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During the COVID-19 lockdowns, on average, the time you spend in front of a computer has
| 14% | 35 votes |
| 25% | 62 votes |
| 52% | 128 votes |
| 3% | 8 votes |
| 0% | 1 votes |
| 0% | 0 votes |
| 3% | 9 votes |
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- Don't complain about lack of options. You've got to pick a few when you do multiple choice. Those are the breaks.
- Feel free to suggest poll ideas if you're feeling creative. I'd strongly suggest reading the past polls first.
- This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.
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During the COVID-19 lockdowns, on average, the time you spend in front of a computer has
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Ten years of rejection slips is nature's way of telling you to stop writing.
-- R. Geis
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday July 19 2020, @01:22PM
insensirive is.
Mine has gone down as we've been doing lots of day trips and picnics when I'm not working.
Pic-a-nic baskets, eh Boo-boo!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Monday July 20 2020, @07:20AM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @10:45AM (7 children)
More than 10 kilos
5 to 10 kilos
Less than 5 kilos
No change
Lost up to 5 kilos
Lost entire body weight to COVID-19
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday July 21 2020, @04:59AM (2 children)
Probably 5-10 kilos, but I can't say for sure as I've been avoiding the scale.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @01:06AM (1 child)
Can't be that bad, I think my scales are avoiding me...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 28 2020, @06:53PM
You're both doing it wrong. If you never owned one to begin with, avoiding doesn't enter in to it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2020, @09:34AM
I don't know, I just broke the scale in half when I checked.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 28 2020, @07:43PM
I lost 42lbs in 3 months, but it's not covid related.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday July 30 2020, @03:52PM
When I was sick in March I lost a few pounds. Struggling with energy deficiency since I've more than gained it back.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Tuesday August 11 2020, @03:30PM
You forgot "Lost more than 5 kilos". I've lost somewhere between 1 and 1.5 stone.
* Avoided COVID (isolated in basement while it coughed it's way through the house above me - actually only the wife brought it home, probably, textbook symptoms bu no test)
* Spent less time sitting, as no driving, and in fact I think less time in front of computer, learned that that just leads to constant pandemic-status-checking which ain't mental healthy
* Spent more time active, sorted out garden (now tidiest it's been in 20yrs), started to sort out house inside too, actually made the diy list shorter for once
* Was rationing food in the beginning when we were living out of cupboards / freezer and only small deliveries
* More time to cook means more home cooked stuff (I mostly cooked from scratch anyway, but even more so now) - convenience food isn't when you can't just nip out to the shop
* Eating wider range of stuff, due to both new weekly veg box delivery (from a guy who used to be a veggie events catering business pre-covid) giving us a wider range of stuff I might not ever buy, and sorting out the cupboards and using up weird stuff that's been there for years
* [big one, probably] Not physically going food shopping means I don't pick up the impulse purchases and reduced price bargains, much of which is high-sugar rubbish - in store, 10p doughnuts, can't leave em behind, online, don't ever see em
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday July 20 2020, @03:01PM
(Except for mask, hand sanitizer, more hand washing, not touching face, and extra paranoia)
I still work. Spend as much time in front of computer as before. Still watch TV as much after work. Still eat about the same. Still exercise as rarely as before.
Same basic cycle. Go to bed. Wake up. Work. Eat dinner. Watch TV, read, relax. Repeat.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday July 20 2020, @04:59PM (1 child)
Okay, so that doesn't directly affect me, but it sucks. The average time I spend in front of a computer has only slightly increased due to the fact that we just can't go anywhere. There's no going out and playing in the yard either, it's way too hot for that during the Summer. We get a couple hours in the morning of it's not too hot, so you won't get heat stroke and then it's indoors time.
Whether I was at home working at a computer or in the office working at a computer, the only thing that changed that much was location.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Tuesday July 21 2020, @04:05PM
The death of a gaming buddy's computer could affect you more than you might expect. So don't be shocked if you realize that you have emotional reactions to it. It's normal.
Like the loss of a dog when no upgrade parts were available or in stock.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Sulla on Monday July 20 2020, @10:13PM (10 children)
My productivity went down at the beginning so I needed to work more hours to make up for it.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2020, @12:37PM
Me too.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday July 21 2020, @05:09PM (8 children)
My productivity probably actually went up. Part of that might have been the fact that we were doing triage on our web services. Still, there are some things that couldn't get done, because I wasn't in the office. Physical access to books, requires physical access to the space. Not that anyone was allowed in the building, so that didn't matter quite so much at the time.
