.

Definitely not what I saw.


And in any case, people in public who don't wear masks properly don't tend to fall into the "care about others" demographic that makes up the vast majority of protesters.

[NewfieMama]

Originally Posted by Taffee72

Wrong. Apparently a number of people wanted to go back and they easily reached the capacity. This tells me people must have horrible home lives and are desperate to get out of their houses.

Given that my office is only 15 minutes from my house and I'm assuming it's peaceful and quiet (as opposed to my house, which contains my loud children), I'd happily go into the office at least 1 day/week so I can focus on work.

Fortunately, my kids will be in camp all summer so the house will be quiet all day. At that point I think I'll be completely content to WFH every day. I'm sure that's exactly when I'll be asked to come back into the office

[bohemka]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

That's a bit harsh. I imagine there are people who don't have space or privacy to work from home comfortably or who are better off with the structure of going to the office. What do I know, I've always been an essential worker who couldn't work from home before I retired. Or maybe you're being sarcastic and, as ever, I miss the point.

It's a dry wit you moved away from. (though I can't speak for the poster)

Originally Posted by charolastra00

Or maybe they live alone and are crawling out of their skin by themselves day in and day out. Or maybe they are trying to balance work with small children and they are exhausted trying to do both all the time.


The head of my department let us know that even when our institution starts opening back up that we can stay home long-term. Many, if not most, of us are high risk or have high risk family members, including a few people with special needs kids. My boss and I are both in that boat and are among the people who have the least business being back in the office, and yet yesterday we were talking about how much we wish we felt it was safe to go back. We don't have horrible home lives, but I'm finding it hard to establish a work-life balance living alone and she has to occasionally pause meetings because her tween son gets overexcited playing Fortnight. A physical office creates a bubble in which you can really focus on work.


I also miss my double monitors. Trying to work on a small laptop is challenging for what I do, but I live in a 1 bedroom apartment and don't want to lose my kitchen table to office equipment for months on end.

Nice monitors are very inexpensive. My bedroom/office looks like a US Space Force command center.

[id77]

Originally Posted by Taffee72

My employer did a soft office reopening on Monday with up to ten people allowed back in the office and everyone in office must follow a number of covid precautionary rules, such as no congregating, can't touch anything, can't do anything in the kitchen other than wash your hands, etc..

I thought, who would want to go back when one can remain in the comfort of their own homes and do whatever they want, at least until September? I'm happy as a clam wfh.

Wrong. Apparently a number of people wanted to go back and they easily reached the capacity. This tells me people must have horrible home lives and are desperate to get out of their houses.

Some people also are more productive in an office setting than they are at home, and some might just want to get in some quality heads-down work time even if they do have a comfy WFH office.

When daycares were open, I could ship my kid off and get in a lovely 8 hours plus going out to lunch while WFH, but under the current environment I'm lucky to get in 2 hours of work a day.

Even then, it sure beats going all the way out to the far-flung region of Burlington for me personally, but I also completely get why some people would do it even if given the option of WFH.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by bohemka

Nice monitors are very inexpensive. My bedroom/office looks like a US Space Force command center.

Same here, I set up a nice triple-monitor setup at my home office to mimic what I have at my office. Company paid for some of it, but the cost I personally incurred was well worth it.

Part of the reason I never embraced WFH more pre-COVID was lack of a good home computer setup. CAD work on a laptop is painful. However with that hurdle out of the way...



However, I still think i'm more productive at work than I am at home. It is the kids aspect of it that is the issue. I always have them in the back of my mind keeping an ear out to make sure they are safe or not burning down the house. I can't ever really put my headphones on, and get lost in my work in deep focus. At the office pre-covid, they are either at school/daycare, or with my wife. Now that we are all home, my wife and I are both working so we trade off responsibility and I need to keep an ear out. I really need to judge WFH with an empty house (with kids at school and wife at work) vs being in the office to get a sense of where my best productivity can be had for myself.

The ride to Bedford is relatively quick for me now. That 20 mins in the car with my rock music blasting does wonders for the soul. Sometimes I go into the office just for that.

[NewfieMama]

We have a great at-home office setup including multiple monitors in a quiet area of the house that is tucked away from the areas our kids use most.

My husband is using it.

Meanwhile I'm set up with a makeshift desk and my tiny laptop in the guest room that is close to my kids' rooms and doesn't have a proper door. We have a dedicated office on the main floor. We bought our house before having kids and I thought having an office on the main floor would be perfect so I could still see the kids. Boy was that dumb. Turns out kids are loud. Now that room is a playroom and while we found space for my husband's at-home office upstairs, we didn't count on BOTH of us working from home full-time for an extended amount of time.

In terms of real-estate trends, I feel like some things started to become "must-haves". Like open floor plans, kitchen islands and master bathrooms (these are not my must-haves, but more like HGTV-determined must haves). I wonder if dedicated office space will be the next "must-have" if WFH becomes more ubiquitous after all of this.

[sawyer2]

We did a full attic build out/finish a year or so ago - sprayfoam insulation, full dry wall finish, recessed lighting, full bath, AC/heat etc.

At the time weren't sure if we needed the space and could justify the cost.

In the current situation it has been the best home reno. money spent ever! If you have the space and anticipate WFH long term I highly recommend it. Great location for a home office given the separation from the rest of the house.

[NewfieMama]

Originally Posted by sawyer2

We did a full attic build out/finish a year or so ago - sprayfoam insulation, full dry wall finish, recessed lighting, full bath, AC/heat etc.

At the time weren't sure if we needed the space and could justify the cost.

In the current situation it has been the best home reno. money spent ever! If you have the space and anticipate WFH long term I highly recommend it. Great location for a home office given the separation from the rest of the house.

Yes, an attic office sounds amazing!! It sounds spacious and has a dedicated bathroom. I'm so jealous. We don't have an attic, but I wish we did. You timed that renovation perfectly!