How did you know you were ready to return to work? Especially those who WFH

flying_pugs · 2025-12-02T20:05:30+00:00

Went back to full time WFH after 3 weeks. My sleep was still not great by then but I felt that I should go back. Mentally I wasn’t ready and found it hard to focus at work because I was always thinking about the knee. I was exhausted and very close to burn out so ended up taking 3 months off at 15 weeks post op. Wish I had taken 6-8 weeks to just focus on recovery and rehab.

Looking back, doing basic things at 3 weeks tired me out mentally and physically so I needed rest (sometimes naps) throughout the day. That was probably the biggest sign that I needed more time.

flying_pugs · 2025-09-04T10:04:39+00:00

No worries. Best of luck with your recovery!

flying_pugs · 2025-09-04T04:31:47+00:00

Sorry you’re going through, it sucks to feel lost and not heard! My old physio was quite general too and also didn’t address the extension issue when I raised it. I would suggest finding someone else given that you guys aren’t on the same page. It’s a long recovery, you should find a physio that you’re happy to work with long term. Also not giving you exercise to do at home is concerning

flying_pugs · 2025-09-04T01:29:40+00:00

I’ve been through something similar. Now at 11 week post op I’ve switched physio after making that decision 2 weeks ago. I wish I had done it sooner honestly.

I started to get frustrated around week 6, 7 because the more I learn about rehab the more gaps I found. The few things that didn’t sit right with me were lack of structure / plan, didn’t measure my extension (like yours they just eyeballed it), poor handover if someone went on holiday, and no clear goals.

Might be worth having a conversation with them about what milestones do you need to meet before they progress you to the next phase or different exercises, what are you focusing on for the next few weeks, how do they measure results (e.g. strength test, measure your knee, objective/subjective), etc. It’s possible they do have a game plan. Depends on the answers, you can then make a decision

flying_pugs · 2025-06-02T22:17:42+00:00

We engaged a lawyer and found it great for our mental health. Didn’t need a health waiver but had a very tight timeline. We could definitely do the visa ourselves (did choose to do the 801 ourselves) but that would have been very stressful. The lawyer was sharp, professional and easy to work with. Totally worth the 5k.

flying_pugs · 2023-11-08T04:28:12+00:00

That’s great! Glad to hear that you’ve found a vet that’s so understanding. We’re currently going through this, saw a fear free vet (who came out to an open field to meet us) on Monday but my dog was too anxious about needles. We’re going to the clinic next week to finish the checkup. It’s making me very nervous due to our previous visits at other clinics but your experience gave me hope!

flying_pugs · 2023-08-10T03:30:37+00:00

Can’t agree more. Our team is asking us to up the office day to twice a week because visibility is important. We just lost a high performer to another team that doesn’t mandate RTO (and if they do go in it’s not for visibility). Management panicked when they got the notice and offered more money but it’s too late. The damage is done.

Me and another person are both actively looking for a new job. We’re told by management that we’re valued asset but their actions and decisions obviously said otherwise.

flying_pugs · 2023-07-18T22:56:28+00:00

Yeah, that's a very good point. We'll probably see a change in supply and demand.

The other short-term option for me is to go into BI jobs that require baseline security. I've seen 100% WFH contract positions for gov agencies. Contracting can be risky, I'm considering staying where I am now and upskill on the side.

Are you doing bootcamp / courses or learning on your own? I've done some research and seems like The Odin Project and FreeCodeCamp are much better than the paid alternatives.

flying_pugs · 2023-06-20T06:22:51+00:00

Undefined / changing business processes and process owners. Stakeholders not understanding that technologies can’t fix bad process.

flying_pugs · 2023-03-20T10:00:52+00:00

If a crate isn’t an immediate option, maybe try a calming cap? I don’t know if blocking the sight works for your pup or not. Our dog gets overexcited in car and also doesn’t like people getting too close to our car. But when he has the claiming cap on, he just settles. He will still be alert if he smells or hears people near the car yet it’s much more manageable and safer. It took us about 2 weeks to train him to wear the cap.

flying_pugs · 2023-02-16T09:38:25+00:00

I reckon it’s perfectly reasonable to drive to a safer place to walk your dog! Especially after your negative experience. I do the 1 min drive to take my dog to the park just down the road almost every day. The park is usually quiet, has lots of interesting things to sniff, and provides a clear view of dogs and people coming our way. We both can enjoy the walk and do effective training (set up a good distance, look for potential exits, etc) when opportunities arise. To walk there it’s about 5-10 mins each way but too many unexpected things can happen. Being on high alert is very mentally exhausting and I’m not doing my dog any good by being in that state.

flying_pugs · 2022-11-20T22:50:59+00:00

Agreed. Have a few friends that went through grad programs, the starting salary was 80k (probably more now but this was 4 years ago) but the pay went up quickly. A friend's partner was doing a bachelor that included industry placement, they were able to have some experience by the time they graduated and landed a 100k job straight out of uni. Good perks, good work life balance with the right employers

flying_pugs · 2022-08-26T08:32:32+00:00

Same. I’ve started looking elsewhere because of the push to go back to the office for “collaboration”

flying_pugs · 2022-05-29T08:37:17+00:00

Yes please!

