After four reasonably reliable weeks of VPN for working at home, last week it suddenly turned into a proper pain in the arse. It started on Monday afternoon, just as I was going to go on a call at three. VPN disconnected or killed the laptop’s internet access (it still showed as connected to the network). Tuesday morning saw it drop out eight times during the first hour or so before it steadied, but Wednesday was a nightmare. The connection was spottier than the whole cast of a Hundred and One Dalmatians. I kept a five bar gate count of how many times I had to reconnect, and it got to twenty-three during the day. How the hell is anyone supposed to get any work done like that.
What makes it even worse is, during the same period, Helen’s connection didn’t drop out once. It’s just my over expensive paperweight excuse for a laptop that it is doing it to. How it managed to survive in one piece without being rammed through the large monitor, or thrown at the wall, or used to beat whichever moron keeps leaving the back door open is a miracle of restraint on my behalf.
It is blatantly taking the piss. It knows how much I hate working at home so it’s deliberately fucking with me. It’s not doing anything to Helen, as she quite likes working at home.
And then it would appear that what it doesn’t like is me having my personal laptop on playing from my I-tunes library. (With my own laptop off it’s only dropped out once – during the HR call.) If you can’t play music at the same time as working, then seriously what the fuck is the point of working from home. It didn’t pull any of this crap before Easter. I must have missed the memo to say that the laptops were getting updated with software specifically designed to kill off any chance of being remotely happy or motivated whilst trying to work.