Yes, had a few people say ‘it’s the perfect time to change’ but the question is what? 
No fucking clue.
I REALLY enjoyed hifi retail but its not really a growth industry…and the pay was shit, and working Saturdays etc
That’s me. Except for the Contractor Scum bit.
I’m a “fixer”. If I’m given something to sort; that’s what I do. I have pretty much lucked my way into various management positions simply by not being political and having been guided by the “right” people. Or, at least, people who wanted to further their own careers and me giving them the results that they needed.
I don’t have a problem with that. At. All.
I’m not competitive, or a threat to any manager. My honesty and straight forward nature has won me good support over 90% of my working life. I do need to know that my work is appreciated though, and this is where my current boss is fucking me off. He hasn’t taken time to get to know anybody here. He simply wants Yes Men. So he fawns all over these simpering sheeple and roundly criticises most of what I do because I challenge some of his shit ideas (as I always have with previous managers).
I’ve tried to back off, say nothing and allow him to fail badly. But the carnage that will cause for staff and colleagues alike, would be horrendous.
So I stand up.
I ask questions.
I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t.
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Bloody hell, I remember you posting on the Wam when you were at Uni.
I am feeling old 
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I was in my last year of uni for the first Scalford…
You, sir, truly are a master of understatement! 
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This post has triggered my lumbago… 
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Thank you @Wayward for starting this thread, timing couldn’t be better, speaking selfishly. I’ve spent the afternoon chatting (boring) the other half about what lies ahead for us and what is important.
Swap out your trade for mine, and I am in the exact same boat, and like others here this time has certainly become about reflection.
Instead of waffling on about work, the significant takeaway from today was that we walked the three miles into town with the children, which we would not typically do, and we all came back happier and (although shattered) healthier.
Aside from a couple of early wobbles, as a family we have adapted to the lockdown, and personally I am much fitter, eating better and have lost the anxiety and short-patience that overworking seemed to bring. The fatigue mentioned here, and it’s slow disappearance has been a major positive for me.
Much like Wayne, I couldn’t think of anything worse now than going back to silly working hours, not seeing the family, and in my case all for the financial benefit of someone else. Quite how this will manifest I am not sure, there seems very little point spending half the week on trains travelling to meetings. Neither can I see a time when we are crammed in an office space with a metre between each other. Too many people are not willing to go back to that format, most of the team I run, many from other parts of the world are just not willing, they already think this country has made a complete hash of things. Some are enjoying being out of a stressful office environment, and don’t trust the government advice(!).
Short version; quality of life is much improved, and a new perspective that will hopefully lead to it continuing.
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Certainly for me (and perhaps for others) it has been rare to have the privilege to just stop, stand back and look at reality (Personally and professionally) for a period of time significant enough for my feelings to catch up with my thinking.
In recent years my perspective has probably been at it’s broadest on holiday: relaxing and being stimulated with the ‘new’ standing back from the norm and clarifying a thing or two.
Covid however is not a holiday…
Nevertheless due to the prolonged nature of the ‘slowing’ there has been time. Time to catch up, time to just be…Perhaps time is what helps gain a little perspective? Like chucking a brick in a pond, everything flies up in the air and the water remains murky for a while but with time the water becomes still, the sediment settles back down and clarity returns… I’m capable of chucking a brick back in at any point and muddying the picture but today at least I’m content with the view.
I could easily write a laundry list of ‘things that aren’t how I’d like them’ but I rarely profit from doing so unless I’m prepared or able to change them. It’s hard to see the good with shit smeared glasses.
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I was optimistic about WFH when it first kicked off, time to reflect and catch up on all that back office detritus that build up over the year. As it turns out that took a few weeks to complete and since then I have hated WFH.
I work in a shipyard, although I always start the day with enthusiasm i have always walked out of the Yard being able to leave work behind me. I enjoy clear definitions to my time, work, leisure, workshop, dog walking etc… WFH now means my home is infested with work, it feals unclean, like treading dogshit throughout the house. The knock on effect to my other activities has been less than helpfull, productivity and time spent in my workshop has actually reduced as I find it has becomes just more work at home, rather than something enjoyable. It has killed the time I enjoyed the most.