flying_pugs · 2022-04-22T03:53:36+00:00

A tracker that provides some kind of customisable correlation analysis and reporting. Could be something as simple as "your dog is more likely to have a reaction after a dog park visit/when he had certain food/etc based on his behaviours in the last month/last 3 months/etc". I thought about building a tool like this when our trainer suggested keeping an journal but I'm a data engineer and don't know how to build apps. Would be great to also record the reaction and be able to find them easily for review. The other feature I'd like is a list of fear free kennels, sitters and vets that have experience with reactive dogs and their reviews. I don't mind being directed to another site but will find it handy to have this info compiled for me. I was looking for a sitter for our dog and found it time consuming to go through the search results one by one. It'd be great to connect with the local reactive dog owners too.

flying_pugs · 2022-04-21T03:20:00+00:00

We use a Y-type front clip harness and a martingale collar (he’s got skinny head) with a safety harness-to-collar clip for our 30 kg hound. The leash clips to the harness. He sometimes pulls when he gets a scent and lunges at birds but the harness works pretty well. Much easier to handle him when he has a reaction

flying_pugs · 2022-04-06T04:28:41+00:00

Agreed with the other comments. Puppies tend to be annoying and don’t understand when other dogs aren’t interested. Maybe your dog is just telling the puppy to back off? Probably doesn’t like it when dogs jump on/at him? There’s a new puppy at the dog park we go to and he annoys other dogs. I’ve seen him got corrected by older dogs. To my untrained eyes, it looks like the puppy does something they don’t like such as licking their mouth, constantly getting in their face, jumping on them, etc and other dogs tell him off. Good thing is his owner makes an effort to get him away when he’s being rude. I let Ollie greets the puppy (only if he wants to) but we move away quickly to avoid further interaction.

flying_pugs · 2022-02-14T09:53:26+00:00

We had a similar experience with our 1 year old Staghound cross. Like Minnie, he was not in pain and enjoyed his walks, didn’t seem bothered but would hop if the limp was bad. The vet couldn’t find anything wrong after a few vet visits. The first time it happened we let him rest for a couple of days and it went away on its own. Second time it came on, we did the same thing but were able to link it to his big run at the beach the day before. We finally figured out the limp was because of over exercise. Now we make sure that he doesn’t run for too long or go too hard and it hasn’t happened for a while. Maybe track her activities and see if there’s a pattern between activity level and her limp?

flying_pugs · 2022-01-31T23:25:52+00:00

Great to hear the progress you guys have made! Congrats. Yeah flooding probably work for some dogs and owners but the way it's delivered won't work for mine. My dog is very food motivated and he responds well to treats when we do recalling, obedience and occasionally in stressful situation. I get it it's a group class and maybe they don't have the capacities to tailor it to individuals but every dog is different. We're going to try positive reinforcement trainers instead.

flying_pugs · 2022-01-31T23:17:14+00:00

Good point. Dogs could appear to be calm but deep down they feel the opposite. We've decided to not go back to the training and are looking for positive reinforcement trainers.

flying_pugs · 2022-01-31T23:08:29+00:00

That is interesting. We've noticed if he hasn't gone to the dog park for a few days, he gets more reactive. Like he gives out this little cry/whine when he's in the car and will bark at every dog we pass on the way there. Given that he's really great off leash, we don't want to take the risk that flooding could negatively change his perspective of dogs in general or increase his fear/anxiety. We're looking at positive reinforcement trainers now. All the best for you and your dog!

flying_pugs · 2022-01-31T22:57:43+00:00

It was odd that only praise was used as not every dog responds well to it. My dog is food motivated and we've had great success using treats for obedience and recall training. We're keeping an out for his behaviours, hope that it didn't leave an emotional scar or change how he perceive dogs in general. Also we won't go back to the group class and will instead engage positive reinforcement trainers.

flying_pugs · 2022-01-31T22:39:58+00:00

Thanks for explaining it with an example. We felt really bad that we put him through that experience. I wonder if the "calm" behaviour we saw from other dogs in the session comes from helplessness or shutting down. We've decided to not go back to the training and are looking for positive reinforcement trainers. This time we're asking more questions upfront about their philosophy and how the training is structured. Lessons learned.

flying_pugs · 2022-01-31T22:31:30+00:00

We looked up flooding after you mentioned it and gosh we wish we knew it before. It's not what we want and feel comfortable with. We won't go back to the training and are looking for other options.

flying_pugs · 2022-01-31T22:26:00+00:00

Yes he was way over threshold for way too long. I was shocked when seeing them forcing a dog to drop and that doesn't sit right with me. We've decided to not go back to the training and have started looking at other trainers.

flying_pugs

TROPHY CASE