It's the end year's closing and November was a shitshow because everyone wanted to take holidays during the last 2-3 weeks of December, so now I'm left with no one to report to, which is a good thing. It means that all the requests, all the critical tasks that I have are more or less pending approval and I'm just handling daily usual little thingies here and there and have the rest of the day for myself.
I chose not to take my holidays now and save them for next year, soemthing my managers agreed to, and I chose to work instead. Asked for permission to switch to full-time WFH, permission granted, and I couldn't be more grateful. They even told me to take it easy and not to work too much during the holidays.
Out of the 8 hours shift I had today, I only worked for like 2-3 hours, not even that. I went out, did some groceries and bought some winter clothes and came back to my PC with 0 notifications and no one noticing or asking what the hell I was up to in the last 1 hour and a half of me being away. This is work life balance and this is something I'll always be grateful for and will never even think about asking for a raise or whatever because this to me is more valuable than that extra $200-300.
Let's compare this to my previous company.
I arrived at 8:55 in the office, half asleep and dressed like shit and I logged in at 9:06 into my PC. My manager sent me a warning that I arrived late at 9:06 and that 2 more warnings and I won't be able to get a promotion in the next semester.
They have a software that allows them to access your PC at any time of the day and see what your screen is showing, and their laptops are also highly censored. Soemtiems even websites that contain information I can use to get my job done are censored. They also track your “productive” time and time being away and deduct the “away” time from your lunch break. I couldn't stay there for more than 6 months as my manager was on my ass every second of the shift, making sure that I was “optimally working”.
The last straw for me was when he scheduled my timetable without my input and telling me that it's business needs and I need to adapt to them and not the other way around. The dude effectively expected me to wake up at 6:00, get to work at 7:00 and get off 3pm. I filed s complaint to HR, they sided with me, he changed my timetable to what I wanted. I thanked him immensely for his understanding and cooperation and cordially wished him the best of luck in a company without me. I resigned right after.
Just a little rant, I guess.