Now, we're in the mask wearing, stay 6ft away from people, slowly returning to normal operations stage. Which might be halted at any time.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 22 2020, @04:06PM
Don't let any coworkers get away with that bullshit of keeping their nose out of the mask. One outbreak at work and you'll be back home developing a good cabin fever.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Sulla on Thursday July 23 2020, @11:08PM (6 children)
For me it was mostly because of my kids. My mom decided me working from home meant she doesnt have to watch them til 9 and that i have to take the two year old home at 2 to get a nap. With the wife being a pharmacy tech working extra hours to meet demand i have to get the 5 year olds at 430 when my dad gets home and doesnt want to deal with em after work. Make them dinner, play a bit on the floor, wife gets home at 6 and i go back to work. Typically work til 10pm and continue the next day.
Still better than being in the office because i dont have to deal with office politics.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday July 24 2020, @02:59PM
Yeah, it was actually somewhat convenient for me to be home with my wife and kid. She always wanted to be a stay at home mom and she's been able to do that. Trouble is, she can't just take kiddo with her to the store anymore. So, it was convenient for me to be able to watch over kiddo for an hour or two while she ran an errand. Also, was kind of nice to take a lunch break and have lunch with the family, essentially every day. Thankfully, there's not a whole lot of office politics that I have to deal with, but it was kind of nice to just not need to go in every day. Yet, still get all my hours in and continue to help the team.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday July 26 2020, @03:03AM (4 children)
Office politics... That was by far the biggest impediment to getting things done.
I am an engineer. It is my nature to build things.
Unfortunately for me, if the company gets too big, they have enough money to hire the MBA, and make me subordinate to him.
And it's in his nature to control people.
And I do not like being controlled in that manner.
It's back to that old fox and scorpion meme.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Sunday July 26 2020, @04:09AM (3 children)
Back when the economic crisis happened my work purged all that middle management stuff. So now it is workers > dept manager > director, and i have a very hands-off manager. I wish you luck because that sounds like hell.
He big thing I'm dealing with right now is I somehow got the reputation of being the "guy who correctly predicts outcomes" and "can fix anything" which is endlessly annoying. In the months before the pandemic we had a bunch of people leave and be replaced and one in particular who does not like my reputation.
There were a few projects that I was pulled into last minute during an major software implementation that were outside my area but I managed to MacGuyver a solution out of rubberbands and chewing gum so the implementation didn't fail. I wrote up documentation of all known issues, downstream effects, future corrections, and workarounds.
One girl in particular would take every chance she gets to stop by my cube daily and point out all the flaws and complain how she doesn't see how anyone could have failed so hard, knowing I did the work. Me recognizing the issues and pointing out a few that needs fixed causes extreme passive-aggressiveness against me. To everyone else she talks to she gives glowing reviews of me, but is always super aggressive toward me in person. She is smart as a whip so i don't understand why she doesn't just fix the issues.
I don't understand and it is annoying. I'm not going to complain to management as she appears to only do it to me. I have never understood pointing out someones flaws especially when they already know them and will readily admit to them. So much more productive to just be helpful. I get to avoid all this shit while working from home, which looks like its going to be a forever option.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday July 26 2020, @09:43AM (2 children)
Could it be she likes you?
I have never understood female psychology.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Tuesday July 28 2020, @12:51AM (1 child)
I just figured that I would be left alone once they proved themself to themself and their manager. If your suggestion is correct I imagine I will have to put up with this for longer.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2020, @05:46PM
Try taking off the wedding ring and looking available, nothing kills interest faster than knowing something is easily attainable.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday July 21 2020, @04:09PM (4 children)
Would I want to work from home?
(I hate to use such strong language, and rarely do...)
Heck No!
Heckity Hecking No!
How could I possibly get anything done at home?
Work is quiet. Real quiet. Well lit. Deserted.
But it is a grueling ten minute commute with five traffic signals. And that time comes out of my day both to and from work.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday July 21 2020, @05:16PM
I liked working from home. I got to choose my environment, we had video calls when needed, but otherwise just got stuff done. Was kind of nice.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday July 25 2020, @08:59AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Monday July 27 2020, @04:22PM
Wait . . . you're saying that can only be done if you work from home?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Touché) by mhajicek on Thursday July 30 2020, @03:58PM
My boss wouldn't let me bring the CNC mill home...