Our exec managers, without their daily round of meetings to attend, now think they need to manage the minutiae of everything, its a PITA. It came to a head last week when i told one of them to just fucking stop or do the work themselves. I manage a small team and enjoyed a good degree of autonomy, being trusted to deliver. Not any more, that’s gone and I don’t think the senior managers understand the shitstorm.
If you are as stupid to actually open up about stress or similar then a host of them will descend on you with their wellbeing initiatives and other corporate crap. Anything associated with mental health is the new health and safety, and they can’t wait to report to their seniors about the advice they have given everyone and how they have managed individual cases. It’s not so much that they want to kill you with kindness, just that they want to be seen to be doing “the right thing”, or even worse, actually believe they are. Mental health first aiders, get to fuck with that. Inane advice from a colleague based on a days training which does little more than use them as an extension of HR. As with any illness, i will take my lead from a Doctor, not some half trained jumped up well meaning fucking amateur at work.
I now hate every fucking minute of it and can’t wait to get back into work, equally can’t wait to retire, certainly early. It has done nothing but remind me of the capacity of a large organisation to fuck it up and at the same time think they are doing a good job.
Probably a minority report from me , WFH just isn’t for me.
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Yes, as I probably rather clumsily said up-thread, they do this where I work too, it started about a year ago. Just lip service so they can treat people like shit in my view.
I hope that when you do go back to work the micro management will stop Bob.
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Working from home has changed nothing around these parts, I have been doing it for 20 years. Once I had the family understand that although I was home, I was actually working and not available for a trip to the shops, or a taxi service it worked fine. I could shut the door on it. I did not miss the trip into the office, and search for car parking in the least. What this episode has done is buggered up my retirement. I work with a French company as a self employed ‘‘rep’’. Like a numpty I told them I would hang around untill I, or they had found a suitable replacement. Just as this lot kicked off I was on the point of taking the best candidate to meet and greet, and have a good look at the works. Having taken some 12 months to get to this point it has all been put on hold. who wants to travel in the middle of this. Maybe when the quarantine on return is lifted it can be put back on track. At least I hope so, as there will still be a need to keep myself in the front line for a few months, and several more part time behind the scenes.
I guess in the main I am more sulking and feeling pissed off than anything.
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I started a thread a year ago on retirement and my aim then was to get out of the rat race by 55 or 56 and lead a simple life. This is still my aim but I would happily go before 55 if that was possible - I’m now 53.
Covid has meant WFH full time and in many ways I have never worked so hard. Like many I struggle to keep work and home life separate and the two have merged far too much. I only have myself to blame for this and it has been my failing for the last few years. No amount of time management courses are going to change me now and I see retirement as my only way out of this.
The positive side of WFH is it has given me a chance to trial retirement in terms of being at home with Erica and we have been fine. We have been going for a walk around 6am every day and going to bed earlier. Having lunches together has been great and I have enjoyed having more time to cook. Keeping this routine I think has helped me get through.
I’m a partner in a small business and it’s pretty scary how fragile everything is but I’m feeling more confident we will get through ok. I’m dreading having to let any staff go as we have a great team and they have all been incredibly supportive throughout this. There’s no better feeling than telling someone they have got the job especially bright youngsters eager to start their career - there’s no worse feeling than letting someone go. I didn’t envisage going through another recession before retirement back in May last year and this will definitely be my last one in business.
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Yeah, and what an arse I feel for omitting ‘novel global pandemic’ from my SWOT analysis, when I started my company 6 months ago.
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Better than including it, rating it the most likely major risk, simulating it to learn how to handle it… then completely ignoring all of that to concentrate on Brexit 
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You’re younger than me! Maybe I need to re-calibrate my self-image. 
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I’m a bit annoyed by lockdown. I’m ahead of most of you in having had a major life event that forces a rethink of priorities, and I was thoroughly enjoying doing fuck all.
I used to see my kids just the right amount - all the time except for school. Now they are home all the time, and being a teacher to kids is not my forte. It’s hard work, and there is a big difference between teaching and parenting.
I’m now embarking on my second major project of lockdown, and I’m fucking knackered, but it’s the only way to preserve my sanity.
Bah.
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multi-storey carpark? underground parking?
skate park?
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Extension lead.
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Decking over the bit of the garden that never gets sun, so it’s basically a bog, and levelling the garden so there isn’t a sharp brick wall for child heads to fall onto. My parenting skills know no bounds.