Author Topic: Do You Miss Access to the Office?  (Read 8602 times)

Gimesalot

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Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« on: January 02, 2018, 03:28:34 PM »
This is going to sound like t he stupidest question ever, but do you miss having access to the conveniences of you former office or work environment? 

Just this weekend, I realized that I was no longer going to have access to free scanning, photocopying, printing.  Also, I won't  have access to unlimited amounts of paper for writing or making sewing patterns.  The free coffee is nice too.   I don't think it's a huge deal, just something I hadn't thought of. 

 

Frankies Girl

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #1 on: January 02, 2018, 03:32:51 PM »
That stuff is the only thing I miss. Not enough to consider ever working in that sort of environment again, but yeah.

I had fancy programs paid for and able to use at home. Also the full color, giant format printers - these two I really miss.

Had occasional lunches catered and conferences at 4 star hotels.

I can buy the programs or printer and go stay in a 4 star hotel any time I want, but it just isn't the same as when someone else was providing it for you.

jim555

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #2 on: January 02, 2018, 03:36:17 PM »
Don't miss it at all.
I have a printer and scanner at home with a pack of paper.  Most things are paperless now anyway.
We never had free coffee.

rosarugosa

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2018, 03:36:52 PM »
I haven't been gone long, but I do and will miss the printer a bit.

Financial.Velociraptor

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #4 on: January 02, 2018, 03:53:16 PM »
Heh.  I was just talking with some former cow-orkers who have also left to 'other than corporate things'.  We all agree we do NOT miss the company cafeteria.

dragoncar

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #5 on: January 02, 2018, 04:08:25 PM »
Needs to be on a pre-fire checklist:

Use your corporate email address to sign up for he Microsoft Home use program and keep a copy of the email

Take home a few pair of scissors just in case you need to cut something for work in your last few days

Same with tape, highlighters, envelopes. 

Drink all the coffee

Don’t forget the lightbulbs and batteries on the way out.  Whoever is moving into your old office doesn’t need light it’s bad for the eyes

(https://youtu.be/on2_ooaUc4Q)

Give away your extra monitors to the coworkers who please you most.  A monitor gifting ceremony is nice and appreciated even by the non-chosen

Leave a yogurt in the back of the fridge with your name on it.  A little something to remember you when they clean it out at the end of the year

A serious one I did once: every day I took a handful of free mints from the cafeteria, and put them in my desk drawer.  By the end of my employment it was overflowing.  Just a nice surprise for the next occupant with halitosis

But yeah I hate paying for printer paper now
 L



SwordGuy

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #6 on: January 02, 2018, 04:53:26 PM »
For the savings in gasoline and car (and me!!) wear and tear commuting to the office, I'll consider paying for my own coffee and printer paper and ink cheap at the price.     Hell, I could buy a hell of a plotter/printer for the savings in just the first year alone.

28 miles a day * 5 days a week * 52 weeks * 0.56 a mile is over $4000.  And that's just the first year.



Christof

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #7 on: January 02, 2018, 05:05:55 PM »
Just this weekend, I realized that I was no longer going to have access to free scanning, photocopying, printing.  Also, I won't  have access to unlimited amounts of paper for writing or making sewing patterns.  The free coffee is nice too.   I don't think it's a huge deal, just something I hadn't thought of.

Most voluntary activities give you access to a printer, scanner and coffee. Also, there are plenty of opportunities to collect papers that has been printed on on one side only. Yes, it'll take some work, but certainly less than the eight hours or so you spend previously.

JoJo

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #8 on: January 02, 2018, 05:51:54 PM »
My public library allows a certain # of printed papers each month.  Great perk.

DTaggart

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #9 on: January 02, 2018, 05:52:01 PM »
I'm about to FIRE and I know for certain one of the things I will miss is the air conditioning during a heat wave. Guess I'll have to go to the beach instead! MPP

BPA

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #10 on: January 02, 2018, 06:08:53 PM »
I needed to send a fax once and it was a bit of a pain to find a place to send one, but that's about it.  I use the library if I need a printer or scanner.

It's funny because I thought, "Oh shit. This is the only time I've missed working" so I totally get where you are coming from.

Don't worry though.  There are other ways to get that stuff done.

soccerluvof4

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #11 on: January 03, 2018, 03:48:16 AM »
No..I can scan and all from home. Unless your a coffee connoisseur its so cheap to make its not worth the gas to go to work let along any other items you mentioned.

Gimesalot

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #12 on: January 03, 2018, 08:38:32 AM »
I am glad that others can at least commiserate.  I expected facepunches!

