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Coronavirus and working from home
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Bantamzen
Established Member
My department is on working from home, and with an estimated 10K or so mobile devices now potentially working over VPN, the VPN has fallen over and died completely, on Day 2. Things are not looking good here.
Working from home is good to a point; for a job where I work from home I like to meet up with the team on a fairly regular basis because nothing beats having everyone together in person. I then find I am more productive in the days following such a meeting than I am a long time after having met the rest of the team.
I personally like being able to work from home some of the time but not too much, as I believe it is less productive after a certain point and also I miss the social interactions.
I personally like being able to work from home some of the time but not too much, as I believe it is less productive after a certain point and also I miss the social interactions.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I think a couple of days a week in a hot-desked office may well be the optimum. It could solve the railway capacity crisis around London, certainly.
thejuggler
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Data transfer isn't an issue. The main concern from business is having adequate licences and server connectivity to enable as many to work from home as possible.
i know one organisation with 800 staff, but only 200 remote working licences so they are working on resolving this with increased shift working.
MS Teams fell over for them yesterday.
i know one organisation with 800 staff, but only 200 remote working licences so they are working on resolving this with increased shift working.
MS Teams fell over for them yesterday.
I'm not able to work from home but rely extensively on mobile technology to do my job which is based out and about. Unfortunately, due to the number of office staff working from home the technology we use on a daily basis has not been prioritised for us, meaning that the information sources we normally rely on are very hard to access.
Islineclear3_1
Established Member
Unfortunately, my job does not facilitate working from home 
C J Snarzell
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Despite all the advice and recommendations, I have always been a person who is very passionate about keeping a home life sterile from work & not bringing work home!
There is already plans in place for some people in rail control to work from home but only a very limited number of roles would have this luxury.
The other factor about activating work based hard drives in a home environment is the potential breach of Data Protection and having internet browsers access sensitive information or even people in the same household who shouldn't be around certain workplace information.
CJ
There is already plans in place for some people in rail control to work from home but only a very limited number of roles would have this luxury.
The other factor about activating work based hard drives in a home environment is the potential breach of Data Protection and having internet browsers access sensitive information or even people in the same household who shouldn't be around certain workplace information.
CJ
nlogax
Established Member
It's not just about shared collaboration spaces like Teams and Slack - many companies require full remote desktops, access to SaaS applications, on-prem resources or more often a combination of all of the above, integrated with existing and additional security. It's perfectly do-able but for many of those without that infrastructure in place the ramp-up time was too long to beat the rush to empty physical offices of workers.
My place of work has limited capacity for remote working in many areas due to being a factory environment. There has been an increase in remote working in ‘support services’ for a variety of reasons (ie not just self isolating, but consideration of business continuity too etc) and it will undoubtedly fluctuate over time. So far we’ve been able to deal with it ok - many foundations were in place and the main stress has just been trying to secure a few additional laptops (unsurprisingly, not easy to come by on short lead times currently) to bolster the spares we had for those who had fixed machines and needed to be mobile.
Personally, under normal circumstances I am ok with odd days of remote working but prefer the interaction with colleagues in the office - working off-site can become a bit of a lonely existence!
In these abnormal circumstances, it is likely myself and my colleagues (IT) will be doing a bit of both as we support the business whilst also doing our bit for the overall cause. The nature of what we do means there is some need to work in the office and no doubt plans will develop in this area as time goes by
Personally, under normal circumstances I am ok with odd days of remote working but prefer the interaction with colleagues in the office - working off-site can become a bit of a lonely existence!
