Working From Home

Undervalued

Dakta said:

My routers plugged into powerline in the living room downstairs and all my main desktops are plugged into walls upstairs without any issues.

What doesn't work well is plugging them into extensions it has to be the wall but some half a pass through socket design so you don't lose a socket 

I swear by then because WiFi even with a decent signal can be hit a d miss especially for voice or VPN connections 

I used powerline for a while and found they were excellent providing they were all on the same ring main. Still reasonable on extensions / spurs off the ring main. Far less good on a different ring main in the same house but still useable for many purposes.

Houses, even quite small ones, with up to date electrics will generally have two or three separate ring mains. Often one for upstairs, one for downstairs and frequently a third for the kitchen.

NBLondon

I'd look at your contract and policies.  Did the employer give you a formal change of contract to make you a homeworker?  Is there a policy for homeworking and does it say anything about supply of equipment?  A 16 year old Tower PC is good going.

At the very least - if you do end up buying a set of powerline adapters you should be getting it on expenses as it's a necessary expense to do the work.

wilfred30

NBLondon said:

I'd look at your contract and policies.  Did the employer give you a formal change of contract to make you a homeworker?  Is there a policy for homeworking and does it say anything about supply of equipment?  A 16 year old Tower PC is good going.

At the very least - if you do end up buying a set of powerline adapters you should be getting it on expenses as it's a necessary expense to do the work.

Not necessarily.  I'd be surprised if the employer is responsible for funding extra equipment just because the OP has chosen to have building work done on their house.

lisyloo

Personally I don't think it seems fair, but it's not illegal discrimination which comes down to protected characteristics e.g. race, gender etc.
Your employer can tell you when to take your holidays, there is no legal right to choose when to take them.

sorry, I sympathise but I don't believe you have any rights here

Ksw3

What would they do if your tower stopped working?

Undervalued

lisyloo said:

Personally I don't think it seems fair, but it's not illegal discrimination which comes down to protected characteristics e.g. race, gender etc.
Your employer can tell you when to take your holidays, there is no legal right to choose when to take them.

sorry, I sympathise but I don't believe you have any rights here

That is a very good point and one which is often overlooked. Even if the OP was working at the office and the employer decided to have some building work done they could quite lawfully instruct and staff that were "in the way" to take a week or two as holiday just by giving fairly minimal notice!

sourpuss2021

Chromebooks are very cheap, if the job is well-paid and worth keeping then the sensible thing to would be just to buy one for personal use and then use it during this period for work:

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-ideapad-3i-14-chromebook-amd-3015ce-64-gb-emmc-grey-10243162.html

JReacher1

You can buy a Wi-Fi dongle for less than a tenner. Plug that into your pc and you’ll be able to connect to your Wi-Fi from upstairs. Seems like the easiest option. 

lisyloo

sourpuss2021 said:

Chromebooks are very cheap, if the job is well-paid and worth keeping then the sensible thing to would be just to buy one for personal use and then use it during this period for work:

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-ideapad-3i-14-chromebook-amd-3015ce-64-gb-emmc-grey-10243162.html

Depends how lax security is.
most jobs I do have their environments locked down so would only install vpn software on named devices.

bettydaviseyes

wilfred30 said:

NBLondon said:

I'd look at your contract and policies.  Did the employer give you a formal change of contract to make you a homeworker?  Is there a policy for homeworking and does it say anything about supply of equipment?  A 16 year old Tower PC is good going.

At the very least - if you do end up buying a set of powerline adapters you should be getting it on expenses as it's a necessary expense to do the work.

Not necessarily.  I'd be surprised if the employer is responsible for funding extra equipment just because the OP has chosen to have building work done on their house.

oh thats harsh Wilfred, “OP has chosen …” Sometimes building work is a necessity not a luxury.