I think the thing I will miss the most is plotter paper.  I love to use it to make clothing patterns without having to tape pieces of paper together.

Needs to be on a pre-fire checklist:

Leave a yogurt in the back of the fridge with your name on it.  A little something to remember you when they clean it out at the end of the year


I laughed so hard at this!  I am adding this to my to-do list when cleaning my office.

Eucalyptus

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #13 on: January 03, 2018, 07:44:00 PM »
When I FIRE (long way off...) I plan to maintain status with the uni as a Visitor/Adjunct. I've been told that if I do leave, this won't be a problem for me.

So I get to keep all the perks. Prob still have a desk and computer. So I can come and work on exactly what I want to work on, and nothing else! The stuff I get the most pleasure out of. This is the dream...

Megma

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #14 on: January 03, 2018, 08:46:39 PM »
I am glad that others can at least commiserate.  I expected facepunches!

I think the thing I will miss the most is plotter paper.  I love to use it to make clothing patterns without having to tape pieces of paper together.

Needs to be on a pre-fire checklist:

Leave a yogurt in the back of the fridge with your name on it.  A little something to remember you when they clean it out at the end of the year


I laughed so hard at this!  I am adding this to my to-do list when cleaning my office.

I totally print sewing patterns at the office. Those suckers use a lot of paper! Occasionally I print a European pattern that’s in A4 on legal size paper because it’s easier!

Rollin

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #15 on: January 04, 2018, 07:38:12 AM »
I don't miss it. By the way, was it free at the office or ???

Rocket

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #16 on: January 04, 2018, 07:56:47 AM »
I dont use my printer to scan anymore.  If you have a smart phone you can download apps that will scan documents.  I use scanbot all the time, it creates a pdf that I then email to myself.

lizzzi

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #17 on: January 04, 2018, 08:28:54 AM »
Good Lord, no. We never had free coffee, and home coffee is much better anyway. Regarding business supplies and business services...come on people. Grow up and go purchase your own stuff...and use the library, the UPS store, the copying places, Staples...there are a million places to take care of your business needs. And you can tailor it better to what you need for your personal use..

dragoncar

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #18 on: January 04, 2018, 08:03:42 PM »
Good Lord, no. We never had free coffee, and home coffee is much better anyway. Regarding business supplies and business services...come on people. Grow up and go purchase your own stuff...and use the library, the UPS store, the copying places, Staples...there are a million places to take care of your business needs. And you can tailor it better to what you need for your personal use..

Come on people, do we even need store-bought office supplies?  I prefer to make my own my pens, paper, etc. from scratch.  Healthier and taste better.

lizzzi

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #19 on: January 05, 2018, 09:26:53 AM »
Ha-ha, dragoncar. That's tellin' 'em.

Fishindude

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #20 on: January 05, 2018, 11:00:45 AM »
I just set up a home office.   In pretty short order I have realized that good printer, copier, scanner is awfully handy.   Will be shopping for one soon.

ketchup

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #21 on: January 05, 2018, 12:02:32 PM »
I just set up a home office.   In pretty short order I have realized that good printer, copier, scanner is awfully handy.   Will be shopping for one soon.
I bought this guy last year and have had good luck with it so far (but don't use the wireless because wireless is death).  I snagged it when the price dipped down to $99. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MFG57ZK/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

AlexK

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #22 on: January 14, 2018, 04:10:16 PM »
My place of employment had a MIG welder, lathe, Bridgeport mill, grinder, 20 ton hydraulic press, and drill press that I very much miss. I rebuilt my car's manual transmission there with the help of the hydraulic press and I made personal stuff all the time with the other equipment. I joined a local makerspace but their tools are far inferior.

meghan88

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #23 on: January 15, 2018, 12:45:16 PM »
Good Lord, no. We never had free coffee, and home coffee is much better anyway. Regarding business supplies and business services...come on people. Grow up and go purchase your own stuff...and use the library, the UPS store, the copying places, Staples...there are a million places to take care of your business needs. And you can tailor it better to what you need for your personal use..

Come on people, do we even need store-bought office supplies?  I prefer to make my own my pens, paper, etc. from scratch.  Healthier and taste better.

LOL.

