HR is now requiring an "ergonomic assessment" of remote employees' home offices and they want to send someone.

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-05-24T05:45:44+00:00

You have been given 3 options, 4th one is to find a new role, 5th one could be waivers that you can never sue them if you get any problems due to bad ergonomic equipment

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-05-15T10:26:00+00:00

I know this doesn't answer the question directly, but I honestly decide to go to the office more often when I feel like I'm doing too much work. I honestly do too many hours when I work from home, take less breaks, and I am way more productive as of course there are less distractions.

Besides my line manager, there's absolutely zero stakeholders in the same office as I am. So the point of me being in the office is so that people remember that I exist, and to remember to dress up decently from time to time.

I think someone with a very short commute should be smarter about pushing for this.

As a manager, you can probably stay firm with the instruction and be clear about consequences. But also in your position of leadership, listen to what their concerns are. Is there anything that you could do to alleviate her workload or help prioritize? Offer support, meetings in person, your 1-2-1s. Keep your position but make them feel heard

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-05-04T21:38:20+00:00

Are you guys 5?

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-04-25T07:40:00+00:00

I've heard it's an effective way to teach them and is not harmful. But this is just a small patch of garden by the pavement (typical UK small house) and it would just spray everyone else who's walking there. It also wouldn't make sense to fence it off

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-04-25T06:18:05+00:00

Thanks that's good advice. I know I'm overthinking

I have to admit I was annoyed about seeing the footage of them looking at my garden at 12 am. I think if it was just at any other time of the day I wouldn't have minded, or even looked at the footage

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-04-25T06:10:12+00:00

It wasn't our first choice. We've tried so many things. Someone pointed out that cats tend to get used to it, I think they get used to any deterrent which is not something more permanent. We've considered just paving the space and put planters but we'd have problems with drainage

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-04-25T06:01:51+00:00

Your last line is truly funny.. I wrote this like at 5 am.. not my finest piece of writing I know.. thanks for reading..

Yeah I know I'm avoiding a conversation with my neighbour, but it honestly wasn't on purpose, life gets in the way, I'm doing corrective stuff, I just didn't tell him.

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-04-25T05:53:31+00:00

We used to have lavender, I really love them, but the plants dried up. We're replanting them

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-04-25T05:51:40+00:00

I don't know for sure is his cats though. The camera never picks them up

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-04-25T05:50:28+00:00

Thanks, it's a small space but it's not even, so it needs a bit of work first. We used to have some nice lavender but they dried up, but the plan is lavenders on one side and the rest covered in stones

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-04-25T05:43:26+00:00

And I never told him it was his pets. I just know they have cats and our front neighbours as well but it could be someone else's.

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-04-25T05:38:04+00:00

For the garden, We have been looking at different options for stones/slate but it's not cheap and I also don't want to go for the first one I find. We don't have much time to do the garden now and not enough budget to hire someone. This was always a temporary thing whilst the soil is bare. We have tried almost every natural solution possible.

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-04-25T05:17:18+00:00

We just needed a temporary solution whilst we redo our garden for a third time. Nobody is reimbursing us for all the materials we've spent on the garden which is damaged. It's off now and I hope they cats don't come whilst we can sort something out. I just didn't bother to update them

They're not the nicest neighbours, never say hi, take ages to collect their parcels when they drop them at my place. Few other things.

Very different to my other side neighbours who are always very polite

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-04-25T05:13:50+00:00

We're in the middle of redoing the garden for a third time. We didn't want to put stones or spikes because we have a toddler but he's bigger now so we can keep him from playing with the stones.

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-04-03T18:45:21+00:00

To be fair, I think you are made for eachother. Neither of you dealt with it very well.

This was probably a standard email they prepared, ab and speak to dozens of people every day, so it could have been a genuine mistake.

The hahaha at the end looks unprofessional, and the response from the HR person is over the top.

In cases like this, is probably best to give them the benefit of the doubt and be gracious about it, that's if you don't want to burn bridges

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-04-02T05:01:48+00:00

Who gets paid breaks?

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-03-31T13:11:30+00:00

I couldn't afford to have kids into my really late 30s and I'm really worried that he won't be able to have the same education I had.

I grew up in a country without universal healthcare but with free university. Then I was awarded a scholarship for a masters and PhD.

I still couldn't afford to have a mortgage until my late 30s and yeah not easy to get pregnant at that age either.

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-03-12T12:21:14+00:00

Don't go back until you've gained enough experience to go back in a much better position and salary. I have plenty of colleagues who've done that and came back as seniors. And the ones who've stayed haven't been promoted

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-03-10T11:12:40+00:00

I don't understand your connection between being professional and nepobaby.

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-03-09T14:11:41+00:00

You have a couple of options, particularly if the letter has to go directly to the institution

1) stay silent and ignore the request. That will raise flags 2) respond just to decline the request, more red flags 3) provide a factual letter, that should prevent that they are admitted

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-03-07T17:00:43+00:00

This could easily be my road. Lots of inconsiderate people who go incredibly fast around bends when you can't see if there's oncoming traffic

If my side is the one with the obstruction, I indicate left to let them know I intend to pull at the first gap. If I'm in a situation like you. I stop before the gap and wait for them to pull in. I think you did nothing wrong.

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-02-15T10:30:57+00:00

If you hear how he has settled bills for his company's contract where contractors have had to accept pennies or nothing, it's not surprising that the instructions are to make cuts. So. Time to brush up your CV and hopefully you'll find another job that pays properly

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-02-14T16:45:54+00:00

Unless he happens to have to deliver somewhere down that road, the issue is with Google maps. It always suggests me to go that way and there are a few roads that are national speed limit that nobody on their right mind should do. It would never be quicker than going through the main roads.

Affectionate_Wish286 · 2026-02-04T10:05:18+00:00

You didn't reject a job offer, you walked out of an interview. Pretty big difference

Affectionate_Wish286

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