workaday Wednesday

[marcicat]

My workplace is still doing a hybrid 'some people on site, some people working from home' thing, which is what it is. (I prefer working from home and hope to keep doing it, but work has so far declined to confirm or deny whether that will be an option. Currently signs point to yes, but with work, one never knows.)

The point is, I used to work on site, so I was used to having the workplace provide me with things like post-its and pens and power strips. (Not batteries. Very stingy with batteries.) And when we were sent home, I took a certain amount of that stuff with me. (Where 'a certain amount' means 'everything I thought I could get away with.')

But there have been two people hired on my team since work-from-home began, who have never been to the office. One of them said yesterday that their power strip was not working. (Okay, not exactly, but that was the takeaway I got from a story I was not entirely paying attention to.) And in an attempt to be helpful, I said, 'they'll probably mail you a new one, or you could buy one and get reimbursed.'

Note: I have no idea if that is true! It's extremely unclear if there are any guidelines at all for what is our responsibility to purchase and what is not! (But last year I asked if I could still follow the old in-office procedure for ordering a calendar-planner, and was told yes, and a planner of my choice was mailed to me at no charge.)

Which is to say: it's probably worth asking for stuff! When you want it! (I do not do this! But I am trying to consider that it is an option that exists!)

Comments

[kimboo_york]

YES! I provided a set of nice headphones+mic to a colleague to use at home, and she was very worried about "taking work property off site" until I explained that she's working from home, and if she were working at the office, these are the headphones we would provide. So yes, she gets to use them at home too!

It's wild how we have been indoctrinated to view work mostly very cheap supplies as precious commodities. *rolls eyes*

[china_shop]

That seems like the kind of uncertainty/lack of clarity that will stress some people out, while others just cheerfully ask for whatever they want. Go you for encouraging the latter!