What I will miss:
- new computer, extra monitors
- IT support
- paid-for smartphone and plan
- scanner / printer
- snacks / tea / coffee
- benefits

I will hold out as long as possible without a phone after FIRE but I'm guessing that once I succumb, a decent Canadian phone plan will set me back about $600 - 1000/year.  Not sure how much just yet.  Ugh.

jim555

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #24 on: January 15, 2018, 09:27:22 PM »
Good Lord, no. We never had free coffee, and home coffee is much better anyway. Regarding business supplies and business services...come on people. Grow up and go purchase your own stuff...and use the library, the UPS store, the copying places, Staples...there are a million places to take care of your business needs. And you can tailor it better to what you need for your personal use..

Come on people, do we even need store-bought office supplies?  I prefer to make my own my pens, paper, etc. from scratch.  Healthier and taste better.

LOL.

What I will miss:
- new computer, extra monitors
- IT support
- paid-for smartphone and plan
- scanner / printer
- snacks / tea / coffee
- benefits

I will hold out as long as possible without a phone after FIRE but I'm guessing that once I succumb, a decent Canadian phone plan will set me back about $600 - 1000/year.  Not sure how much just yet.  Ugh.
We never got snacks or coffee or paid phones, guess my company was cheap or something.

BTDretire

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #25 on: January 17, 2018, 10:24:31 AM »
I didn't have an office I had a shop, I do miss the lathe, milling machine, test equipment and Henry, the very high intellect physicist I worked with. So, yes, in fact if I still had that job, I might still be working. But the business is gone Henry died. Times move on.

bluebelle

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #26 on: January 17, 2018, 10:55:24 AM »
I changed jobs 5 years ago, and went from going to an office every day to working from home....I really like it now, and can't imagine going to an office every day, but for the first six months I really missed the social interaction.  But I think that was because I wasn't busy at the new job, and could go all day without speaking to someone.  Now I have lots of meetings.  I learned how much I rely on non-verbal cues, I still missing talking to people face to face.  5 minutes on a white board solves alot of problems....

What I don't miss:
- the commute, especially in inclement weather, folks around here loose their minds
- the dress code (I am convinced I'm more productive in sweats!)
- the mess in the office kitchen, some people were pigs and didn't clean up after themselves
- the line up at the microwave (IT folks seem to bring their lunches!)  I ate my lunch cold more than once because I didn't have time to wait before my next meeting
- the smells, I could tell when some people walked by just by the smell, and had to get off the elevator more than once because I couldn't hold my breath for the whole 12 floors
- the noise of some of the inane conversations that went on around me (although, it would have been good source if I'd known about with forum 5+ years ago)


dude

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #27 on: January 17, 2018, 01:13:13 PM »
I get pretty much ZERO office perks as a government employee (and all our shit hardly works anyway), so I won't miss access to this shithole for even one second!

Financial Ascensionist

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #28 on: January 17, 2018, 06:14:13 PM »
There was a fancy espresso machine in the office, which makes some really good coffee, but I find that putting the right beans in my moka pot also gives me a very satisfying cup and I certainly appreciate drinking coffee at a leisurely pace more than having to say "hi, good morning" to someone after every sip.  I printed exactly one document in the six months since I left and FedEx worked well enough for me.  As for the free snacks, my waist-line tells me it's a damn good thing I don't have access to those anymore.

Daisy

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #29 on: January 18, 2018, 12:59:38 PM »
I dont use my printer to scan anymore.  If you have a smart phone you can download apps that will scan documents.  I use scanbot all the time, it creates a pdf that I then email to myself.

Thanks for the tip! I just downloaded the app.

I don't own a printer/scanner either and figured some day I may need to buy one.

I rarely print anything. I usually do the little printing I need to do when I visit my parents and use their printer. Any ideas on that?

Tired Engineer

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #30 on: January 18, 2018, 03:29:30 PM »
I miss access to the machine shop.  Right now I need to mill .012 off the side of a doweling jig.

Christof

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #31 on: January 19, 2018, 05:43:41 PM »
I've heard that US libraries often also offer a printer. Might be cheaper and closer than your parents.

Hotels sometimes have a business center that is not only available to guests. For chains this can depend in the status you have, if there is any sensible way of getting status while not traveling for business.

SachaFiscal

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #32 on: January 21, 2018, 07:17:00 AM »
Not even a little bit. I have a better laptop and monitors at home and better supplies (not the poor quality stuff they had at work). Also I didn’t used to drink the coffe there but brought in my own tea so no change there. The cafeteria there sucked, I make much healthier and cheaper food at home. My home office isn’t much nicer than the work office and I have a better view outside my windows.

margarita

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #33 on: January 29, 2018, 09:12:51 PM »
My last day of work I brought to work a pound of shrimp in a Tupperware container   I had intended to drop them in the heating rads around the office but unfortunately some spoiled sports beat me to work so I wasn’t there early enough to do the job. Well maybe a couple fell behind a partition   

So I guess I missed leaving a gift behind for everyone that would develop over time. 

