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What I Know About Being Sick at Work (2018)

blog.bonnieeisenman.com

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Re: What I Know About Being Sick at Work (2018)

#101

Post by cgriswald »

chrisseaton wrote: post #9
Jare wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they do the push-up/plank thing if you want to speak I don't know what that specific practice is, and I think I really really don't want to know.

You have to plank while speaking, in order to motivate people to speak succinctly. Obviously disadvantages people who aren’t physically fit as they literally don’t get to contribute as much!

> Obviously disadvantages people who aren’t physically fit as they literally don’t get to contribute as much!

If I am quiet in a meeting when I have a contribution to make--and make no mistake, I'm not speaking up regardless of my fitness level--my employer suffers, not me. He suffers again when his messed up culture inevitably causes me to find another employer.

Re: What I Know About Being Sick at Work (2018)

#102

Post by jchw »

humanrebar wrote: post #94
jchw wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Does using headphones damage our hearing? I am aware that using certain kinds of open earphones are associated with hearing loss but my understanding was that this had more to do with how high the volume needs to be to drown out the noise. Proper IEMs and noise cancelling headphones should definitely not suffer from that issue. 2. 50% potential is a bold claim, but even if that were true it may still be economical…

Sometimes my day is wasted if I am working on a hard problem and I am at 75% mentally. Sometimes I am net negative (committing major bugs) and I would have been wiser to do something else entirely. If every day I am not at full capacity, there are entire problems I would therefore be wiser to leave alone. Productivity, at the detail level, is not a smooth curve. I'll also point out that the folks advocating for "coll…

I do not think open-plan offices are good, I hate them. But, they have such an economical advantage that I'm not really surprised the trend continues despite the fact that everyone hates them. I think the real answer is that even a pretty enormous productivity drop will end up being worth it if you only care about the economics.

Re: What I Know About Being Sick at Work (2018)

#103

Post by sokoloff »

jchw wrote: post #96
delinka wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Active noise canceling adds sound pressure. It doesn’t stop outside sound, it adds an inverse sound to prevent your perception of sound.

Of course it will affect air pressure, but in theory it should be literally cancelling the sound waves. All the literature I can find at a cursory glance suggests ANC headphones are better for your hearing.

ANC isn’t perfect. ANC leaves a noticeable low level of noise from imperfect sensing, processing, and cancellation. It’s quite easy to imagine that this could be detrimental (as compared to passive noise canceling).

It’s probably not as good for your hearing as an equivalent level of passive NR. When I fly long trips, I notice that my hearing is slightly impaired for a day or so. There could be a lot of confounding factors there, of course.

Re: What I Know About Being Sick at Work (2018)

#104

Post by humanrebar »

jchw wrote: post #102
humanrebar wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes my day is wasted if I am working on a hard problem and I am at 75% mentally. Sometimes I am net negative (committing major bugs) and I would have been wiser to do something else entirely. If every day I am not at full capacity, there are entire problems I would therefore be wiser to leave alone. Productivity, at the detail level, is not a smooth curve. I'll also point out that the folks advocating for "coll…

I do not think open-plan offices are good, I hate them. But, they have such an economical advantage that I'm not really surprised the trend continues despite the fact that everyone hates them. I think the real answer is that even a pretty enormous productivity drop will end up being worth it if you only care about the economics.

> ...they have such an economical advantage...

The point is that this is not a well substantiated position. Even if it is clearly demonstrated in some anecdotal cases (sales, marketing, tech support), there is a wide variation in what the day-to-day looks like within software development organizations. Keeping in mind, especially, that an open workspace for a small shop of 10 engineers is completely different than an open workspace for a floor of 200 engineers. And even moreso if there is a mixture of engineering and non-engineering (management, client relations, sales, etc.) on the same floor.

There are enough ins and outs in how work actually gets done that I'm skeptical that we can categorically say much about open floor plans. I'm sure they are more efficient in many cases. I'm certainly not granting the implied "always" or "often enough to be granted" in "they have such an economical advantage".

My default take for such things is that companies should be hiring experts and then trusting their expert opinions. Otherwise, I'm not sure what's the purpose of spending millions on presumably wise and intelligent engineers.