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Informative) by arslan on Tuesday July 21 2020, @10:55PM (8 children)
All the meetings I normally have, now are in front of the computer instead of in a meeting room or a cafe. I make it a point to not bring my laptop/pad into a meeting. So now that physical face-to-face meetings are gone and I unfortunately get caught up in lots of meetings it just upped my screen time.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday July 24 2020, @05:36PM (7 children)
I try to minimize meeting time, virtual or not, but - same: meetings are now 100% virtual, so my screen time is slightly up. There was a worrying trend about a month into the isolation that virtual meetings started to proliferate, but that seems to have calmed back down. Also, the "all hands" meetings are now much more productive since they can play out in a small window and audio while I do things that would have been perceived as disrespectful in a conference room.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Sunday July 26 2020, @04:15AM (6 children)
We keep having wellbeing meetings. Working from home really changed the dynamic of the social v anti-social. In the office those not comftorable with social situations could face productivity issues just dealing with day to day contact (i know i do) but now the social loving people have issues dealing with lack of contact. So we have at least one meeting a day they want us to do just so we can "chat" with coworkers to make sure we dont get "lonely". My work assumes everyone is extrovert because all the managers are, and plans required activities thinking nobody is different.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday July 26 2020, @12:44PM (5 children)
Kind of a job description for manager, to be honest.
We're an R&D shop with ~100 employees - there's a dedicated "engagement officer" who spends a good bit of his time/effort on "programs to bring us all together" - and he has about 3 Lieutenants who help out. They're basically licensed to spam one e-mail a day to promote engagement, and they have setup weekly meetings for people who want them.
I used to firmly believe: "if I'm in a meeting, I will be 100% 'there' - engaged, computer closed, cell in pocket" at least as long as something resembling meaningful content is happening. Now, I'm becoming much more of a multi-tasker, since most of these meetings tend to have about 5% or less content of interest/value to/from me - but, I "appear" as present just as much as the rest of the attendees.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday July 26 2020, @11:49PM (3 children)
Frustrates me. Wastes my time on trivial matters. My own feeling is my own stuff. It has to be right. Or it's worse than useless. I know what it's gotta do. And having a bunch of managers around is about as helpful as having a tax return due.
If they worked for me, fine, but they work for someone else, and all they are is yet another faction that needs its ass kissed, lest it write me up for having a bad attitude as grounds for termination.
If I didn't give a damn, it would be a lot easier.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 27 2020, @12:12AM
I find that depends on the size (and makeup) of the organization. Managers' best function is shielding their workers from the next level of management's scrutiny. The best manager (in my book) will get you your raises and promotions as you want them, keep your interactions with +1, +2 and higher levels of management down to a few minutes per quarter, and make sure you have everything you need to do the job properly, especially time.
I did quit giving a damn about a lot of things about 5 years ago - I used to be VP of R&D at a small shop, had to have my hand in every aspect of everything. Now, in a bigger place, I've learned to kick back and let other departments do their jobs as they will - if that's poorly, it's not really my problem.
If you're kissing management's ass, they're doing it way wrong (but that's all too common.)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Tuesday July 28 2020, @12:57AM (1 child)
Wow how could you? What do you mean you don't want to participate in the weekly or biweekly potluck or the extra 15+ min tacked onto every meeting for just chatting about the weather and our weekends?
I'm all for getting to know the people in my unit who i work with extensively, it is useful for finding strong and weak points to better divide the load effeciently. I just don't like all the extra stuff that isn't value added. My managers allow it all to be counted as work time, but counting something as work time doesn't reduce the number of things I need to get done.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DECbot on Thursday July 30 2020, @04:27PM
Not sure if it would work for you--nor that you could try it anytime soon, but I would be tempted to pile food on the plate, eat single most appetizing dish on the plate, find the person who made it and complement them, get seconds of the finished dish, and then excuse myself from the social event cause I have an urgent $THING that has to be done and I'm not sure if I'll have it ready and working to my expectations by the due date. Then take the plate back to my desk and enjoy lunch at my leisure. If you're repeatedly complementing the same person, next time find someone else that is easy to smalltalk to during the consumption of one dish before excusing yourself from the event. Then, you will appear to attempt to socialize but really do have other tasks that need to get done. That also tends to get the extrovert socialites to recognize that time is getting wasted and they should wrap it up and get back to their tasks.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday August 05 2020, @11:32AM
Looks guilty. Clicks submit and closes laptop.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2020, @02:54AM (3 children)
I was with a small aerospace company in Southern California. I got to work alongside genius. I felt we could do literally anything. We did the impossible..
But then, the company sold out to a much larger company. One who had the resources and finances to hire the professionals to whip us into shape. MBA. Lots of MBA. Lots of training our leaders from the men who wore the coat and tie, drove exotic cars, ate in exclusive places, took lavish vacations, and seemed to consider we lowly engineers as riff-raff, kept out of the loop. "Need to know" kinda stuff.
Took me out of my lab and put me in a cubicle.
I am not a suit and tie pretty boy. I am a lab rat. I insist on doing it. I am a hands on guy. If I do not do this, I am highly apt to design crap.
