This has been the week from hell. While the concept certainly looks good on paper, our current policy of 50% in office/50% WFH, is presenting difficulties, not the least of which is I don't know what fucking day of the week it is anymore. We've been slammed with tickets, and it seems everyone has turned into a Karen, demanding that their problems be addressed now.
Honey, it don't work that way. Unless you're VIP, or the entire network is down because of your issue, you wait your turn like everyone else.
Despite my grousing prior to this in/out policy being implemented, I am enjoying being back in the office—if for no other reason than it allows me to do things I am unable to do remotely.
The biggest problem right now is that people requiring direct assistance are often on the opposite schedule from me. "Can I come up and check this [problem requiring hands-on assistance] today?" "No, I'm only in Tuesdays and Thursdays." "Oh…I'm WFH Tuesday and Thursdays, so I guess I'll see if one of the other guys can help you." Much ticket shuffling ensues.
There's also the question of the folks who have laptops with a docking station, as well as (often dual) monitors they brought home from the office. Now that they're shuttling back and forth two or three times a week, they're whining because they don't have the same setups in both locations to plug into. This has caused a considerable amount of drama in the department this past week, as this sort of setup is in direct violation of enterprise policy (one device and a maximum of two 24" monitors per employee, unless they are high level AutoCAD or GIS users, in which case they get one 32-inch and one 24" monitor). At one of our field offices, several employees took it upon themselves to grab unused monitors and give themselves three monitors, with a few of them asking for four. WTF? Why does an admin assistant need FOUR fucking monitors at her desk? Short answer, she doesn't.
Amid much gnashing of teeth, it was finally decided that enterprise policy would be enforced. Users will be allowed to have their monitors/docking stations at home or in the office, but not both. They can bring a monitor back into the office and use their laptop as a secondary screen, or leave the setup as-is until everyone is back in the office full time. We won't be providing secondary docking stations, but will have multifunction dongles available for them to use at home or in the office, depending on where the rest of their equipment ends up living.
"But, but…"
Honey, if you don't like it, you can return all the equipment and come into the office full time. THAT is the new policy.
The enterprise also lifted its mask/social distancing mandate for the fully vaccinated. This is strictly "on the honor method" so I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this—especially since it applies not only to employees, but also members of the public interacting with us. While I feel that the employees will have each others' backs and do the right thing, the general public? Not so much.
Thankfully I have absolutely no interaction with those unwashed, potentially unvaccinated masses.
I also need to keep reminding myself that masks don't especially protect you, but are to protect others from you if you're infected.