In these abnormal circumstances, it is likely myself and my colleagues (IT) will be doing a bit of both as we support the business whilst also doing our bit for the overall cause. The nature of what we do means there is some need to work in the office and no doubt plans will develop in this area as time goes by
Bantamzen
Established Member
As someone with a work's laptop, and who now regularly works from home (permanently during the crisis) I can probably answer some of those concerns. Regarding the remotely accessing an employer's systems, most companies / organisations that are properly set up issue laptops / tablets / mobiles as appropriate, which are specifically configured to connect to their systems via a Virtual Private Network (VPN). That is to say that when connecting the device establishes an encrypted tunnel through the internet connection from device to company network. So it is near on impossible for sensitive data to be leaked via this method, and as such Data Protection rules will not be compromised. However this does not mean that these devices can be used everywhere, ours for example will not allow access to the network via public WiFi where you connect via a simple landing page and/or application screen, for example in coffee shops, shopping centres etc. They will only allow access where you have to connect via a secure key (password) to the router in question. This prevents the devices inadvertently connecting via a spoofed network, as some hackers do with public networks.
In terms of third parties in the household seeing sensitive data, it is just the same as the workplace. For example if an outside contractor, technician, even cleaner is around your workstation you make sure that any sensitive data is not visible to them. This kind of awareness will normally be covered by Data Protection training that all users of sensitive data should have had, indeed where I work it is an annual requirement. It is always the responsibility of the user of data to make sure that it is secure, no matter where they are working (People who I often see looking a sensitive data on trains, I'm looking at you!).
Something I didn’t like about WFH was that we couldn’t print anything.
I am sure there are ways round it but it is just easier for me to print things out to refer to, highlight, and draw on.
There must be a few data issues for banks - we were split down quite tightly so your security card wouldn’t necessarily be able to get in other teams rooms. The payments guys didn’t even have laptops - there was an absolute ban on inputting/authorising payments from outside the offside (presumably so you couldn’t do it from Venezuela.....)
I am sure there are ways round it but it is just easier for me to print things out to refer to, highlight, and draw on.
There must be a few data issues for banks - we were split down quite tightly so your security card wouldn’t necessarily be able to get in other teams rooms. The payments guys didn’t even have laptops - there was an absolute ban on inputting/authorising payments from outside the offside (presumably so you couldn’t do it from Venezuela.....)
Horses for courses.
My sister's worked from home for years and swears by it (she hated the office anyway).
For me, as a single person, I do rely on the office for social interaction, so I will be raring to get back to the office at least some of the time.
My sister's worked from home for years and swears by it (she hated the office anyway).
For me, as a single person, I do rely on the office for social interaction, so I will be raring to get back to the office at least some of the time.
Working from home might get a whole lot more difficult from next week when most schoolchildren are at home. Some will be doing studies online, many will get bored and resort to bandwidth-hogging activities like video calling (Skype/Facetime/Whatsapp Video) and multi-player video games which will decimate upload speeds as well as generally better download ones. The upload speeds are generally 1/4 or 1/10th of download for a reason, - the architecture is geared for domestic use which is predominately downloading and streaming.
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Bantamzen
Established Member
Its already been difficult for us, but that's more a VPN than general network issue. However I am mitigating, getting as much of my work client side as I can.
Just on gaming though, most online games only use a fraction of the data that say streaming video does. It might be more of an issue for the hosting servers though, as the entire world hammers them more than ever, although I have to say as a gamer myself I haven't noticed too much in the way of issues so far.
edwin_m
Veteran Member
In anticipation of this sort of problem I've just ordered a broadband upgrade - not sure how long this will take if there turns out to be a shortage of routers from China.
Having worked from home for 10 years except when I need to be elsewhere, it's not too much of a change for me but I will miss even occasional face-to-face contact with colleagues. I'm also concerned there seems to be some pressure to use video when on calls to reduce isolation. It's the opposite for me as I hate it at the best of times and I also think it's currently a waste of scarce bandwidth.
SteveP29
Member
Unfortunately, my job does not facilitate working from home
Same here, unfortunately, paper invoices and the complete unwillingness of our auditors to accept digital authorisations for payment means I have to print everything.
A one page invoice ends up as a two page document if the invoice is for one of our outlying offices.