Might as well take my typewriter, then expect me to continue submitting typed reports. But I had to give them the benefit if the doubt. They were MBA and probably had never considered such things. Their main concern seemed to be minimal acceptable performance to fulfill contract and get paid.
Believe it or not, I actually had a computer built from scraps forcibly removed from me by armed guards operating under authority from the MBA because I did not rank high enough to rate having one. I was doing Spice analysis and Schematic capture on it, and taking it from me is akin to taking a guitar from a guitarist. But how is the Executive MBA to know such things? All he sees is I do not rank having it.
Being kept out of the loop. Now, that really grated on me. I was trying to build this stuff!
It wasn't long before I had to be terminated. "Bad Attitude".
I had to realize the Executive Level valued those who would dismiss me because of that were far more valuable to corporate than I was. I only made stuff. More important was keeping me in the dark till time to go, giving me hours and minimal information, then expecting a well thought out solution.
And made me make crap.
But that was "what it took".
I had to realize our customers did not need what I did... They wanted expense paid trips to Southern California and a few rounds of hand shakings and paper signings to justify it.
And that's what they now get. The MBA won, hands down. All those old fogeys who had actually DONE this kind of stuff are now gone. But there are plenty of handshakes for all the customers.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Saturday August 01 2020, @10:32AM
Get out while you can, it's usually not looking good at the resume to be in a company that's going under, you might get the stink of failure rub onto you.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday August 09 2020, @10:13PM
Your story is pretty much the story of American business in general...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2020, @05:33PM
Was it MD? They stole employees from auto repair shops to work on MD-80s. Some of the techs they took were going to be fired for incompetence, one that was being let go became an aircraft assembly inspector.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Monday July 27 2020, @07:09AM
By roughly the hour I commuted.
Why should anything else change?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday July 28 2020, @02:44PM (2 children)
If you don't have a computer, please enter your email address here, so that we can contact you once you have a computer.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 28 2020, @07:48PM (1 child)
Address...
E.F.
The shack behind the last house on the right behind the Tijuana Tequila/Sewage treatment plant
B.C.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2020, @06:00PM
If you see Juanita, tell that bitch little Pedro ain't mine! I don't care if his first word was "cuervo" and he stole the whiskey after they rubbed his gums, I'm not claiming him!
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 29 2020, @02:26AM (3 children)
I do the same shit I was doing before. Exactly the same shit.
Wake up, drink coffee, poke the Internet until sufficiently caffeinated, go work on the church, come home for lunch, have a nap if lucky or work some more if not, eat dinner, watch old TV from my media server and drink a scotch, grab a shower, go to bed. I'm feeling the need for a day off replace church work with video games or fishing.
I don't wear masks. I don't go out to $places any less than I did before (granted, that would be fairly difficult). I still bullshit with my neighbors occasionally and give not a fuck about staying six feet back.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Saturday August 01 2020, @10:28AM (2 children)
I start to understand why the Covid clusters we still have popping up in Europe are usually associated with churches.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Tuesday August 11 2020, @03:53PM (1 child)
It's because many churchgoers assume God will magically protect them, whilst failing to appreciate the according to the parable of the talents we are definitely supposed to work with the brain cells that God gave us and work out how to best respond to the shit that life (or God) throws at us - which would be Covid. Either God didn't hand out many brain cells to his followers, which seems odd, but hey, God is effing ineffable after all, or they ain't using 'em and will be having to explain that when they meet him far sooner than they planned. The exception, in my experience, is Catholics, the observant seem to last a long time on this earth, especially priests and nuns. My guess is that it's one of God giving them a lot of extra time to score, or really doesn't want to meet them.
That and the singing of course. This virus, unlike SARS and colds and..., sits and multiplies low in the lungs, deep full breathing and exhalation is best way to get it out and into other people. Intubation (for ventilation in hospitals) is a great way to spread it, along with loud passionate joyous singing in the company of many others.
I was going to throw in the old joke (more of a parable actually) of two boats and a helicopter and say rework that for covid as an exercise for the reader, but **** me if ten secs with google and someone didn't do it already: https://www.bigeasymagazine.com/2020/04/05/covid-19-parable-rewrite-of-two-boats-and-a-helicopter/ [bigeasymagazine.com]
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Tuesday August 11 2020, @05:38PM
I think your sentiments are right on. Though I'd branch out and include any of the Protestant denominations that minimize the believe that God is an active, magic sky-fairy. The quick indicator here is if the particular church believes the Bible is 100% absolutely fucking true or if parts (all) of it was written by man with lots of allegory and metaphor. I would think this would include the Episcopales. I haven't had enough interaction with Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Methodists to have an informed decision.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base