Oh not what you meant....ok then 

 I worked in a crappy government office with shitty old stuff so no.

Just Joe

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #34 on: March 13, 2018, 06:51:32 PM »
My place of employment had a MIG welder, lathe, Bridgeport mill, grinder, 20 ton hydraulic press, and drill press that I very much miss. I rebuilt my car's manual transmission there with the help of the hydraulic press and I made personal stuff all the time with the other equipment. I joined a local makerspace but their tools are far inferior.

THAT is the problem. No CNC mill here at home or CNC Plama cutter... I have the MIG welder and saw.

I let the last retiree come in and us the machines at work. Hopefully my replacement will do the same for me?
« Last Edit: March 13, 2018, 06:54:01 PM by Just Joe »

Reynold

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #35 on: March 19, 2018, 12:37:20 PM »
I dont use my printer to scan anymore.  If you have a smart phone you can download apps that will scan documents.  I use scanbot all the time, it creates a pdf that I then email to myself.

Scanning is nice and all, but my DW still has to send a fax probably at least once a week.  Medical offices, even now, often don't accept email, you have to fax things, and many government offices same.  I often offer to fax things from work, because at home she has to run a 30 foot phone line from her office (which is in one of the few rooms of the house to not have a phone jack) to the next bedroom to fax. 

I do miss the drill press from where I worked previously, I don't need it nearly often enough to justify getting one, but once in a while. . .

druth

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #36 on: March 20, 2018, 08:49:55 AM »
I dont use my printer to scan anymore.  If you have a smart phone you can download apps that will scan documents.  I use scanbot all the time, it creates a pdf that I then email to myself.

Scanning is nice and all, but my DW still has to send a fax probably at least once a week.  Medical offices, even now, often don't accept email, you have to fax things, and many government offices same.  I often offer to fax things from work, because at home she has to run a 30 foot phone line from her office (which is in one of the few rooms of the house to not have a phone jack) to the next bedroom to fax. 

I do miss the drill press from where I worked previously, I don't need it nearly often enough to justify getting one, but once in a while. . .

You can send faxes for free online, though.

You cannot drill press things for free online, so I'll grant you that one.

snogirl

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #37 on: March 28, 2018, 09:13:30 PM »
Nope

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk


HenryDavid

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #38 on: April 05, 2018, 09:25:17 AM »
Worked in the public sector. No free cofffee. Access to copier etc. tightly controlled. Pens, whiteboard markers etc. available through slow request process. Taxpayer dollars after all.
Many of us had shared offices, but I had my own. A perk of arriving back in the 90s. Good for changing after bike commute mostly.
So, not much to miss. Keeping the library card! Never gonna give that up. The library = “the office” for profs, like I was. In the truest sense. And global acccess comes with one local card. Nice supplement to the public library.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #39 on: April 05, 2018, 11:21:54 AM »
My job has a couple of trailers that we can borrow for free. I borrowed it many times when we moved houses. The job also has a car washing hall and a lift for the car, which we can use for free by operating ourselves.

We do have an HP printer/copier/scanner at home. The machine was very cheap. The cartridges are really expensive and el cheapo copies work badly. The scanner works badly as well, everything needs to be scanned twice to get an acceptable scan. And it only scans to a memory card.

The scanner/copier/printer at work is so much better and more convenient. Recently I scanned a 700 page book, which went pretty fast. I also print hiking maps in color in I have printed a sewing pattern.

austin944

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #40 on: April 07, 2018, 12:22:57 PM »
I miss socializing with my co-workers.  You could either work in your cube, or come out to the shared areas and chat with people.  It was kind of like a college dorm in that way; it was very easy to make friends and new connections.  Being FIREd, socializing requires more advance planning and work.


smoghat

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #41 on: April 08, 2018, 06:29:07 AM »
I miss access to the university resources that I used to have. That's about it.

MayDay

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #42 on: April 09, 2018, 07:30:25 PM »
My last job we got unlimited free 2x4s. I miss that a lot. If I ever leave my current job I am definitely going to stage a monitor gifting ceremony.

Slowdown

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Re: Do You Miss Access to the Office?
« Reply #43 on: April 11, 2018, 09:35:43 AM »
I've heard that US libraries often also offer a printer. Might be cheaper and closer than your parents.
Some German libraries as well - Scanner and printer for free. (I noticed you live in Germany - greetings from your home country from a city with a public library offering these benefits.)