An expenses claim has to have copies or originals of receipts, so we now have a situation where, to send them electronically, staff are taking photos of their train tickets, and without faffing about putting them together on a Powerpoint slide, they end up printed one per page, often fitted to the page, so I get this huge ticket. Thankfully I've set my default to print in Greyscale or the ink costs would be through the roof (Our printer contract is .25p for greyscale, .4p for b&w and 4.5p for colour per sheet)
CaptainHaddock
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Let's be honest - "working from home" for most people means sitting around in your dressing gown watching daytime tv, scoffing biscuits and occasionally pretending to be incredibly busy when your boss calls! 
Bantamzen
Established Member
Let's be honest - "working from home" for most people means sitting around in your dressing gown watching daytime tv, scoffing biscuits and occasionally pretending to be incredibly busy when your boss calls!
Oi!! Ssssshhhhhh, stop dobbing on us....
(P.S. I don't own a dressing gown)
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I've done meetings without getting out of bed...
I don't think that the speed of individual connections will be the issue. I have BT infinity which generally tests out at nearly 60Mb/s down and nearly 10Mb/s up. Although I've never had it confirmed, whatever the bandwidth of the green cabinet's fibre connection is, but around here, many have BT Infinity or other vendors' FTTC services, and as the service has been available for at least 15 years, the fibre may be fully committed at times. Then there is the main backbones, both in the UK and even the international ones which are probably carrying unprecedented loadings at the moment.
Bantamzen
Established Member
Erm, your working relations with your co-workers is probably best something left for more, umm, adult-content themed forums....
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Erm, your working relations with your co-workers is probably best something left for more, umm, adult-content themed forums....
This is my SO's next birthday card:Oi!! Ssssshhhhhh, stop dobbing on us....
(P.S. I don't own a dressing gown)
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Leo1961
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Let's be honest - "working from home" for most people means sitting around in your dressing gown watching daytime tv, scoffing biscuits and occasionally pretending to be incredibly busy when your boss calls!
Well it was until you gave the game away to the whole internet...
How do we get that genie back into the bottle?
nlogax
Established Member
Let's be honest - "working from home" for most people means sitting around in your dressing gown watching daytime tv, scoffing biscuits and occasionally pretending to be incredibly busy when your boss calls!
Absolutely. And ensuring the laptop cam is turned off when there's a Zoom call. Can't have anyone seeing my straggly Corona beard!
(kidding of course
I still wake up to an alarm, work in my spare room / home office, maintain some sort of work routine. It's pretty helpful when the world outside has gone to pot!)
Puffing Devil
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I work for a cloud ERP company - providing they have local internet access our customers have benefitted from continued access to their finance and other systems; it's no different to them signing on from their browser in an office - no need for a VPN or any other software apart from a browser.
Now here's the rub - I work from home with weekly trips to the office for face to face meetings and other business trips. In my home office my FTTC is a pretty solid 48Mbps, today it's been down to around 35 and that's without the legions of children who will be unleased on Netflix et al from tomorrow. I spend at least half my working day on Zoom videoconferences and rely on a decent connection - if we start to see speeds drop below 25Mbps then homeworking for me will be harder. ERP customers will be fine, though.
Now here's the rub - I work from home with weekly trips to the office for face to face meetings and other business trips. In my home office my FTTC is a pretty solid 48Mbps, today it's been down to around 35 and that's without the legions of children who will be unleased on Netflix et al from tomorrow. I spend at least half my working day on Zoom videoconferences and rely on a decent connection - if we start to see speeds drop below 25Mbps then homeworking for me will be harder. ERP customers will be fine, though.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Can you not just switch the video off? I've near enough never used it. We do do a lot of screenshare but that is quite low bandwidth as it doesn't change as much as video.
After all I know what my colleagues look like and don't need to see them in their PJs.
After all I know what my colleagues look like and don't need to see them in their PJs.
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