WFH Outside

[Anonymous]

I am all for enjoying a beautiful day but for the calls, just take it inside. It's easy. Go work outside when not on a call.

[Anonymous]

Boss sounds like a birdbrain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Virtual background is your friend.

How does a virtual background disguise bird noises

[Anonymous]

Where were you? Your backyard/porch? Or were you at the pool or the playground with your kids?

[Anonymous]

I think it doesn’t convey seriousness (potential background noise, many people also don’t have good WiFi outdoors). If it’s an important call, I’d move indoors.

[Anonymous]

This thread exemplifies that many people’s jobs consist almost entirely of micromanaging trivial nonsense. Any boss who cares about this enough to actually follow up on it clearly has a BS job. Sounds like a lot of commenters on this thread do, too.

[Anonymous]

This boss is stupid. Does he want you in a vacuum? We can hear birds in our office even in the office. We also hear traffic and loud music being in downtown DC where one of the homeless people has a boom box

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m hybrid. Today was my WFH day. It is beautiful outside so I sat outside with my laptop. I’ve done this before with my old boss and he didn’t care. During a meeting, I was asked a question so I unmuted myself and answered and muted myself. While I was talking, you could hear a bird chirping. A few minutes ago, my new boss called me to tell me I should be inside during calls because I sounded unprofessional! WTH

Should've told him your window was open since you trying to pay all the bills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, you could be inside with your window open and someone might hear a bird. It doesnt sound that unprofessional to me?

I would have just said I had a window open. But if boss feels strongly about it, just work outside when you're not in meetings.

+1. But I also agree that headphones with a microphone are your friend in any environment with ambient sound (whether outside or in a noisy office or in a room with lots of echo). I even wear them in my home office if it's an important meeting and I want to sound crisp and clear. I bet your microphone quality outside was also not the best.

Optics are important. I work in a group where most people must be in the office to do their job, while my job could be 100% telework if needed. I know a couple coworkers are jealous that I WFH two days a week, so I do my best not to bring attention to it.

[Anonymous]

I was on a call with someone and they had a window open. I could see them in their office - and hear the birds chirping outside.

That said, I worked somewhere once where a co-worker was doing some work outdoors on a company patio on a beautiful day. Someone reported them for it.

Anything to make sure that you’re miserable…

[Anonymous]

I would not care as a people leader. I'd rather hear the bird at 10am then the typical 5am.

[Anonymous]

I wfh at the movies and restaurants. When they tried to call, I just don’t pick up the phone.

[Anonymous]

I go on camera while sitting on my patio, if anyone, including boss or bosses boss mentions it, it’s only to say they are jealous.
But then again, I work with reasonable people.

[Anonymous]

The bosses who object are a little insane. One of the best things to do for mental health and productivity is get outside into nature.

Misery and productivity over time are INVERSELY related.

[Anonymous]

Tell your dumb boss there was emergency repair work being done on the pipes so the quieter option was outside

What a miserable human