Re: What I Know About Being Sick at Work (2018)

#105

Post by hdfbdtbcdg »

leggomylibro wrote: post #86
hdfbdtbcdg wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I worked there and did not receive similar home office treatment I would leave... Edit I would do so quietly without making a fuss about it. You would probably not even realise that was the reason for me leaving. Basically if I see the rules of my workplace as unfair and arbitrary I will leave.

Is that the best approach, though? You might not be the only one who feels like the practices are harmful, and by speaking up could help the people around you. You can also just leave without quitting. Tell your manager that you are unable to work in the current workspace, and walk out the door no matter what time it is. If you still get your work done and your co-workers catch on, you can help to improve the culture…

Because management would then put me and the disabled person in shitty situations.

Me because I would be portrayed as opposed to all accommodations for people with disabilities - which I am not. Think Twitter storm.

The disabled person because they would then be forced to explain their disability and no one should have to do that.

Re: What I Know About Being Sick at Work (2018)

#106

Post by eemil »

hdfbdtbcdg wrote: post #37
jchw wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s expensive and we don’t really need it. Would be nice, though.

Well. Using headphones all day damages our hearing... We work better without constant distractions. We are pretty expensive to employ and then use at 50% potential.

What you're saying is a bit misleading.

Headphones do not inherently damage hearing. What's damaging, is listening to them at a high volume. This might occur if you're in a noisy environment, and use headphones with poor isolation, e.g. airpods, which need to overpower the ambient noise.

You can absolutely listen to headphones all day, in a quiet environment or if they provide good isolation.

Re: What I Know About Being Sick at Work (2018)

#107

Post by komali2 »

gdulli wrote: post #91
llampx wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would the workplace resemble if they were hiring 22 year old females? Can you give an answer with a straight face that doesn't patronize 50+% of the world population?

As a man I don't feel patronized by that comment and the women I know aren't so fragile as to need to believe women can't be criticized. Why manufacture outrage if you don't have to?

I'm not sure op is manufacturing outrage. I'm not outraged but I am mildly annoyed that someone would assume me and my buddies would turn an office into barracks because that's "just what young men do."

More likely we'd turn it into the ultimate LAN party environment or something.

Re: What I Know About Being Sick at Work (2018)

#108

Post by astura »

I don't need accomodations at work, personally. However, I am a big advocate for making sure that the people who do feel included. Maybe it's because I'm a minority in other ways.

I interviewed at a very large company and it was very nice when the recruiter asked me directly if I need accomodations for the interview. That's the good thing about large companies, they tend to put much more thought into that sort of thing.

Sounds to me this woman would benefit from one of those walkers with a built in seat. They have built in storage which would accomodate a laptop and there would always be a seat.

Re: What I Know About Being Sick at Work (2018)

#109

Post by astura »

bob33212 wrote: post #2

Very thoughtful author. I would like to get her thoughts on where a employeer should draw the line on staying that a disability cannot be accommodated. For example, someone who had a light sensitivity as well as PTSD may need to work in a dark quiet environment. How far does the company go to support that need?

In the US, the ADA says accommodations must be "reasonable." - what's "reasonable" is sometimes up for debate

So it's unreasonable for a grocery store employee to get a quite dark working environment because of the nature of grocery stores.

If the physical office couldn't reasonably accommodate a quite dark area, then maybe a partial work from home would work for that employee, as long as the work they were doing didn't require a physical presence. Or sunglasses and earplugs.

Obviously, it's a case-by-case kinda thing.

Re: What I Know About Being Sick at Work (2018)

#110

Post by gdulli »

komali2 wrote: post #107
gdulli wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a man I don't feel patronized by that comment and the women I know aren't so fragile as to need to believe women can't be criticized. Why manufacture outrage if you don't have to?

I'm not sure op is manufacturing outrage. I'm not outraged but I am mildly annoyed that someone would assume me and my buddies would turn an office into barracks because that's "just what young men do." More likely we'd turn it into the ultimate LAN party environment or something.

Being annoyed is a choice, though. Why do it if you don't have to?
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