General Musings

[The Great Khali]

Aye he's a freak eh. Can I have a look at the dessert menu

[Del-icious]

This is what I'm hating about the UoE policies. WFH when it suits them, come back when it suits them, go back home when it suits them. Granted we're getting a hybrid framework but with WFH being totally viable for a lot of teams and the cost of living being insane, not having any travel expenses, and your food all being made in your own kitchen, is going to save a small fortune. I'm now running my team and whilst I've been reminded of the hybrid policies no one has told me what happens if I ignore them. What if I work from home? What if I tell my staff to work from home? Who is checking that we're in the building and what does it matter if we're not? This is the issue with a single policy for a huge institution with no real centralised campus or way to track comings and goings of all employees.

I see my role in this is supporting my team to get the set up they want. Other managers see their role as forcing policy on to their team. I've got a guy who moved to Glasgow during lockdown because it's the only place he could afford to buy, has been working perfectly fine from there for 2 years, and I'm meant to ask him to commute to Edinburgh to sit in a shitty basement office, for why? Even if he came in once a week would cost him over £100 a month. He'd get no support with that cost. But if he lived in Edinburgh and needed to get to Glasgow for business once a week, they'd cover the expenses. It's all just bullshit.

The future of teaching in that place is hybrid learning, all the teaching rooms are having a lot money spent on them to bring them up to scratch for remote learning, the new EFI campus is being built around the idea you don't need to have everyone in the same room and you can have folk involved from America/India etc.

God forbid a member of staff who sits at a desk all day working on a computer works remotely though None of it effects me as can't do my job remotely but having the mrs WFH has been a god send especially when we're in the market for a dug. She seems to have a good deal for now but it just takes one fanny with a shred of power to turn it on its head.

[Vieri]

Remote uni sounds fucking dreadful tbh.

Also trying to train some wee goon at work whilst they're at home

[Big Physical Acey]

I taught a remote uni class at one point last year - the number of doss cunts not even trying to hide that they were lying in bed not paying attention.

[Mikey]

You'd have to be a real dweeb to want to do Uni from home like

[Del-icious]

You're not doing it from home you're just not doing it in the classroom in Edinburgh

It's boring as fuck I can't be arsed explaining it but the point being if the learning can be done remotely and folk can communicate fine etc what's the problem with people who don't need to communicate anywhere near as much using the same technology?

It's just full on presenteeism and a lack of trust in staff that's the issue most of the time I feel. Nae one would care if you had to meet in the middle and come in for one day a week or for anything that's important but think majority of the time it's usually just miserable managers wanting their staff to have a miserable life like them

[Snake Plissken]

I did my master's by distance learning no bother, I think it could depend on the subject but it suited me just fine.

On the wider point of WFH, I think the cat's out of the bag now and companies can either adapt to it or run the risk of losing staff by forcing them into an office. There will be certain jobs that will obviously need to be done in person but a great number won't. I've worked for a company in California from New York for 18 months with no issues whatsoever. The complete lack of a commute, aside from going downstairs, is by far the best part. I'd have to triple my pay to be lured back into an office at this point.

[Socko]

We had a boy based in Florida working for us for over a year. But aye it's vital that I spend money and time dragging myself into a miserable office every day. Think of the collaboration 

[Zizou]

Flexible hybrid working is the way forward. A bit of give and take.

WFH every day is just as miserable as being in the office every day.

[CritchSmile]

You're not doing it from home you're just not doing it in the classroom in Edinburgh

It's boring as fuck I can't be arsed explaining it but the point being if the learning can be done remotely and folk can communicate fine etc what's the problem with people who don't need to communicate anywhere near as much using the same technology?

It's just full on presenteeism and a lack of trust in staff that's the issue most of the time I feel.  Nae one would care if you had to meet in the middle and come in for one day a week or for anything that's important but think majority of the time it's usually just miserable managers wanting their staff to have a miserable life like them

International students paying 30k a year at Edinburgh uni to learn by zoom call

[Del-icious]

[Billy Butcher]

International students paying 30k a year at Edinburgh uni to learn by zoom call

Was just thinking that. Mum and dad working their fingers to the bone for decades so that their wee rat wean can sit in the room next door listening to a YouTube video some VL lecturer has recorded - and paying £30k for the privilege

[Del-icious]

Was just thinking that. Mum and dad working their fingers to the bone for decades so that their wee rat wean can sit in the room next door listening to a YouTube video some VL lecturer has recorded - and paying £30k for the privilege

The students are in the classroom in Edinburgh ya spanner


Edit: just realised I said the opposite earlier

[Billy Butcher]

The students are in the classroom in Edinburgh ya spanner

So move to Edinburgh to sit in the classroom beside the lecture hall where the lecture is taking place?

I am a big fan of WFH and I think it's way of the future - as others have said, there aren't many jobs that have to be done on site. However, if you are paying £30k a year for something, you are going to take full advantage.

Edit: keeping this even though Spanner Morph isn't even sure what he is arguing for

[Del-icious]

It's just a boring thing to explain, the idea is good about people learning from real businesses around the world,  so they're building these ambitious hybrid spaces and moves away from the standard uni format of lectures and tutorials.  I'm not 100% sure what the set up needs to be on the other end but the idea is you can host a lesson in Tokyo for example and a lot of the issues people complain about with video chat are addressed.  It's not quite hologram levels like but it sounds good what they want to do.  

It's not 100% remote or that or you just do uni from home, there's the open university already for that

[Shuto Makino]

The issue is paying a fortune for education, not the delivery method (although, having taught in person, online, and via hybrid learning, imo in person is far superior).

The debate over WFH is effectively capitalists who are quite happy to avoid paying rent and bills vs the commercial landlord class who need rent/people to buy 6/10 lunches for £100 at Pret A Manger. A split in British capital.

Don't think it's a good idea to become an entirely atomised society, but we've clearly seen that WFH, at least on occasion, is a better option for a lot of people.

[Vieri]

My bird said to me last night 'oh I think one of my friends is going out with a footballer, his name is David', turns the phone round and there's David Obua's smiling face.

[2MatoFish]

Does he have any other kind of face?

[Zizou]

https://twitter.com/nocontextdazgee/stat...5976445952

This boy is unreal man. Some Scouse lunatic who was in jail for murder and always gets into bother. Watch the whole thread of videos

[The Great Khali]

I went into a proper hole watching them earlier. Just kept going

The bike with no handlebars man